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"Whose Shoes" Realised Design
Devised Play For "Whose Shoes"
Written by Mike Kenney
Following a project from the first term, which was a speculative design project for the script "Whose Shoes", this was a group project where we took the script and adapted it to suit how we all saw it, knowing that in approx 6 weeks time from then, we were going to perform for an audience of children. We all took the day together to dissect the script and try to bend it and shape it to suit todays climate. We knew we were going to perform for kids who probably wouldn't relate well with what was in the original script, but we also knew we didn't want to go too blatant and obvious by adding Iphones, Youtube, TikTok and other 'modern' things.
We kept the story simple and relatively close fitting with the original story line. Except in this story, we take Eldemina through a journey of some soul searching. We allowed her to explore other avenues of interest, where as she thrives and enjoys them, but not as much as dancing. The lesson in our play is that you can enjoy and be good at other hobbies and interests, but to not give up on your dream or goals out of pride, jealousy or competition.
-Eldemina, the main character, has a love for dancing and is given Cinderella's special dancing shoes by the 'celebrity' herself. Jealous and greed takes over as her little sister also takes a shine to dancing and impresses their parents. With anger, she runs away with the shoes and throws them into a tree. She fakes an illness to get out of dance class, then eventually comes clean and tell her that she shoes are now gone. When her mother hears, she is dissapointed and angry and tells her to get out of bed and find something else to do. Eldemina tries a series of other sports such as Football, Scuba-diving and Ice skating, but she soon realises that her true love is dancing, and that she misses it greatly. She goes back, but alas, the shoes are gone. Her sister finds her and leads her back to their mother where she is holding the red gift bag that Cinderella had given her. She returned the shoes back to her, and Eldemina is overjoyed and in time she realises that they can both love and be good at dancing. Eldemina embraces this new change and twirls and dances with her sister.-
These were the words that we picked out of the script to use as a highlight for parts of the story for the hard of hearing students. We projected them onto a plain white screen from behind.
The shadow puppet above was made to actually look like Tamia, as lead role, we needed to replicate her in shadow form for when she is getting changed and walking behind the screen and we still needed her presence.
The fish puppet above is one that I made and i'm really proud of the way it looks in action. The light filters through the glued together pieces of jaggered acetate really well; its a technique in shadow puppetry that ill remember for a long time
PHOTOS FROM THE SHOW WITH AUDIENCE:
Above are photos of the underwater scene that I think is my favourite. You can see in these photos that the fish I created has a really pretty and interesting shadow cast on the screen and it was something fun to look at.
PERFORMANCE PHOTOS:
OUR IDEA:
We knew we wanted the show to be mainly consisting of puppets, shadow puppets and shadow words (captioning for the hard of hearing) We knew we didn't have a lot of time to create big or elaborate sets and props for this show, but we also thought that if Eldemina, (played by Tamia Knight) was going to be the only person actor, and everything else as puppets, it would illuminate her as the main character really nicely. We also thought to make Imelda, the narrator of the story, to be a (kind of) life sized human grandmother puppet that sits on her old armchair. This is because we wanted that elderly mother feeling to come across and we knew a person actor or shadow puppet wouldn't do it justice.
STARTING THE PROCESS:
To start then, me and a couple others started on making the shadow puppets and shadow words (captioning for the hard of hearing) It was quite a big aspect of the whole idea for the show, so three of us focused on this and also on practising the play through using the shadow puppets correctly.
SHADOW PUPPETS:
These were the shadow puppets that we created to have them cast a shadow onto the main screen. The main screen was a slideshow of different locations that we each drew so they looked playful, colourful, characteristic and not too serious.
DETAILS:
This lady is Imelda and she is a puppet that was made to be the sole narrator. We thought an old woman telling the story would be easy and familiar for kids to follow on with. It would have also been something to connect with, and to have more physicality brought on to the stage, and an opportunity to have old-y items to dress the set with.
The photo above is the captions previously mentioned, that were projected onto the white screens.
These gorgeous octopuses were also made from bits of fabric, plastic, paper, an old umbrella and LED lights. This, as well as a bubble machine, helped bring out more of a 3D effect in the under water scene. The flowyness of the tassels on the octopuses and the randomness of the bubbles helped bring the audience closer, and was something fun for kids to experience.
PERFORMANCE PHOTOS:
THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING THIS JOURNEY!
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