Afterwards we found out that the pictures/paintings were examples of surrealism. I learnt that there are two different types of surrealism. Dream like and automatism. Automatism is free association (revealing the unconscious minds of others). We learnt that surrealism really linked with our own piece of work. This was because Artaud, the practitioner we are basing our piece off, was greatly influenced by surrealism. Examples of how they link include: 

1. Words should have more of a sound quality- sound which is charged with a subtext. 
2. Artaud was interested in provoking free-association with his pieces. Wanted to make his audience think about the play after it was over. Giving everyday objects a different meaning.  

Surrealism also links with Brecht, who we have not studied yet, his idea of the 'Alienation effect' links with surrealism as he wanted people to see things differently. 

Surrealism in our work: 

1. Being trapped - the idea of being wrapped up in the sheet gives the feeling of claustrophobia, this could link with the idea of being trapped inside our own thoughts, or being restricted by society. 
2. Voices in the head - This could link with over thinking things or again being trapped inside ourselves. 
3. The sounds of doors opening and closing - The choices in life. Confusing. 
4. Blindfolded - Blind to what happens in your future, do you really get to chose which door you go through? 

Working on our piece: 

In the first lesson we were told to think of our nightmare and then say it out loud to another member in our group who would write it down. The nightmares were: 

1. Running through a long corridor with lots of doors along the edges. the feeling of being chased. falling down a hole. 
2. Swimming pool. At a party. Coming up for air and seeing all the police lights flashing on and off noticing that dead bodies are being carted away. 
3. Flying lesson. The lights of the city fail then the plane fails. View of the ground getting closer. 
4. In an aeroplane which crashes. On the beach with her family. Mother doesn't remember her. Crying. 

We started by creating our train setting, which would be the link between each separate dream. The idea is that the audience members would experience the dreams going on inside the head of a passenger who has fallen asleep. We sparked ideas for the train by creating a train sound scape. we each had to create a sound that we thought a train would make, we then put all the sounds together to create our train sound. 

The first scene: 

1st nightmare: We invite the audience member onto the train and to stand in the middle of the stage. We blindfold them. The idea is to make them feel uncomfortable and trapped like in the first nightmare. We then surround the audience member and start whispering words like "run" and "they're right behind you" this whispering starts to get louder and louder until right at the end when we all stop together and scream "run." The idea here is to make the audience member feel disorientated and claustrophobic, it also gives the illusion that there could be someone/something chasing them. After this there is a pause and all the actors back away. The audience member should be confused. In this time there will be sounds of opening and closing doors and dripping. This sets the corridor with lots of doors scene and the dripping gives it that creepy atmosphere. Then we all take a large white sheet (so we could have projections) and wrap it around the audience member. This will enforce the feeling of claustrophobia. 1 actor noisily runs towards the audience member and pushes them back, the other three catches them. This gives the feeling of falling that is described in the nightmare. The blindfold is quickly taken off the audience member and they are lead back to their seat. 

The second scene: 

3rd nightmare: We discussed many ideas for how to do this nightmare but we finally settled on having the audience members inside the aircraft which would slowly be put together during the performance. The audience members would sit together while all the acting would be done around them. The scene starts with the plane taking off this will be done by using a sound scape. We decided to rattle chairs and create a humming noise. After this we would use recordings of us to imitate talking to the radio tower. While the recordings are being played we will make the aircraft using sugar paper and red flashing lights. We will show the city lights below using fairy lights. We have not yet decided on how we will do the plane crash. 

Creating a response to The woman in black using acid tests: 

The stage curtains: This is because the play is set like a performance within a performance. (The characters are actors running through the performance)

The glasses: The moment when the older man puts on the glasses, he transforms into an amazing actor. 

The door: The door is seen several times during the performance and is the door to the nursery. It is locked up until the middle of the performance when there is a really tense part. 

The candle: All the scary moments are done in the dark with only the small light of the characters candle. 

The outline of the building: There is a projection of the house whenever the character is outside, the projection always had fog. 

AAAAAAAaaaAAAa: The two moments where there were high-pitched screams. 

The lines on the curtains: Lines or parts of lines that I remembered from the performance. ex. "So who is she then?"