Blackout Evaluation

On the 1st June we performed our Blackout play. The things that went well in the performance was that no one forgot their lines and even anyone did someone said it for them so it doesn't leave a dead stage. Another thing that went well was that everyone knew what they were doing and everyone knew their cues. The thing that we could improve on as a group is that the last scene could of been worked on more because we were all supposed to say "blackout" together but it ended up with one person saying it. The things that I could improve on was in scene 14 when I played James I had a tiny monologue although I was nervous I could of slowed down a little and not rush it.


Things that went well in rehearsals was almost everyone by the second or third week knew their lines so we could focus on the more physical side of the scenes. The thing that could of been improved on the most was attendance and punctuality because on one of the days we had most of our group not in and only five people were in and we couldn't rehearse because the people that weren't in were in most of the scenes and almost everyday a couple of people from our group were 30 minutes late and in that short time we could of rehearsed a lot more then we did.

Blackout Rehersal 13

Today we worked on the last scene which is scene 20 and we thought that everyone should be scatted around the stage and we divided the lines up to everyone and at one point we do actions to do with James's past and the last line which is "blackout" we all say together and then the lights go black. We then ran through all the scenes and see what works and what doesn't and we changed on thing in the last scene which was we took out the actions because everyone kept messing them up and some people didn't know when to do their action.

Blockout Rehersal 12

Today we rehearsed scene 18 and came up with idea of three people in the back centre as judges and around them the jury and then the person playing James in the middle so it's like a court room and every time the judges said "ten years" the jury would whisper to each other "ten years". We then rehearsed scene 19 which was a small scene with James and his mother and James explaining what his mother would as he's coming out of a court room.

Blackout Rehersal 11

Today we worked on scene 16 and came up people on the side in a pyramid shape and the person playing James in the middle of the stage and as James says "punching, kicking, and you can feel your hands around someone's neck" the people on the side would do actions to do with what James is saying. we also worked on scene 17 and we decided that the scene should be a monologue. We then went through all the scenes we done and we changed scene 17 so instead of having James on the stage alone we should have the people who we in the pyramid stay on the stage instead of leaving.

Blackout Rehersal 10

Today we worked on scene 15 and how we were going to stage it, so we thought that at the start we should have the person playing James and we thought as the scene sounds like it's in a police station we would have a police officer questioning James. and as James says "it starts coming back to you" other people could come onto the stage dancing as James is talking about a party and it's like a flashback. After going through scene 15 we decided to go through from the beginning until scene 15 and see what works and change bits to the scenes.

Blackout Rehersal 9

Today we went through the scenes we done so we didn't forget what we done. After that we discussed what to do in scene 13 and we thought of having the person playing James do the scene as a monologue. For scene 14 I'm playing James and I suggested to get James on stage we could have one person push James on stage but have hands behind his/hers back and then once on stage have police wardens and prisoners around me. At one point when I say " and then the key worker guy comes back with your file" the person playing the key worker guy they could come on stage with a paper and hand it to me.

Blackout Rehersal 8

Today we worked on scene 11 and we decided that we have James say the lines but as a monologue so we have it simple and not all the big a physical. We also decided to work on the beginning of scene 12 and we had the idea that the person playing the mother would be in the audience and saying her lines and have James at the beginning of the scene by himself and then later on in the scene have the friends come on to the stage. After we discussed the scene we went through all the scenes we had done and thought of the different transitions between each scenes.

Blackout Rehersal 7

Today we worked on scene 10 where we discussed the ideas we have for the scene and we decided that as the scene is based in school we would have people scattered around the stage as it's like a playground so some people would be sitting on the floor and others would be standing up and we would all be talking and as soon as the person playing James walks on then we would all go quiet. we also had an idea of James and a couple of people having a fight so we choreographed the fight and went over the scene a lot of times because the fight needed to be perfected.

Blackout Rehersal 6

Today we worked on scene 8 and the ideas that we came up with was that we all start out of breath and as were saying the lines we are just a tiny bit out of breath as well. We staged it as we are all scattered around the stage and some lines we add a little action for instance when someone says "you get a pair of scissors and cut your hair pure short" we all mime scissor movements and cut our hair. We also stared coming up with ideas for scene 9 and we decided to all that five people should stand in a diagonal line and say a line each and towards the end the last couple of lines we would do actions for the lines.

Blackout Rehersal 5

Today we worked on scene 7 and we decided to recreate a jail cell again and when James says "and they took you to a secure care unit" we all split and some people would be police wardens and the others would play prisoners and as James is saying the lines for instance "and they took away your belt" the police wardens would mime a action like taking away our belts. We also worked on our transitions between the scenes that we have done so it all flows and that we don't have a dead stage.

Blackout Research

We are doing a play called Blackout who is written by Davey Anderson. The play is about a boy called James who is accused of dangerous crime and as a result ends in prison. Davey Anderson was inspired by the true stories of a young offender from Glasgow. Blackout is the true story of a 15-year-old boy charged with attempted murder who tries to piece together the events in his life that have brought him into a secure care unit and threaten to keep him there. This short play packs a big emotional punch with its stylistic economy and razor-sharp storytelling. It was performed at the grand nationals. It’s known to be a drama and the style is quite open meaning you can change it anyway shape or form making it adaptable to the audience members. The play is also physical theatre.

Dramaonlinelibrary.com. (2017). Blackout - Drama Online. [online] Available at: http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/blackout-iid-133850 [Accessed 9 Jun. 2017].

Blackout Rehearsal 4

Today we worked on bringing scene 5 to life. The ideas that we came up with was that after we push The person who will play James down to the ground and we circle round him/her whilst saying our lines. We also worked a tiny bit on scene 6 and how we are going to stage it and who will be playing James and we thought it would be nice if we had one person on stage so it would be like a monologue.

Blackout Rehearsal 3

Today we started rehearsing scene 4 and the idea we came up with was that we would have some people scattered on stage and James in the centre but at the front of the stage but instead of James speaking it was someone else and saying it with a nasty tone of voice as though he's getting bullied. We also worked a tiny bit on scene 5 and how we would transition from scene 4 to 5 and we had an idea that as one James is leaving the other person playing James is pushed to the ground and it flows well with what's going on in scene 5.

Blackout Rehearsal 2

Today we came up with ideas for what we are going to do for scene 3 and we came up with having everyone on stage, one person would be James and another was Granddad and as there're speaking the rest of us could be doing actions based on what there're saying for instance when James says "and he taught you to play the flute" we would mime playing the flute. Rob had an idea of us coming together in the middle as the two people are speaking and at one point we would all shout something to do with football when James says  "and he'd take you to see the Rangers Game every Saturday".

Blackout Rehearsal

Today we started rehearsing our play blackout and we got through scene 1 and 2. We came up with an idea that everyone in our group has the chance to play James so it's not always one person. For scene 1 we had the idea of one person who's playing James in the middle and eight people around him or her so it looks like a jail cell. For scene 2 we would have people scattered around the stage and it's like a flashback of James's past life and I suggested that we have two people in the audience and as there is one part in the scene where James could be having thoughts in his mind so the people in the audience is his brain.