Devising and Rehearsal

Our group piece was based on the nature vs nurture argument.

We started with a devised section of scientists talking about the nature vs nurture argument. We moved as a solid group shuffling our feet and spoke in gibberish noises as our language. I thought this represented the complicated topics scientists talk about but that we don't understand, it should make the audience feel uncomfortable that they don't understand what's going on. 
In this section we also introduce questions related to the nature vs nurture argument, such as:

"Can the treats we are born with affect the environment we live in"
"Does genetics effect inelegance?"
"Is criminal behaviour determined by genes?"
"Is there a gay gene? Or is homosexuality determined by social forces?"

These questions are in introduction to the argument for the audience. It bring the questions into their minds and makes them initially aware. 

Next, we moved onto our representation of the reproduction cycle. We chose to physicalise it and used little speech. We wanted to get our point across whilst allowing our audience to think for themselves to work things out and question our piece.

For conception, as a group we exaggerated heavy breathing to the point of climax to the song 'Lets Get It On' by Marvin Gaye. This will be an uncomfortable moment for the audience as sex is sensitive subject matter but will also bring humour into the piece for a moment where the audience can laugh out of discomfort. 
After climax, we split into two groups of sperm and eggs. The sperm proceed to wriggle across the floor whilst the eggs rock from side to side on the authorised of the room. This section is done whilst the 'Mission Impossible' theme is being played. This represents the sperm as being programmed to fertilise the egg, in a human behaviour representation, like it's a mission. Watching humans reenact this sequence is highly amusing because of the over-physicaliation of the sexual act.
This section represents the nature argument. Two chemicals coming together and forming a new human. The chemicals cannot be change]ged or altered in anyway so the form of the child itself cannot be changed either.

After fertilisation, we move onto the birth of the conceived child. We used two sheets with people inside them to create two pairs of legs for the child to be birthed from. The rest of the scientists crowed around the scene to observe the action taking place. This is paired with the sounds of labour, which are almost similar to the sounds of conception linking the two as part of the same process. These sounds are also difficult to listen to which uses the technique of assaulting the audience using sounds.
The child is born and passed down a line of people until it is picked back up again and surrounded. This represents the nurture aspect of the argument, showing that from the minute you are born you start to be shaped by the people and environment that surround you. 

After the birth, some of us went under a sheet into foetal position and using torches created shadows of our hands on the sheet. This is meant to represent the baby inside the stomach of the mother. We plan to let the audience feel the hands on top of the sheet, this will allow the audience to feel a connection and engagement to the people inside the sheet. 
This section represents the nurture argument again. Even before you are entered into the world you can have a physical connection with a human being, in this case it's your mother who carries you while you're developing. 

As a transition, we added a section showing a speed version of learning to walk. From opening your eyes, discovering your body and what it can and can't achieve. 
We ended this section with us pretending to be aeroplanes and playing like children. In this section everyone's growing up stage is different. We all develop in different ways according to our environment and upbringing. This is part of both nature and nurture as you can't change the environment you live in and the instinctive behaviour you're born with as part of nature but your upbringing is from your parents as part of nurture. 

The next section is about the mother/son relationship. We split into male/female pairs representing the mother and son and explored the reluctance of letting children go through physical struggle. Whilst performing to 'Holdin On' by Flume the mothers task was to not let go and the sons was to get away. We focused on the 'Cost Of The Actor' by pushing ourselves to the absolute limits to achieve a truthful engaging performance. 
This represents the nurture argument. There's a saying called "Roots to grow and wings to fly" meaning that you can give your child the basics of survival, but in the end you have to let them go to fully develop. 
I felt this was the hardest part of our performance. Not only was it physically draining but physiologically it felt wrong. There were times when we hurt on another and you wouldn't think of doing that to your mother/son. Myles was particularly careful at points due to the stigma of not being aloud to hurt a girl, but we had to let those feelings go to achieve a truly believable performance. We needed to make it hard for each other.

The next section showed two groups in a devised physical piece in which we use one actor as a puppet and mould around him to create their surroundings. In our piece we focused on the nature argument, growing up and learning. You don't know that a flame in hot and you shouldn't touch it until you get burnt. You don't know that you can't breath underwater until you choke. You don't know about relationships and not to push your loved ones away until you loose one of them. We used Will as our puppet and physically controlled his body and some of his movements to portray his development. 

In the next section in small groups we created tableaux's creating moments where nature vs nurture can be argued. We used pieces such as the Lee Rigby murder, 9/11, 7/7, the James Bulger case and Daniel Kish. 
I recreated a moment of Daniel Kish on a bike using echolocation to ride successfully. It shows that even people who we don't expect to be able to achieve can do when they are allowed to do so without inhibition. 
These moments allowed the audience to reflect and relate on the argument and start to question it for themselves. 

To finish our piece, we returned to the scientist formation at the beginning and revisited the breathing and questions that we did at the start. This was to shine a new light on the questions after watching the rest of our piece and to let the audience question them once more with new found knowledge. Through the process we have shown a balanced argument of the nature vs nurture argument and have allowed the audience to decide for themselves their opinion of the subject matter.