In the early days of the process we looked at the origin of fairy tales. The original versions of most fairy tales were much darker and more frightening than the Disney "Happy Endings" we have accustomed ourselves with today.
Well known writers such as Hans Christian Andersen and the Brother Grimms took these fairy tales and changed them to fit the taste of their audiences.
Examples of these drastic alterations to stories are the story of Sleeping Beauty and how it originated from a woman who was knocked unconscious by her aggressive Landlord rather than pricking her finger on a spindle.
Another being "Little Red Riding Hood" and how it was intended to be used as a caution for young women, warning them about men, represented by the wolf. Many tales do in fact have the purpose of teaching or warning people about misadventures, such as coming across a wolf (man).
Once we had heard the origins of several fairy tales we sat down and made ourselves comfortable to listen to a piece of Children's Theatre: "The Wild Bride" by Kneehigh Productions. http://www.kneehigh.co.uk/show/the-wild-bride.php
I was quite excited to listen to the story as I remember many moments when I was younger when I would listen to audio tapes of my favourite stories. Auditory elements are definitely effective when creating a piece of theatre.
I found that the story was much darker than anticipated but I found myself rather absorbed by the story and was eager to listen as it unfolded. The music was crucial to the storytelling, as it would help create a scene, such as a battle and helped inform us when a character came into the scene. An example was a guitar-driven country melody that would play whenever the Devil appeared. I found that the music helped immensely in making the story interesting as it helped me imagine the story taking place.
When using only the auditory senses it is required of us to use our imaginations to help put the story together and I found that it wasn't difficult to see the story unfold with the incredible songs and underscore used.
Once we had finished listening to stories we were sent off in our groups to find a story to retell to the group. We chose the story of Medusa as most children are familiar with Greek mythology and there is much interest surrounding Medusa and her snake hair. The feedback we received and my own thoughts was that the retelling of a myth like Medusa is difficult as it is hard to tell a story based mostly on facts, such as Medusa being transformed into the ugly creature with hair made of snakes. I felt that our story telling fell flat slightly because there wasn't much essence of telling some kind of "fantastical" story, but more a speech on a Gorgon.
However this feedback allowed me to see that keeping the imagination of a child in mind will help in the devising process as all kinds of things can take place in the imagination.
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