Dr Faustus (summary and context)

Play plot summary


Faustus is respected professor  who wanted  to have more knowledge than he had already obtained. He then decides that he wanted to practise black magic and calls upon Mephastophilis (a devil) who warns him of the horrors of hell however Faustus does not listen. He commands Mephastophilis  to go back to his 'master with an offer of Faustus' soul in return of 24 years of service from Mephastophilis'. During this process things go bad for the professor which makes him wonder if he should go ahead with the deal, however when Mephastophilis returns with an accepted offer Faustus takes it. Upon offer acceptance branded words on the professor's arms appear and he has even more doubts but the devils blinds him with 'riches and a book of spells to learn' and answers all his questions. The devil however does not tell him who made the universe which yet again brings doubts then the devil and Lucifer push the  seven deadly sins into the doctor's life pushing away any remaining doubts.


Having all these powers Faustus goes round playing series of pranks on people including visiting the pop in invisible form and playing tricks on him and also demanding to meet Alexander the great which could be the equivalent of demanding to meet Obama just because you want to meet him. After years of silly tricks Faustus awakes an ancient beauty to impress a group of scholars an occasion in which an old man warns Faustus to repent , not knowing that this was his last chance to repent he drives him away.


The last thing the professor decided to do as time was coming to a close was telling the scholars about his pact, this shocked the respected man who started praying for him but at this point it was too late. At midnight the devils came to pick up his soul as agreed and Faustus is taken to hell, with his limbs left behind and buried by the scholars.


The writer


Christopher Marlow was actor and script writer who lived in the Elizabethan times. During this era earning a living as a writer was unheard of. Having graduated from Cambridge university with the Crown stepping in when the university declined to give him his qualification because they believed he had converted to Catholism in a protestant England led many scholars to believe that he was an agent for the crown. After getting his qualification he challenged the religion and society at the time through his writing. Marlow made his trademark by figuring out what his audience wanted (violent fiction) and giving them exactly that.

Four plays written by Marlow provided the famous William Shakespeare to create his four well known plays. Christopher provided Shakespeare with plots that he then explored in the majority of his plays. Jew of Malta became Massacre of Paris ; Faustus became Macbeth ; Edward the second became Richard the II and Timberlake was developed by William into the Henry plays. Shakespeare was much appreciated in his time however Marlow wasn't which is reflected in his early death at 29. History records suggest he was stubbed in the eye and accused of trison just before his death.


Elizabethan Era

This was an Era that was new to theatre, people didn't know how to take the idea of people challenging the church through writing however they started to ease up as time went on. I think that this is reflected on how Marlow was treated in contrast to William Shakespeare. This era also saw the war of the roses which was a 32 years of war for power from two branches of Edward III descendants. When I was looking up the war of the roses I came across the Tudor family rein (royal family at the time.)

This family's rein enforces that religion was a big factor in people's life in that era because it influenced how the country was run for example during this time we saw Henry VIII separate the church of England from the Catholics turning the nation protestant. Marlow was not given his qualifications because they believed he turn to catholism which shows the power of the religious separation at the time.

This religious war did not stop when Henry had decided the nation was to be protestant because Catholism was previously in power and people don't really like change therefore the war went on and in from 55 for three years the nation was once again catholic under bloody Mary.

Mary was the most hated queen in the country of England because of her horrific decisions of burning those that were against Catholism. There is a lot of hate towards this women however she didn't have it easy. Her father wanted a son but his mum had 4 miscarriages before her. He then had another wife then another till he got a son. The public celebrated the birth of the son which mentally took a blow to Mary's head , during this time there were rumours of Mary's execution which made her live in fear plus she was scared to be poisoned and I can only imagine how miserable this must have been for her. Years down her father passed away and her 9 year old brother was put in power and he grew up a strong protestant white washing churches and taking his father's steps to the next level. Edward asks Mary to turn away from Catholism however Mary refused as she had grew closer to her religion during the tough times in her life. Edward decided alongside the protestant  church leaders that Mary Jane a cousin to Edward was going to take over because Mary was not protestant. This enhanced Mary's anger therefore she started a movement to get in power expressing that she was blood to Henry. People supported her but little did they know that giving her power was going to bring hell to those against Catholism. Everyone who had made her life a misery paid back through being burnt alongside anyone against Catholism , inserting fear in the public. The blood spilt got her the name bloody Mary and she decided to Mary a men who later on left her because she was barren which mentally attacked her putting her in a bad physical and mental state. This led her to think that she had upset God making her die a disappointed women an her sister taking over and uniting the nation through removing catholism.

DFF Evaluation

This was a tough assignment to get going but after a while I started putting the video together. My initial idea was based around toys, this was because toys are controlled and I wanted to focus on robotic hip hop dancing. I created a mind map of all the connotations of toys and the one that stood out the most was the word feel. This helped me develop my piece because there are a few different emotions that I could choose from. I looked around for music to go with this theme because I could improvise to the music to come up with some material. The song that I found was Logic under pressure intro. The song contained lyrics about feeling (the singer mentions that he used to 'wonder what it feels like') which was a great start as it left the conclusion open as it didn't mention what emotion it was about. I watched some hip hop dance videos for inspiration but looking at other people's choreography didn't help at all so I started improvising and devising from my own head. I played the song over and over again dancing along to it until I had 30sec worth of choreography.

After the 30 seconds of the choreography I started scanning the internet for some dance moves I could Inco-operate to make my choreography better from which I came across some robotic hand dance moves. I found out that they fell under a genre called tutting which is famous in street dancing. I then spent a few days learning this type of dance , at first it was difficult to make the 90 degree shapes but with time I started making straighter lines and started to pick up speed which is reflected in my first draft. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbBqtuYvags After watching this video about tutting I decided that I wanted to explore the dance and the following are some links from which I learnt the core basics of this dance which allowed me to create and develop my own moves within the dance.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0rV2qcbEgc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkpvM2AfvTc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyMfpJh3h4A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lZ_1ZqJ9vg

After developing my skills in tutting and the material I created I had about 45 seconds worth and I needed a minute minimum for the criteria. I started thinking about exploring the location in depth for example have a few seconds of the song showing the location. That gave me a few more seconds however didn't really do much therefore I included some of my personal life into the story which got me even more engaged with the project. At this point I was learning to play a guitar and the first song I learnt was all of me therefore I got emotionally attached to it and dancing to it brought back memories which set me up with a  storyline for the video---we see the character tuning a guitar and starts strumming the first melody of the song then stops gets up and starts dancing then gets back to picking up guitar in the end---I wanted this to show that nothing comes easy therefore if you want something then you need to work for it and not give up.


I then showed It to my friends and they seemed to like it therefore I recorded the progress which I then showed to the rest of the class. Showing the clip to the rest of the class paid off as I received some valuable feedback which is what I needed to improve my piece. Costume was one of the factors most touched upon as the majority of the class thought I could improve from my mickey mouse jumper to something more professional looking like a shirt. Originally I did take costume into consideration even though it may not come across that way. The idea of wearing the jumper was to empathise and enforce my stimulus because humans emotionally respond to the sense of touch.

The second most raised point was location. Shooting at Josh's place allowed me to access high angle shots and provided a warm wash light setting which are things that are not accessible everywhere. Indoors filming also meant that we could film despite what the weather was like outside.

Overall the feedback was amazing from my class mates which gave me a good feeling about working on this project. Many people complimented my lyrical movements which I later on found to be something I could also strengthen. Watching myself back I thought that the piece needed lots of improvement as some of my dance moves were not sharp or to the level that I was aiming to reach.

I decided to keep the idea of toys and controlling but have fluid control which visually looks better because when you include waving your body looks like its flowing in one motion. The music however did not let me go ahead with this idea and at the time I liked the song all of me and spent some time thinking about the stimulus and choreography link. Fluid made me think of water therefore I decided to film it on the beach which was visually appealing and complimented the fluid body movements I choreographed. While I practising my movements John legend's 'All of me' started playing and I didn't skip it and continued to improvise using the material I already created and surprisingly it seemed to work. Having spent weeks learning how to tut I had to include it in my choreography and from the first draft a friend had asked how quick I can because it looked impressive when done very quickly. Playing around with the speed allowed me to create more material however as a beginner I could only tut so fast and inside I just wanted to tut very fast like I saw some the guys on YouTube doing. Unfortunately that required years of practise therefore having it very fast was no longer and option. I then thought what would happen if I slowed it down instead of increasing the speed, I tried it out and showed to a friend who said it looked good. Having it slower allowed me to make cleaner shapes which visually looked better than doing it very fast and not keeping the right angles. The music went well with this therefore it was a win win situation.

Having a media student as a friend allowed me to play around with the music slowing and speeding it up however I wanted a violin playing in the background because it gave the song some uniqueness. Fortunately Josh could do just that for me. Having changed the music , I decided to pay a bit more attention to my costume. Filming on the beach I decided to wear a white shirt to compliment the beautiful background. White also enforced the perfection implication from the lyrics which provided a link of the song and choreography. I wore a black tie to help reflect the pureness of the white shirt. Since the song was about love I decided to contribute other themes of love , this was because it doesn't always go well therefore the black trousers showed that there can be a bad side such as a heartbreak which is something that we don't see in the song. For footwear I decided to wear my Nike rose runs because they wear blue and had a sunrise beach image which blended well with the location we were shooting at.

After filming I realised that it had all been done in ultra slow motion which was a big let down and I feared all the hard work had gone to waste ,however with the help of some media students I managed work with what I had and end up with a an improved dance project in contrast to the first take.

Response to the script

When we first got the script I was excited and worried because this was my first musical, I hadn't sang before because I never gave it a go so I found the auditions tough. The first thing I did was flick to the songs that my given character was involved in. The first line I sang was 'Can you say of your bite that its worse than your bark' and I honestly could not see how I was going to sing that. I then saw a song about my character that I had to sing, the lyrics initially seemed boring
and repetitive. Throughout the song it says you give him this then he would rather have something else then you give him what he would rather have then he would only want what you initially offered him. As I read through the lyrics I began to visualise playing this ungrateful arrogant character. I thought that my character would have been one of the least favourites in the musical which I later on found out that I was
wrong because everyone loved him. I then watched some videos on the internet and started to think of ways in which I could push my character.


 The rest of the songs that Tugger was involved in , I started to see them in a whole new light for example Old Deuteronomy is the song for the character in charge whom everyone respects therefore initially I though that my character would have turned down a bit to show respect for this character but after the research I concluded that even though he was being lovely he still was expressing his cheekiness. Concluding that Tugger was still being a bit cheeky in this respected song worked well with the lyrics because he makes a joke about Old Deuteronomy's age. This enforced that he was different from the rest of the characters and made me think that he was not afraid to do what the other characters would have not dared to do giving me a bit more freedom with the creativity of the this character's development. Later on in the script we saw Tugger introducing another character and saying how great they are. This made me think that he wanted to show the others that its not all about him and that his not that self obsessed as the older cats would think therefore he was ought to do a good job on that maybe be underdressed. I that it would have been funny if he still did a few gestures from his song to express the irony of him trying to show that his not all about himself but yet do a few things to attract attention.

Trying not to make it all about me like my character, I looked at a few of the other songs and I was confused to how we were going to express this fashion context in songs that involved fighting and shouting like the peaks and pollicles. The script says they barked at each other and at this point I think maybe they can shout at each other to express this in our context because I think models wouldn't shout at each other I think that they would just talk about each other behind the other's backs. Not really sure how we are going to go about with some of the songs but hope it all works out well.

The group songs probably will be the most challenging because there are going to be a lot of ideas at the same time and I fear that it will be hard to get started because people will want different things. This can be a disadvantage however it could be worse for example some people may not speak up but not like what the group has decided to go forward with therefore perform the choreography half hearted and hate the whole rehearsal process which will hugely affect the morale. 

Auditions Evaluations

Electra audition was the first of four that we went through for this unit. Building up to the audition i was slightly nervous because as I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out. We were then told that it was going to be a workshop audition which had less pressure in contrast to other auditions an actor may come across with. Having less pressure came at a cost of showing group setting qualities like working in a team and complimenting each other during the audition process.

 During this audition we were introduced to masks which already had emotional expressions on them. Having the masks forced me to use more body expressions because the mask covered my face. I also felt like I had to match my body posture to the emotion my mask had. 

In Greek theatre they would have used masks to help the audience seating far see how the characters were feeling. All their body language movements would have exaggerated for the same purpose. I think that this is what influenced the over the top Shakespearean acting that those who don't relate to theatre think theatre is.

I think that this audition worked well because there was no pressure which enabled people to express themselves. We also performed improvised pieces that I later on realized were plots from the play. The director wanted to se how we would react to the scenarios to help determine who we could play. In another audition we could have walked in alone and given the scenario and the word go which is much tougher because you have nothing to react to in contrast to having another person you can feed off.

For the purposes of the play I think that this type of audition worked. Some modern films require the actor to act by themselves and react to a fictional character that wont be physically be there on set but is later on added on the computers.

CV

name: magic sine sibanda
height: 5'9
ethnicity: black african
skin colour: black
eye colour: brown
build : muscular athletic

character range:

skills:

multilingual
roller blading
athletic (semi pro football , ex county representative in 1500m )
ice skating
public speaking
accents: south african, jamaicain, nigerian, southern english, received pronunciation

Costume Evaluation

The final costume I had designed for my character was completely different to what I ended up wearing in the performance. I wanted to have my character in a tiger coated tracksuit. The track suit would have allowed comfortable movement for my character as the musical included a lot of dancing alongside the singing. The tiger coating infused with black and white spots enforced my character’s characteristics provided in the song. Tigers are among the top end of all the cat species therefore this would have reflected Tugger’s status. I wanted to keep some aspects from the original production because a lot of people completely moved away from the cat wear clothing seen in the original production therefore keeping some of those aspects would have helped my character stand out from the rest.

Wearing track suits may not seem like top end fashionable clothing however after developing my character as rehearsals passed I decided that my character is loved so much about the others that he doesn’t care what they think of him. I also thought that because of his reputation they would still love him no matter what he wears and potentially start a trend among the models. ‘When you let me in then I want to go out’ and ‘If you put me in a house I would much prefer a flat’ are lines from the script that enforce that he is always doing the opposite of what is expected from him, in reality one would not expect a top end model to turn up to big events in a tracksuit.

Having been unable to bring my design to life, I ended up changing costume twice. First reason was because that was as close as I could get them to the concept and my designs. The second reason was changing it after meeting the director for the dress run. Having decided on wearing high end tracksuits that will contrast other characters in the play, I then evaluated what the other characters decided to wear. Gus was the character I decided to contrast because he was wearing a grey suit. At home I had a silver suit and I thought that the contrast in the two would help reflect our character’s differences for example Gus’ suit reflected his age as it blended well with his grey hair. My suit on the other hand was shiny, slim fit with a darker shade of silver on its collar. This made it clear that my character was bold and thought highly of him.

The nature of the songs made me change my costume ideas as well because while I was designing costumes for my character one of my weaknesses was not considering in depth what each song resembled. After going through my costume folder I decided to incorporate back an idea I first had for my character. The idea was for my character to have different costumes in the musical. Thinking about it back then it was an idea to help my character stand out from the rest however after developing that I idea it was to going to help reflect the context of each song I was involved in. I then went through my folder to see if there were and images I could pick out aspects of in my research. The fur coats stood out the most and I knew I had to get my hands on one. Some of the songs needed specific wear for example for the song ‘Old Deuteronomy’ we were meeting the top designer and the press were involved therefore we needed to wear formal clothing. Another song that required special clothing was Gus because the song is sang at a ball therefore we needed to wear suits and dresses.  After Gus songs we had the big dance number therefore clothing needed to allow movement, I wore jeans and they may have not been the best chose as they limited my movements. In the future I would maybe wear designer tracksuit bottoms, potentially my final costume design.

 

After the dress run the director indicated that my costume was too similar to what I would normally wear and I needed to make adjustments. The first thing I changed my footwear as I was wearing Nike Roshes that I normally wear as that is what I like to wear. I changed those top a pair of top end cowboy shoes that I borrowed from a friend. The shoe transformation made my character look a different man because it they didn’t only change my visual appearance but the way I moved on stage because they felt different.  

 

                                           

 

Having moved my footwear out of my comfort zone I decided to go down the charity shop and by a fur coat that i then cut up for personalisation. I also bought a sparkly belt to reflect on our colour theme which linked back to my research were I wanted to accecorise my character with silver and gold clothing. For the final touch I got a shiney scarf that i ended up not using because of the movements involved in some of the songs however my final costume featured a gold necklace and spike wrist bracelet to keep some of that rock legend character we see in the original production.

 

 

 

 If I was to redisign the costume I would keep the idea of having different costumes because it worked well. I think that even though i couldnt make my costume i should have bought clothing that is close to it as posible for example instead of the jeans I could have used the tracksuit bottoms to enable me to move better on stage.

Dance development points

 From the first draft I have decided to have a think about my physical setting. Filming in a house was good because it provided great lighting and I was able to include some high angle shots that I would not get with the considering the tech I have available for me. Changing the physical setting has a domino effect on my camera angles therefore I need to think about. I am thinking of including more long shots as it will express the beautiful sea view alongside enforcing my water stimuli. My choreography is based around water. I wrote down some connotations of water and the one that stood out the most to me was flow. This helped shape my movements because they had to flow with the music and reflect the sea. Originally when I started I used the word toys as my starting point and from it came up with some connotations that I intended to use in my choreography . Control was my main focus because toys are controlled therefore I thought I can focus on robotic dance movements. Robot dancing requires sharp controlled movements in contrast to the flowing movements that I have developed my piece into.

Cats Material Analysis

Cats Dance Audition

Above is a link to the final video of my cats audition. At first I wanted to audition with a different genre of dance because I didn't feel comfortable and confident with the dancing in the musical. After a few dance lessons I grew in confidence and decided to audition with the jellicle ball song which the majority of the class used to audition. Choosing this song allowed me to focus on my rehearsing during the dance lessons because this was the song that was played out-loud in the speakers because almost everyone was using it. Jellicle song was from the musical therefore it was appropriate for the musical. Another reason I chose this song was because it was fast tempo and allowed me to express different skills I possessed. Considering the journey I had for this audition i would not change the song because I grew in confidence the more more I listened to it. The only alteration I would make to my audition if I was to do it again in the future.


The singing audition could have gone better, I think that I should have changed my second song. Some of the notes in the song I couldn't hit or hold for long because I hadn't received any vocal training.

CATS points of improvement

After having a run through of both acts I didn't feel as comfortable as I should have been at this stage because the this was the day before the show was put up. The first point of improvement that affected myself and a few others was performing the dance choreography confidently. Having practiced for months I knew the choreography for the songs however what was proving a challenge was  the jellicle songs because there were three appearances of the same song in the play. The order in which they were in confused me, this translated in my body language on stage and made me stand out from the others around me because they knew what they were doing. This was also mentioned in the notes after the run. To improve on this I will go to college early and put in some hours learning the dances so I don't stand out as the one who doesn't know what they are doing and drags the performance down.

The second point of improvement was on the second song 'naming of the cats' were my group seemed to be squashed in the office corner. Due to the design of the set the left side had less space making it difficult for us to stick to the choreography originally planned. I think that we need to adapt to the set and move upstage to allow ourselves more space. Playing around with the space would allow us to walk in symmetry to the other group creating a better visual effect than where we are currently positioned. If I was in the director's shoes I would have one of the groups stay in the office and say their verse then the other group upstage right leaving the other group on the catwalk. having that alongside with some good lighting would add a bit of mystery and suspense which is what we were trying to achieve with the song as its all about 'who will it be' who gets chosen for the Heavyside layer.

Rum Tum Tugger is the song in which my character is represented. The journey of the song went very well and at these late stages I am just looking to tweak the little things in the song. Last week I suggested having more year 12s in my song so that I could interact with them for the first verse which I excluded in the choreography process. After discussions with my teacher we concluded having two girls that I come in with, this instantly made me think of them as my assistants. Linking that to the context and my character it made no sense because why would a model have assistants for? After the run the director mentioned me thinking of a reason why they went off when after the first verse. This got me thinking about developing their characters which led to the idea of having the as super fans and instead of the leaving the stage they would stay on. The next step for tomorrow is to create some choreography to enforce that they are Tugger's super fans. Completing this point of improvement will give purpose to my first verse which is what I was originally trying to accomplish by having some year 12 girls.

With the show tomorrow then run was an eye opener to how much we had to cover to reach the level of performance we have been rehearsing for the past few months. From a personal perspective I had a lot of tiding up to do. One of the songs I found challenging was Bustopher Jones because its meant to be funny but non of us seem to get the comedy. With the show a day away we really should be laughing our brains off. I think that one of the main reasons why myself and a few others are not finding this funny is because it is not at all funny. The people impersonating this overweight character need to go for it a bit more and maybe analyse the scripts to understand the jokes. In the beginning we are all Bustopher Jones therefore I think I could improve my entrance for example the way I walk. I think if I walk in a funny walk the audience might laugh a bit which will change the atmosphere and allow us to go for a it which will then allow the song to fulfil its purpose. The vibe that that is currently expressed in this song makes it harder for us to fully portray the choreography that we have because I think everyone is a bit tentative because we are not sure if its working. Personally need to step up my game because if everyone did that for tomorrow then it will look good as we would all be putting in the effort. This is one of the songs we spent less time on because there is no Bustopher Jones in our cast , another obstacle we faced with this song was having enough hats. I think it looked odd to the audience we had during the run through as some people had hats and other didn't which could have led the audience to imply that there was a reason for this decision when it was just lack of detail from the prop team. Having the show tomorrow I think that I cannot rely on others therefore I should set my own hat tomorrow for example have a sticker on it with my name on it.

The next point of improvement I noted after today's run was my improvement needed in my vocals in a few of the songs. The songs included the addressing of cats which was a group song that seemed to need a lot of work. I think that one of the factors affecting this song would be the time spent on it. When I get home I will listen to the song over and over to help me get confident with it. Another song that needed vocal lifting was Old Deuteronomy were I had a solo that I was struggling with. During the rehearsal process I focused a lot of my attention to the songs I felt more confident with. My plan to improve on this for tomorrow is to come in early and get one of the voice teachers to help me with vocals of this song. My confidence in this song affected my body language on stage which made it difficult for me top help enforce the purpose of the song. I think that this had a knock on effect to the other characters on stage because they seemed less confident after I had sang.

The last point of improvement that we touched upon in the notes was the song Mr Mistofelees.  This song has undergone the longest journey in contrast to all the songs in the play. First we had choreography which excluded Niamh then changed it to help her fit in but that didn't work out well therefore today we decided to have her as a dictactive. This new idea worked very well with the previous song which is something we lacked at rehearsals. Tomorrow if we have her as a dictactive it would give her something to be doing while she is on stage because currently she just stand in the middle which looks odd. Having her as a dictactive also enforces the importance of Deuteronomy to the play and shows why she is often mentioned in the majority of the songs and why she gets to choose who makes it to the heavyside Layer.