Stories from the News (Megan Stammers)

News Article on the story of Megan Stammers

        The brief this week was to create a devised piece based around the recent news story involving school girl Megan Stammers. The devised piece should show how this story has effected others around it and create a piece from their perspective. I decided to choose the mother figure as i felt this character had the biggest scope for a story. I didn't want the piece to be really cheesy however so originally i considered the idea of playing the mother totally different to what everyone would expect. My initial idea was to portray her as uncaring, stereotypical chavy mother who is very self centred. After playing with this idea though i came to the conclusion that this created very limited ideas for a story because if she didn't care that much there is no story.
        After thinking about it further i started to think of it literally, if i were in that situation how would i feel? This opened up a personal connection with me and the story. Prior to this my partner had in actual fact ran off with the intentions of commiting suicide. I had no contact with them and could do nothing but wait around while the police dealt with the situation. I started to think how i felt. How i coped. and from this a piece developed. I decided to take away the dialogue and let the emotion lead the piece. I needed to portray the many questions that would have been running through my head. What if i never see her again? What if she is hurt? Was it my fault? I need to stay strong for everyone else? I felt that through leading the audience through those they would engage in my emotion and feel the pain.
          I felt that using silence was a key element to this piece because silance always creates an atmosphere be that discomort or sorrow, adding the sounds of crying and sobbing i wanted the audience to feel deep sympathy for the character and start to think in there own minds questions about the situation.
          I added the single line at the end to show the panic and hope that was building within the character. That idea that she was willing so much for it to be her daughter on the phone and that utter disappointment when it wasn't. I did feel however that i got a bit too carried away and didn't create a realistic enough beat before aswering the phone. If i were to develop this further i would consider the thought process between the phone ringing and me answering it and how long that process would take.
          Overall, i was rather surprised with the performance as i usually take the comical route which i feel would have been the outcome if i had gone with my initial idea. I was surprised by the intensity of the piece and how well i felt that i had created an atmosphere. I think this is an area i have not previously explored and should perhaps develop it further.