Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Unit 1: Part C
Attend a relevant arts event to the theme and write a 300 word review evaluating it.

 A while ago I saw a shortened version of 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' that was put on by The Beacon School. The entire play was part of the Shakespeare for schools festival which offers students an opportunity to perform a Shakespeare play on a professional stage.
The play used popular drama techniques such as a series of still images at the beginning to set the scene of a royal party. Music was played in the background to make the beginning dramatic which entertained the audience. Although the actors where relatively young (aged 18 and under), they all committed to their roles even through entertaining scenes involving the characters Puck, Nick Bottom and Peter Quince. 
Resisting the urge to use modern English, the entire play was acted out using the original Shakespeare script complete with Shakespearean language. This made the play more traditional and better as the audience had to listen and play attention closely to understand what was going on. However, to make the play more modern the actors who were playing fairies wore brightly colored tutus while the other characters wore brightly colored costumes.  This also drew the attention of the audience.
Although there was a limited number of props to set the scene, the actors who weren't involved in some scenes improvised and created still images of trees using their bodies. this really helped the audience understand that the play had moved on to the setting of a forest. this was also done in the beginning of the play when some actors froze as statues setting the scene of a party.
Overall, the play was a good interpretation of Shakespeare 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' and was very enjoying. It relates to the collage I plan to create in that Shakespeare was a famous British play write who is still popular in British culture today. Also my collage will include a statue of Queen Victoria and while she was alive Shakespeare was very popular.

Creating ''Cool Britannia'' Piece

Unit 1, Assignment 1.1, Part B:

2) + 3) Review your Arts Challenge every week and write a 300 word report on how you have attempted to achieve your Arts Challenge.

 This week I began my final piece. I have planned it to be a detailed drawing surrounded by a collage of images to do with the theme. I will collect these images from the internet, newspapers, magazines leaflets and so on. I also want the images of the collage arranged in a Union Jack pattern behind the drawing. 

I decided that the drawing in the middle would be of one of the Queen Victoria memorial statues that are located in front of Buckingham Palace. After much deliberation I decided on the following statue:

I decided on this statue because I felt it is the best representation of a more traditional Britain. I think that the lion represents power while the olive branch represents peace and harmony. The woman could be a representation of the classical and cultural side of Britain. After deciding which angle of the statue I liked best, I began drawing it on a large scale in the center of a large piece of card: 

 

This is a photograph of me drawing the statue on a larger scale

 

This a photograph of the drawing of the statue

The drawing above was drawn free hand and I do not plan to take any of the images that will be included in the collage myself. 

I decided to add the Union Jack in the background of the drawing and painted it in. I then started to stick down ripped sections of newspaper to add to the collage effect. I plan to add images within the boarders of the Union Jack and place them in a way that they overlap each other.

Cool Britannia Photoshop Work

Unit 1, Assignment 1.1, Part B:

2) + 3) Review your Arts Challenge every week and write a 300 word report on how you have attempted to achieve your Arts Challenge.

This week I did some research into the term ''Cool Britannia'' and found that it was first used in 1967 by the Bonzo Dog Band in one of their songs. The term then became well known by the 1990's and came to be defined as a period of increased pride in the culture of the United Kingdom. the phrase also summed up the mood during the 1990s when there was growth in the British economy.During the time there was a burst of new British pop and rock music, union jacks were more popular in fashion ( e.g  Geri Halliwell's union jack dress) and British artists such as Damien Hirst became more popular. 

This research then led me to create two Photoshop pieces related to the term cool Britannia. The first image of the Beatles crossing Abbey road reflects the term cool Britannia in that the band was popular around the 60's and that was the era that inspired the 1990's fashion and culture. Also it was around the time that the phrase ''Cool Britannia'' was first used. I created this image by using the marquee tool in Photoshop to cut away the background and replace it with a union jack. 

This second image was created from an iconic image of Freddie Mercury who was in the band Queen. It relates to the theme Cool Britannia as Queen was a British band that was mainly at the center of British music and culture. I created this image by using the marquee tool on Photoshop to create a stencil of Freddie Mercury and place an image of the union jack behind him.

I also completed the following images in the same way as those above. In the first one i cropped out the queens face in a postage stamp and replaced it with a close up image of the London eye. This represents how the British monarchy have become more modern over the years. The second image is the silhouette of a Union Jack placed over Buckingham palace. 

Initial Sketches

Unit 1, Assignment 1.1, Part B:

2) + 3) Review your Arts Challenge every week and write a 300 word report on how you have attempted to achieve your Arts Challenge.

This week I decided to complete some sketches in response to the theme ''Cool Britannia''.  I sketched items that you would think of as typically British for instance a first class stamp, the London eye, a cup of tea ans an umbrella ( represents the rainy weather of Britain). I decided to sketch in a collage style as that is what I will be doing for my final piece. All sketches were done based on images I found online and are not done in great detail because this was just an initial sketch of ideas.

As you can see from the close ups above I used crosshatching to add shadows to the objects which I think made them more realistic. Also I used blending to create softer shadows, these can be seen in the image above where this technique was used to create cheek bones on the Queens profile in the first class stamp. 

Friend Review On Arts Award

Unit 1, Assignment 1.1, Part B
4) Ask a friend to write an article review on their view and progress of your arts challenge.

Tracy has gotten off to a great start with planning and brainstorming her ideas for the challenge. Although the pressure is growing she has handled it really well. Also from her action plan she has already started on week one which has furthered her ideas which she will hopefully put into practice in the following weeks. My view on Tracy's arts challenge is that it is a very skillful and creative challenge which I feel she will be able to achieve as she was very skilled in Art and photography. I think she will produce a well presented and creative collage.

Reviewer: Kathryn Clark

''Cool Britannia'' Mood Board

Unit 1, Assignment 1.1, Part B:

2) + 3) Review your Arts Challenge every week and write a 300 word report on how you have attempted to achieve your Arts Challenge. 

This week I began the arts challenge by creating two mood boards in response to the main theme- ''Cool Britannia'' which gave me some ideas as to what I could include in my arts challenge and was almost like a photographic brainstorm. I created the mood boards using a variety of images that I collected from different sources on the internet (news websites, history websites, tourist websites etc). I also made sure that each image could be directly linked back to the main theme and both mood boards focus on a different part of Britain: 

Mood Board 1:

In this mood board I wanted to show a modern side of British culture so I included images of Brixton market, a full English breakfast, red post box etc.  I also included a panoramic image of the London skyline and the back ground of the mood board is the London underground map. 

Mood Board 2:

In this mood board I included images that showed a more traditional side of Britain and more iconic images that represent Britain. For example the British motto '' Keep Calm and Carry On'' , a British bull dog and postage stamp. I tried to include some key moments in British history, for instance in the mood board there is Stonehenge, the globe theater, a portrait of Queen Victoria, the RMS Titanic etc. 

Action Plan

Unit 1
Assignment 1.1 Part B 
1) Action Plan 
Challenge = Picture/Art collage for creative arts evening in response to theme '' Cool Britannia''

Week 1 
Create a mind map/ mood board with initial ideas of the theme ''Cool Britannia''. This should include images collected from the internet and/or own images.

Week 2 
Attend a relevant arts event to the theme and write a 300 word review evaluating it.

Week 3 
Attend another arts event relevant to the theme and write a 300 word review evaluating it.

Week 4 
Go over what things have been included in creative arts evening before and include photos.

Week 5 
Take your own images relating to the theme, post them and evaluate them. Also begin sketching relevant objects/concepts and create an initial design of the collage.

Week 6 
Find artists and workshops relevant to the theme '' Cool Britannia'' and write a 200 word review on each.

Week 7
Write up your arts CV. Choose three careers in the Arts you are interested in, write a summary of your qualifications, skills and why you are suitable. Help with planning creative arts evening.

Week 8 
Take more images and draw sketches relating to the theme and evaluate them. Help with planning creative arts evening.

Week 9
Taking into account all of the skills you have developed, artists, workshops etc create a final plan of your collage. Then acquire the materials needed to create it. Help with planning creative arts evening.

Week 10 
Create and develop Collage. Post pictures of your progress. Help with planning creative arts evening.

Week 12 
Showcase finished collage at GHS creative arts evening. Post pictures of creative arts evening and finished collage.