Learners Log for BHM

Learners Log BHM Performance

For my groups black history month performance in the variety show I have chosen to perform the poem called 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Of Freedom' by Maya Angelou. To bring this poem to life we have added some physical theatre along side our performance.

Caged Bird

BY MAYA ANGELOU

A free bird leaps

on the back of the wind   

and floats downstream   

till the current ends

and dips his wing

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and   

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn

and he names the sky his own

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams   

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream   

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied   

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.

We chose to do this poem as it talks about the isolation and racism to the black race yet it does it in a metaphoric way. This piece of text delivers a very strong message about freedom and segregation, when the black people were seen as the lesser race by the white people.

This poem does not celebrate the positives of BHM yet rather gets down to the truth about all of the suffering that the people were put through. I have chosen to do a piece of dramatic text for my performance as I feel this is the best way to get a strong message across, by using my strongest skills as an actor. I feel that the way that my group has presented this text does the important message behind it justice in a respectful way.

This is our performance stage plan for in the Sealight theatre, we have decided to perform it within a spot light that fills the area, I feel that this gives the piece a trapped, caged feel by putting us performers within a restricted area, this also bring the focus onto us. Isabel and Holly start outside the light, leaving my (representing the bird) alone in the light, looking quite sad. Isabel and Holly enter as I start to speak the first stanza. By having them enter at the start shows the audience that the bird is trapped, by as soon as he speaks they come in to stop him. It is important that the audience are indulged in the story as we tell it, as it is not at first clear what we mean as it is done using different characters. At the start of the poem we all hum a repeated tune, we do this to represent the tunes that the slaves used to sing as the worked, during our devising we originally looked for some backing music or humming to have playing over the top of our poem. However we did not find anything that fit the message that we wanted, so we took inspiration from all of the pieces that we found and devised a repetitive tune ourselves. we then stop this humming when we begin to speak, to draw the focus on the story. We then repeat this tune at the end of our performance, we chose to do this as it gives the idea to the audience of the circle of life that the slaves were put through during this time. As the poem get closer to the end we chose to add in a red light at the back of the staging area, as this will give the fallacy to the audience of the tension that is about to happen.

We split the poem into stanzas, and divided the lines up between us and highlighted it so that we can recognise our own parts. By doing this it gives the audience lots of different delivery's of the story through three different actors. I think that this poem works best in a group as different members can portray the different character, I am portraying the bird and Isabel and Holly the white people trapping the bird down. As a group we want to present BHM as a serious side, and look to present this through the saddened tone in our voices.