Site Specific Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment:
I have decided to score 1-10 the different hazards that could happen with 10 being very likely and 1 being safe and nothing should happen.

Fire hazard: 2/10
The church should not have any fire's breaking out because we are not using any candles or anything flammable within our performance if a fire were to start we would need to follow where to go from the fire safety and get all of our audience out as quickly and safely as possible.

Tripping over while walking the audience outside: 5/10
This should not be a problem because a lot of the spaces outside do have a path which the audience can go around too so it should not be a big problem if a audience member did fall over they would be helped straight away because we have our teacher there and staff from the church who can help.

Slipping over the wet ground and falling over steps/doorways: 3/10
This risk should be unlikely depending on the weather if it is wet and making sure audience members and all of us moving around look everywhere we are going entering scenes and making sure that doors are safe and step ways are easy to see we could put tape down on doorways to inform audiences that they have to walk past there and they know that it is safe. The church is not very good for disabled access because it is a lot of moving around so this could be a risk.

Making sure wires and costumes are safe: 1/10
We don't have any wires for speakers which should not be a problem costumes need to be fitted so people don't fall over lose items we would need to also look over the whole area and getting rid of items they could be tripped over and leading audiences over steps and seats correctly.

Site Specific Location

We cannot perform in Temple Manor anymore so had to make sure the new location would contrast with the first one we had we need to make sure that the ideas we had for the first one can go into the new location which is Saint Margarets Church in Rainham this would link in well with the court room scene setting some of our scenes out in to different sections within the church and hopefully using the outside space we have been and taken pictures of the venue so we have more of a feel for it and start to develop more ideas they we could have the different scenes.

Site Specific Location and Theatre Companies

We worked in pairs to look into different site specific companies and some of the performances they have done Hope and I decided to look at the different location on each one.

Site Specific Physical Theatre

We have three physical theatre pieces the first is at the beginning of our performance which is showing how the girls were dancing in the woods this was very effective all of us chanting lyrics that were ritual back in those days:

Arc angel, dark angel send me thy light
Through death veil until we have heaven in sight.

We decided as a group that this worked really well saying it all together and getting louder at some points within the song I think having all the characters in this one will work well because we could lift Betty which will lead on well to scene one were she is in bed.

We wanted to have more physical theatre within our performance because as a group we work very well with movement and can come up with some interesting ideas.
Here are some of the ideas we came up with for the next movement piece:

• Abigail stabbing herself

• The relationship between Abigail and John Proctor

• The accusation of different people

• People deaths 

• Abigail running away

We decided we wanted to go with accusation with different people getting blamed we had the idea of Abigail being the main reason for all of this because she starting it all from the start. We all had different ideas a lot that came up we wanted to use candles and have people blow them out walking past them and all standing in a line with candles we thought this would not work because we cannot use fire and because of the lighting we thought battery candles would not work. We all had a section each that something would happen and everyone would blame us I was the first then it would get passed down to the next person while Abigail is in the middle like controlling us what is happening. 


This is the video of what we have created: 

The next movement piece we decided to create was Abigail running away we did look at doing a physical theatre piece to the stabbing of Abigail but as I already tell this story we decided it would work better to have Abigail running away near the end this is to show when she goes away she tries to get help but people just turn away from her and carry on with what they are doing we decided that we used the same sort of idea instead of going with a new one its in a reverse way this will start with John Proctor holding onto Abigail like we did in the other movement but the other way round we have created a story to tell with the audience and hope they understand the connection within each one and how every character feels and what is happening within each part. 

Site Specific The Crucible Scenes

When looking at scene two we decided that every part of this scene had a very important part to tell the story so we understood it and the audience watching will be interested in what happens and what will happen next. We did not need to have all the dialogue in because we felt it would be a very long scene so we picked about the main parts for the scene overall.

These are the main points within scene two:

• Elizabeth showing she is still annoyed at the affair
• Mary- expressing how the court works and giving Elizabeth the 
• Hale coming in to question
• Proctor not knowing his commandments
• Cheever taking Elizabeth on a charge of stabbing Abigail with her spirit

Within scene three we found cutting the beginning was simple because it was not needed because we cut Corey Gulies from the whole story and getting rid of lines with Martha, Hathorne, Paris and Danforth. The scenes is very speedy so we thought that not lots more cutting was needed because it will bring important sections in and give it a lot of tension. These are all the important male characters Cheever, Paris, Danforth, Proctor, Hale and Hathorne. 

These are the main point within scene three: 

• Proctor getting Mary to get his wife's name cleared
• Mary confessing to them lying about seeing spirits
• Mary being challenged
• Abigail's denial and framing Mary
• Proctor's confession to cheating 
• Elizabeth lying for her husband
• Hale leaving the court
• Elizabeth being pregnant 
• John Proctor being accused of witchcraft

Site Specific The Crucible Scenes

We had dissions with the female characters and picked out the top three important characters which are Mary, Mrs Proctor and Abigail. They all have a part within the story but we need to have people to play the characters of Tituba who was blamed and Betty who is the possessed child within the beginning scene we decided that we should have the younger class playing these roles because multi rolling may confuse the audience and will be more difficult for us.

We looked at scene one and we decided that we wanted to cut parts out that we think we don't think we need to be a part of out piece because we want to do a adaptation of The Crucible we had to remove characters completely from it and taking out different lines to make it make more sense with the story line because we don't want the performance to be too long.

We all agreed as a group that we liked the relationship between Abigail and John Proctor with the affair we had a big discussion that we should get rid of it because this is why they started to blame people for witchcraft but we think that it was because of the girls dancing in the woods we all decided that it brings something else to the story and gives it more drama but this did not happen within the real witch trails but it will go well with our performance and give it something different.

As a group we looked at the Putnam Family Ann and Mr Putnam and thought we should remove them from the story. These people have tried to have children 7 times and have lost them Ann decides  to blame the supernatural as the cause because this is what she believes but it is within herself and to do with her health. This means girls would be blamed more from events like these happening because everyone believed that is was them who were doing this to people. This got rid of a section within the scene and only means we need to keep the religion within some of the scenes.

The last characters we decided to remove from the play was Rebecca and Corey Guiles. These were not important to the story we wanted to tell because they both believed the same thoughts. They both did not agree with what was going on and believed that people were making it up and decided to watch and see what happens we think they did not bring a big part to the performance and think more characters will be better.

Site Specific Research and Planning

The Crucible is based on true events that have happened with the Salem Witch Trails the story is around the people of the town saying that the girls were witching's because of certain events that have happened. I decided to do some research on the internet and have put information I have found from websites that will help me more within knowing more about The Crucible. 

Here is some the research about the play: 

The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692/93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government ostracized people for being communists. Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucible


I also wanted to look into the plot overview to have an idea of the whole story so when we started it had an idea of what was going on while I was performing.

 In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. One of the girls, Parris’s daughter Betty, falls into a coma-like state. A crowd gathers in the Parris home while rumors of witchcraft fill the town. Having sent for Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft, Parris questions Abigail Williams, the girls’ ringleader, about the events that took place in the forest. Abigail, who is Parris’s niece and ward, admits to doing nothing beyond “dancing.”

While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the town, while working in Proctor’s home the previous year she engaged in an affair with him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail still desires Proctor, but he fends her off and tells her to end her foolishness with the girls.

Betty wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers in her bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between Proctor, Parris, the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam soon ensues. This dispute centers on money and land deeds, and it suggests that deep fault lines run through the Salem community. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and examines Betty, while Proctor departs. Hale quizzes Abigail about the girls’ activities in the forest, grows suspicious of her behavior, and demands to speak to Tituba. After Parris and Hale interrogate her for a brief time, Tituba confesses to communing with the devil, and she hysterically accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the devil. Suddenly, Abigail joins her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and cavorting with other townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd is thrown into an uproar.

A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud; he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still harboring feelings for her. Mary Warren, their servant and one of Abigail’s circle, returns from Salem with news that Elizabeth has been accused of witchcraft but the court did not pursue the accusation. Mary is sent up to bed, and John and Elizabeth continue their argument, only to be interrupted by a visit from Reverend Hale. While they discuss matters, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have been arrested. Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they have taken her, Proctor browbeats Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and expose Abigail and the other girls as frauds.

The next day, Proctor brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth that she will testify that the girls are lying. Danforth is suspicious of Proctor’s motives and tells Proctor, truthfully, that Elizabeth is pregnant and will be spared for a time. Proctor persists in his charge, convincing Danforth to allow Mary to testify. Mary tells the court that the girls are lying. When the girls are brought in, they turn the tables by accusing Mary of bewitching them. Furious, Proctor confesses his affair with Abigail and accuses her of being motivated by jealousy of his wife. To test Proctor’s claim, Danforth summons Elizabeth and asks her if Proctor has been unfaithful to her. Despite her natural honesty, she lies to protect Proctor’s honor, and Danforth denounces Proctor as a liar. Meanwhile, Abigail and the girls again pretend that Mary is bewitching them, and Mary breaks down and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Proctor rages against her and against the court. He is arrested, and Hale quits the proceedings.

The summer passes and autumn arrives. The witch trials have caused unrest in neighboring towns, and Danforth grows nervous. Abigail has run away, taking all of Parris’s money with her. Hale, who has lost faith in the court, begs the accused witches to confess falsely in order to save their lives, but they refuse. Danforth, however, has an idea: he asks Elizabeth to talk John into confessing, and she agrees. Conflicted, but desiring to live, John agrees to confess, and the officers of the court rejoice. But he refuses to incriminate anyone else, and when the court insists that the confession must be made public, Proctor grows angry, tears it up, and retracts his admission of guilt. Despite Hale’s desperate pleas, Proctor goes to the gallows with the others, and the witch trials reach their awful conclusion.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/crucible/summary.html


We also watched the film so we got to see how others have played these characters and I think this have helped us out a lot to see whats scenes we are going to do from it and how we want to play it and display it to the audience in our own way.

These are the main points within The Crucible that should be shown.