Obituary broken up.

Hey Guys...

Here is a copy of the Obituary that I have broken up so that each character (Apart from Henry) has something to say about him at the end as we go around the Timeline like we tried in rehearsal today...
I have tried to break it up fairly, but also so that the line everyone is saying makes sense.... Also a rough copy of the timeline, so we can remember where we were all standing! (I think it is in the right order, if not just let me know!)

Ria :)

Obituary for Henry Molaison – Broken up between the character

Phenias - Henry G. Molaison, 82, of Windsor Locks, CT died on Tuesday. He is known in the medical and scientific literatures as "the amnesic patient, H.M."

Broca - He was born in Manchester, CT and graduated from East Hartford High School.

Tan - In 1953, he underwent an experimental brain operation at the Hartford Hospital to relieve his seizure disorder.

Wernicke - Immediately after the operation, Mr. Molaison showed a profound amnesia, which became the topic of intense scientific study for more than five decades.

Korbinian - From age 27 on, he was unable to establish new memories for events in his everyday life and to acquire general information about the world in which he lived.

Schoville - His memory impairment was "pure" and not accompanied by intellectual or personality disorders.

Bette - For this reason, and because the operation has not been repeated,

Brenda - he is the most widely studied and famous case in the neuroscience literature of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Suzanne - Mr. Molaison's contributions to knowledge about memory have been groundbreaking, and researchers worldwide are in his debt.

Jaccapo - Burial will be private.

08/04/11 - Pics of the run through of our New Script!!!

Hey Guys... Here are a few pics of our session today, we have changed the script, so we are re-blocking where we want our scenes to happen....

Ria :)

08/04/11 A New Script, A New Direction

Good day Bloggers!

This morning we were presented with two draft scripts of the memory play, one was the script we were using already but had been heavily cut, the other was a whole new script written by Vanessa which contained a large focus on the story of H.M without overdoing it with the brain science. Only one script would be used as as of today. After a sit-down read-through of both, the class was left alone to discuss which script we preferred. The new script won on a unanimous vote due to a stronger story-line, less head-scratching science and more space to devise more pieces, also due to the flexibility of the script each scene has the potential to take place just about anywhere in the set.

For the rest of the day we worked on roughly running through the script and blocking it to get a better idea of how the play will look. Stage positions was the main focus for most of the run-through and plotting our cues, the most memorable new idea consisted of all the characters standing in a wide circle around henry as the audience enters the theatre, each of us positioned in the chronological order of when we were alive from those dead, to those very old, to those alive and well. We have also started to play with the concept of all dead characters having a consistent theme tune played on guitar,so far we have a theme for henry and our great guitar players of the group are working on more for the other passed characters. Lastly we have an idea for a small scene with henry and the doctors with the silks which we feel haven't been used enough yet, we hope to be able to develop this with the silks on wednesday April 20th

It's safe to say the class is excited on how this new script will play out (If i have missed anything please feel free to add)

Thanks g'day much love!, Robbie aka. Monsieur Tan :-)

07/04/11 - Run Through!

07/04/11 – Run Through.

This afternoon, we had run through of out play. We were able to practice with some of the costume and two of the       AV screens to play around with (Thank you!), which helped us in shifting around the audience…. And helping us to divide scenes, and hide areas of the stage where cast were sitting but we didn’t want them to be seen, also for creating shadows and creative images using lighting…

After the run through we sat down and discussed what elements of the piece we like, and what elements of the piece we thought needed improving.

Elements of the play we liked:

·         The use of live music… Toby and Paul have written and composed a song for the piece about losing memory, through Henry’s eyes, Ryan has also written a song about memory, and Carmen sings over the rainbow. All these are live performances during the show.

·         The interaction with the audience… we like that the audience is taken around with us and not just sitting and watching.

·         The music is Engaging, having the music performed live is more engaging than having it played on a track, you are more likely to pay attention and listen to the song if it is happening in front of you.

·         Like the way that the lecture is cut, it isn’t just a long lecture, it is split up by scenes with Henry, and Schoville and Brenda.

Elements of the play we think need improving

·         We feel that It has become too ‘Sciency’ during the lecture parts, there is a lot of information to take in, will the audience be bored? Will the pay attention? Will they understand?

·         Need more of Henry, we feel that we need to see more of Henry. He isn’t in the paly as much as we would like him to be.

·         Where are the silks? We realized that we have only used the silks once during the run… We will play around with Silks on our Silks day and see what other scenes we can use the silks in, and if other scenes can take place around the silks.

·         Voiceovers, are there too many voiceovers? Do voiceovers affect the way we act in a scene or the way a scene looks?

If I have missed anything out Please add it!!

Tomorrow, we are working on restructuring the script… Making cuts to Dialogue and to the scenes that have too much in them….

But the more we cuts, means the more we can add! :) Woop!

Ria :)

07/04/11Some picture's of the Shadow's for the Operation....

Hey Guys, Here are some pictures of the shadowing for the Operation scene with Schoville and Henry...

Ria :)

From Suzanne Corkin... About Brenda and Suzanne swap over.

Hey guys!
Here's abit of info that Suzanne Corkin emailed
To be about how the change over between her and Brenda milners, and when she took over the research on Henry.... Enjoy... Ria! :)

​The year after I arrived at Brenda Milner's lab, she arranged for Henry to visit us at the Montreal Neurological Institute for a week of testing.  This was his only visit to Montreal, and it was a momentous occasion.  In May 1962, he and his mother came by train, which is how they often traveled long distances, and they stayed in a nearby rooming house.  Although he was one of many research participants who occupied my time at the Neuro, I always considered him special because his amnesia was so severe.
​After that one visit to Montreal, all of the testing with Henry took place at MIT, either at the MIT Clinical Research Center, which became a home away from home for him, or in adjacent labs.  The many researchers who passed through our lab and the Clinical Research Center staff were his extended family.  Milner, my advisor from McGill University, Hans-Lukas Teuber, my boss at MIT and Milner’s longtime colleague and friend, and I together initiated Henry’s visits in 1966, 1968, and 1970.  After that I took over the helm.  Although I had been running our lab since arriving at MIT in 1964, I became its official leader in January 1977 when Teuber died.  
​From 1977 until 2000, Henry was a regular visitor to the MIT Clinical Research Center, logging in fifty-five admissions.  He was the subject of much experimental scrutiny for over five decades.  More than one hundred researchers participated in studies of Henry in my lab at MIT from 1966 to 2000.  We all understand what a rare opportunity it was to work with him, and we are profoundly grateful for his dedication to research.  He taught us a great deal about the cognitive and neural organization of memory.

first run through!

Day of guitars and metaphors and stress.
we kind of have a play. but where is luke in the play?
that is our next quest.
our first run.
wobblies and cheesemasters and a director who is on the lookout for people pulling faces!
i personally feel like i'm learning lots but need time to reflect.
For tomorrow, i am asking all actors to put their phones away; properly away and out of reach during rehearsals and runs.
we are very nearly somewhere near something we could be very proud of.
and in the rush to get a play we must pause and dissect the sections of the process and stain them, store them, digitise them and make new maps for devising and collaborating.

Also, we have a title: