Liberation-mandi

Group of people in canada at gate waiting to leave. Franz hands helena a note of his mums address for her to stay at as she has nowhere else to go. But she refused as her dad always said to her that 'i am a jew and i have to remain a jew' Franz then gave all canada workers wooly boots to keep warm to replace their clogs.

James' idea

Liberation to gass chamber to courtroom scene.
Gass chamber-split audience and move to scene dock with smoke machine (gas). Then take a fresh view to the courtroom scene with a spotlight with a noose hanging from the grid into courtroom scene.

Much Ado Plot Synopsis

Leonato, a kindly, respectable nobleman, lives in the idyllic Italian town of Messina. Leonato shares his house with his lovely young daughter, Hero, his playful, clever niece, Beatrice, and his elderly brother, Antonio (who is Beatrice's father). As the play begins, Leonato prepares to welcome some friends home from a war. The friends include Don Pedro, a prince who is a close friend of Leonato, and two fellow soldiers: Claudio, a well-respected young nobleman, and Benedick, a clever man who constantly makes witty jokes, often at the expense of his friends. Don John, Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother, is part of the crowd as well. Don John is sullen and bitter, and makes trouble for the others. When the soldiers arrive at Leonato’s home, Claudio quickly falls in love with Hero. Meanwhile, Benedick and Beatrice resume the war of witty insults that they have carried on with each other in the past. Claudio and Hero pledge their love to one another and decide to be married. To pass the time in the week before the wedding, the lovers and their friends decide to play a game. They want to get Beatrice and Benedick, who are clearly meant for each other, to stop arguing and fall in love. Their tricks prove successful, and Beatrice and Benedick soon fall secretly in love with each other.
But Don John has decided to disrupt everyone’s happiness. He has his companion Borachio make love to Margaret, Hero’s serving woman, at Hero’s window in the darkness of the night, and he brings Don Pedro and Claudio to watch. Believing that he has seen Hero being unfaithful to him, the enraged Claudio humiliates Hero by suddenly accusing her of lechery on the day of their wedding and abandoning her at the altar. Hero’s stricken family members decide to pretend that she died suddenly of shock and grief and to hide her away while they wait for the truth about her innocence to come to light. In the aftermath of the rejection, Benedick and Beatrice finally confess their love to one another. Fortunately, the night watchmen overhear Borachio bragging about his crime. Dogberry and Verges, the heads of the local police, ultimately arrest both Borachio and Conrad, another of Don John’s followers. Everyone learns that Hero is really innocent, and Claudio, who believes she is dead, grieves for her.
Leonato tells Claudio that, as punishment, he wants Claudio to tell everybody in the city how innocent Hero was. He also wants Claudio to marry Leonato’s “niece”—a girl who, he says, looks much like the dead Hero. Claudio goes to church with the others, preparing to marry the mysterious, masked woman he thinks is Hero’s cousin. When Hero reveals herself as the masked woman, Claudio is overwhelmed with joy. Benedick then asks Beatrice if she will marry him, and after some arguing they agree. The joyful lovers all have a merry dance before they celebrate their double wedding.

ALL INFORMATION FROM http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/muchado/summary.html

Helena and Franz

By 1943 Auschwitz
had grown significantly and now had multiple subcamps,
many of which provided slave labor for armaments factories and other industries, eventually generating millions of Reichsmarks for Nazi Germany. In March new gas chambers and crematoria opened at Auschwitz-Birkenau, dramatically increasing the camp’s killing capacity.

“There was no God in Auschwitz. There were such horrible conditions that God decided not to go there.”

– Libusa Breder, Jewish prisoner, Auschwitz

A few hundred yards from Birkenau’s gas chambers and crematoria was an area of the camp the inmates called "Canada." It was so named because Canada was thought to be a country of great riches. Inmates’ possessions were taken from them upon arrival and brought there. The items were sorted and sent back to Germany, although some were stolen by SS guards.

“Working in Canada saved my life because we had food, we got water. And that was the best working unit for life because we were not beaten,”
– Libusa Breder

Mostly women inmates worked in "Canada," and it was one of the few sought-after jobs in Auschwitz. They could grow their hair out and were able to steal extra food from the belongings as they sorted through them. Also, relationships between German guards and women prisoners sometimes developed in Canada, although such relationships were strictly against SS rules.
Helena Citrónová, a Slovakian Jew deported to Auschwitz in 1942, drew the attention of a SS guard named Franz Wunsch.

Helena Citrónová

Slovakian Jewish survivor

“When he came into the barracks where I was working, he threw me a note. I destroyed it right there and then, but I did see the word 'love’—'I fell in love with you.’
“I thought I’d rather be dead than be involved with an SS man. For a long time afterwards there was just hatred. I couldn’t even look at him.”

Helena’s feelings for Wunsch, however, changed over time, especially when her sister and her sister’s children arrived at Auschwitz Birkenau. Helena learned that they were to be sent to the gas chamber and her SS admirer tried to help them.

Jews deemed unfit for work on their way to Gas Chamber 4, Auschwitz-Birkenau

"So he said to me, 'Tell me quickly what your sister’s name is before I’m too late.’ So I said, 'You won’t be able to. She came with two little children.' He replied, 'Children, that’s different. Children can’t live here.’ So he ran to the crematorium and found my sister."
Franz Wunsch was able to save Helena’s sister by saying she worked for him in Canada, but he could do nothing for the children. Helena and her sister survived Auschwitz, and although her relationship with Wunsch never developed further, she did testify on his behalf years later at his war crimes trial.

“If a lot of stuff is piled up together, then you can easily stash away something for your personal gain. Stealing things for yourself was absolutely common practice in Auschwitz.”

– Oskar Gröning

Oskar Gröning (right) was an active member of the camp's sports club

SS guards preferred working at Auschwitz over fighting against the Red Army on the deadly eastern front. Liquor was in ready supply and military discipline was lax. A black market existed for just about everything. Women also served as SS guards; they could be as brutal as the men. Oskar Gröning, an SS guard at Auschwitz, remembers what it was like:

“The main camp of Auschwitz was like a small town, with its gossiping and chatting. There was a grocery, a canteen, a cinema. There was a theatre with regular performances. And there was a sports club of which I was a member. It was all fun and entertainment, just like a small town.

ALL INFORMATION FOUND FROM http://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/40-45/corruption/

Character list

(don john) Joanna daisy
Elsa beatrice
Nat margaret
Mandi hero
James benedick
Becs ursula

Production meeting notes

-involving hero more..making it known that hero is the main reason for beatrice and benedick falling in love
- costumes...plain white pyjamas and SS uniforms
-nats opening idea in foyer
-elsa and james scene..give notes and direct
-set discovery of violin scene

23rd April lesson time

We also ran pedras death scene and our opening scene and discussed logistics for setting

Action plan

Easter workshop

The boy in the striped pyjamas

Pitch feedback

MUCH ADO PITCH FEEDBACK
Focus on love story that happens to be set in auschwitz. Good understanding of background info. Digital theatre- national jewish society survivors if the holocaust. Dont tell much ado, use much ado to tell the story. Focus on how you tell the story- actor muso in an artistic form.