An advantage of using this kind of staging would be that the audience get a different view of the performance, being able to see some things closer. It would give them more of an insight to some scenes, especially ones that are tense and aggressive because they will be able to see, more intimately, how the actors are interacting and the choices they have made for some things. But also see the whole situation from a different point of view, whereas they may have previously felt completely disconnected from whatever is happening, they would feel like they were living it more than merely looking upon it.
However a disadvantage will be that some performers will have their backs to most of the audience for some of the play, which could make it harder for them to hear their lines and they may then not understand what is happening in some parts of the play.
When blocking East End Tales I think it will be quite difficult to choose which part of the audience to neglect as there is no real dialogue in the play so is more of a consistent monologue, the audience would benefit from seeing the facial expressions head on, which will be difficult with a Thrust stage. It will require to act more with the body so that the audience behind can get a better picture of the emotion.
I love the creative choices that have been made to create the prologue because I can imagine it looking great from an onlookers perspective with all the lights and angles that the taxis are placed on, having more than one taxi driver with their group lighting their face in darkness. The way the lines are distributed may make it seem like they are each telling their individual stories, but from the way that they connect and flow will show the narrative side of it. The text is giving the impression that it is a stereotypical cabbie who likes to have a good chat of where their passenger is going and telling their own life story.
When we got split into the gendered scenes, we got given lines sparsely so I wouldn't say that we really had characters individually, but were all the same character as an ensemble. However, it will be difficult to all be the exact same character, and being different ones will most likely have a nice effect of the audience as it will showcase the stereotypical girl of the East End as they will probably be rather similar vocally.
As we are telling someone what the place we are living in would be like as a person, most likely means that we love the East End, and have full trust and faith in the person we are telling. Probably our best friend. When the text touches on the characters past, we could actually be telling the story of someone we actually know, or ourselves even, but putting it in someone else as so to keep it a secret but still not have the burden of keeping it to ourselves.
The way we have staged it is using some chairs for some to sit on, then others to sit on the floor between them, makes it rather physical. We have our phones torch to light our face, while using it as a phone, texting, calling or going on a social media website. We say the first line together, to show that we are all one person, with no light then quickly bring it out then putting them back to our chests. We then bring the light back at our first line, doing the actions I mentioned before. Then we say another line together and on our next line, some get up and move or just get up. Continuing to 'text', 'call' or just be on our phones.
I like the simplicity of the piece because it seems that we are all obsessing about a boy together, planning our future with him and being the stereotypical girl. However, for now, the gaps between the lines are far too long. We need to not panic when this happens, or if someone accidentally cuts someone else off. Also I think this will work best if we do almost interrupt the person before us, as if we are changing our thought pattern very often.
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