This director's interpretation summarizes their vision for adapting Lysistrata to focus on modern street violence among teenagers. The play would be set in present-day London, performed as a promenade piece in areas known for stabbings. It would portray two rival teenage gangs whose girlfriends join together, refusing sex to get the boys to end their territorial fighting. Rehearsal techniques like hot seating and freeze frames would help actors develop characters and key moments. The overarching goal is to both entertain and educate audiences about the serious issue of street violence through this comedic adaptation.

1. Directors Interpretation Lysistrata

2. My overall directional style! My directional style would be to turn Lysistrata into a piece of Theatre In Education. Therefore mainly portraying the messages of antiviolence and powerful women.

3. My Ruling Idea I have decided to modernise the play and relate the theme of war to street wars. I feel this would be important message as every day you hear about more street violence and stabbings with there being four in London in one weekend! I have chosen to focus on this because I feel I could use the comedy of the play to show the message to my audience.

4. I will have the conflict between two groups of teenagers which would be over an area they both believe to be there terrritory. I would then have their girlfriends being sick of the lack of attention like the women in the original Lysistrata. The girlfriends would then join together taking over the territory and refusing them sex. The boys here then lose there big man pressence and become very childlike creating humour.

5. Setting My play would be set in a big city like London. It will be set in the present day making it really easy for my audience to relate to. I have chosen this setting as it relates to my message as these places are stereotyped for stabbing and lots of violence on the street.

6. Theatre choice I have decided to go against the idea of having my performance at a traditional theatre. Instead I would have the play as a promenade piece using local streets and derelict warehouse in areas with a high rate of stabbings. By having the play performed here I feel it will more likely attract the audience I am targeting than a conventional theatre.

7. Casting and characters I would aim to use a young cast for the roles of Lysistrata, Calonice and the other women. I would go for the same age group for the young men. For my protagonist would be Lysistrata as the play is based around her trying to make a change for the better. My antagonist would be the male leaders.

8. Costumes For the first section of my performance I would have Lysistrata in jeans a T-shirt and something very casual and unsexy. Then when the sexual tension in the performance builds I would have my women in tight dresses and heels showing them to be very sexy making the male characters instantly play attention. I would have my men dressed in tracksuits and hoodies as they are stereotyped to be worn by “trouble makers”.

9. Lighting At the beginning I would have dim lighting to make it appear to be night as I feel this works with my ruling idea as groups of teenagers are thought to be out at night causing trouble. I would also have neon background light whether it was for a bar or local off licence as these are normally present in sleezy shops. I would then use lighting with a red gel for the scene between Myrrhine and Cinesias to show the passionate mood that Cinesias is in.

10. I would then use a bright white light at the end of the play as a truce is called between the two gangs to represent the brightness of the future now and the fresh clean new beginning that they all have ahead of them. This will highlight my ruling idea as I am trying to represent that the way forward is peace and no violence and the white light will show this in a positive way.

11. Music I would use modern music in the style of a explicit rap to build the male characters and their characterisation as boys who only really care about what they want to do. I would then have the same male characters play a cheesy romantic love song in the scenes when they are trying to win over the women. Showing them to be weak and doing anything to try and win the girls over. I would then have the women having a laugh at the men’s expense about their desperateness and sing a song relating to their power like `if you wanna be my lover’.

12. Chorus For the young male characters I feel it would be comical if the male characters rapped this at the beginning of the play. I would have the women’s chorus spoken like a chant to show their unity and strength to carry out their plan. At the end of the play with the chorus on page 145 they will all say this together to represent their new start and the unity between them all now.

13. 10 rehearsal techniques I would use? Firstly I would use leading body parts as a rehearsal techniques this would work well as would help the characters realise how to sexualise themselves as well as the male cast characterising themselves with a rude boy posture. The rehearsal technique of feeding lines this would also help the cast to focus on the physical aspects of their character and we found in practical rehearsal that when you work on the physical aspects of your character that the vocal qualities come automatically. I would then use hot seating as rehearsal technique on my female characters so they can have a clear idea of why their character wants to join in on the sex boycott and how they feel going without.

14. Also I would mark the status as a technique on lots of the scenes especially those where there is confrontation or sexual tension. This helps actors to know how they should play line and the amount of power they have in the scene. Another technique that would work would be simple actions and these being relearned in the form of the character I would have my cast do this for simple things like walking standing and general posture as it would help my cast build solid well thought out characters.

15. I would use freeze frames for key moments as rehearsal technique as it would get my cast thinking about the most important moments of the play which would hopefully help them portray the message through these. Another rehearsal technique I would use is getting the characters to think of their objectives as this would help them know what they were aiming for in each scene. I would the try to act scenes as if the audience are a critical observer rather than spectator so they don’t sympathise with characters but understand the wrong in the situation. Too work on portraying our message.

16. The rehearsal technique of key lines would be useful because by picking out lines the cast would be able to focus on what was important in the piece as well as working on getting the message across with minimal lines. I would then use the Magic if so my actors put themselves into different situations and decide how they would react and then finally decide how their characters would react. This finally would help them to firmly have an idea of their characterisation.

17. Objectives Lysistrata – Her main objective is to make peace between the groups of boys mainly so she gets more attention off her boyfriend. Calonice – She wants to go along with Lysistrata’s plan because she to wants more attention but she is also very fun loving. Myrrhine – Her objective is to make her boyfriend her pay for how he treats her.

18. Men – Their objective in the beginning is not to lose face and continue the fighting however at the end their main objective is just to get sex from the girls. The women's chorus – has the objective to support the young women in keeping the boys away from the territory as they think the violence being stopped is a great idea. The chorus of old men – are trying to stop the whole ordeal and think the women staying there are being as much of a pain.

19. Superior Objective of the play? The superior objective of the play is to educate and entertain the audience. I would like them to leave feeling that although they enjoyed the play it had a very serious underlying message. I would do this by when the cast are taking their bows and collecting the applause real statics about stabbings and the deaths occurred by violent attacks being shown.