The second workshop with Lilie Ferrari

The first thing that we did with Lilie Ferrari was deciding on the title  of the Drama. She gave us another list of possible titles that she found herself. 

We also added: 

1. The Bereavement Club

2. The Bereaving Room

3. Bereft

After the vote we ended up with 5 final choices: 

1. Echoes - 1vote

2. Good Grief - 1vote

3. Tombland - 2votes

4. Bereaving Room - 3votes

5. Bereavement Club  - 5votes

Through the vote, we decided to call the drama The Bereavement Club 

Afterwards , we  looked again at the biographies that we wrote for each character and we decided on what kind of people they are. 

Joel: 

We decided that he will voluntarily run the sessions and that he will not smoke. 

We said that he will open up in episode 5

We decided that he will say things like "for sure", "definitely", "sooo...", "um..."

We decided that he will call Adam in episode 5 

We decided that he will share his story, because of what he hears about Harvey and Rebecca. 

Melinda: 

We were told that the actress playing Melinda is in her mid 20s, therefore we made the character a little bit older. 

We decided that Joel will suggest her a referral

We decided that she will be drawn to Joel

We decided that she will smoke

We decided that she will be going over her death

We decided that she will be annoyed with Jess drinking

We decided that Joel will suggest her one to one sessions

We decided that it all is very fresh to her due to the long process of bereavement (paper work etc.)

Harvey: 

We decided that he will be drawn to Jess

We decided that he will be suicidal 

We decided that he vapes

We decided that he will struggle to finish a sentence due to his low confidence  

We decided that Harvey will ask Jess to have coffee with him, but she will say "no"

We decided that later on Jess will be the one to ask Harvey to go somewhere with her. 

Rosemary: 

We decided that Rosemary does not like bad language

We decided that Rosemary is shouting in-law up

We decided that Rosemary will not like Harvey showing emotions through weeping. It will make her afraid and cause her to leave the room

Jessica:

We were told that the actress playing Jessica is 25 years old, therefore we made our character a little older

We decided that Jessica has a voice mail that she have not listened to (vm is from her dead friend), but she will do it eventually. 

We decided that Jessica will say what she thinks without thinking

We decided that she will be asked if she went to the funeral and that she did not

We decided that she self harm

We decided that she has flashbacks and dreams about Lily 

We decided that she feels guilty, because she had a fight with Lily before her death and that other will try to convince that it was not her fault 

We also looked at given by Lilie info taken from the Cruse website, which was listing different things that a person who lost someone may experience. 

We associated Fear and Shame with Rosemary

We associated Sadness and Longing with Jessica 

We associated Guilt with Joel

We associated Anger and impact on relationships with Harvey (in 5th episode Harvey will talk about Rebecca which will make Joel contact Adam)

We associated Numbness and physical reactions with Melinda

Later on we moved on onto writing up a table with characters and different episodes, deciding on what will happen to what character, in which episode. 

After we decided on that, we then were asked to write an episode each. A couple other people looked at the title sequence, the tag lines and the biographies. 

We were given an example of a synopsis of an episode of EastEnders. It gives information on the streamline, the characters, locations and dates. We could use it to structure our own synopsis. 

I was given the first episode to write: 

Bereavement Club

Episode: 1

TX: 14/02/18

Cast: Joel, Rosemary, Melinda, Harvey, Jessica

Location: the bereavement club room

1.    Joel

Joel started the volunteer sessions on the 7^th of February 2018. He introduced himself, the charity and what people attending those sessions can expect from those. All the characters attended the first session.

Joel stands in the room, next to his desk, waiting for people to show up. Due to late hour and the fact that he worked all day already, he sips from his coffee cup. People show up in order: Harvey, Rosemary, Jess, Melinda.

He notices Harvey weeping in the corner. He feels bad for him, but he decided to wait for everyone, before starting the session. He does not want the others to think that it is a place where he will focus on individuals. He wants everyone to see that it is a group meeting, where everyone is treated equal.

When Jess comes inside the room, Joel can see that she does not look sober. When she goes pass him, he can smell the alcohol. He grabs her shoulder and quickly takes his hand away as he thinks that he should not have done it. He asks her about it, however she only raises her shoulders and sits down on a chair.

Joel decides so leave the matter alone for now, because he does not want to disturb the session.

He hears Jessica’s bad language, but again decides to ignore the matter for the good of the whole session. He understands that those people may not be themselves and he tries to stay calm and help them no matter what.

Joel sees Rosemary leaving. He tries to stop her, but she rushes to the door and leaves.

2.    Rosemary

Rosemary is the second one to show up at the session, just after Harvey. She can see him crying, which makes her feel very uneasy, especially because he is a man, that in her opinion should not show such emotions in a public place. She sees Jess coming into the room and notices little scars/bandages on her arm. Jess does not sit close enough to Rose for her to be able to smell the alcohol.

Rose heard Joel asking Jess about it. It puts her off that a young girl showed up drunk in a public place, especially the place where people seek for help with dealing with their grief. She can hear Jessica’s respond to Melinda’s comment and that is the point where she cannot stay in the room any longer. She decides to leave the room.

3.    Melinda

Melinda shows up in the room. She goes pass Joel, picking at him due to her slight interest towards him. She sits down next to Jess and then she notices Jess smelling of alcohol. She comments on that, which causes Jess to use a bad language towards Melinda.

4.    Harvey

Harvey shows up at the session after an argument with Rebecca. It makes him think about his loss and things that he had to give up on. He is absolutely broken and when he sits down it all turns into tears. He weeps quietly when other people slowly gather in the room.  He notices Jessica, who he saw last week. He sees that she does not look good and he can see Joel saying something to her. He can hear Jess swearing and he sees Rosemary leaving the room.

5.    Jess

Jess woke up that day with another feeling of longing. She drinks again and does not stop having sips of alcohol, even though she knows that she is going to attend another of the bereavement sessions. 

She attends the sessions a little tipsy. It is noticed by Joel, when she goes pass him. He asks her about it, but she does not want to talk about it. She raises her shoulders and sits on one of the chairs.  She looks around to see if she was the last one to show up, and then she notices watching her Harvey who was clearly crying. 

Her attention is drawn towards Melinda who sits next to her and very soon after she comments on her smelling of alcohol. Jess responds in a rude manner.

We will still work on those, because there is possibility that we will change certain parts for the story to make more sense.