Month: February 2013

*Appendices “The Liminal Experience”

Liminal

  1. Of or relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
  2. Occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

“A kind of liminal experience undergone by audience/participants when engaged In the brief liminality, drama and film. Turner describes these aesthetic forms as representing ‘the reflexivity of the social process, wherein society becomes at once the subject and the direct object” (initiation and disobedience)

“the act of reading a story can become a small initiation, a movement away from old patterns of thinking into new and, ideally, better ones.”

In all of Angela Carter’s tales there are version of “The Bloody Chamber” usually represented through the idea of a room or a space. I think this would be a good concept to adapt in our piece, taking something simple such as  a room full of mirrors and exploring what truly occurs in a space. In most of these spaces there is as a paradox between enlightenment and violence, innocence and experience – which is something we as a theatre company have been exploring in the children vs adult theatre.

Throughout all of Carters stories there is the idea of social change represented through a Gothic and almost timeless tradition. Something that i think lends itself perfectly to our manifesto as a tech heavy, spectacle group. It also is worth noting that to create a spectacle does not necessary mean there needs to be a stage full of props, elaborate lighting plans etc. Less is more when it comes to creating something symbolic of a time, a memory trace or even a simple border between two worlds, theatre vs reality, audience vs actor, young vs old, past vs present …

Many of the stories focus on the idea of liminality, of existing on the threshold between two places or states of being.  This is something we can take, easily adapt, create something totality unique adapted from a small influence of Angela Carter, the threshold can be physically represented if we look back to the idea of the room that all her stories contain. A liminal space.

In literature, liminal spaces traditionally give the occupant both power and torment. At the same time, he or she is condemned never to be fully accepted in either state. What does it mean to separate the fairytale from the real life, why do we aspire for the ‘fairytale’ ending when what we are seeing is something of our own creation?

The two halves of the liminal being’s experience do not seem to make a satisfying whole. Carter explores liminality primarily through half-beings: werewolves, vampires, and the special case of Wolf-Alice, the hyphen in whose name pronounces her liminality most definitively. – Exploring the idea of the half being, why do we use metamorphosis in literature to address issues that we as human beings experience? Is there a truth we are trying to avoid? Why does Carter avoid using human beings in these roles?

Her more radical statement, however, is that all women are forced to live life as a liminal experience. The heroine in “The Tiger’s Bride” realizes this when she considers that men consider women as soulless and incapable as animals.” She is a human who is treated like a beast, and is therefore living as liminal and unfulfilled  life as The Beast – as these themes are recurring in all of her stories, we do not necessarily have to restrict ourselves to three, if we are adapting and (rights restricted) then why not create our own concept of what it is to experience the fairytale, with echoes of traditional stories to make the comparison, creating ANOTHER liminal space not only on stage but between action and audience, what has happened somewhere in between the memory trace of a fairytale and the acceptance of more darker themes on stage and life.

The two worlds – the fairy tale world and the world of touristic experience – share the fact that in the ‘other’ world the hero behaves in a manner which differs from   his or her usual behaviour. Both an act of storytelling that traditionally would take place in a liminal period of time and a journey away from one’s home convey the impression of being on the border of several different worlds.

 

“The transition from the ordinary environment to an extraordinary one is a
typical feature of fairy tales; the protagonist enters an unpredictable world, although
its beginning is familiar for him/her” (Liminality and the imaginary)

Scriptwriting- First ideas.

As a Theatre company we decided to use Angela Carter and her stories to influence our script. We went on to read all her stories from ‘The Bloody Chamber’ novel and came to the conclusion of using three stories as we felt they reflected our theatre company and what we wanted to achieve perfectly. These were; The Bloody Chamber, The Snow Child and The Courtship of Mr Lyon. We were originally going to turn these into individual scripts and perform them on stage linking them together with another story called ‘The Little Matchstick Girl’. This would work by the little matchstick girl coming on between the performances telling parts of her story and ending with her dying. It was then decided by the script writing team, the director and the producer that this would over run the given time limit and we all felt it would not flow as well as originally thought. We then decided to just use ‘The Bloody Chamber’ and ‘The Snow Child’ story, merge them together to make one story and turn this into a script.

Synopsis of ‘Bloody Chamber’

• A young bride travels from Paris through the night with her much older husband towards her new home, a large and isolated castle in Brittany
• She describes her introduction to a world of luxury and pleasure
• Their honeymoon unfolds in the ways she had not expected
• The Marquis leaves to attend to his business affairs, trusting the narrator with the keys to his entire castle
• He asks her to promise not to open the door his private study
• The narrator contacts her mother by telephone, bursting into tears as she speaks of her luxurious surroundings
• Bored and curious, she searches the Marquis office and finds some informatexion about his previous wives.
• She decides to explore the rest of the house
• She opens the door to the forbidden chamber, where she discovers the Marquis collection of the bodily remains of his previous wives on display.
• As the wife dreads the return of the Marquis she is comforted by a blind piano tuner, Jean-Yves.
• The marquis returns and prepares to carry out his murderous plan
• She is rescued from her villainous husband by the timely and heroic arrival of her mother who shoots him dead.
• Now a wealthy widow, the narrator and piano tuner begin a new life together

Synopsis of ‘The Snow Child’

• The count and his wife go riding
• He wishes for a beautiful girl
• The girl appears and the countess is jealous
• The countess destroys the girl
• The count still desires the dead girl and the countess, though she has everything learns that jealousy can be painful.
The symbolic significance of his desires is communicated in the similes of his three wishes: snow, blood and a raven = a mixture of coldness, bloodthirstiness and fatality.

– Written by Stephanie Doe (Director)

We worked of these small synopsis’ to merge the two stories together and create our script. A synopsis of both stories together was then developed which all the scriptwriters would use to begin writing the script.

Original synopsis of whole script

This is obviously going to change it’s just my view as we haven’t managed to have a meeting so hopefully we will have one after lesson tomorrow and sort a few things out and obviously all collaborate together. I think that it’s more about the bloody chamber as the main story then like filtering the snow child in so it makes sense. Also, do we want the necklace in this? I dont think its too important.

Main characters (A few more will be added)

Marquis & Count being combined into one character. (A cold man who enjoys women for sexual pleasure only)

Countess & 17 year old new bride one character. (Naive character but gets stronger in the play and is driven to jealousy. Also in love with the Piano player)

The blind piano tuner (A kind, gentle soul and in love with the countess)

The snow child and The Marquis/Counts true love. (She does not talk/ talks very little. Pure)

I think that we need other characters such as a ‘housekeeper’ or something in the house and she could have something to do with helping the count as when i read the story i got a cold feeling off her but this will all be sorted out as and when we have a rough story etc and we obviously need a few other characters too to help the story make sense and so it doesn’t just focus on this one story. Sub stories are key and a lot of depth need to be added to all characters to make them believable. The hardest thing about script writing is giving your character a back story without actually writing any of it in. It is for the audience to make up in their own head.

The Story from my view- The fairy tales I see running through this is Beauty and the Beast, Snow white and Blue Beard

Scene one
I think we should start with the rough opening to how the bloody chamber starts. Like the whole thing where we learn about how a young girl has married a much older and wealthy man and how he is strange and cold etc and possibly take this through a narrative view. Then we get an opening to the story and a description of the characters. It goes on to the girl arriving in the castle and it being grand and dark (I see the castle in beauty and the beast in my head) and they go to the bedroom. This is when she gets nervous etc as he is quite sexual towards her as it is their honey moon but nothing happens etc. He decides that it is not time for sexual experiences yet and stops all seduction. This is when I think they should go on a ride/ walk (just to get it in the play that it’s a hobby of theirs so they can go for a ride) It could be kind of another fetish thing for him?

Scene Two
The piano tuner can arrive and be back at the house so we can focus on him for a bit and his story. Maybe he could be talking to the housekeeper about how he became blind and I think we should also get some back story of the housekeeper here to do with how long she has waited on the Marquis/Count for and how they may have a bond or something. She could help him preserve the bodies or something like that. When the Marquis/ Count and the girl arrive home thats when he is told about his urgent business and he has to go. The girl is given all the keys to the house and is told to go anywhere she pleases apart from one part of the castle (Beauty and the beast again) and he shows her the key and tells her the room she is unable to go into. The Marquis/ Count goes and she begins to explore the castle.

Scene Three
She has found the music room and plays the piano in it. This is when she can have her first encounter with the piano tuner and they can discuss if he is able to listen to her play when she gives consent. I think this scene should also show the audience that they have a spark and they could do this through the fact that they both love music or something. She begins to go and explore the rest of the castle and finds evidence of his ex wive’s and what they look like and some of the past etc. She however does not go into the chamber as she wants to honour his wishes as she is scared of him but has found a lot of evidence that there is something not right about the count. The piano tuner comes in and they talk once again and she tells him what she has found. They get closer through out the rest of the scenes and begin a secret relationship. When the Marquis/Count comes back he asks to see her in the bedroom and she gives him back the keys and he believes she knows nothing. He checks the key and is happy she did not go into the chamber. This makes her even more curious to what is in it as he has checked. A potential passionate moment here as he is lusting for a woman.

Scene Four
Time has passed and the scene starts with them riding/ walking once again and it is snowing. The Marquis/ Count seems to be mystified with the snow and wishes for a girl made out of snow. They continue riding and come across a girl that is white as snow. I don’t feel the girl just appeared out of no where though I think she has been out all night in the snow or something and has become so white and cold but he sees her as something pure and a thing of beauty. The countess gets jealous as she does not want anyone else to have the count/ marquis due to the wealth he has. The snow girl dies after the countess has demanded her to do many things but before this the countess goes back to the castle. I think the girl should die of the cold not pricking her finger though to make this more realistic don’t know what everyone else thinks? The count/ Marquis then goes looking for the snow girl and finds her dead and the snow is still falling on top of her and he falls in love with her. Then he rapes her but this is a thing of love to him as he has never been in love before. The audience then feels emotion towards his loss but they understand at the same time that is it wrong for him to have sex with this woman. He goes back to the castle and demands the housekeeper to go and find this woman and put her in this chamber and preserve her. The paino tuner and countess meet so she can share with him what happened and she is worried he shall leave her for this beautiful woman. She did not see her die or the rape.

Scene five
The marquis/count has to go on business again and gives the keys to the countess once more. She countess then takes this opportunity to go into the chamber as she has wanted for so long and she finds the dead wives and the dead snow girl. The snow girl looks different to the other two wives. The wives have been left in torture equipment but the snow girl has flowers around her and has been cared for. This is a sign of love. She drops the key in a pool of blood on the floor picks it up quickly and runs. She bumps into the piano tuner on the way and explains all she has seen then it all begins to make sense to each other. They make a plan to escape and run away together but it is too late. The marquis/count is back. He asks for the keys back and sees she has been into the chamber as the blood has dried onto it. He slits the throat of the countess as he fears she has done something to his love and she is then put in the chamber along with his other wives. The piano tuner stays in the castle and lives in the music room where her piano is and pines after her. The count/Marquis preserves his one love for as long as he can and visits her daily and makes love to her. I think the end stage picture should be the countess dead in the torture chamber or something.

– Written by Hannah Smith

We then all decided to begin a script each which would be written scene by scene and have a meeting weekly to put all the scenes together to make one master script to use.

Hannah Smith.

The Starting Point: Forming Ideas

Through numerous intensive group discussions, we have decided to focus our theatre company around the premise of creating children’s theatre for adults, by either manipulating already known fairytales, or trying to find the core dark elements within children’s stories which we could corrupt, twist and change to create a unique piece of theatre.

Our director is already familiar with the short gothic stories entitled The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, and we have an enthusiastic script writing team who are keen to try and adapt and fuse two or more of her short tales from within this volume. On my part, as Chief Designer for the set of the production, I am keen to start collating ideas, visual stimuli and any other creative triggers which I find during my next few days of research, to form a selection of workable stage pictures as both a practical model, and a solid, clear and powerful composition.

By starting with the concept of a collision of two worlds, and through discussions with the director, I will work along the themes of creating and distorting liminal spaces, trying to disconcert the audience and sheer away the boundaries between conventional and surreal stimulating theatrical experiences. I hope to be able to make use of, emphasise and develop my relatively broad knowledge of scenic composition and painting skills from previous production projects, to create my most ambitious set to date.

Word Count: 232.

 

Works Cited:

Carter, Angela (1995) The Bloody Chamber, London: Vintage Press.

*Appendices The Gothic Revival: From Context to Contemporary

This week we have been exploring the short Gothic stories of Angela  horror, specifically her adaptations of fairytales in her 1979 work The Bloody Chamber. The potency of the Gothic genre has extended from the Gothic revival of the eighteenth century to twentieth century modern fiction. In this blog we aim to establish context and inspirations from the Gothic genre which we can build through our theatrical adaptations of  fairytale.

Goya_-_Caprichos_(43)_-_Sleep_of_Reason752px-John_Henry_Fuseli_-_The_Nightmare

(Goya’s ‘Sleep of Reason’ and Henry Fuseli’s ‘The Nightmare’)

Angela Carter – Gothic horror and conventions are taken to the extreme, the pinnacle of heightened emotions contrasted with childhood innocence. This links to the context of the eighteenth century Gothic revival, where “middle class readers, safely tucked into their stable and unthreatened the social positions, could feel secure enough to cultivate imaginary fears and fantasies, in the same way that a child may do, reading horror stories and experiencing the delicious thrill while apparently immune from real danger.” (Gothic Tradition, David Stevens, p10)

This ties in with the genre of sensibility which ran parallel to the Gothic revival. This was the move away from rationalism and  towards heightened emotions concentrating on fantasy and escapism. There was a sense that “over-reliance on reason could rob human experience of its essential flavour.”(Gothic Tradition, David Stevens, p10)

Gothic and the Child

“The link between the Gothic and the experience of childhood is, perhaps, an especially strong one … many adults remember formative reading experiences in which fear played a compelling part, at once terrifying in its intensity and strangely fascinating and attractive. So-called ‘fairy tales’, clearly, are  excellent examples of this perennial fascination – it is hard to think of a fairy tale which does not feature some form of darkness or evil” (Gothic Tradition, David Stevens p32-33).

(Word Count: 314)

 

Works Cited:

Stevens, David (2000) The Gothic Tradition, Cambridge University Press.

Carter, Angela (1995) The Bloody Chamber, London: Vintage Classics.

 

What is a Production Manager?

Creating a successful technically demanding performance requires its production team to not only be versatile but also dedicated and organised contributors to the production. In order for these production processes to run smoothly, one member of the team must act as chief organiser; the Production Manager.

The roles which a Production Manger undertakes vary from show to show; however an efficient Production Manager must be an approachable and organised individual, capable of managing a substantial production team. According to Gail Palin’s Stage Management: The Essential Handbook, a Production Manager has numerous roles to play:

Production Manager (PM)

  • Employs and supervises all production staff.

  • Liaises and agrees the budgets and design deadlines with the director and designers.

  • Prepares and distributes the provisional schedule and budgets to all production departments.

  • Oversees all ordering of materials and building work.

  • Manages and controls the production budget.

  • Chairs design and production/progress meetings.

  • Prepares the production risk assessment and advises on action to be taken.

  • Schedules and oversees all work during production week.

  • Contributes to the technical rehearsal by taking technical notes and scheduling their completion. ((Palin, Gail (2010) Stage Management: The Essential Handbook. London: Nick Hern Books Ltd. pp. 14-15)).

According to this list of numerous tasks and responsibilities a PM must undertake, I enter this experience with a slight hint of uncertainty. Previously, my roles within a production have had much less responsibility and, being that this production is already destined to be ‘tech-heavy’, it is a major undertaking agreeing to the role of Production Manager. Nevertheless, I am determined to succeed in this role and produce a technically spectacular performance comparable to those produced by some of the other theatre companies I have previously reviewed and by whom I am inspired.

Kate Dawson

Word Count: 291

Works Cited

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