Month: May 2013

The Get-In, Fit-Up and Post Show Evaluation

The day of the production started with measuring up the angel to make sure we suspended it at the right height in relation to the steps and the upper curtain height, as seen below.

 

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Laying out the angel and measuring the drop

 

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Experimenting with different lighting states

Then, with the help of the tech team, we weighted the wooden angels in position, and made sure that the lights were set up to highlight the painting strokes and colours.

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The set pieces in position, showing the uplit stencil and the focussing on the wooden angels

 

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How the set will appear for the Count’s dream sequence

 

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A darker lighting state

We also specified how the backlight should work, standing in the space to see make sure that it would create the desired long shadow effect.

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The raising of the angel

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Displaying the beam of light behind

The setting up process for the production ran relatively smoothly, which was due in part to the thorough technical and planning documentation completed by the production team, and by our long term planning and completion of the technical elements. We had decided, for example, to maintain the original set ideas as much as possible, and the changes that were made were, in my opinion, a reflection that we needed to simplify the design, whilst keeping the spectacle which we initially wanted to achieve. We were forced to emit the fabric drapes as we overran in our production schedule, but on reflection I think that this would have made to stage image too cluttered.

I also feel that the contrast between the downstage aspects of the stage, and the upstage images were perhaps too strong, as in relation to the audience size and positioning, this may have been too ambitious, considering that sightlines may have been restricted at some moments. The right hand side of the audience, for example, may have found it difficult to see the bedroom scenes. However, I also think that, as we did have this opposition of settings and styles, there was always a part of the stage which every part of the audience could see. I was particularly pleased by the way that the set pieces framed and filled the stage space, which, in my opinion, were the correct size and created the desired effect of forming an impressive and well executed set image.

Word Count: 419.

 

On Reflection

On Reflection

Looking back at the whole process of our production, I am extremely pleased with how A Gothic Tale turned out. The team found a way to work efficiently together in producing a completely original piece of devised theatre. We forget we had substantially less time to take it from the page to stage as we had to allow time for the script to be written; only having the final fully edited script by Easter.

As director I feel an honest approach is needed when reflecting on our production. It was not easy taking a completely original script devised from within the group as it is understandable that people will come with different visions – I did not want to take anything away from the script writer’s hard work, but at the same time I felt like I had to put my own stamp on the production.

I had always been interested in creating the impression of two worlds, so the audience can leave the production wondering why the fairytale they were used to have been corrupted – as a reflection of the process of growing older and leaving the fairy tale behind. It was not meant to leave a deep and lasting impression, but rather create that small thought in your head as to why they chose to come and see this corrupted fairy tale. This is where the audience divided; it was interesting to see in certain scenes half the audience laughing, some cringing and some genuinely gasping.  The audience seemed to develop relationships with some of the characters very quickly e.g. the Piano Tuner and took comfort in the comedy styling’s of the housekeeper – even when she did turn evil!!

If I am honest taking the role of director I feel I had been a bit naïve. I had directed a Shakespeare play before and felt I had learnt a lot from the directing module however, nothing could have prepared me for directing a completely new devised piece of theatre in such a short amount of time! One of the main hurdles I came across was the constant need for script editing to expand the story and create more character depth; this is where I suggested the introduction of the character development scenes. These comprised mainly of dance numbers and self help recordings! I feel I have learnt a lot with this process, worked with a fantastic team, and one of the main things I have learnt is to ask for help when I need it – there is a fantastic team of cast, crew and teachers that can offer guidance and insight in times of confusion and panic!

 

Finding space was another huge obstacle – especially with our production being as tech heavy as it was, it was difficult to keep a vision in your head that no one else could see up until the day when we finally got the tech! I learnt to start every rehearsal with an explanation to what will be on stage eventually and briefed the actors on what to expect, creating the vision in their minds was key so the scene could make sense to them! Spending months pretending there was a lifting angel with top lights, haze and a huge silhouette was no easy task!!

 

To be completed.

Final words!

Theatre Company has, in some ways, been the most challenging module I have taken part in over the past three years. It has also been the most enjoyable. I am thankful to have been a part of a group of such talented, lovely people. Writing a script from scratch and creating a set from scratch tested peoples patience, but the feedback from audience members, friends and family shows that all the hard work was really worth it.

The module has taught me many things about being in a professional theatre company. It has certainly taught me that communication between each aspect of the company is key. As head of finance, I needed to communicate effectively with those in charge of costume, set, props and marketing. I also had to communicate with the producer so he could overlook what was being done. I learned how to create an industry standard budget and used ‘Excel’ in a professional way to keep up to date with how much money was spent. Keeping track of everything was difficult but very important.

I learned about companies administrative production, and how technology now benefits their marketing as well as their shows. Although the module was short and we were busy doing our own jobs, it gave us a sneak peek of what being in a theatre company was like overall and how we could all help each other with certain things.

The night of the show was really something that can’t be described. There is something so satisfying about performing work that has been such a chore putting together. Every member of Progeny has the right to be very proud of themselves, and I will miss being part of a group with them.

(Yes, apparently I am being soppy on an assessed piece of work).

 

 

Word count: 299

Francesca

A Gothic Tale Magic Sheet.

A magic sheet is a pictorial ‘description of which channels in the lighting design are assigned to which jobs’ (Goudie, 2011: Online). This is the magic sheet for our show: A Gothic Tale Magic Sheet. Creating this took a lot of time as I was unsure what to do at first. This was a useful document to refer to when I needed to know what channels are assigned to what lighting state.

Work Cited

Goudie, E (2011) How to Make a Magic Sheet for a Lighting Design. Available at: http://www.helium.com/items/2110537-how-to-make-a-magic-sheet-for-a-lighting-design (Accessed: 21 May 2013).

Marketing Plan Reviewed

Unfortunately not all of our marketing ideas and plans were carried out. If we were a professional theatre company then I think that they would have been. However, we are not and we all have jobs, other modules, essays and other things which we have to dedicate our time to. If this was a full time job then we would have had enough time to complete each stage of our plan. Although we did manage to carry out most of our marketing plan, I feel that we simply gave ourselves too many activities to be able to put them all into action. Our social network sites were up and running by January and we communicated with our audience throughout the whole process. We did this in a number of different ways, including providing ‘teaser’ pictures, generating polls for them to complete, holding competitions and revealing general information about the company, the show and the process of creating it. We also created two promotional videos by the date that we set ourselves which were released on our social media sites. We accomplished our idea of ‘tagging’ in the University library which generated a reaction from our audience. Before doing this I made sure that I emailed the library to get permission as a precautionary measure as we did not want to receive a bad reputation as a new theatre company. We also created the posters in March; however, they were not released on time as there was a delay in the printing of them. The Company that we used made a mistake so needed to reprint them. Although this meant that we had to wait longer it also meant that we were able to change the date to the new date of the 19th of May, which occurred due to a misunderstanding. We also released different posters to our initial creations. Although the first posters that we designed displayed exactly what we wanted, they did not look very professional due to the lack of equipment that we had. Instead we decided to use a royalty free image of a woman holding a rose as this image looked more professional, due to the quality, and so had a better effect on our company image. One thing that we did not have time to do was the street performances. This was due to the fact that we were focusing on other aspects such as the posters and the tagging and then once all of these were completed we had run out of time. Due to lack of time, and people’s individual schedules, it was hard to find time where we were all available to implement street performances. If I were to do this module again I would have started with the street performances as everybody in our company seemed to have more free time at the beginning, and this was the only aspect that we needed everyone to participate in. However, overall I feel that we did carry out a sufficient amount of marketing which can be seen in the high ticket sales. We discovered that the average number of audience members to attend a student performance is fifty, yet we had over 100 audience members.

 

Word count: 531

 

Marketing plan written by Jessica Smith and Kelsey Stirling:

Progeny Theatre Company’s marketing plan

 

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