Category: Process

The Final Show

For me the show was a really successful evening, in terms of the backstage area and how the script came across to the audience. As Deputy Stage Manager on the show, it was my job to ensure that the difficult or time consuming tasks were done as quick as possible so that the Stage Manager and Production Manager were able to rig the lights and lighting cues without taking too much time. The biggest time consuming task that was needed was to build the bed and move all the props from the cupboard to the stage. I managed to successfully ensure that all props and staging were set up without being an inconvenience to the other workers.

I also created two props tables which were labelled for the props positioning on either side of the stage, before the actors came in to begin rehearsing so they were able to rehearse with the props in the places they will be on the night. This is essential as it gets the actors used to working for the night, so they don’t panic and it also limits the chances of prop being lost.

As I was in the show in a couple of scenes it also meant that I was unable to cue the technical rehearsal which I was disappointed with, however I knew that my role within the production was, albeit small, a vital role to set the scenes and atmosphere for the audience.

For the blood, I decided to use both honey and cornflower in the separate scenes to achieve the best effect. We decided to apply the blood on the Snow Child before she was carried on to the stage and cover her legs with a cloth or coat. This reduced the risk of the audience seeing the Count or the Snow Child applying the blood during the scene. Whereas the difficulties facing the applying of blood for the Count and the Piano Tuner were greater and I had to think of imaginative ways for the actors to apply it themselves whilst being watched by the audience.

I created a cling filmed package for the Piano Tuner which was full of blood. If he squeezed the package and burst the cling film, the honey would then pour out of his hands and through his fingers therefore giving the illusion that the blood is coming from his stab wound. Whereas with the Count I placed some of the Cornflower made blood into a small toner bottle which was easily hid on the Count so he was able to drink the blood on stage whilst he was on the floor after being stabbed the first time.

The show it self was fantastic, the audience were receptive to the script, which is another plus for me personally as I was one third of the scriptwriting team, but also the actors seemed to give more to their roles in front of an audience. I was able to raise the angel in a smooth and eerie manner and nothing went wrong backstage in terms of props on the night. I believe that we have managed to produce a piece of theatre which has been different both visually and within the storyline. Also knowing that we have developed this piece ourselves is an achievement for us also as we are the first and only group of people that will ever perform this script and produce this work.

Robert Bull

The Stage Manager

As stated in a previous post, a stage manager must be hard-working, dedicated and at the same time sympathetic and kind. Within this post I will discuss the way in which my role of stage manager adapted and grew during the process of this module.

 

Peter Maccoy states in Essentials of Stage Management that ‘A Group of people is like a living organism, adapting and evolving until it can function at its optimum potential’ (2004, p. 26). Maccoy goes on to explain that these groups of people undergo a series of phases before they reach this goal (2004, p. 27). These stages are split into four categories, forming, storming, norming and performing.

 

During the first session of the module, we decided the groups we would be in as theatre companies. Each individual was asked to describe their strengths and weaknesses within the theatre world in order to assign roles to each member of the company. When listening to others comments and sharing each others experiences, straight the way we could see ourselves forming into a theatre company. Some of us had previous experience at either work or other education before university in such things as business and marketing. This allowed members of the company to combine their knowledge from not only the university course but other skills learnt and utilise them within the theatre company. As I have had previous experience with Stage Management, I put myself forward to be the stage manager for our theatre company.

 

I knew from the very beginning that the role of stage manager would be a hard and challenging task, however with the experience I gained from other productions, I was confident that I could apply the relevant skills for the task. As Peter Maccoy goes on to state that a ‘stage manager must keep an open mind and should never try to take sides’ during the forming stage (2004, p. 27). By taking this quote and utilising it, I enabled myself to take each individuals personalities and roles within the company on board, using each of their skills to benefit the production as a whole.

 

As stated in the previous post, a stage manager must be prepared to empathise and encourage each member of the company. In particular, when decisions were made within the ‘forming’ stage, I tried to ensure that each voice was heard, giving individuals the time to express their views and making sure each view was recognised. If any problems occurred during these early stages of production, I made sure that these problems or questions were resolved before continuing with the development of the performance. An example of this would be when the company as a whole decided to use Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber as the starting point for our script writing. Some of the members of the company were concerned with the use of graphic sexual content within the story, worrying that something like this would deter our audiences from watching the show. By bringing this issue up in one of our early meetings, these concerns were quickly erased by the script writers explaining that the use of sexual content within our play would be minimal and tasteful. This allowed the company to come to an agreement upon the direction of the performance, whilst keeping each member of the company happy. This moment within the group may be categorised as Peter Maccoy’s ‘storming’ stage, whereby conflicts occur within the group and boundaries are pushed. The previous relationships that are created during the ‘forming’ stage may be broken down and challenged. This process occurs within theatre companies and disagreements are inevitable. It is therefore up to the stage manager to outline any issues that may arise and keep each member of the company in the loop of the progress of production.

 

During the ‘storming’ stage, Maccoy also expresses the importance of including the director and providing them with comfort. It may sometimes seem that the actors are ‘taking it out’ on the director because of their particular characters traits. It is at this point where the stage manager should be there to offer support to not only the director, but the actors who may be feeling neglected by the director. Within this particular theatre company, a rehearsal had ended and the director became upset. I spent a short time with her explaining that she was not to blame but that each actor was individually becoming stressed with the work-load. At this point I knew I should offer a shoulder to lean on as each member of the company began to give up hope on the production. After talking with the actors and director, I believe this moment of ‘storming’ made the company stronger as a whole, knowing that each individual could share their opinions and move forward in the right direction.

 

After this particular rehearsal, things seemed to progress rapidly, as Maccoy describes the ‘norming’ stage whereby all members of the company begin to look at the bigger picture (2004, p.29). As our rehearsals started to become more frequent, it was obvious that we needed a larger space to rehearse in. I made contact with Lincoln City Football Club, asking if they would donate one of their large function rooms for us to rehearse in. As they agreed it became apparent that each member of the company was willing to participate in helping move chairs, tables and bringing set to the room in order for us to rehearse. Over the three days we were granted this rehearsal space, each member of the company made full use of the time and space, ensuring that the donated space was not wasted. This conveyed to both myself and the supervisor at Lincoln City Football Club that Progeny Theatre Company were a team of young individuals, striving for the same goal and working together to reach it.

 

The final stage within a theatre company as Maccoy describes is ‘performing’. At this point the actors know their roles and lines, so ‘can begin to spark off one another’ (2004 p. 29). This point within the process occurs towards the end of the rehearsal process after the first couple of full runs of the performance. Members of the company can now look at the production as a whole and begin to develop their characters deeper. This also allows the director to begin to concentrate on the over all image of the piece, stating for instance how they would like their lighting and set to look. It is the responsibility of the stage manager to take this visions and create them within the theatre. As expected, some of the directors ‘dreams’ may not be able to come to reality however, the stage manager must attempt to create these ‘dreams’ as best they can. During this stage I scheduled a meeting with the director to discuss each scene and the images that emerged from them. I encouraged her to ‘dream big’ as I wanted her to express her passion towards each scene. In the case that something was not possible, at least I could ensure that the same amount of passion would be expressed by offering an alternative staging idea or lighting state.

 

By studying these four stages the reasoning behind them became clear to me, each individual has their own concepts and ideas about a production and the way it looks. It is therefore the stage managers responsibility to preconceive these stages and prepare a way in which they can ensure a successful transition from one to the next, resulting in the agreement and satisfaction of each member of the company. A stage manager should always remember that ‘A theatre company is a complex group, or series of groups, of individuals involved in a creative endeavour’ (2004, p. 30).

 

Word count: 1293

 

Alex Urbanczyk

 

Works Cited:

 

Maccoy, Peter. (2004). Essentials of Stage Management. London: A&C Black Publishers Limited.

Post-Show Evaluation

A Gothic Tale was a challenging performance to complete as it was very technically demanding. Our aim with this performance was to create a visual spectacle which captivated its audience using elaborate technical elements; however we were very cautious of not overwhelming the performance with tech. Technology should be used to enhance the performance rather than distract from the story itself.

I feel that we succeeded with this aim, as feedback for the show was extremely positive, one audience member even commenting on how our tech was comparable with that of professional productions. The get-in on performance day went very smoothly and, although it lasted longer than predicted, we had planned in advance for such an occurrence and were able to adapt our schedule respectively. The technical documentation produced also succeeded in assisting with the get-in process, ensuring that the company had enough time for a detailed cue-to-cue and a dress rehearsal. The set we constructed functioned very well, although an emergency trip to B&Q was required to buy more cord as bungee cord was not doing the job. However, because money had been left in the budget for such an emergency and enough technical staff were at the venue, this was not a problem.

We also managed to save time having already programmed a QLab file which operated both the lights and sound. This also meant that when one of the sound files became corrupted shortly before the show began, we were well organised and able to correct this problem quickly.

I believe I played a vital role in producing this performance and am happy with the way I organised and managed the production team. All technical elements of the production came together very well and I succeeded in ensuring that every part of the production (set, costume and props) came in either on or under budget and that all documentation, designs and construction was completed in plenty of time. My organisation of the team and production, along with the commitment of the production crew, meant that this tech-heavy show went ahead with few problems and was successful in creating a visually stimulating performance.

Kate Dawson

Word Count: 357

Conclusion.

This module has been, by far, the most difficult I have ever had to undertake in my three years of University. We kept with our original idea from the start and began to devise a script from scratch. Doing this left us behind compared to the other theatre company groups who bought the rights for a well known play. On reflection, I am glad we devised our own play despite the added stress we all succumb to. The final script the scriptwriters produced, I believe, was of a high standard and I am proud to be apart of the process.

The character I played was arduous to perform with believability, and from the feedback I received from my peers after the performance I believe I succeeded in performing my character to a satisfying standard. Learning to play the piano while performing blind was also problematic due to the fact that I have no prier experience playing the musical instrument. I was unable to learn an impressive tune to play in such a short space of time, but tried to perfect a simple melody I could play on stage that was enjoyable to listen to. If I had more time, I would of liked to of learnt a more intricate tune to play on the performance day.

Learning sound and light design was an interesting experience. Instead of listening to a piece of music and thinking “this sounds nice”, I had to listen and decide what fitted into the performance to enhance the stage image Stephanie Doe wanted to create. Our directed knew what she wanted when it came to music and it was my job to present her with samples of music that fitted with her vision. In some cases she knew exactly what song she wanted to be played, for example, she knew she wanted the song Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Emily Browning and it was my job to edit the song to fit into the performance. When I came to lighting design I had a lot more freedom into what the final product looked like and I was able to creatively experiment.

This module has taught me a lot when it comes to what a theatre company must do when it comes to the internal and external administrative outputs, and the different ways a theatre company can achieve this. This module may be one of the most difficult I have had to do, but also one of the most rewarding. As a theatre company we spent countless of hours rehearsing, and the same amount of hours on our documentation in order to create industry standard technical documents. I understand how marketing works and how a marketing team collates data, and how by using that data they create leaflets and advertisements that will appeal to a target audience. I understand lighting design more thoroughly, being Progeny Theatre’s lighting designer I understand how lights can create moods within the performance, and how they can be used to enhance a performance.

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.

 

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