Category: Production

*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

Production Meeting Note 24/1/13

Progeny Theatre Company Meeting

Date: 24/1/13

 

Attendance/Apologies: 

 Full attendance to this meeting.

Manifesto update/discussion:

  1. There is a massive culture now for how children should be protected in theatre today.
  2. Within theatre there are underlying issues present that shouldn’t be brought to there attention
  3. Something about the presence of these issues should be exposed to adults,
  4. a re-education to adults of the grimm nature of these stories so they then can understand
  5. combining the innocence of a story and exposing the darkness within it.
  6. Nostalgia?
  7. Adapting a traditional children’s tale in its
  8. highlighting and disassembling the illusion of the magic
  9. re tell and make obvious aspects of the stories that may have been overlooked for the children’s stories

 

What our Theatre Company Dislikes about theatre:

  • traditional theatre
  • Extreme taboo (child abuse, rape etc.)
  • children’s theatre being strictly for children.
  • Following practitioners to the letter
  • naturalism on stage (mirror to reality)

 

What our Theatre Company Likes about theatre:

  • using aspects or elements of practitioners to influence our performance style
  • breaking the boundaries of genre
  • taboo subjects (light)
  • spectacle theatre
  • Heavy technical
  • elaborate costumes
  • (Making children’s theatre for adults)
  • filter theatre – influence
  • paper cinema – influence
  • theatre as an escape
  • Tim Burton
  • hiccup theatre
  • taking something that everyone knows, and making is unrecognisable
  • representing the unrepresented

 

Possible ideas for Plays:

Children’s stories: Dr seuss, Grimms fairytales, The giving tree?, Roald dahl, enid blighton, beatrix potter, nursery rhymes.

 

MISSION STATEMENT:
We exist to change the perceptions and perspectives of those who are familiar with children’s stories. In doing so, we hope to alter the genre of Children’s Theatre, to directly encompass the adult audience. We aim to create theatre which allows escapism for adults by adapting children’s stories. Our theatre company aspires to create that which has not been seen before through controversial and innovative means.

 

TASK:

 

For Marketing group (KELSEY AND JESS)

  • Create a questionnaire to find how interested the public would be in coming to see a production of a children’s story for adults.
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