How will I manage this production?

The most important factor of producing a technical demanding production is organisation. ” The production manager is responsible for the entire organization of a theatrical production” ((Crabtree, Susan and Peter Beudert (2005) Scenic Art for the Theatre. Oxford: Focal Press.)).  A PM’s main role is to organise ALL elements of the theatrical production from set to lighting, sound to props and bring all these elements together into one, cohesive performance, all the while maintaining the director’s concept for the show. In order to achieve all of these aims in an efficient and effective manner, a PM must be well organised.

Therefore, my main method in producing this performance is careful planning and organisation  and, as a consequence, ensuring that all designers/stage management team have clear instructions and deadlines to meet throughout the production process.

After our initial production meeting, my aim is to begin set construction as soon as possible (ideally during the Easter break) and work to as close a budget as possible. Theatrical productions such as ours, which employ numerous technical elements, can often incur unexpected costs close to performance day. Therefore, I feel it is important to ensure that some money is left in the budget for any unforeseen costs on performance day.

I also aim to maintain constant contact with the director, throughout the rehearsal process, in order for no technical requirements to be missed. In order to do this, I will ensure that at least one member of the technical team (not including those who are also actors) are present at every single rehearsal. Ideally, the Stage Manager will attend as many of these rehearsals as possible because she will be on book during our live performance and it is important that she knows the performance inside out. Any member of the production team who attends these rehearsals has been asked to compile a ‘Production Rehearsal Note’ (see *Appendices) detailing any technical requirements/changes which have been made during that rehearsal.

This is the Stage Management Rehearsal Schedule detailing who will attend each rehearsal:

Stage Management Rehearsal Schedule

Kate Dawson

Word Count: 346

Works Cited

Realisation.

After writing scenes one to three separately we came to the realisation that it would take to long to write the whole script if we stuck to this idea. Along with this we also realised that we did not have enough scenes to properly explain the story so the audience would understand. We took the decision to add more scenes to the performance and create a new synopsis of scenes.

New Synopsis

Scene One-

Housekeeper and countess- Getting ready for wedding. Staying the same.

Scene Two-

Count and countess passionate scene. Staying the same.

Scene Three- Rob (Done for 16th)

Count and countess meet the snow child- Scene two ends with the count and countess taking a walk. They are walking through the snowy woods and see the snow child. The count sees her beauty rushes to her aid and tries to make her warm. Hear about some backstory from the snow child. Why she is out there etc. countess is trying to get him away from the snow child as she doesn’t want any other women in his life that may sway him from her as she enjoys the wealth. He refuses to do as the countess says and she leaves. The countess then runs into the ‘crazy lady’ and the crazy lady warns the countess about the chamber etc. The countess is trying to get away this whole time and doesn’t really listen to what the crazy lady is saying.

Scene Four

Piano tuner and housekeeper- We find out more background information about the two. Ending needs changing as count and countess don’t walk in anymore. Me and Steph will edit this when it comes to doing it.

Scene Five- Lewis (Done for 16th)

Piano tuner and Countess- (needs adding onto) The countess comes back and she is shaken up about the incident with the crazy lady. She goes to her music room and finds the piano tuner in there playing the piano. She sits with him for a while and they begin to talk about his sight etc. She then begins to talk to him about what the crazy lady said to her about the chamber and how she isn’t sure what to believe. The piano tuner says that he has heard that these stories are true and the countess tells the piano tuner she is worried and isn’t sure what she should do about asking the count or not. They have a kiss in this scene towards the end. He promises to look after her or something.

Scene Six- Hannah (Done for 16th)

Snow child and count- The snow child and the count return to the castle. They go into the bedroom and the snow child is weak and we can see that she is finding it hard to walk etc. The count is helping her and puts her on the bed and gets in beside her. He says how beautiful she is and how he has never felt like this. He remarks about how beautiful her skin is as she is white as snow or something. She is just laying there and he begins to stroke her face and kiss her and show affection and love towards her. They then make love and she dies during sex. He weeps at the end.

Scene Seven- Rob (Done for 22nd)

Crazy lady and countess- After everything that has been said about the count the countess decided to go and search for the crazy lady as she wants to know more about the chamber etc. They meet again in the woods and the crazy lady explains what happened to her in the castle and about what she saw and warns the countess to run. The countess leaves the scene with rage as she has been used and she feels she does not have the upper hand on the relationship.

Scene Eight- Lewis (Done for 22nd)

Count and countess- Confrontation about everything that the countess now knows and she wants answers to why he has hidden all this from her. The count does not say much as he is upset over the death of the snow child. (I feel we need more discussion about this scene before i write anymore because I don’t know where this is meant to go)

Scene Nine- Hannah (Done for 22nd)

Countess finds snow chamber. I see this as a quiet scene with music and the audience just watch what the countess finds.

This just gives you all an idea about what is happening. I feel we need to clarify some scenes more as i’m not sure where they are going at the moment but hopefully we will be able to have a meeting soon and sort that all out. Hope this helps.

– Written by Hannah Smith

We felt that these added scenes would help explain the story more for the audience as long as help develop characters and emotions. Along with these changes to the script and synopsis a head script writer was appointed (Hannah Smith) as we needed to keep the script moving and deadlines needed to be set so everyone could begin learning their lines. After this decision was made I appointed scenes to certain people in the script writing team and dates that they had to be done by. This would then help the script be written so we could begin to perform.

Hannah Smith.

Costume Ideas.

The Addams Family

the-addams-family-then

After reading the two different stories we were to use my first thoughts were on the Addams family as their general appearance is something I wanted to portray through our performance but I feared people would relate to it too much and maybe it was not the ‘gothic’ type of outfit I was looking for. The Addams family is seen as a comic family and I was also worried that this would come across to the audience.

The-Addams-Family-01-4

Even though I did not fully use the Addams family I used a slight influence from the mother figure who is named ‘Morticia’ for the Countess.

Countess morticia

I have used hints from this picture such as the similar make up that is used and what clothes she is wearing such as the shirt. I don’t think her character reflects anything I was trying to aim for but the costume is one I wanted to take ideas from.

Hannah Smith.

Developing Set Ideas

DSCN1061

 

Since my previous post, I have had much enthusiasm from the rest of the company in terms of re-creating the wooden 3D angel for our production. Furthermore, I have managed to develop this concept in collaboration with the production manager, and have decided to create two wooden angels, identical in size and appearance, but with a reversal of the image, so that they will appear to face each other from opposite corners of the stage. If we placed these at the edges of the proscenium arch, and reinforced them with stage weights and brackets, they could create a really impressive and imposing scenic composition. Therefore, in moving forward, I have arranged to meet with our stage manager to source some wood in the coming week.

Furthermore, as we need to create ‘the bloody chamber’ somehow on stage, perhaps we could consider a form of doorway, or gateway, such as the crypt/tomb image above?

 

Word Count: 150.

 

Works Cited:

Image, Online: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qKC0u1nv9s0/T-_gqX9wfRI/AAAAAAAAATk/_Z3stY2deY4/s1600/DSCN1061.JPG (accessed 12 February 2013).

 

What is it about Angela Carter?

After deciding on our chosen stories The Bloody Chamber and The Snow Child, there was a small dispute over how we were going to portray certain scenes in our new devised performance. There are what are considered ‘adult’ scenes in both stories, meaning there was a worry as to how we would overcome the issue of portraying them in a tasteful way. For rights purposes, the group decided to merge the two stories together to create a new story with brief similarities. Although we decided to merge the stories, these ‘adult’ themes were still an issue. However, as any professional theatre company would, we sat down and allowed our director, script writers and producer to explain their ideas on how these scenes would be tackled. Eventually we came to a mutual understanding and concluded that none of our performance would be offensive to watch. Due to our heavy technical aspects, we will be able to show the ‘taboo’ in a much more tasteful way, allowing our performance to provoke high emotions as was talked about in the beginning stages.

Taking all of this into consideration, I thought I would take a brief look at Angela Carter, her stories and the criticism that came along with her work and how she tackled it, if she did at all.

An article written by Helen Simpson in The Guardian talks about The Bloody Chamber and what Angela herself had in mind for the book. It states: “[Angela] knew from the start that she was drawn to ‘Gothic tales, cruel tales, tales of wonder, tales of terror, fabulous narratives that deal directly with the imagery of the unconscious’”(2006). This is the essence that she wanted to get across in her stories. Although her book may have shocked readers (and still shocks readers now), her focus was not on the disturbing scenes she used. Simpson tells her readers that Carter’s idea “was not to do ‘versions’ or, as the American edition of the book said, horribly, ‘adult’ fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories and to use it as the beginnings of new stories.” (2006). By touching upon this new way of writing, this new style, she wanted to reach out to a wider audience. She did not want to offend or disgust anybody, which is what our group also aims to avoid. Because these types of stories were so new to Carter’s audience, they soon wanted more, and she got criticised for not writing about more taboo subjects. She was, in so many words, breaking the mould of society.

She had very vivid ideas of what she wanted to write and how she wanted to portray them. Her love for science fiction and fantasy played a big part in her writing, allowing her create a new world full of issues and themes that were never thought about until the book was published.

Angela Carter is such an inspiration to our group because she knew exactly what she wanted. We love her ideas of the gothic and the tales of wonder. Our aim is to tell a tale all about love and relationships with no real focus on the ‘adult’ aspects. Overall, we want our story to be mysterious and spooky so it can catch the attention of our audience. We want it to provoke high emotion with help from our actors and technical spectacle, rather than shock them with the ‘mature’ attributes.

 

Francesca

Word count: 574
Works cited: Simpson, H (2006) ‘Femme Fatale’. The Guardian. Online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/jun/24/classics.angelacarter (accessed: 16th February 2013)

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