Development

Post-show Blues

Jessica McDonald

Personally I think the final performance was a success. I feel that I and Charlie operated the lighting, sound and projections in a steady pace. After the dress run, I found that I was a little too hasty with some of the lighting cues, causing the actors to be in light on stage when they were still getting into positions. To solve this I waited for a couple more seconds or I would look to see if the actors that were helping with getting set on and off were back in the wings and gave me the thumbs up.

After the dress run I feel that the actors seemed a little more relaxed with regards to the scene changes. Once we had completed the dress run, the actors then did a quick scene to scene taking pieces of furniture on and off. I think that they became a lot more familiar with the order of the scenes and what items needed to be taken on and when. To help I stuck on the walls off stage, scene orders and what needed to go on and off on what side. By doing this I think it gave the actors that little reassurance that they needed while being back stage and left to their own devices during the show.

When the performance was finished a couple of member of the company went out to the audience to fundraise for Amnesty international. While this was undergo quite a few members of the audience asked questions and spoke the team within the company. Asking question about our inspiration and talking about their opinions. I personally asked my housemates that came to watch the show, what they thought of it. I asked questions like, ‘Do you think the characters within the play were represented well?’ and ‘Could you follow the events in the play easily?’ The feedback was actually very positive, with them explaining the story to myself and explaining the characters and their roles within the piece.

A week after our performance the group had a post-show discussion called a viva voce. Here we had chance to talk about our influences, lighting choice and acting style. For this the group meet the night before in the university library and discussed who contributed what to the production. We talked about Amnesty and why we wanted to include them in our process.

We went back over the roots of our ideas back to January, when we were throwing around ideas and interests of each group member. Again we went back to basics and stripped the production down to all it elements, confirming who contributed what to the process. As a group we help others to talk about what they did, if someone was struggling to explain and idea or aspect, someone else would jump in and help the viva flow.

Over all, I have thoroughly enjoyed this experience, working with this group and seeing our ideas come to life on the stage. I think if we were to carry on with Breaking Stories Theatre Company, we could successfully tour The Bogus Woman. Moving forward, I think that we could have created new productions, scripted and devised, keeping in tone with current issues in the news and maybe issues that are not in the light of the media, giving them a chance to be understood.

Develop, Developed and Developing Character

Faye Louise Bunclark

 

Developing characters is  them their own identity. It is important to acknowledge the character as a living conscious that needs physical attributes to accompany it. These physical attributes come with getting to know your character and giving them history that makes them the person they are in your performance.

I therefore created three character profiles for my main characters in order for me to develop them to the best possible standard (find the character profiles attached below).

Character Profiles

 

 

15 Minute Call… It’s Show Time!

Jessica McDonald

For our performance day we could spend the whole day in the LPAC. In the morning Charlie and I help the technicians set the stage up to our requirements – all seats in place, with the pit down and lower seats in place. The cyc was moved forward a bar in order to allow one of the scenes to be silhouetted. Since our tech in the auditorium we had made some slight adjustments to the lighting and sound, this resulted in Charlie and me collecting new cue numbers to add to our scripts.

Once the stage was ready and we had our new cue numbers for the lighting, we could now move on to the cue to cue. For this Charlie and I went up to the tech box, here Charlie operated the lighting while I called the actors onto the stage, asking them to speak the first and last lines of each scene – or the line that signified a change in lighting. While this we were doing this, Martin was setting up the new music, sound and presentations we had changed on QLAB. Again once this was finished I then collected the new cue numbers off him, adding them to my script ready for the dress run.

 

After the cue to cue, we all had a break for lunch and started to get ready for the dress run. During this time I wanted to set up back stage for the actors, for this I set up props tables on either side of the stage, each table displaying accordingly the items that would be going on and off on the side of the stage.

McDonald, 2014
McDonald, 2014
McDonald, 2014
McDonald, 2014

 

As well as the table being set up, I wanted to put and scene order back stage just in case nerves got the better of the actors. This would allow them to refer to these without getting themselves into a panic.

Scene Order.dotx

 

Now the lunch was over we could begin our first dress run in the auditorium, with sound, lighting and projection. I was a little nervous as I hadn’t called a show in some time, however, I think that a started reasonably well. We had just started scene nine and half way through the scene a piece of music started to play rather than a voiceover. I did panic as I wanted the actors to feel at ease before the show, however, Martin was on cans and I asked him to come over to the call box. While Martin was fixing this problem I asked Charlie to carry on with operating the lights while she was in the tech box. By doing this we didn’t need to stop half way through the dress run and disturb the actors while they were in character. Because that had happened I began to become very nervous for the rest of the run.

Once the dress run was finished we had note off Diane and Darren (who had been on cans for the duration). One of the notes I got off Darren was to stay calm, and to remember that the script is in front of me with all the information that I needed. He said that myself and Charlie were doing brilliantly up until the mishap with the sound, I was calling stand by on cues and then allowing them to go. He explained that it would have been the shock of a cue being in the wrong place that threw me. But a part from that we were doing well and that we seemed ready and prepared for the show tonight.