07.03.2020 - FEST - Final Performance

WORKSHOP

We did a workshop in the morning with Larisa Faber.  She is a successful actress in Germany and Luxembourg.  We started off with getting our bodies moving with a quick game of Stuck in the Mud.  This was quite a good ice breaker with people we hadn't met before as we had to get quite close to them.  We all worked well as a team.  Then we did some stretches and massaged our legs and feet.  This was very soothing and well-needed.  We then started massaging our faces and stretching them out to make our jaws relaxed.  To help relax our jaw, we put our hands in front of our face and shook them with our mouth open.  We got into pairs and I went with Louis.  We then had to do an exercise where one person was the actor and the other was the director.  We had to each hold the other person's right hand with our right hand.  Then the director would move the person around how they wanted the actor to move.  For example, if the director rolled on the floor, the actor would have to roll too. We had to have a lot of trust in our pairs so we could trust that they wouldn't make us do any movement that would hurt us.  I was quite lucky as Louis and I are friends so we have trust in each other whereas some people paired up with people they didn't know.  Then we switched roles.  Then we started saying our monologues within this activity.  Louis used his fragmented monologue with James and Tristan and I used my monologue after the mirrored chair duet.  When the director would move a certain way, the actor had to try respond with their voices as well as their bodies.  For example, if I pulled Louis closer to me, he would whisper because I would be right next to him and he wouldn't need to be so loud.  Then we did the same activity without holding each other's arm.  If the director ran back super fast, the actor would have to run after them attempting to keep the same distance between them.  This was obviously a bit harder to react to as it wasn't as authentic, but when doing a piece of theatre, it won't be authentic like it's happening in real time, but we, as actors will have to portray it like it is authentic.  Larisa was very accepting of everything we did and praised moments when we felt uncomfortable or shy because we could learn off of them.  After that, we discussed what our objective was for our monologue.  It was a bit more difficult for the characters doing direct audience address, but we soon figured out an objective for why everyone was saying what they were saying.  My reason was to try get the audience to sympathise with my character.  With this new objective in mind, Larisa went round all of us and made us try and get our partner to stay interested on what we were saying and not loose interest.  Larisa wanted us to experiment entirely with absolutely everything, even if we didn't plan on using it in our piece.  There were points where we were shouting, singing, dancing and jumping around.  It was a lot of fun and gave us an entirely new perspective on things which were hilarious.

WARM UP

Once we finished the workshop, we went to go have a little break and eat.  Then we started to do our makeup and get into costume.  We then went upstairs to have a small warm up.  First we played Zip, Zap, Boing to make ourselves more energetic.  After that, we stretched our muscles and then did a speed run through.  This was to see if we knew all of our cues and it was so much fun.  Everyone was saying their lines but in double speed so it was super funny to see us all running around. 

PERFORMANCE

The performance went really considering we were all feeling very nervous.  I think the nerves properly kicked in when we were backstage and we could hear the audience coming in.  Once the music was on I think we all just got our head's in the game and went for it.  I'm glad that we had a physical theatre movement at the start as it was a comforting way to begin the play.  We were all very smooth and made sure we had eye contact so a relationship was shown through the characters.  I like that we all really committed and even though we should have thought of it earlier, we added in a few lines when we thought it would make more sense.  For example, I added that Tristan lied to me too so the audience wouldn't get confused that I'm not a bad person after all.  Although I'm very happy with the outcome, a few things could have gone better.  For example, I messed up one of my lines in the fragmented monologue between Amelie and I.  Luckily, she noticed and picked it up quite quickly.  Another thing that went wrong is that the sound cue was slightly off for our mirrored chair duet.  What made it even harder to fix was that Amelie and I had the first move but couldn't see the other person.  Luckily, Tristan and Louis could see what was going on so they made sure that we timed it perfectly.  When I was doing my scene with Tristan, I spilt the "gin" all down my arm and face.  I tried to carry on and just roll with it.  The final thing that didn't go to plan was that because the staging blocks were too far forward, I tripped on them.  Luckily, as I'm the "local drunk", this wasn't too much of a bad situation.  Overall, the audience reacted very well to this piece.  They were laughing a lot at many different things I didn't expect to get such a large reaction out of.  I'm really happy with how everyone did and the energy we kept up throughout.  I'm really proud of us for creating something so fun and amazing.

Assignment 1 questions

Sound Designer/Technician 

• Who is this person most likely to be in contact with the most and why?
• The sound designer and technician is most likely to be in contact with the director the most.  This is because the director will share their vision with the sound designer and technician and they will then have to create what the director wants.  There will most likely be quite a few different drafts of these sounds and the sound designer and technician will work together with the director until it is all up to standards and portrays the message the director is trying to make come across.

Set and Props Designer

• Why must this person read the script in detail and do contextual research before beginning a job? In a larger scale production, can you tell me 3 different roles in the props team and what they do?
• The set and props designer must read the script in detail and do contextual research before beginning a job to make sure that they are prepared.  The script will usually give a large amount of clues to the set and props used within the play.  Doing other contextual research will help make it more factually correct and/or accurate.  For example, if a play is set in the Victorian times, the set and props designer would need to do a lot of research on the items used in Victorian times and what houses looked like, otherwise the audience wouldn't be immersed in the experience.  In a larger scale production, in the props team there will be a prop master, prop maker and prop storeman.  The prop master is responsible for purchasing, acquiring, manufacturing, properly placing and/or overseeing any props needed.  The prop maker physically makes each prop and they make a large variety of different props from jewellery to furniture.  They also may alter already existing props, such as distressing an object to make it look older or worn.  The prop storeman deals with organising the delivery, transport and storage of all hired and bought props for the production.  They must also organise the the props storage area in accordance with the production schedule. 

Director

• List 3 people that the director needs to collaborate with pre-production and what needs to be said.
• The director must schedule rehearsals with the actors to make their acting/tone/objective/movement completely portray what the director had envisioned.  The director will give the actors advice and different exercises to help them create the piece of work that the director wants to convey to the audience.  They will also collaborate with the sound designer and/or technician.  The director and sound designer/technician will discuss the sounds that the director wants throughout the play.  The sound designer/technician will then go off and make these sounds in creative and practical ways.  If the director doesn't like what the sound designer has come up with, the director will arrange another meeting and discuss the areas to improve on and give constructive criticism.  The director will also meet with the lighting designer/technician for the same reason, however, this time with lights instead of sound.