SITE SPECIFIC - Contribution (GC3)

What did i contribute to the overall performance?
Shoreham Shakespeare Festival:

I helped others learn their monologues, one example of this is when my friend was struggling to memorize her lines i went through it with her line by line and allowed her to recite to to me whilst i corrected any words/lines that she got wring. This helped her to get the correct words in her head and also have a chance to practice saying it in front of someone else so that when it came to the performance date she was prepared and ready to perform. We took turns doing this, i found ti easier learning with someone else as you are able to give and receive peer feedback to improve your work. As well as this before performing my monologue i introduced my own piece with the name of the play and character i was playing, this was better than just starting the monologue with no setting whatsoever, the audience are able to at least know what the monologue is form and possibly understand it more.

Brighton open air theatre:

We got to the theatre venue at 9am on the day of the performance, this was so we could set up all of the set before rehearsing. We had a large tree made of wood, chicken wire and paper macshe, this was in different pieces that we had to assemble once there. I helped contribute to this by supporting part of the tree while it was being put together. During the rehearsal process i went to collect materials such as newspaper to help create the tree, everyone in the class had a part in helping create the tree and was a group effort, this was helpful as we were able to spend more time actually rehearsing scenes rather than spending too much time on set. Furthermore once we got to the venue, as it is surrounded by woodland area, i helped collect leaves, branches and twigs that had fallen and were on the floor to make the tree area look more realistic. I think this was a good idea, as it was a mixture of artificial and natural products to make a full set that fitted well in the story line.

How did i help to shape the content of The Tempest?

For this production i made my costume, i was given a sample dress that i sewed red material and found other accessories to enhance the costume. Originally my dress was just black and white, however i needed to add red to match the rest of the royal family characters, i spent time on this during lessons and at home. Making my costume allowed me to think about my character further, i was able to think about my characters personality and what she would be likely to wear, this helped with my character development and costume construction.

I attended music rehearsals where i contributed ideas such as what instruments could be used as well as harmonies. This was especially in the song "All we do" i worked with Emily in making an arrangement for this that would work for the play, we created a two part harmony that included a drum beat, we also found parts of the song that were going to be repeated as well as creating a round with the melody and lyrics.

During movement rehearsals i had a lot of input into the choreography that was going to be included in some of the physical theatre scenes. Originally we tried fitting our lines into a movement sequence which we created using a piece of rope, this involved fast dynamics and quick movements. Because of this to make sure that we were able to put full effort into the speech and movement, we decided to have them separate so that it wasn't too much at once. To have both things separate it allowed us to drag out the scene more and prolong the shipwreck. I came up with jumps rolls and travelling sequences to create different ways of travelling across the space to create the shipwreck scene. I also helped create choreography in the banquet scene, i worked with Emily to create movement that would fit in with the greedy and grotesque mood we wanted for the scene. I really enjoy being able to give a choreographic input to a performance, i feel as though this is something i am good at and i appreciate being able to develop my skills in different projects and performances.

I worked outside of rehearsals to establish character relationships outside of rehearsals, one example of this is when working with Emily who played Antonia - who i plan to kill the king with. We wanted to establish a strong relationship where the audience would clearly see that we are close friends who would do whatever it takes to get what they want. We worked on making our lines bounce off of one another to make our characters seem very confident of themselves. In my opinion i think these rehearsals paid off as when performing i felt very confident of lines and i think we worked together well to tell the audience about who our characters are and what their aims are.

How did you make the most of the creative and artistic possibilities fully?

In site specific performance  often you have to adapt the performance to the space you are using, this is mostly when performing outside as there are particular factors that affect the performance when outside. For example when outside there is no walls to create acoustics and therefore the sound is carried by wind and to be able to be heard by everyone in the audience. As well as this because it is a pubic area, there are other factors like member s of the public walking around the surrounding area perhaps with pets and children that may make a lot of noise, a performers in this space we need to keep focused so these things do not distract us from the performance. Also if this does happen you need to project further to ensure that you are heard over this added noise.

Furthermore we had planned to enter some scenes from behind the audience, because we do not know exactly where the audience are going to sit and therefore we cannot exactly plan what path we are going to take. This is something we had to improvise where we were going to go and what part of the seating had the most space to walk through without coming into too close contact with audience members. 

As well as this, the staging is thrust and mostly we had rehearsed end on, therefore we had to make sure that all of the audience can see what is happening so some of the angles that we were performing at needed to slightly change. We also needed to spend time getting used to the proxemics in the new space so that we could perform to the best of our ability. I think we did this well and our final performance worked really well in the space and all of the set and props were encorporated into the storyline really well. Overall i think mine and the groups performance was good and i was happy with my work and contributions to this project. 

SITE SPECIFIC - legal and practical (GC2)

Conditions and restrictions?

This is some of the conditions and restricted that are included in the contract between Worthing college and Brighton Open Air Theatre,

• Worthing college are required to submit a detailed risk assessment and proof of public liability insurance.
• Brighton open air theatre will be credited in all promotional information with the supplied logo and address.
• Any alterations or amendments to the agreement are to be agrees between parties and confirmed in writing.

Event details

• Venue:  Auditorium
• Date and Time Performances: Date Monday 8th May 2017 Doors 6pm Start 7pm
• Get In Date 8.5.17 Time 9am
• Interval tba 
• Show Finish tba 
• Get out By 10pm 
• Nature of the Event PUBLIC
•  Seated Unreserved
• Category of the Event Theatre / Education
• No of seats where applicable 425 

Services and faculty provided by B.O.A.T

• Front of house staffing and dressing room.
• One duty manager for up to 10 ours of company access.
• Stewards at a ratio of 1 per 100 members of audience.
• Lighting and sound equipment as well as stage manager provided by the promoter (Worthing college)

Promotions and ticket availability

• Number of tickets allocated to B.O.A.T - 10
• Company and crew required backstage access during production period - 40
• Tickets allocated to promoter for guest list - 10
• Tickets allocated to sell directly by worthing college/brighton fringe - 425
• Total ticket allocation - 485 (B.O.A.T capacity)

Invoice form B.O.A.T.

My opinions on this... 

I think that all of these terms and conditions are very reasonable, the venue provided lots of information about the day that we may need. In another letter they provided information on public toilets, where to buy food and where to find the nearest medical help if needed. There was not a section of the contract that wasn't covered, additionally all of the information was very clear and easy to read. There was no legal jargon that made it difficult to understand the terms and conditions. The number of tickets available to sell is more than enough so we do not have to worry about not having enough space to equip everyone, additionally there is enough time before and after the show to make sure that all of our set is set up and taken down effectively and safely, before we need to get out of the venue. 

Public and wildlife

Because this venue is a public space we had to make sure that we respect everyone in the space, especially members that we do not know, this is so we leave a good impression and in years to come worthing college will be able to return back to the venue without any issues. One example of this is to get our set into the venue, we had to drive through a park, we needed to ensure that this was okay with park rangers and drive especially slow to avoid any collisions with members of the public and pets. It was also important to know where we were allowed to park that would avoid getting parking tickets or upsetting any members of the public. Furthermore we need to make sure that we do not disturb or harm any wildlife that is inside the space. There was one issue when setting up our lighting and sound equipment, we found a hedgehog, to make sure that non of our equipment would harm the animal we asked the park ranger to replace him in another area where there was no dangers for him.

Weather  

This year when we went to Brighton open air theatre it was significantly colder than when we went last year, because we were there for a prolonged period of time we all had to make sure we had enough layers to keep us warm. For example everyone in the cast had to bring extra jumpers and coats and blankets for when we were not being active, to ensure that we did not get too cold as this could have negatively affected us and our performance/rehearsals. This was very different to the weather last year when we went to the same venue, the weather was extremely hot and we had to make sure that we didn't have too many layers on that would make us overheat and exhausted as well as keeping more hydrated than usual and regularly applying sun cream. Doing a site specific performance especially outside, it is very important to be prepared for all types of weather that may affect performances and rehearsals. We would have to have been prepared for other weather conditions such as rain or strong wind, this would have meant clothes suitable for rain or umbrellas and things to protect the set from disintegrating. We also used stage weight to weigh down the tree in case of winds that could blow the set over and damage or even hurt cast or audience members.

Trenches

There are trenches at the bottom of the stage with gravel and stones in them, surrounded by wood, although they are not deep, if someone were to trip and fall into one they could injure themselves. The materials could break the skin but no serious injury would occur.

Licencing 

Because we were using a Shakespeare play we didn't have to pay for rights to perform it in different venues such as Brighton open air theatre and Shoreham Shakespeare festival. Additionally with some of the characters we changed the genders and names, such as Sebastian and Prospero changed to  Bastiana and Prospera as the genders changed from male to female. If we had to pay and apply for rights to this play we would have had to discussed these changes with the licencee company and perhaps the playwright, and even after discussing the changes may not have been allowed, this would have delayed the rehearsal process.

Email correspondence between the Brighton open air theatre manager and our performing arts co-ordinator...

"16/1/17

Hi All

 

I have just been to a Brighton Fringe Venue Managers meeting and wanted to pass on some updated information to you all! Apologies for this list but if you would like more details on any of the items then drop me a line … here goes! 

 

Dates: Fringe goes on sale for ‘fringe friends scheme’ on Wednesday 22nd Feb then on to general sale on 3rd March … PLEASE go on to their website and copy the link to your own events and email them out to your friends / followers … lets get the shows sold out! 

 

They are now taking applications for Fringe City so if you haven’t already applied please do if you think this would be good exposure for you … remember if you do Fringe City to have a person with you who can ‘leaflet’ whilst you are performing. Remember if your flyer has the Brighton Fringe Logo on it then you can flyer without a permit in the centre of town. If it doesn’t you will have to pick up a special permit from the Fringe office … (something to bear in mind if you haven’t completed your design yet!)

 

If you applied to be a ‘Window' event you should have heard by now … if you were successful please let me know. (Fingers crossed)

 

FEU - If you are coming from overseas you will need to register on the FEU form (for Tax purposes) in advance of you coming (this means it will not hold up your settlement) more info on this when they send the link through in a couple of weeks. 

 

BOAT will be attending a ‘Meet the Press’ event on your behalf on 27th February… If you have any posters / flyers / images / copy / sample CD's you would like me to take with you or turn into a press pack ready for then … please either pop something in the post to me at 

81 Dudley Road, Brighton, BN1 7GL or email something over….

 

Please check out the Fringe Website for a section about ‘Awards’ … there are about 18 different awards that have different criteria … please take a look at them and see if your show is a ‘fit’ and nominate yourself … it’s good exposure and there are a variety of prizes you could win including the Gemini Award for best artwork which comes with Free entry for next year plus £500 worth of print!! 

 

Take a look around the Fringe site for other useful sections like Fringe Academy .. I think in March they will have sessions on Health and Safety (ooh!) and Insurance (ahhhh) and even Tax (yay!!!)

 

Do let me know if you have any more questions / comments etc. 

 

Really looking forward to this year kicking off in style! 

 

Best Wishes 

 

Anne-Marie Williams

BOAT Manager

07802 299 267 "

"7/5/17

Hi Kim

 

I’m really looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning up at BOAT at 9am.

 

I just have a few quick questions for you:

Please could you send me through a copy of your PLI.

Please could you also send me a risk assessment covering the show. 

and finally do you have any idea of ticket numbers / likely audience. I can see the tickets sold through the Fringe Office but wonder if you have sold more through the college / directly. 

If you could let me know so I can set up the theatre appropriately that would be a huge help! 

 

Best Wishes 

 

Anne-Marie Williams

BOAT Manager

07802 299 267" 

SITE SPECIFIC - Company Research (GC1)

Willi Dorner 

Willi Dorner is an Austrian choreographer, he was born in 1959 in Baden, Austria. He studied at the Austrian society for Dance therapy and is also a certified Alexander technique teacher. In addition to this he has also done further training in New York at the Erick Hawkins Studio and the school for body-mind centre. He began choreographing his own productions in 1990 as well as being involved in film making. His stage performances and site specific works are presented and shown around the world including Europe, Africa, china and North and South America. As well as internationally touring dance performances, he is keep on creating new interesting perspectives on performance. One example of this is Bodies in urban spaces, this is an "intriguing trail" with 20 dancers, these dancers lead the audience into different public spaces in different cities around the world, including London.

London Bubble

started out very small, slowly built up slowly from 1972, based in London. Take performances to site specific areas such as schools, nursery, community centres etc, specialize in old and young people. Their aim is to be involved in the community and help people. They offer workshops for example they are running a workshop in London for 18-24 year olds to help them find out about theatre making. They have weekly drama classes for adult as well as speech therapy sessions for younger children. 

Punch Drunk

International company founded in 2000 by Felix Barret in London, their aim is to capture audiences in a theatrical sensory space, in different locations such as outside, old buildings etc. They are known for classical texts with their own artistic twist that included set, props, physical theatre and immersive entertainment. They like to break the fourth wall and integrate the audience into their space, they are supported by arts council England as well as another private foundations.

Emergency exit arts

They use visuals including puppetry, using old things and making things to create parade floats etc. Founded in 1980 and work on outdoor events including cultures from  around the world, they are well known for combining this into their work. The size and structure they use is often impressive, the performers go in and out of the structure to enhance their work. They are known to cover social and economic issues, such as recycling and the environment., On the 5th November they have a fireworks display which incorporates art that is relevant to the theme they are covering.

Artichoke

UK based organisation established in 2005, it is a Charity that works with different artists, they invade pubic places as they believe that art shouldn't be confined to traditional spaces. Their aim is to make audience appreciate landscapes more, such as places like the coastline and countryside. Few events are tickets so are free, the company relies on grants and donations to keep going. Often audience members are encouraged to be involved with the art and performance.

What do the companies have in common?

All of these companies like to break down the fourth wall, this means that there is often audience interaction. When you are in a traditional theatre space the audience are often separated from the performers and there is no interaction at all. However when you are invading a public space like Artichoke you are going into an audience space and therefore there is no barrier between the audience and performers. Some of these companies like Artichoke, emergency art exits and punch drunk like to incorporate art into their performances, in site specific this is known as outdoor art installations, part of the performance is that the artists and performers move in and out of the art to enhance the overall experience. This is done by going into a public space and using what is has to enhance the companies work more, this is apparent in Bodies in urban spaces as ti uses the landscapes in an area and creates a place where performance is shown. In addition to this many of these companies like to involve the community and their aims are to enrich the community to help with social and economic issues, this is done by offering free workshops and classes and bring art and performance to more excluded social groups such as people living in care homes to get them more involved in society. 

What is different about these companies?

In my opinion i think that Willi Dorner is very different to the other companies, their aim isnt to enrich communities and social groups, but to create different and interesting perspectives on performance. Furthermore they do not use art as part of their performance, the whole thing is based souly on the performers and the spaces they are in. All of the other companies are based in London/England, however Willi Dorner is an Austrian choreographer that internationally tours. 

Which company are you most drawn to and why?

I am most drawn to Willi Dorner as a choreographer this is because be brings different works to different parts of the world. He is able to choreograph  movement into places around cities that are totally unexpected, i find it really interesting to see dance and choreography in non traditional spaces. It also allows me to think about how i would use different spaces withing choreography of my own. In addition to this especially in Bodies in Urban spaces i like how all of the transitions between paces are very smooth, the performers are able to run with fluidity and ease to get to place to place, this makes the performance look slick and professional, which is something i look and enjoy watching in a performance. As well as this i like the mixture of colours used in this work, the bright colours allow audience to see the difference between members of the public and performers as they are not in traditional clothing. I think the mixture of colours really help to enhance the piece and make it stand out. It allows viewers to see statues and landscapes in a completely different outlook and take notice of the things around you more.

What is most surprising about the work you have discovered through research?

I was very surprised to see known many site specific companies there were, i wasn't aware of how much this area of performance was currently being explored. I have always enjoyed seeing different types of performance but my research has allowed me to see how different people find new perspectives on performance to be able to share with the public. Additionally it has been really interesting to find out about companies who use art as part of a performance, this isnt something i have much experiance with but i am very interested to explore it in the future. For example i would have never considered a firework display to be classed as a performance, however once it is added with speech, text and movement it is transformed into something more than just a firework display. I have found it really interesting to hear about how different companies integrate art into the community to help enrich it and hearing about how it has helped particular people. As well as this i find it particularly interesting how companies and choreographers look at a space and can visulaise how to transform it into a performance space, this is something i would like to do further research into and eventually explore myself.

Unit 33-Physical Theatre Evaluation

1. How have you used physical theatre skills in ANY performance that you have done this year(use of voice/movement/facial expression gestures//interaction with other characters) to explore text for performance?


THE TEMPEST: I have used voice in the opening scene of the Tempest, we were creating a shipwreck, we worked our lines into a movement section. For this we had simple actions, gestures and positions that are associated with fear, reaching for help and trying to survive. In between each characters like there was a single drum beat where we changed our position, one example of a position I chose was to kneel on my knees with my arms covering my head on the floor, this was to shield myself from the storm. The lines that were performed during this scene were the ship crew talking about the storm, for example one line was "Take in the top sail". Our movement and speech compliment each other as it provides an aural and physical setting of the scene.


WE WILL ROCK YOU: I have also used physical theatre during the song "Headlong" in WWRY, during this scene we made the shape of a car without physical set/props, this was done by having two people in the front and two directly behind them. I had a steering wheel as I was the "leader" of the group and was on the drivers side of the car. Because this scene is a song, we picked out particular lyrics that would fit with actions tat would be most appropriate to the scene. One example of this is when "hold on tight", I extended my arms out holding onto the wheel, to suggest a break while the other passengers shielded their faces.


2. What were your ideas from reading the text or script or lines?


THE TEMPEST: After reading the script and realising that It was a shipwreck I thought that it would be most appropriate to set it in a shipwreck environment, I first thought that we should create a physical theatre ship while speaking our lines. This is so the audience would be fully immersed into the scene.


WE WILL ROCK YOU: Initially when hearing the song we considered creating props that would look like a car, for example having cardboard cut-outs of a car held by handles at the side. This is so it would be obvious that they are travelling in a car.


3. How did you explore the text/script/lines- did you discuss and try ideas/improvise


THE TEMPEST: Originally we tries fitting our lines into a movement sequence which we created using a piece of rope, this involved fast dynamics and quick movements. Because of this to make sure that we were able to put full effort into the speech and movement, we decided to have them separate so that it wasn't too much at once. To have both things separate it allowed us to drag out the scene more and prolong the shipwreck.


WE WILL ROCK YOU: We went into the dance studio and tried out different movements in front of the mirror so that we could see what we liked and what we didnt from an audience perspective. In addition to this because we were double casted, both casts worked together so that there was eight people contributing ideas that would fit with the lyrics of the song well. Because my character was driving i experimented with different ways i could use the wheel, i didnt want it to be a stationary part of the performance, i wanted it to be a part of the overall performance. Furthermore i used flexion and extension in my arms, as well as twisting and turning it to add variation.

4. what worked well and what didn’t work? WWW/EBI analysis of any devising lessons and rehearsals.

THE TEMPEST: Choosing to have a single drum beat and stationary positions worked really well as it gave the audience the impression of the shipwreck and then building up to the movement sequence, in my opinion i thought this was a better idea as the audience are not automatically thrown into a chaotic scene. The mood and atmosphere is slowly build up, also this allowed us to have a longer shipwreck which was better as it gave us more chance to show how the characters were affected by it. When we initially tried the movement with the text through it, we found it difficult to keep our focus. Because we were focusing on the movement and our spacial awareness it was difficult to know when our lines were, it was also tiring to say complicated lines while performing fast and quick dynamics. As as result of this we added in extra background sounds such as screaming and shouting for help during the bigger movement section with the rope. This worked well because otherwise there would have been an a long burst of silence throughout the sequence and the scene would not have been a convincing shipwreck scene.

WE WILL ROCK YOU: Although it was helpful to have such a large amount of people contributing to the devising of this song, at times this was difficult because everyone has things they want to include, however sometimes they overlap and there isnt space for everything to be included. However once we had chosen the ideas we liked best we created movement throughout the whole song, one example of this was during the instrumental of headlong we decided to all slide down on to our knees, this looks like driving down a hill and therefore fitted in well with the rest of the movement. The first few times we rehearsed this number I felt as though it was little boring and didn't have much characterisation within in. Therefore we added in some adlibs and subtle improvised movements this brought up the energy in the scene and therefore we could show our characterisation more through the song.

5. How have you developed your role/character? What were your ideas?

THE TEMPEST: I have spent time in and outside rehearsals reading the script and understand the personality of my character and the type of relationships that she has with other characters in the play. I worked through the script to understand what her aims are throughout the play, from the line "lets take leave of him" I understood that she is very ruthless and only wants to save herself. From this I thought about what movements I would use, I chose to do no duets and travel across the stage solo. Although my character is very close with Emily's character, I still only really care about myself and my wellbeing, so I think this suits my character.

WE WILL ROCK YOU: The song headlong is very suited to my character, it is very high energy and has a good speed throughout, therefore I found it very easy to develop my character through this. For example Britt is very sassy and confident and therefore being the diver in the car, shows that she is in control, I added in improvised movement and adlibs to show my character through the performance. She is also the leader of the bohemians so her being the leader of the car, and introducing Galileo and Scaramouche to the bohemians helps show this more. This helped me develop my character and understand her personality and relationship with other characters more.

6. How did your ideas help show the meaning of the scene or show?

THE TEMPEST: Performing movements such as fast travelling sequences, rolls and jumps helps create chaos, which then relates to a storm which we were trying to create. I was happy with the movement choices that I made and think that I helped shape the overall storm. Additionally I helped choreograph movements for the banquet scene, our characters had to be very over the top and grotesque, this is because we are greedy characters and we are lost on this island with no food or water. The aim was to look as though we were diving into the food and taking as much as we can, therefore I incorporated extended arms and hand movements around my face to suggest eating lots of this food. I am happy with the choreographic decisions that I have made and think that the movements fitted in with the overall theme and mood of the play as well as contributing to my character development.

WE WILL ROCK YOU: I took on a large chunk of the choreography for headlong, this meant that I needed to select movements that would look effective in a car environment, for example there would have been no point choosing movements such as leaps and turns as they wouldn't have looked realistic in a car. Therefore i choose movements like bouncing up and down as well as extending arms up back down again to show people dancing in the back of the car. I think my ideas worked well with this scene, show and character.

7. Evaluate the final performance/s – WWW/EBI.

THE TEMPEST: In the tempest I think that my movement performance was good, i was able to perform movements that were suitable to the theme with ease, i used movements that i had previously used in other dance and physical theatre performances. I think i had good characterisation and was able to effectively show that my character was lost and scared and trying to find a way out. I fully thew myself into the performance, one example of this was when i got knocked over by accident someone else in the cast, i acted as though it was meant to be there and just rolled back to up to show someone getting back on their feet.

However i think i could have used my core strength more to have more control over the movements i was performing. Effectively using core strength allows you to quickly move form one movement to another without having to take pauses in between movements, this would make the movements fit more in to the scene and create a better storm.

WE WILL ROCK YOU: I was happy with my headlong performance, i think that i used effective characterisation to show how my character is sassy and is very confident within herself. I used strong facial expressions and good posture to emphasis this further. I think i performed each movement well by using a lifted eyeline and good focus.

On the other hand i think i could have rehearsed this scene more with the rest of the cast members and the bad to make sure that i had effective timing and perfect movement memory. I would have like my performance to be a bit more clean and polished, however i think that overall my performance in this scene was good.