Leanne McKettrick

Reflection on Marketing

Leanne McKettrick

Reflecting upon the marketing we implemented during this process we also thought about what else we could have done to effectively market 130,000.

Social Media Profiles for the characters
We could have possibly made more use of the social media available to us, and made profiles for the characters involved in the play, particularly the teenagers. Social media is a big part of life of teenagers today and we could have used this to our advantage. This would not just create an awareness of our show but it would give the audience an idea of what to expect from our performance and help them to possibly create emotional connections with the character prior to the performance.
By having the actors post in character it would also play them create a sense of who their character is and play them develop their character for the performance.

Like and Share
Again making more use of our Facebook page we could have ran a ‘Like and share’ event. A photo, possibly one of our promotional photos which if people like and share one person will be picked at random to win 2 free tickets to our performance. By doing this my photo is being shared to people who we may have not reached and therefore creates more of an awareness of our theatre company and of 130,000.

Tagging
In the months prior to the performance, we could have created stickers or small posters of the show’s title ‘130,000’ with maybe the tagline of the Facebook or twitter page. We believe that doing this could help to create an interest and a buzz about our performance with potential audiences and could possibly be an effective way to increase the number of people viewing our social media pages and thus becoming aware of our theatre company and our current production.

Fundraising
At the end of our performance where was a collection for the Stephen Lawrence Trust and Damilola Taylor Trust. We could have possibly done fundraisers for these charities prior to the performance, for example a quiz night or cake sale, etc. This would not only help us to raise money for causes which are very true to our piece but would also help to promote us as a theatre company and give the public an idea of what kind of work we aim to create and also give us a chance to promote our current show to people who show an interest at the fundraisers.

Education Outreach
Our production centres of 130,000 centres around teenagers and the issues young people currently face. In the months prior to our performance, we could have possibly set up a workshop to get into schools to children aged 16+ due to the strong themes of the play and worked with the children on the issues surrounding the play, helping them become aware of the dangers and the issue that surround a young person in the U.K today.

Flyers

The flyers used were simplistic but affective and did represent what we wanted, however on reflection I think printing them on card would have potentially made them look more professional whilst at the same time maintain the simplicity of our company. The flyers would have been the first element seen by potential audience members and would give them a prejudgement of what to expect from our theatre company, therefore, ideally we would have printed them professionally to give a better impression, however, as mention in a previous post it was due to economical reasons and time restraints. Nevertheless we did not give false impressions through promoting our performance with the misuse of marketing materials or advertising linguistic.  The flyers were sufficient in that they supplied the information needed to potential audiences and gave a true representation to our performance and to our theatre company as a whole.

Posters

Again the posters provided an insight to our performance without giving too much away. On reflection I think the picture on the programme looked more effective, therefore it should have been on the poster as well. The attitude which conveyed off the programme picture encapsulated the whole feel of the play. The feedback received from people was that they had not heard much about what we were doing, they knew the information we had provided through advertisement but apart from that we seemed to gain a reputation of being the ‘secret group’. I think this assisted the interest surrounding our play and the excitement people had to come and watch.

 

Verbatim speech – Dwayne Brooks

Leanne McKettrick

“I think of him every day. I’m sad, confused and pissed about this system where attackers go free.
I never knew him to fight no one. He wasn’t used to the outside world. He wasn’t street aware of the dangers. I shouted run. He had ample time to run” (Wake Up Theatre, 2013, p.42).

This speech was said by Dwayne Brooks, during the inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s death. Dwayne was 18 when he saw his best friend stabbed and has blames himself for what happened to Stephen. The extract expresses his frustration at the justice system and how no one at the time had been arrested for the crime. It was highlights the possible guilt and helpless Dwayne feels by not being able to help Stephen.

Tackling this extract was the biggest challenge for me during this process. Possibly because these are real words, I felt a sense of pressure in being true to the speech and delivering it just as Dwayne Brooks would have said it, which being a white girl with a rather high pitched voice was troublesome. As rehearsals progressed and I kept working on the speech, it became about not trying to express it just as Dwayne Brooks would have but trying to feel as he would have, an almost impossible task as I have been lucky to never experience anything like what Dwayne Brooks experienced. To help get inspiration , I researched into Dwayne Brooks, reading articles and watching a lot of interviews with Dwayne found on you tube

and also watched The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, a dramatization of Stephen’s death and the investigation and trial that followed.

I felt sicken watching all the clips about how Dwayne was treated and I began to start to understand why Dwayne Brooks felt and that the extract really meant. I felt that once I started picturing how he would have felt, angry, guilty, sad, I found that expressing the speech with the anger and frustration Dwayne felt began to came naturally. I hope that I did Dwayne Brooks justice and that the audience got a sense of how someone directing involved in knife crime felt.

Works Cited

WAKEUP Theatre (2013) 130,000 an adaptation of Fallout by Roy Williams, Lincoln: Lincoln School of Performing Arts.

Characterisation of Detective Emma

Leanne McKettrick

For 130,000, I took on the role of Matt Ryder, the detective in charge of Kwame’s case. A decision was made to adapt this part into a female due to the fact our theatre company consists of mostly females, therefore as we already had girls playing boys for vital roles such as, Emile and Dwayne, we felt that it would not take anything away from the role if we changed the part of Matt to Emma.
My impression of the character is that Emma is a person who is devoted to her role as a police detective, and has worked hard to be in the position she currently holds and because of this she has become stern and authoritative as she has worked her way up through the ranks. Because of her profession I feel Emma has become immune to feeling emotional towards cases and become detached due to the fact she has seen so many cases just like Kwame’s.

Adapting to this role was a huge challenge for me, particularly because Emma’s character and myself are polar opposites. Therefore in order to get ready for the role it was vital I spent a lot of time working on my characterisation. To begin, I watched Fallout on channel 4, a TV adaption of Roy William’s play. This provided an insight to the character as although played by a male, I got the impression that Emma’s character follows her job by the book and because of this she is quite naïve to the environment and the people involved in Kwame’s death, which is why Joe tends to take over when interrogating suspects because he knows how to speak with them. Watching this adaption of Fallout helped me in creating my character, helping especially with my vocalisation, and building up an idea for who she was, for example the naivety found in the character expressed to me that she part of the middle class, which changed the way I would stand and speak when in character, choosing to stand a straighter and speak with a ‘posher’ accent. Watching Fallout helped in approaching how Emma works as a detective, what approach she used when interviewing suspects or talking to witnesses and colleagues. The actor in the TV adaptation spoke sternly towards all, a method I tried to use myself. This was a challenge for me and took a lot of working on. Naturally my voice is quite high pitched and tends to go up at the end of sentences, therefore I spent a lot of time working on lowering my voice and watching how I finished sentences. I also found that the character was quite patronizing when talking to the teenagers and this was an approach I used when talking to Ronnie in scene 25.

To help further I also watched a few episodes of Scoot and Bailey, an ITV drama about two female police detectives. This is helped me in approaching the role as an authoritative female and helped me greatly in working on my characterisation of the role. From watching the programme I noticed how the character of DS Janet Scott was quite detached from the cases she worked on, using this as inspiration I worked on taking any emotional responses away from my lines.

Overall, preparing for this role was a massive task for me and required a lot of work, especially vocally, to portray a stern, detached and authoritative person and I hope that I was able to express this in the performance.

Press Release

Leanne McKettrick

Wake Up Theatre’s 130,000

Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC)
Wake Up Theatre debut production 130,000 will be performed at the Lpac on Monday 20th May 2013, at 7.3-pm. This will be a one of performance.

130,000 explores the hidden complexities surrounding knife crime in Britain. Merging Roy Williams fictional play Fallout, inspired by the murders of Stephen Lawrence and Damilola Taylor, with verbatim testimony taken from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry; we will experiment with the collaboration of fact and fiction, to create a compelling and contemporary response to gang related culture.

Tickets are £5 or £15 as part of a pass to see all four final degree theatre company shows. Tickets are available from www.lpac.co.uk or the box office located in the Lpac by the Zing café. It should be noted that 130,000 contains strong language and themes of violence throughout.

About Wake Up Theatre
Wake up Theatre Company consists of 12 graduating students who are passionate about making thought provoking, inspiring and stimulating theatre. We are interested in compelling audiences into questioning the world they live in.  To question society and humanity. Our work will be a hybrid of documentary, scripted and devised theatre. We are currently exploring knife crime and its affects from different perspectives. How people view knives, how people use knives, how people pass the blame.

Contact Us
Please feel free to contact us at wakeuptheatre@hotmail.co.uk

Show Copy

Leanne McKettrick

130,000 explores the hidden complexities surrounding knife crime in Britain. Merging Roy Williams fictional play Fallout, inspired by the murders of Stephen Lawrence and Damilola Taylor, with verbatim testimony taken from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry; we will experiment with the collaboration of fact and fiction, to create a compelling and contemporary response to gang related culture.