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Role of the director – rehearsal notes

May 24, 2013 Charlotte Meek

The role of the director is a very important one, the director is responsible for the vision of the play and putting together the play as a whole. In WAKEUP theatre i was given the role of the director which meant that i had the responsibility to work closely with the team to decide the type of play we wanted to put on, how we were going to stage it and portray my vision for the piece onto the stage.

‘Typical activities include:

programming and budgeting;
working with writers through workshops or script development schemes;
adapting a script and, if the play is newly written, working with the writer or collaborating with playwrights;
breaking down a script, analyzing and exploring the content and conducting relevant research;
translating and interpreting a script or musical score;
conducting auditions for productions, selecting and hiring designers, musicians, etc.;
managing time and organizing people and space;
attending production meetings with set designers;
conducting rehearsals;
communicating and liaising with all parties involved, including actors, the creative team, the production team and producers;
attending preview performances and preparing detailed notes for the cast and creative and production teams;
helping to publicise the production by giving interviews and leading discussions.’ (AGCAS 2011)

I felt that as the company director i must come to every rehearsal with dated notes and an agenda to ensure that rehearsal time was used efficiently, an example of these notes are as follows:

130,000 – 10/5/13

– Yesterday was great to see scenes really come together
– Well done on lines, the majority were much better
– Please keep going over lines
– Marketing, do we have flyers out yet? Ticket sales are at 27, what could we do to boost sales?
– Today i want to go over all group scenes, make them much bigger.
– I want to work on transitions, moving set (who will move what)
– We will go over each scene as follows: Line run, then action, notes, repeat
– Performance is in 10 days!! Commitment and energy is key!

Before every rehearsal notes were given about what we were going to do and address any issues that may have come to the surface before rehearsals begin.

Works Cited:

AGCAS 2011, Online: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/theatre_director_job_description.htm, Accessed: 20/05/2013.

Post-show.

May 21, 2013May 24, 2013 Julia Curry

The Arts Council England states that ‘for arts organisations to produce the best work that they can and have the greatest possible impact, they need to be clear and confident about their mission, engage effectively with the world around them and be objective about their development needs’ (ACE 2013, online). WAKEUP is this art organisation. Stated clearly in their manifesto, 130, 000 provides audience members with information about the fatalities of knife crime in South East London.

As mentioned in a previous post, John Hester notes that ‘one of the most important truths about acting is that an actor is only ever as good.. as the other actors on stage’ (2004, p.33). WAKEUP’s final performance of 130,000 went extremely well, and this is because every member of the company united as a collective group.

On Monday 20th May (show day), WAKEUP arrived outside the LPAC theatre at 9am that morning, ready to help with any of the technical requirements and prepare for a dress run. The extra rehearsal time that we spent working on the café scenes that very morning paid off, resulting in a very successful comical sketch between Clinton and Perry. When first using the space, each member of WAKEUP had to get used to the vast distance between the box on stage right and the café stage left. Once this was overcome, transitions needed to be rehearsed to ensure they ran smoothly for the final performance. Once cue to cue’s and a dress run were completed with a few final notes added WAKEUP were ready to perform their production to a strong 112 person audience.

The final performance of 130,000 was one that I feel both the company I can be proud of. The lights, sound and script united together so perfectly and I believe this was only further reflected in myself and other actor’s performances. I couldn’t be happier to have been part of WAKEUP theatre company!

Work Cited

Hester, John (2004) Stage Acting Techniques: A Practical Guide, The Crowood Press Ltd.

Getting in to character

May 18, 2013May 24, 2013 Rebecca Gibney

130,000 is a performance in which cast members play more than one part, this way of performing shows the diversity of the performers and also allows the audience to see different sides to each story. In the performance of 130,000 i am playing the roles of Clinton and Sarah, i am also delivering the Verbatim of Doreen Lawrence and Neville Lawrence.

Clinton

Within the performance of 130,000 i play the character Clinton. Clinton is a member of the gang, he is an outcast, he is the younger, ‘dim’ member of the gang of adolescents from London. Playing this character holds challenges within itself. Clinton and Perry are like a double act within 130,000. The dynamics of the gang members are shown through the double act between Clinton and Perry in comparison to the seriousness of Dwayne and Emile. Emile and Dwayne often put Clinton in his place, Dwayne belittles Clinton with sarcasm and anger, “no Clinton, really?” (WAKEUP theatre,2013, p.11). Clinton knows his insignificance to Dwayne and Emile but tries to fit in with them by trying to be funny.

The role of Clinton is played in a light hearted manner with comic elements and an excited attitude towards jokes made. This however changes once put in his place, he becomes awkward and scared when told what to do. Clinton knows he is not a massive member of the gang however this does not stop him trying to live up to Dwayne and Emile’s character.

In order to get inspiration for performing Clinton I first of all watched Fallout by Roy Williams in which 130,000 was based upon. Clinton’s character within Fallout is similar to how I portrayed Clinton. Within Fallout you see the relationship build with Perry and Clinton, you also see how much he fancies Shanice, for my performance of Clinton i tried to show this in a very obvious slapstick type of way. I stared at her in a stereotypical manner with my mouth open whilst slumped on a chair. I added the comical relationship with Perry similarly to how Jerome Holder played Clinton in Fallout. I also watched Kidulthood, this was a useful film to watch as they represent gangs and youths in London which helped with the characterisation of being in the gangs.

Another influence that i used to perform Clinton as realistically as possible was The fried Chicken shop which aired on Channel four on February, this programme helped me to see how youths in London acted in the chicken shop which was where as Clinton i spent my time. I took inspiration from how they sat and how loudly they would talk to each other in order to get attention.

In order to play the character of Clinton i found a partnership with Perry to be extremely significant, battling with the dark elements within the play to bring a lighter and comedic element within the performance.

Playing Clinton is extremely diverse to delivering the Verbatim theatre.

Verbatim

Delivering Verbatim holds many challenges, firstly performing it as real as possible is a significant challenge. As verbatim is real words performing it with meaning and integrity is very important. Within 130,000 I read Verbatim of both Doreen and Neville, mother and father to Stephen Lawrence.

Trying to perform and deliver a believable piece of Verbatim is extremely challenging, the emotion behind the words is difficult to deliver. With reading for both Stephen’s mother and father trying to establish the emotions that they would both feel is challenging.

The first piece of Verbatim I am delivering is Doreen Lawrence, this is delivered in court and she is telling them about the moment she saw Stephen in hospital, within the verbatim she states, “as for being stabbed, thats the last thing I expected, I never expected that” (130,000, p20, 2013). I find this challenging to read as trying to portray how she feels, trying to deliver how Doreen would have been feeling is upsetting and uncomfortable to think about, I wanted to portray her character with dignity and show how passionate she was about getting justice.

The second piece of Verbatim is from Stephen’s father Neville Lawrence, this is about when they were releasing his body. “they said they didn’t want to release his body until his killers had been caught” (WAKEUP theatre, 2013, p.65). This frustration and upset that Neville went through is something that I want to put across to the audience, I want to portray what he is saying in a real manner.

Going from playing Clinton’s upbeat and clown like character to reading Verbatim is very up and down emotionally.

Sarah and George

During scene four i play the character of Sarah, a middle classed mother and wife, in this scene you see the oblivious attitude towards knife crime from people, this is scene through the language within the scene, “people don’t get stabbed here” (!30,000, p.9, 2013). This statement that Sarah makes is bold and reflects the attitude that can be seen within society, a certain attitude is seen within the delivery of the scene within Sarah and Georges relationship, he is interested in what is happening within the country yet Sarah just see’s it as if it is not happening near her it is not important. Playing this character was difficult for me to grasp, i could not relate to her in the slightest. One of the largest struggles that i found was delivering lines with a true lack of interest into what was happening as at the beginning of the scene it is a piece of Verbatim that is delivered over a recording representing being played on a television. I struggled to disconnect myself from the words that i had heard. “They didn’t stop laughing-” (130,000, p.8, 2013), this is the point in the scene where i ‘change the channel over’ I found it difficult to act as though this was not something that upset me, knowing that the recording was the real words of Duwayne Brooks who was best friends with Stephen Lawrence was not a simple task.

However in order to overcome the obstacles that i felt as a person hearing the Verbatim i took myself away from that and removed my feelings from this. Too form a character i watched Gogglebox on Channel Four which was a programme in which it showed peoples reactions to the television that was shown. I centered my character on a upper middle class couple by mimicking their mannerisms, this allowed me to detach myself from the piece by focusing on the attributes that the couple had.

The relationship between Sarah and George also proved to have difficulties, in order to do this i set my self up with a scenario, were George and Sarah happy? how long had they been married?. Asking myself these questions allowed me to put myself in the situation and make it believable. Something that i found to make performing the scene difficult was the character that i played straight after the scene was a member of the gang and George played by Joshua Rivett was also my cousin in the gang, so to go from playing something so disheartening and uncaring to then playing the joker and youth with Joshua made the relationship between Sarah and George difficult to show.

Audience

To get in to character for 130,000 i see the audience as a large factor in this. Audience reaction towards the characters and Verbatim is extremely important and this allows them to cast their own opinion on who they feel for and who they do not, the play has dark and funny elements within it. This allowing the characters to thrive on this, when playing the role of Clinton this is seen as quite funny and immature in comparison to the serious element of delivering Verbatim.

Work Cited

WAKEUP theatre (2013) 130,000 an adaptation of Fallout by Roy Williams. Lincoln school of Performing parts. Lincoln

Kidulthood – characterisation influence

May 13, 2013May 24, 2013 Charlotte Meek

In order to give the actors an insight into the energy, commitment and characterization needed in particular scenes i decided to show them clips from the film Kidulthood. This film shows much resemblance to our script, with similar themes and scenes throughout. I thought showing the cast examples would help them really understand the needed relationships and tension which needed to be built in various scenes.

I picked this scene to help the character of Emile and Dwayne:

Although not all of this scene is relevant, i felt that the points which could be taken from this scene were the following:
– The volume of the actors in the scene, they really are able to project their voices in order to give off tension and almost compete with each other. At some points the volume dropped in order to add tension between the characters when they are in close proximity which i thought could work well on stage.
– The attitude of the characters are something which is worth noting in this scene, also the relationship between the characters could be used in all scenes through 130,000. In particular the relationship between the couple in this scene could be used to help the relationship between Emile and Shanice. You can see in this scene, as in our play, that the characters care very much about their appearance and how they look in the eyes of one another (gang culture). This is a very significant theme in our play and something which should be noted.
– When the character pulls out a knife on ‘Sam’ in this scene you can feel the tension between the two characters, the way the character holds the knife out from his body with a straight arm shows that he has the power in this scene, whereas the character ‘Sam’ stands up right, clearly nervous to see the knife. I really like this imagery between the two characters.

Another scene i thought would be helpful was any scene which had clear representations of teenagers and gang culture which i thought would help with the dynamics of scenes where many characters are on stage. Many scenes in Kidulthood demonstrate tension which can arise at any point between the gang members.

Channel 4 – Fallout

Channel 4 have made a version of the film fallout which our play is based on, this was very helpful to show the cast characterization and group dynamics. Although, i did not want to show the cast too much of the play as our style of theatre would present the play in a very different way. There were some scenes, however, which i felt could be useful to show.

Works Cited :

Eaton, George 2013. Kidulthood – Ending Scene [Video online] Avalible at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EqUY65nOIQ [Accessed 13/05/2013]

The Marketing Mix

April 9, 2013May 24, 2013 Leanne McKettrick

“The marketing mix is a blend of variables” (Rentschler, 1999, p.8), which consists of the 4 p’s; Product, Place, Price and Promotion. These summarize the marketing activities for a company and “these marketing activities support the marketing goals of the organization” (Mokwa, 1980, p.114).

Product

When concerned with the arts, the product can be categorized in a number of ways; “one is the year-after-year product that the organization is providing to its community. A second is a particular year or season; the set of performances being offered […] [Another] level of product classification is the individual performance itself” (Mokwa, 1980, p.114).

For our theatre company theatre our ‘product’ can be categorized in the following ways;

Wake Up Theatre:
Our company, itself. We want to be known as a reliable theatre company, who offer a great standard of performances year after year. We want our audience to be loyal to our company and believe it what our work expresses. Therefore it is important that as a product we remain consistent in what we produce, by creating “thought provoking theatre by experimenting with the collaboration between fact and fiction.” (Wake Up Theatre Company, 2013, online). 130,000 will be the start of establishing Wake Up Theatre as a product which offers all this.

Final Degree Shows:
Our current show 130,000 is part of a season of shows taking place at the LPAC in May 2013. These shows are the final degree shows for graduating drama students at the University of Lincoln. 130,000 is part of the theatre company strand of these final degree shows and will be marketed against 3 other shows, The Trial by Stamp Theatre, A Gothic Tale by Progeny Theatre Company and Cagebirds by Retold Theatre.

130,000:
Our current show, arguably our most important product. “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.” (Wake Up Theatre, 2013, online). As 130,000 is our current and debut show the rest of the marketing mix will be concerned with this product.

Place

“Place is the composite of factors affecting where and how the product is offered, including the kind of facility, its location, accessibility by transport and time of event” (Rentschler, 1999, p.8).

At the moment, 130,000 is a one of performance as part of our theatre company module and therefore is only being performed in one venue, The Lpac in Lincoln.

The venue:
“Lincoln Performing Arts Centre is a modern theatre in the city centre, with a great range of shows and a friendly café bar. We are walking distance from High Street shopping and the restaurants on the Brayford Pool waterfront, you will also find plenty of parking nearby. We are home to the Lincoln School of Performing Arts. Around 400 students study Dance and Drama here at undergraduate and postgraduate level” (Lpac, 2013, online)

Accessibility:

The Lpac located in Lincoln City centre in walking distance from both the train and bus station and with parking available close by.

130,000:
Our production will be performing at the Lpac Monday 20^th May at 7.30 pm.

Price

Tickets for 130,000 are £5 each or £15 as part of a pass to see all four final degree theatre company shows.

Promotion

“Promotion is the element of the marketing mix that communicates […] what is on offer to the target audience. By its very nature it is the most visible aspect of marketing activity. It plays an extremely important part in arts marketing strategy, especially where the aim to reach not only existing arts customers, but also to arouse interest of new audiences” (Hill, 2003, p.120).

130,00 will be promoted in the following way:

Posters:

Flyers:
Front:

Back:

Trailer:

Social Media

Facebook:

Twitter:

(More information on promotion for 130,000 can be found in 130,000 Marketing Presentation).

Works Cited

Hill, Liz, O’Sullivan, Catherine, O’Sullivan, Terry (2003) Creative Arts Marketing, Oxford: Butterworth.

Lpac (2013) About Us, Online: http://www.lpac.co.uk/about-us (accessed: 19^th May 2013).

Mokwa, Michael P., Dawson, William M., and Prieve, E. Arthur (ed.) (1980) Marketing the Arts, London: Praeger.

Rentschler, Ruth (ed.) (1999) Innovative Arts Marketing, St Leonards: Allen & Unwin.

WAKEUP Theatre (2013) Home Page, Online: https://wakeuptheatre.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/ (accessed: 19^th May 2013).