Pillowman - Day 1 - Read through

Today we read through the entire script, this was so we all understand and know the story. This also gave us the chance to see how we are each thinking of playing our characters and therefor interact with each other more fluidly. We also spent the time deciding small parts like the parents in both the stories shall be voiced by Meg.

Rent Evaluation

After presenting our workshop of ‘Rent’ I have received the feedback that audience members who didn’t know the show struggled to understand the story, for various reasons. One of the main issues was sound; the audience couldn’t hear what was going on very well. One reason why this could have happened is because with our stage, once you go behind the arch sound is practically inaudible. This is why I would move all the scenes forward so they are in front of the arch, I would do this by ensuring the table is constantly in front of the arch as we tend to gravitate around that. This will better our chances at not losing sound before it even gets to the mics. We could also look at performing in a different venue all together, one with better acoustics so we can’t blame the stage if the audience can’t hear us. However if we did move our show to a new venue, I would still like to use a cabaret style seating to keep the audience relaxed during our performance and I would like a bar so the audience could feel free to get a drink and enjoy in during the performance. The venue would also have to be close by so travel to and from wouldn’t become an issue, if we found a venue up in London we would be spending a bit of the shows (currently non-existent) budget on travel alone. Another issue with using another venue would be that we will have to find time to rehears at the new venue before the performance. 

I would also spend some time working on projection to ensure that the mics we use will pick up all the lines and so the audience can hear the show and therefor better understand the plot. This implies finding the time in the rehearsal schedule to work on projection. Another way to improve sound is to have individual mic packs, although they will ensure we are all heard they will cost a lot of money so we would have to spent time fundraising and forming a budget for it, they would also need a tech rehearsal before the show. To get the audience to understand what is being said, I would have the parts like tune up spoken rather than sung. So the audience have a better chance of hearing every word coming from us rather than words attempted to sing with no tune or rhythm to guide them.

Another way to get the audience to better understand the plot is to have the whole plot performed, so I would like to add in all the parts that we cut out to ensure the audience understand what is happening. Doing the whole show means putting back in numbers like ‘over the moon’ and ‘contact’ both of which bring complications of their own. Contact is a very adult moment in the play so we would have to ensure our audience is suitable to view it and so we must market our show towards an older audience. Over the moon is a Maureen number so we would have to have more rehearsal with her. I would also bring in more cast members so there is no multi-rolling and the song Christmas bells will have the cast needed to perform it. However a bigger cast would then have to be put in Tango Maureen and Santa Fey, but I like that it is a small cast for those moments so I would have specific scenes in which I either want lead roles or ensemble in the routines, so for Santa Fey I would put only ensemble members in the dance but for Tango Maureen and What you own I would have only the lead roles on stage for those moments. I would like to look at ‘Today for you’ because that song sets a lot of the plot and backstory for the characters Angel and Benny. I don’t think our audience fully grasped what had happened in the story so I would like to choreograph it in a way that helps animate the story Angel is telling trying to get the audience to laugh at Angel and therefore like her.

Despite the fact that the audience struggled to hear us on stage, I would like to bring in a live band to play. I think a band will help fill in quite moments like some of the set changes and with a band they will work with us if we mess up on stage, rather than a backing track that will just carry on playing regardless of what’s happening on stage. However we will have to add a rehearsal with the band at some point before the performance so they know what they are doing. We would also have to decide whether or not we are looking for a professional orchestra or individual musicians. Both will be professional and hold the ability to be given the sheet music, play it and we just adjust to how we have changed parts. However an orchestra will come as a unite when individual musicians will come individually and therefor will cost more. Both will cost more than a backing track and we will have to find a place to put them in the hall. I think the best place for them would be the back of the hall so they don’t block the stage or the performers.

I would also develop some of the staging; I don’t feel like we used the side stages as much as we could have. I feel like we should have only used the main stage for when they are in the apartment, possibly use the two ends of the stage as other places (like the street where Mimi gets drugs at the end of Happy New Year or a phone where parents and Alexi call from) The lower stage in front of the main stage I would shrink and make the two side platforms bigger. I would move Tango Maureen to one of the side platforms and move the dance to the floor around the audience. This means that we would have to have less tables and a smaller audience to fit dancing room around them. I would put over the moon on the same platform as Tango Maureen as they are supposedly the same place. I would like to change Life support so instead of being in a circle in front of the audience, I would dot us around the room with some of us in the audience just so the audience feel included in this intimate moment.

I would like to invest in some more set so we have more junk to put on stage for the opening (rent) I would like things like a small step ladder, lights, boxes and stuff. I would add an amp and some sound equipment to put on the platform where Tango Maureen is happening and a phone booth on the other platform for Collins to call from in the Opening of Rent I would also put things like Santa Fey and I’ll Cover You on that platform while moving the dances off the stage and on the floor in front of the stage “outside the apartment” so to speak. All these extra set, band, sound equipment will need a budget so we will have to spent time fundraising for this performance. I would also like a bit of the Budget to go towards costumes, get some coats, hats and scarfs for the homeless and get some better stuff for our characters. 

Punk Rock - research - School

Bethany School is a private boarding school in the south of Kent. Students start at 11 and can stay on until they are 18. Founded by the Reverend Joseph Kendon in 1866, Bethany is a Co-educational Day and Boarding school set on a rural campus in the heart of the stunning Kent countryside. Occupying some 60 acres of the Weald, we have a truly enviable site.

Bethany is a genuine extension of the home, providing a safe, secure and welcoming environment and our pupils and staff come to know each other well throughout their time together. Good principles, such as tolerance and respect for one another, and a true feeling of belonging and self worth are of the utmost importance, and we seek to develop these within each and every pupil from the moment they arrive.

All pupils, both boarding and day, belong to one of six houses. Each house is run by a Housemaster or Housemistress, all of whom live in with their families, and each is supported by an assistant and the house tutors.  Our resident Nursing Sister provides 24 hour medical cover through our Medical Centre.

Our boarding pupils benefit from modern, state-of-the-art facilities and every care is taken to ensure that their time spent at Bethany is both comfortable and enjoyable. We also have modern dining facilities where pupils eat together daily, providing a wide range of traditional and international cuisines to cater for all tastes.

We offer full, weekly and flexi boarding, and our full boarders have a wide range of activities to choose from each weekend.  From French markets to London shows, our boarders are entertained and engaged.

I feel like using this school would be a good choice because it is in our local area so we wont have to struggle with accents but it is still a private school so we still get the snobbish characters.

Rent Day 24 + 25 - Lorna + Full Run Through

Today we put Lorna in everything that she needs to be in 'Tango Maureen', 'La Vie Boheme', 'Happy New Year', 'What You Own', 'Without You' and 'Rent'. For the most part she knew what to do, La Vie Boheme, Tango Maureen and Rent, for instance, she had been put in in past rehearsals. However happy new year, what you own and without you she had no clue as to what she was doing, so we taught her from scratch. She was brilliant at picking up what she needed to know last minute.

In the next rehearsal we had a full run through of the whole show so we could ensure that we knew what had to happen for transitions. It went really well and we are ready for the show.

Rent Day 22 + 23 - Light my candle + Cover You

Over these two lessons we looked at 'Light my candle' and'Cover you' and we work shopped the songs. Starting with light my candle, we found that Mimi wasn't as forward as we felt she should be in regards to her attraction to Rodger. So we worked on points during the song where she could 'drop hints' that she wants his attention. We then work shopped 'Cover you' and we felt that there wasn't a strong connection between the two characters that we felt the should be. So we worked on how they could show their feelings towards each other in the way they move, stand and touch each other.

I feel that we now have our performance set, so next rehearsal we are going to run what we have.

Rent Day 21 - Mr and Mrs Jefferson

Today we set Mr and Mrs Jefferson, we didn't want and complicated dance routine to distract from the lines of the phone call, we just wanted  both Meg and Dan to stand with a spotlight on them and perform the song. We also want a costume change that is simple yet distinguishable, so a hat and scarf or a fur jacket, just so the audience clearly know that these are different characters.

We also ran through 'Today for you' and 'Finale A' to ensure that it still looks how we wanted it to look in the previous rehearsal. This also allowed us to watch/perform it with fresh eyes and make adjustments if we felt they were needed.

We have now essentially created our performance, everything we said we were going to put in our performance we have created. So next lesson we will look at any song or scene that we feel we need to see again and develop it further.

Rent day 20 - Today for you + Finale A

Today we set 'today for you', we first allowed Dan, Tom Toby and Ashley to create the piece how they wanted it as it is the scene they will be in, after that we all pitched in to develop it further. We wanted Angel to be funny so we had Dan interact with Ashley and Tom differently, Ashley he was more playful towards whereas Tom, he kept pushing him around in a slapstick comedic way. 

After 'Today for you' we set 'Finale A', as we didn't have Lorna to do her lines in the song we decided to gave the lines to Freya (Joanne), we felt that it still worked with Joanne speaking rather than Maureen. We also wanted a clear stage for 'Your eyes' which follows directly after 'Finale A' so on the line "find her a candle" everyone apart from Mimi and Rodger leave the stage and come back on for 'Finale B'. We felt 'Your Eyes' needed to be an intimate moment between Rodger and Mimi so we finally get the long awaited "I love you" moment between them.

Rent day 19 - Santa Fey + Cover you reprise

Today we ran through Santa fey to ensure that we all still remembered the dance, after fixing any issues anyone had we decided to add some backing vocals because the song didn't sound as good as we thought it could be. After adding the backing vocals I thought the song sounded great, better than before. We then sang through all the songs that we have set with the backing tracks, so that we are all aware of how it is going to sound on the night and so we know all our ques.

After rehearsing all the songs we have already created, we then sang and set 'Cover you Reprise'. We wanted to keep it simple and allow the song to tell the story rather than movement so we didn't want to over complicate the staging or choreography. We decided to have Toby center stage to sing his song and for the rest of us to sit in two rows either side of him, as if we were in a church at a funeral.

Rent Day 18 - Happy new year + What you own

We started to day by running 'Goodbye love' and ensuring that was still OK. It was. We then set 'What you own' by putting everyone in it and giving them small vocal parts. Our idea is that everyone other than Mark and Rodger are figments of their imagination and aren't really there. so we have everyone dotted around stage and blanking Ashley and Tom. I really like how we have put everyone in this number and what we have done with it, I feel us being there really adds to the song.

We then set 'Happy new year', I will be honest, I didn't know the song very well so that is the first thing I will improve on, learnt the song. but we attempted to stage it anyway so we roughly know what we are doing and I think what we created, like most of the things we have created, was simple yet effective. Since this song is more of a scene rather than a song it works that we don't have a choreographed dance number to go with it we just act it out and roll with it like a scene.

We then discussed what still needs to be created for the show

Day 17 - act two opening

Today we received the full script of act two. We then set act two opening (Seasons of love) We had some of us walk through the audience and the rest come on on stage. We were on stage and in a line for "how about love" and then did a simple step and clap to "its time now to sing out" The vocals were a bit lost during the rehearsal so I think we need to go over them. However I really like the simplicity of the movement, I feel it really works with the tempo and feel of the song.

Rent Day 16 - Idea Board

Today we spent time creating a vision board for the show so we can all see what kind of performance we want so we collected pictures and words to get a good feel of how we want the show to look.

Overall, we have a general consensus of a dark dirty vibe, with second hand looking furniture and props. With scaffolding and blocks to help create levels.