Monday 4th September 2017
Research Feedback
Today we started by clearing tweed a bit as shows had been going on throughout the summer holidays. We was speaking to the teacher about our research we had done during the holidays for our brief.
I decided to take my research differently however and rather than look into universities searched up job vacancies, work experience and apprenticeships. This meant that a action plan was more difficult for me to create. She helped me by suggesting universities that are fully funded as I explained it was one of my main drawbacks about going to university. She also explained that I would struggle to get a job in this industry straight away. And proceeded to recommend university. We then spoke about strengths and weaknesses one of my strengths was that I am capable of being as good stage manager due to my good organising. I just need a more voiced opinion and ideas. We also set a smart target which was to get more involved in the ideas as she knows I have capable ideas but struggle conveying them. Lastly she said that if I had more confidence I could be good and need to strive for universities.
Overall this gave me a new area to research into for my future which would be universities although I was worried due to funding, this talk opened my eyes more and allowed me to consider universities. She recommended searching into: BA (Bachelors Degree). This would mean the course if funded more and I could possibly get accommodation at the chosen university.
Paper Work Signing
The typical paper work of rules and agreements to the course and commitments we need to make for the course.
Auditions For Godspell
While technicians watched some us did make notes including myself about which people we thought done a good audition. The way it worked was the students auditioning started with scales. They had labels on them to tell them apart and made it a cattle call style audition. Girls all sang as a group first then boys sang in their groups. They then got split into year groups and sang a verse of the song as a solo. For now no cuts was made as it was a practise audition.
The director then said why he chose this show. He said he was a atheist however he enjoyed the energy needed for the show and although he does not believe in religions he does like some of the messages it gives to people. He also said it was a 1970, hippy, cheesy and message of love. Not so much dance based the director said however the energy makes up for that and a lot will be required. He also said a small history into the show it has two versions we will be creating the 2012 Broadway version. It was on of Stephen Schwartz earlier shows he created and Stephen led to many more successful shows such as Wicked, Rags, Children Of Eden and more. The student then got left with a group drama piece on Lazarus in group of 4-5 to practise and perform for tomorrows audition.
Below are the names of the students that auditioned. I also noted my opinion on their audition:
Tuesday 5th September 2017
College Choir
Today we started to learn the song ‘Winter Song’. I sang Tenor although as usual being a technician are not required to sing however it helps me to read notes more efficiently and helps work my vocals to have a bigger capacity and more clear voice.
Auditions Talk
Today as a technician group we spoke about several people we thought did well in their auditions yesterday. Out tutor also mentioned when considering the cast we need to consider that a all female production called This Changes Everything will be happening alongside Godspell. This Changes Everything is a full drama show and requires girls only so they need to consider which girls would be better suited as a acting role or the musical theatre show Godspell. It also means that they need to communicate to each and feedback who they think will have a better chance at a main role in either show and which they will excel in. Another thing to con sider is we only have roughly 15 boys Godspell requires about 11 boys 2 of which are mains.
Godspell has 10 lead roles 2 of which are boys (Jesus and Judas) overall they are hoping to ideally have a cast of 11 boys and 15 girls in Godspell.
At first this may not seem applicable to a technician however at any point a director could ask your opinion or even get us to help cast people. It is also developing opinions on things which is part of working as a team and giving constructive feedback overall.
2nd Auditions For Godspell
During the auditions the director mentioned more information about ‘Godspell’ such as overall the songs in this musical are jolly with a few exceptions one at the end during a death and one part one. He also mentioned the cast for the majority will be on stage this is something for me and the technical team to consider during the stage design. He also mentioned in this show there will be no fourth wall so the cast interacts with audience a fair bit in this show. The director also mentioned Levels however I was unclear whether he meant the stage or levels or emotion since he said it as a general information and not aimed towards just technicians. Although I do feel levels would make sense so my guess is there will be since we show earth, heaven and hell. He also said about trellises and boxes being used on the set.
Also as I did yesterday I done a small analysis into each group and there short acting piece from the show they did. Something that did strike me is all the different turns each group took. Very few similarities but majority of the scripts were the same. I find this will be a challenging show to design. The reason for this is as a production team we will need to focus during rehearsals and a lot of the script will be changed either with themes or words. Although during the final preparations this should be fine to design as decisions will be finalised it just means if we all wanted to watch other productions ours will be different meaning themes colours etc. may be very different.
Above is my notes on the auditions I saw + My small research into ‘Godspell’
During the auditions the students started to rehearse there drama pieces they got given. During this I decided to spend my time well and started to some into ‘Godspell’ and if I had time I would have do some research into ‘This Changes Everything’
Godspell (Start Of Research)
- Opened May, 17th 1971 – Played by touring companies and lots of revivals followed this performance
- October, 13th 2011 to June, 24th 2012 this was shown on Broadway (Our Version)
- Music Stephen Schwartz – Lyrics Stephen Schwartz
- Book John-Michael Tebalak
- The basis of this play was based off the Gospel Of Matthew. This book is also the first testament.
- As far as I know comedy and beliefs of Gods, Devils, Heaven and Earth play big parts in this play with characters such as Jesus, Mr.Trummples (Spoofed name) having roles.
Wednesday 6th September 2017
Today I started with my maths sessions.
Practical Session (Year 1’s Tour)
This was our first class with the year 1 technicians. It was pretty simple us as Year 2’s showed the Year 1’s around the places such as tweed LX Box and the theatre. We then got given more set including a tread on wheels!. which was given to us from a Paul Scofield Production (Musical Director/ Teacher).
3rd Auditions For Godspell
Today the auditions were very dance based. They were simple dances either based on words such related to the show. The students also learned a dance for the song they sang on their 2nd auditions. ‘We Beseech Thee’ it had simple movements but it was suppose to be simple so the director could look at the energy the students had.
Some more mentions of the production from the director was: Set like a children’s playground. He also has a rough stage plan to hand to us. and also he is hoping as boxes are required and other things on the set we could use something early on to mark the place of that set early on.
Something that I had in my head was we have a couple of new boxes in Tweed we got donated. Some look very old and others are metal or have certain initials imprinted onto them. We could later look up what style the boxes and companies were in 1900’s but some of these may be used as a placement or even in the show.
Thursday 7th September 2017
Employability
Today we simply went through work on the student ILP Site. It was simply finding out more about us and what our plans for the future are.
Maintenance
Today our teacher showed us how to take apart each lanturns as well have rough idea of how they work, how to put them back together and what generally is the most common faults on them.
Safety chains – better to be called safety loads as name varies, all are rated on what they can hold and generally are undershown their weight they can manage to further the safety of them.
3 types of lamps Close, Flood and Straight channels. Pac tests also happen on each electrical in the theatre to ensure they are safe. The teacher also mentioned the most common faults with the lanturns thier bulbs.
The plug fitting is ceramic as they get very warm. For all lanterns avoid the bulbs as it will cause grease and may cause it to overhear and blow the bulb.
Fresnel – Easier to open and the dish on the inside is a reflector. Sometimes the reflector need moving as faults will twist it and create a rainbow. Also typically well known forvthe barndoors and gel frames.
Profile – Good for specials and has shutters instead of barn doors.
Flood – Aren’t focusable.
We then split into groups he would take apart the lanturns and would try to put them back together again. The teacher would then evaulate and correct what we had done. He also gave some overall tips about it aswell.
We also rigged some lights there was a few general points given out mainly about the safety chain as it was floor rigged. It was also the positioning of the wires as they can heat and become weakened.
We looked into a socket and spoke about each wire and what each wire does. Another thing we spoke about was the different types of smoke machines there are. Fogger and haze are water based and smoke is oil based. Generally water is safer although consent still needs to be given as it can effect some peoples health problems. He also spoke about daisy chaining as well as what a grellco is. Also mentioned about a skeletool and how useful they can be for us.
Useful?
Personally found this amazingly useful not knowing anything about the construction of the lanterns. It gave me insights of the parts and issues that can occur. It also was the first time I could do a practical approach with the electrician side the theatre. This lesson also allowed to recap some knowledge on lights I knew as well as refine and correct mistakes I had on topics such as rigging. Although some things I knew he added more details and explained in more depth.
Godspell Rehearsals
Today all production team got thier roles for the rehearsals although on show nights we may swap around for Godspell and This Changes Everything.
My role is Deputy Stage Manager for Godspell and I will be mentoring Leanne (Year 1 Production Member) alongside me. I am happy with the outcome of this role. I have a little bit of experience already and hope this time I can be more independant as well as teach Leanne. We also got given our scripts today as well as the cast etc.
The director mentiomed he chose the show as it has ensemble pieces aswell which is good for groups. And mentioned the show is warm, magical and casts a ‘godspell’ on the audience.
First the director got the cast to talk about religion and beliefs. Obviosly as it is a major topic in this show, after continued with auditions processes to try and start thinking about and pick roles for the shows.
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Friday 8th September 2017
Warmup/Portfolio Prepration
Started with warmups led by us as a group since no teacher was there. We played typically games to work our vocals and engage our brains. Such as samurai, eastenders zipzap, arpul bird and number noices.
Today we had a bit of time to work on our portfolios and ask questions. I started by saving all the previous shows images to print later as well as any programmes I was missing.
Theory
Today in thory we went into basics of what is a script. With mixed replies she eventually told us it is a blueprint or pattern for a show. She also briefly broke down the job roles and what they do however that is mainly for year 1’s.
Scripts can be either fiction or non-fiction. Verbatim are words that are spoken by people. Stage direction are also given typically in italics, bold or braketed however italics is the most common way.
We also got given two extracts to see examples of overly expressive stage direction and the opposite being simple stage directions. We was given ‘You Never Can Tell’ By George Bernard Shaw (Page:211 – 214) this extract has overly done stage directions it paints a more clear image although it does have more details on feelings and exactly what happens in the scene. The other one ‘Girls Like That’ By Evan Placey (Page:11 – 12) this extact only has words that descriminate women to begin the extract
Learning Theatre Knots
Today we learnt several knots that are used in the theatre. I also decided to go a bit further and learnt the half hitch knot as I searched briefly which knots are used in theatre. The knots we learnt in todays lesson where: Cloth hitch, slip knot and number 8.
Godspell Rehearsals
Today for Godspell we listened to solo auditions. These were to help the director pick the roles for the show. It simply worked the same as a normal audition where one person would come on stage when called and then performed. The director also took a different approach and asked a few people to redo their song but further away to see if it affected their confidence or not in hopes they would be less scared and perform better.
Above is my notes I made during the auditions these was for me to get use to the idea of what to look out for and evaluate what I was watching. I also made a prediction based on what I had seen from these auditions and before as to who I think may get main roles.
Sources:
Wikipedia (Unknown) Godspell – Wikipedia .Available at:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godspell (Accessed: 5th September 2017
Gardner, L.G. (25th November 2014) Exit the stage .Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2014/nov/25/stage-directions-simon-stephens-winters-tale ) (Accessed at: 8th September 2017)
Jake Newton - Year 1 Production Theatre 