Author: Samantha Milne

This week’s rehearsals have established the relevance and significance of Sound in our piece When You See It. We had our first musical rehearsal where instruments were brought in by the company to create an original song and lyrics for our Selfie scene. In Sound and Music for Theatre, Deena Kaye et al describes principal responsibility of a sound designer is to “determine what sounds are essential to represent the reality you want to create” (2009, 3). Acoustic sounds are able to establish a personal space and atmosphere on stage. This idea of a personal space correlates with Refract’s manifesto by creating work which “transcend[s] from a global to a personal scale” (2015), however sound technicalities still need to be considered when transferring live music from rehearsal room to the stage.

During a meeting with Darren Page, stage manager at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, I began to understand how technical the ‘technical stuff’ is. An area that I’m not 100% clued up on… just yet. From the meeting, stage space and appropriate microphones are all essential to getting sound ‘right’ on stage. Multiple types of microphones are purposed for different aspects of sound, such as instruments and speech but it is imperative to be mindful as to where music will be performed and if needed placed on stage. In the next few weeks, it will be my job to research varieties of microphone and essential sound equipment extensively in order to request and require such items in plenty of time, ahead of performance day/week/month… Ah!

Works Cited

Kaye, Deena, and James LeBrecht (2009) Sound And Music For The Theatre. 3rd ed. Boston: Focal Press.

Refract (2015) Refract Theatre Company Blog. [online] Available from https://refracttheatrecompany.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/ [Accessed 10 March 2015]

In Making A Performance, Govan et al describes the process of devising through “drawing upon personal experiences or re-framing pre-existing material within a collectively designed structure” (Govan et al, 2007, 55). This is relevant to Refract with the use of personal and famous images in our practical rehearsals; we start with an image and develop it into material by translating it into movement/dance with the addition of sound and spoken text.

We started with an image similar to ‘The Falling Man’ from the 2001 World Trade Centre Terrorist Attacks.

Also known as ‘Jumpers Holding Hands’, the black and white image (see above) shows two unidentifiable people holding hands whilst falling from one of the towers. The image inspired themes of loss as well as strength. Based on these themes, our choreographer Tom devised a dance/movement section which was taught to Refract performers. The fluidity encompassed in the routine reflected the picture as well as imagining the image itself as moving.

The element of sound was later introduced which evoked additional sentiment and emotion; developing atmosphere needed to encourage the movement further. We continued to develop this section through the addition of spoken text, made up of three different narratives revolving around airplanes, linking to the focus on the 2001 New York Attacks. Through a devised process, the text was not only spoken but performed through the creation of multiple paper airplanes on stage.

Carefully layering and weaving these theatrical components enhanced the work we were developing day by day. In particular, the element of sound and spoken word on top of physical movement allowed us as performers to attach emotion to the movement. From what was just an image the week before, turned into a five minute section of collaborative and original material that as Refract, we continue to work on.

Works Cited

Goven, Emma, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington (2007) Making A Performance- Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices. (1^st ed) London: Routledge.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth – Marcus Aurelius

The inclusion of photos and images in our rehearsals has become the main stimulus in Refract’s creative process so far. Adhering to our mission statement, we are using them to ‘depict real stories in an alternative light’ by exploring the image for not just what it is but also, what it is not. This led to the concept of how one picture can tell a thousand words by viewing it from different perspectives. To explore this further, Laura and Anthony (Refract directors) have led multiple activities using both famous and personal images to develop and build material.

A session led by Laura explored various perspectives of famous images; as performers of the company, we were asked to bring in two famous images each. From Banksy’s artwork to photographers of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (see images above), these images were then used by passing them around in a circle whilst being asked various questions about the image we were holding. The questions were based on a person/or object that we identified in each image, ranging from ‘how old is the person in the photo?’ to ‘what was this person doing yesterday?’.  By the end of the activity each image had a new story; one perspective made up of five other perspectives. Exercises as such these have allowed us to stretch “the limits of established practices and reshap[e] [our] creative processes” (Goven, Nicholson and Normington, 2007, 3).

Academy Awards 2015 sparked ideas about how we could portray the concept of ‘what’s not there’ effectively on stage:

A section from the opening of the 2015 Academy Awards, hosted by actor/performer Neil Patrick Harris (NPH) highlighted how projection can be used manipulate the body and the stage visually. NPH performs a live stylised routine, in sync with a projected shadow of himself, using props that he does not have on stage (see images below).

This concept establishes a unique form of presentation which inspired thoughts about how we could explore this in our devised process; in connection to what an image is/what it is not but more importantly, what it could be.

Works Cited

Goven, Emma, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington (2007) Making A Performance- Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices. (1^st ed) London: Routledge.