Depicting real stories in an alternative light, refracting your view

Performing a Memory

Samantha Milne / March 17, 2015May 25, 2015 / Sam M

“Memory contests the boundaries between truth and invention” (Govan, Nicholson and Normington, 2007, 82)

Narratives of Community in Making a Performance by Govan et al directly acknowledge the use of memory within enacted performances. They describe memory as a device which “illustrates how people understand and feel about their present situations.” (Govan, Nicholson and Normington, 2007, 82) Our focus is to re-tell stories in an alternative light in order to initiate “interpretations of the past [which] enable people to shape, affirm or rewrite their identities in relation with others” (Steedman, 1986, 5).

This week, Refract have focused on the painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by George Seurat (see below) by developing a narrative through movement and props. This was created based on the people painted in the foreground which initiated the formation and representation of relationships in our working process.

A_Sunday_on_La_Grande_Jatte,_Georges_Seurat,_1884

Recreation. Photo: L, Spaven — Recreation. Photo: Laura Spaven (2015)

“Narrative makes experience knowable, enabling individuals to recognise and relocate themselves in the context of their immediate audience and the wider community” (Govan, Nicholson and Normington, 2007, 82)

Works Cited

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

Steedman, C (1986) Landscape for a Good Woman. London: Viargo Press

Playing to our Strengths

Mark McCredie / March 17, 2015May 25, 2015 / Mark M

As a company, it is important that we play to our strengths in order to create the strongest piece of theatre that we possibly can, two aspects that seemed to be coherent throughout the performers were movement and music. Some of our performers are dance trained and others strong at singing and playing instruments. Therefore we thought it necessary to utilise these talents in order to form a piece of theatre that achieved what we set out to do.

Physical movement – falling

As the basis of our piece revolves around bringing photos to life, we have been focusing on movement and the body and how we can use them to physicalise aspects of photos. Our director’s aim was to get us to view photos in alternate ways, one such photograph being the falling image from 9/11. When we initially saw the image we just took it as two people trying to escape the horror of the 9/11 attacks. However, upon looking at the image in detail we were challenged to ask the questions, What were they thinking? What was the relationship between the two people? What could have been their last words?

Our choreographer, Tom, created a sequence of simple repetitive, yet amazingly effective movements, influenced by the falling picture (below). Through the repetition of such simple movement, our expression and emotion will hopefully be the focus of the audience’s attention and they will understand the emotion that we saw in the photo. Within the sequence Morgan and I were given a duet in which we were representing the image. Throughout it there were numerous moments in which we reached out, grasping each other aiming to depict the passion and desperation that we think the people would have been experiencing at the moment the picture was taken.

Crow, P. (2015)

Image 2 – Falling, or Flying?

However, one challenge we faced was making the choreographed movement appear spontaneous, natural and emotive. As Alfreds explains, ‘actors, by playing a continuous, seamless flow of actions, should consequently experience a seamless flow of feelings that shift and adapt to the ever-changing circumstance in which they’re evoked.’ (2007, 92). Therefore, in order for the piece to work, the movement must not look rehearsed otherwise it will lose the passion behind it. Consequently, we found that we needed to react rather than ‘act’ to the movement truthfully in order to evoke the emotion that Tom wanted.

Works Cited

Alfreds, M. (2007) Different Every Night: Freeing the Actor. London: Nick Hern Books Limited.

The Death Posture (2013) [Photograph] At: http://timeconsumerrr.tumblr.com/ [Accessed 6 March 2015].

Set Design, Lighting and Sound

Anthony Richard Lancashire / March 14, 2015May 24, 2015 / Anthony L

Refract TC Week 4 Rehearsals

This week I chaired a meeting between the technical team and the director to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding the scale of tech required for our show. By “check[ing] with the Director and other backstage departments [we are able] to avoid complications or clashes” (2003, 3.1). Although it is impossible to finalise anything at this stage due to the ever developing nature of the piece, draft plans are now underway and I have completed the Technical Rider, stating our minimum technical requirements.

Our set designer has completed the first draft of the set. Although this is subject to change it has allowed the cast to get a rough idea of the space they will be performing in. As The Complete Stage Planning Kit advises we plan to “Use rough sketches and a scale model to demonstrate ideas” (2003, 3.1). In the coming weeks I will be preparing the rehearsal space by taping down the floor plan so that the cast can more accurately get a feel for the space.

It is perhaps too early to be specific on lighting but it is doubtful there will be any lighting ‘specials’, such as gobos or strobe, with a series of washes and projection dominating. That said as the show gets nearer we will want to ensure we “light actors appropriately” and “add dramatic emphasis” (2003, 4.1; 4.1) through lighting. A large proportion of sound looks like being live, original compositions using guitars, ukulele and flute.

At present the show is looking like having a relatively demanding technical side. Careful planning and communication with the in house technical team will be instrumental to the success of the stage management.

Works Cited:
Davies, G. (2003) The Complete Stage Planning Kit. London: A & C Black.

Jammin’

Samantha Milne / March 10, 2015May 25, 2015 / Sam M

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]

Hands up for Distracted Monkey

Yasmin Chamberlain / March 10, 2015May 25, 2015 / Yasmin C

It all came down to the highest number of votes. Shutter, Filter and Distracted Monkey had all lost their vote and the one that was left was Refract. To refract is “to deflect the course of (light rays), esp. when they enter the medium” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2015), our idea was to use famous images and shine a new light through them to create something that is not always noticed. The name just seemed to fit, thus Refract was born.

The first five weeks are what I would call the experimental devising process, nothing ever works if you just sit, talk and discuss ideas, so we cracked on with it straight away. Using images as stimulus allowed us as a group to create stories, write scripts, make movement and just go crazy with the different impulses that we were having. We also experimented with recorded and live music to create different tones and locations to the scenes we had created.

One image we used to create a scene was the ‘Jumpers Holding Hands’ which was taken at the scene of 9/11.

Jumpers Holding Hands (2001) Available From: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GwDYFxb8piY/RuVv2YIHNaI/AAAAAAAAAxo/XUO_PSVhEv8/s400/9_11_jumpers.jpg — Jumpers Holding Hands (2001)

At first we decided to create a back story to the people in the image, we knew it was actually taken during the events of 9/11 but we decided to think of a different story, One example was of an old lady going on her first ever cruise without her husband but allowing the memory of him to remain with her during her trip.

In another rehearsal with this image we decided to just use movement. Our fantastic choreographer, Tom Hitchen, added music and created a routine which represented the events of 9/11 and the image of someones decision of whether to end their life by jumping off a building, We kept these short and snappy because the whole idea was to create something that an audience member would recognise in a split second and would link it back to the known event.

Using the same technique when devising we carried on to represent images such as the Banksy Balloon and the Atomic Bomb, creating more small scenes to show at our first work in progress.

Chamberlain, Y (2015)

Crowe, P (2015)

Jumpers Holding Hands (2001) Available from: http://moblog.whmsoft.net/related_search.php?keyword=9%2011%20jumpers%20bodies%20pics [Assessed: 10 March 2015]

Oxford English Dictionary (2015) Refract. [online] Oxford: Oxford English Dictionary. Available From: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/161028?redirectedFrom=refract#eid [Assessed: 10 March 2015]