Category: Uncategorized

Behind the scenes

Whitfield / / Sophie W, Uncategorized

My role as the Production Manager of Refract included many responsibilities, such as the scheduling of meetings and rehearsals, overseeing the all departments of the Company and monitoring the budget of the production. As Seabright suggest my role therefore “defin[ed] what is ‘on time’ and ‘in budget’ for the show” (Seabright, 2010, 5). Communication with departments such as props and costumes was therefore fundamental in maintaining a realistic outlook on the budget. I also kept a Budget Balance Sheet to closely monitor the exact amount of money left in the budget.

Due to the large amount of props and costume used in When you see it communication with the full company to make sure the budget was used in the most effective way was essential, many of the props and costumes we used were sourced from inside the Company. The second largest source of props and costume was borrowed from the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, the Venue in which we performed, under the proviso that they were returned on show night under the supervision of our Props Manager and Costume Designer. Lastly, we were lucky enough to have established a relationship with Chapterhouse Theatre Company, an international open-air touring company, who were kind enough to lend us a couple of items that would have been very costly to us.

A particular aspect of my role that I did find challenging was researching the UK copyright legislation and finding who owned the copyright for the images used during our production. Most of the specific images we used had an unknown photographer and no official copyright mark so this meant countless image searches were necessary as not to infringe on anyone’s artistic rights. After detailed research the majority of images we used were believed to be in the ‘public domain’ and therefore free to use without infringing any copyright. The only other image used fell out of copyright due to the artist’s, George Seurat, date of death falling over 70 years ago. Although most these images have an unknown photographer we felt it was important not to claim any rights over them and included this disclaimer in our Show Information and Programme:

“We do not intend to infringe any intellectual, artistic rights or copyrights with the use of projected images in this production. All images used are believed to be in the public domain.”

Works Cited

Seabright, J. (2010) So you want to be a Theatre Producer? Nick Hern Books Limited: London.

Bibliography

Intellectual Property Office. (2014) Copyright Notice: digital images, photographs and the internet. [online] Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/305165/c-notice-201401.pdf [Accessed 15 April 2015].

The UK Copyright Service. (2015) Fact sheet P-01. [online] Available from: https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law. [Accessed 15 April 2015].

Perfecting Image

Laura Spaven / / Laura S, Uncategorized

With a show that primarily revolves around recreating images, a lot of attention must be paid as to exactly how these images are translated onto the stage. Whilst working on George Seurat’s painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1885), the cast spent a vast amount of time critiquing and readjusting one another in order to mould themselves into the perfect replications of the people within the image. Every angle of the characters body, every slight twist in direction and the proxemics between each person was considered in depth, and from these simple adjustments, new relationships were able to be explored.

When working with images that contain human beings, the cast seem to slip into character more comfortably. However, not all famous images contain people. So what happens when an ensemble must recreate an image that doesn’t depict any specific individuals? Taking into account the famous image of the Atomic Bomb that looms over Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, it is possible instead to consider the shapes found within the image. As King notes in his blog, “photographs [have] the potential to show us something that existed out there, at a certain moment, in front of the cameras lens” (2015). One extraordinary moment is sometimes caught only by the coincidental clicking of a button. As is the beauty of photography; it remains motionless and allows time for investigation. The cast are then free to find for themselves the important lines that help to identify the image and then, with the use of their bodies, work on creating the same essential shapes.

In one scene, the actors are fully focussed on building up a photograph that has already been placed within a secondary frame (see image 1). With the original image already superimposed with the informational outline commonly found in televised news broadcasts, we worked with firstly portraying the people held hostage inside the coffee shop. This was essentially, the bare minimum; just two individuals on stage. Then as the depiction of the image began to zoom out, we then stepped outside of the coffee shop and created a sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ by placing a transparent plastic screen in front of the couple, representative of the coffee shop window. Finally, the third and final layer was added and the intended image completed, with the addition of the ‘Breaking news’ cardboard cut outs being placed in front of the transparent plastic. All of this is captured by a live camera, feeding into a television downstage stage left, effectively framing the unfolding story in the way that many people would have viewed it worldwide as it was happening.

 

 

Sydney Siege image used within the piece. (Frisk & Tucker, 2014)
Sydney Siege image used within the piece. (Frisk & Tucker, 2014)

 

This is a big game changer for us as a company. The realisation that sometimes, you have to consider how many other layers and inputs have been placed over an image before your eyes are viewing it.

And then you have to decide what you believe in, and what you don’t.

 

Works Cited

King, J. (2015) What is a Photograph? [blog entry] Available from http://www.aperture.org/blog/jacob-king-icps-photograph/ [Accessed 19 February 2015].

Frisk, A. & Tucker, E. (2014) Sydney siege over after police storm café; gunman, 2 hostages dead. [online] Available from: http://globalnews.ca/news/1727132/sydney-siege-over-after-polive-storm-cafe/ [Accessed 19 February 2015].

 

 

You’re the director, so direct!

Laura Spaven / / Uncategorized

 

 

In all truthfulness, I’m not a director. I’m a fraud.

I am a student, working within a group of people who are all round about the same age as myself and have the same, sometimes more, theatrical experience.

Simon McBurney, co-founder and Artistic Director of company Complicite, sums up his views perfectly when he explains that “I still think of myself principally as a player, a performer, and an actor; an actor who also directs” (Irvin, 2003, 75), and I think that is something that is particularly resonant with my view on the role. Thinking of the piece from the perspective of an actor isn’t particularly a bad trait to have, especially considering that “many directors have surprisingly little knowledge of the various way actors work and of the most constructive way to communicate with them” (Bloom, 2001, 119).

As Peter Brook, English theatre and film director states in a video interview regarding his rehearsal process, (see video 1) “I believe in throwing all the junk possible into the pot, and then filtering it” (The Guardian, 2013). I recently researched into all of the separate skills obtained by the company in the hope that, in true Peter Brook fashion, rehearsals can then consist of an amalgamation of different techniques and approaches.

 

Video 1 – Interview with Peter Brook. (The Guardian, 2013)

I am excited to be working with such a diverse and talented group of performers. For now, we are concentrating on gathering as many primary resources, mainly photographs and paintings, as possible in order to influence and kick start the creative process properly.

I may have the title of ‘Director’, but really that just means I shift and shape the work that everyone in the company creates together!

 

 

 

Works Cited

Bloom, M. (2001) Thinking Like a Director. New York: Faber and Faber Inc.

Irvin, P. (2000) Directing for the Stage. Switzerland: Rotovision.

The Guardian (2013) An Interview with theatre director Peter Brook [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx2qHHFS5Yk [Accessed 18 February 2015].