In our next session we knew that we had to start getting more specific details about what we wanted to create and the type of company we wanted to be. We decided we wanted to be a company that didn’t shy away from issues and created truthful drama. So even though our name, Kick a Pigeon Theatre, came from a personal story we did develop a meaning to it. That as pigeons are classed as vermin, the issues of today are the pigeon and we must ‘kick’ them.

From the out start we wanted to set our piece in either the 1980’s or the 1990’s because we loved the music and culture from those two decades. As we started to do research into the two decades, we started to lean more towards the 1990’s as some of the issues that were happening then are still relevant now. As we were all born in the 1990’s as well, we felt a more personal connection to it and still had memories from that decade, so, we felt, we could make a more truthful representation of the time.

As soon as we had decided on the 1990’s, I started to research flats and record stores from that decade to see how it was furnished then. Originally I wanted the set to be composed of an apartment kitchen and a record store, with the audience making their own decision as to whether the kitchen was connected to the store or the apartment above. This was to enhance a feeling that the characters lives were the record store and everything they needed to survive was in it. The images below are ones I found through my research and wanted to convey the ‘homely’ feel of the apartment on the right through my set.

Traditional 90’s Style Apartment (uglyhousephotos, 2009)

Apartment from “Friends” (Pinterest, 2012)

Traditional 90’s record store (andyhifi)

Traditional 90’s Record Store with Merchandise (MostlyRetro, 2016)

I found the images above when I started researching the 90’s record stores, and I discovered that they were commonly overstocked, containing records dating back from when the stores originally opened. This meant that for set, I could have a suggestion of the 80’s culture littered around, giving a similar atmosphere as I felt the images above show. From these images I knew that I wanted to keep the cluttered appearance, with obstacles you’d often find within these stores such as vinyl containers and other similar merchandise pertaining to the cultures previously mentioned. I thought it seemed “on paper, deceptively simple” (Johnson, 2002, 12) to fill the space, almost like an obstacle course, however because we had a specific time period to adhere too, the ‘obstacles’ had to be in keeping with that and ‘of the time’. It also had to be safe for the actors to move about the stage, to help them get used to the obstacles that would be there, chairs were used in rehearsals to represent the different things that would be littered around the stage. Even though, I was aiming for a cluttered feel, I didn’t want it to look messy, the aim was for structured clutter.

Works Citied 

andyhifi Record Stores in Los Angeles & the Internet [blog]. Available from: http://andyhifi.50webs.com/records.htm accessed 9 February 2017.

Johnson, D. (2002) Farce of Nature Designing Three Very Different (And Very Sturdy) Sets for Noises Off. Entertainment Design, 36 (3)

MostlyRetro (2016) The Biggest Guide to Tokyo Record Stores on the Internet [blog]. 3 October. Available from: http://mostly-retro.com/2016/10/03/the-biggest-guide-to-tokyo-record-stores-on-the-internet/ accessed 9 February 2017.

Pinterest (2012) Friends Shabby Chic: Stuck in Second Gear [blog]. 19 November. Available from: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/146155950380276054/ accessed 9 February 2017.

uglyhousephotos (2009) The Splendor of Southwest Styling [blog]. 7 November. Available from: http://uglyhousephotos.com/wordpress/?cat=113 accessed 9 February 2017.

Our next meeting of our group was with a workshop by Flickbook Theatre, who made their start the same way we were. They showed us many different techniques of how we could develop our ideas and turn them into a show.

The first technique that they showed us was the ‘Wikipedia Black Hole’, which is where each member of the company was given a word associated with one specific topic, in this particular case it was Donald Trump. So the words people were given were such things as Trump Tower, President, the White House and so forth, they would then type that word into Wikipedia, write some of the facts down about it on a post-it note and then click on a link to something else on that page and write about that on a different post-it note and so on for about 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes we each presented our post-it notes, linking it to other peoples when we could, so at the end we were left with a wall covered in post-it notes that could all link together. This technique can help linking ideas or finding out a fair amount of information in a short amount of time. We used this technique to research and develop our understanding of 90’s culture, which later helped us decide upon which year we wished to base our production in. Which we decided would be 1997 as quite a few major historical events happened such as Princess Diana’s death and the publication of Harry Potter.

The second technique we were shown was having a table placed in the middle of the space and each member had to write a personal sad story and a personal happy story that included a table. The table did not have to be central to the story, it could simply just be in the room. One by one, each member would tell their story and place in other members to play the people in the story and use the table how they wished. This technique helped us learn that personal stories can be developed and worked into a piece of theatre, our stories can be manipulated and re-worked if needs be. This also helped us see that a simple piece of stimuli can be inspiration and lead to something more that can be used. By only using a table as well, it showed that set did not need to be extravagant, but could still be effective  and utilized for different purposes.

In our first class session we got into our group, the other half of our class had already decided they wanted to be together. This worked out perfectly for us as many of us had worked together before and new how we worked.

Once we had formed our group, our first decision was to decide what sort of company we wanted to be, what sort of production we wished to produce. As a set of people we were all quite comedic and energetic people, which led to an almost natural decision our creating a comedy. The only thing that we did not agree upon is whether we waned to do a political comedy or a normal comedy, so we left to brew over that decision.

In this session as well, we were told about the roles that made up a theatre company and started to discuss who wished to do which role. We all took a piece of paper and wrote which role we wanted on it, so the the roles ended up looking like this:

• Director = Emily Wood
• Producer = Natasha Bailey
• Stage Manager = Amy Blench
• Marketing = Kim Bowe and Morwenna Murray
• Lighting and Sound = Adam Cockerill
• Costume Designer = Catherine Richardson
• Set Designer = Paige Moran
• Props Manager = Jack Briggs
• Dramaturg = Elif Taneri
• Actors = Amy Blench, Kim Bowe, Morwenna Murray, Adam Cockerill, Catherine Richardson, Jack Briggs, Elif Ege Taneri and me

On our piece of paper we then went into brief detail about what our role would consist of. As Set Designer I knew that I would be designing what the stage would look like and help determine the feel of the piece, also that my set would be determined by the type of production we ended up doing and what era. We left the session with homework to think about what we wished our piece to be about.