Building Characters Within The World Of The Show

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Morwenna Murray

After having created the backstory and a firm personality and set of characteristics for each character over the last few writing sessions, the development process with regards to the acting has become much more focused. Now that the actors all have a firm set of guidelines to work from with regards to how their character would interact with others, the process has moved from simply improvising scenes within an abstract and hypothetical world with characters that are always subtly altering depending on the whims of the actor, to beginning to improvise scenes within the world of the show that we are creating with a view to later potentially adapting them and adding them to the script.

Because not everyone in the company has performed together before working together in this module, there is still an element of the actors ‘figuring each other out’, though we are all visibly a lot more at ease and seamless with each other now than we were when the development process first began. Our individual styles of comedy have also managed to blend together so that when we are working on potential scenes and interacting with each other in character, there is a significant improvement in the interactions whereby they flow a lot more smoothly and allow us to keep the improvisation going on far longer than we could at the start of the process when we were all acting far more on our own individual wavelengths, whereas now we are acting far more as a cohesive company working towards the joint goal of making the show as good as it can possibly be.

Each actor has come up with a list of about ten bullet points for their character to keep in mind while we’re improvising potential scenes, which helps to keep us grounded to the world of the show that we are creating and also what our characters motivations are. It also in many ways allows us more freedom during these exploratory improvisation workshops since as actors we are, in a sense, permitted to be more adventurous with the scenes and the characters’ interactions since we always had a baseline of reality to help to keep the situation grounded and stop it from becoming too outlandish even when we push the characters to be as over-the-top as we feel we can make them.

Kicking Pigeons (or getting stuff done)

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Amy Louise Blench

In the early stages of the development process, we decided as a company that not only would our show be a scripted comedy, but that it would most likely be set in either the 80’s or 90’s, as these were decades we were all drawn to. Using a research technique called ‘Wikipedia Rabbit Hole’ shown to us in a workshop by Flickbook Theatre, we were able to narrow down our period to the late 90’s. We each looked into different years and topics within that in order to find a time period which had significant material on which to base our show or to use as source material. We then delivered our findings to the group by displaying our research on post it notes in order to group our findings together.

Figure 2 - Wikipedia Rabbit Hole (Bowe, 2017)

Figure 1 – Wikipedia Rabbit Hole (Bowe, 2017)

By further researching different areas such as politics, technology and music, we finally decided that 1996 to 1997 would provide a good time frame for us to set our piece. Not only was this the year of the girl band in music (for example, the Spice Girls), but it also saw the rise of New Labour, the death of Princess Diana, and an extreme development in science and technology.

Figure 2 – The Research (Bowe, 2017)

Once we finalised our year as 1997, and the fact our show would be a scripted comedy, it was time to properly begin to devise and script our piece. One of the first things we did as a group was create characters for use in improvising workshops. Then within these workshops, we would act out embarassing/funny stories we had experienced in real life for inspiration, or we were given scenarios or settings in which we would improvise a short scene. We were also paired up as our characters in order to see how they would work in a scene together, almost like hot-seating but in a scene. The writing team then used the results of the workshops to go away and create the beginnings of the script.

Figure 3 – Improvisation (Wood, 2017)

As Stage Manager for Kick a Pigeon Theatre, part of my job involves me making sure communication is clear between all members of the company throughout this development process, as well as organising rehearsals/meetings and knowing all production aspects of our show in order for the process to run without a hitch. For this to happen, I am present at every rehearsal and production meeting, and have made a clear rehearsal/meeting schedule with our Producer and Director to keep everyone on track. It is also important for me to keep notes for both the company and myself, ensuring that everyone is on the same page regarding the show making process, as well as making sure everyone has the correct information so deadlines can be met in regards to the technical and production elements of the show.

After an initial meeting with both the Producer and Director, a rehearsal schedule was formed around the company members’ availability, which was shared with each member on our private Facebook group. As well as this, all documents relating to script work, research, and production roles are uploaded and kept up to date, enabling all members access to them when they are needed.

Figure 4 – Rehearsal Schedule (Blench, 2017)

Figures:

Figure 1 – Bowe, K. (2017) Picture of Wikipedia Rabbit Hole Display. Lincoln.

Figure 2 – Bowe, K. (2017) Picture of 1997 Research. Lincoln.

Figure 3 – Wood, E. (2017) Picture of Improvisation Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 4 – Blench, A. (2017) Screenshot of Rehearsal Schedule. Lincoln.

Getting Things Sorted

Posted on March 16, 2017 by Paige Moran

As the writers began to develop the script, it was discovered that trying to do a kitchen and record store set would be implausible considering the difficulty posed firstly due to the amount of detail required by the record store, as well as trying to justify having both sets both financially and from a story-line perspective. This led to the thought that the characters may use the record store as a home, as no customers are ever present and all the characters story-line’s revolve around this one location. It was ultimately decided that we would be add features to the record store that reflected that which you would find in your home, such as the chalk board which the characters used for shopping lists/personal messages and the washing line which had pieces of the characters costumes on that they would then remove throughout the play. We also placed a sofa and a blow-up chair, to represent the times, to further add to the ‘homely’ feel of the set and give the appearance that the characters spend a lot of time relaxing in the record store as well.

We decided to use the catwalk to connect the record store to the outside world, as the record store is identified as a key point for the characters within the story-line, and the outside world which to the characters is a scary and mysterious place, with only a few characters left the store. The catwalk is also the only thing that connects the record store to the “impending doom” (Briggs, 2017, 17) of the construction down the theoretical road, that adds to the scariness of the outside world to the characters. In order to display the impending construction, we decided to dress the alcove where the audience enters so that they are aware that construction is happening, but just like the characters, they do not know where or when it will happen. On the catwalk I also wanted to place vinyl box’s to show the divide between when the characters left and entered the record store, and if possible to have a door which the characters would use to show the audience when they left the scene. However, once we got into the space, we realized this was not feasible as it would block some audience members view and would not leave enough room for the actors to walk on the catwalk.

From watching 90’s movies set in record stores, such as Empire Records and High Fidelity, I realized that they contained listening stations which customers could listen to the vinyls before they purchased them. I thought this would fit well within the record store set as well as within the story as once I told the writers they worked it into the story for comedic effect. I took inspiration from Set Designers who had worked on farces, such as Robert Jones, who is “keen to not make [the set] a joke itself” (Johnson, 2002, 16) as the play is already funny. I wanted to do the same, root the set in reality as to not distract the audience from the action happening onstage.

Record Store Vinyl Bin (Pinterest)

From the beginning, I knew I wanted vinyl box’s, such as from the picture above, but wasn’t able to locate any which were within budget and the required style. One group member thankfully offered to construct these boxes from scratch with the help of a skilled carpenter. I provided the measurements for each box, and a rough description and they were able to produce fantastic results as well as going above and beyond to create a shop-front counter for the record store set.

Bespoke Vinyl Box’s (Kick a Pigeon Theatre, 2017)

Works Cited

Briggs, J. (2017) Record ’97. Lincoln: University of Lincoln

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

Kick a Pigeon Theatre (2017) Record ’97. [image] Lincoln Performing Arts Centre: Kick a Pigeon Theatre.

Pinterest Record Store Ideas[blog]. Available from: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/327003622921022534/ accessed 15 March 2017

What up Web?!

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Paige Moran

Hello People of the Interweb!

We are an up and coming theatre company based at the University of Lincoln.

We are currently working on our first production which will be premiere on the 24th May, with the working title of ‘Record ’97’. Our production will take you back to the ‘boomin” 90s to a time when the Backstreet Boys were battling NSYNC and you were either Team Britney or Team Christina.

We will be keeping you up-to-date with all the exciting things we have coming your way, such as our fundraising antics! So watch this space folks and we’ll be back with you soon!

Peace Out!

Further Development and Funding The Project

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Emily Wood

Having the opportunity to do absolutely anything for our first piece of theatre was both daunting and exciting, and so we spent one of the meetings as a company discussing what we wanted to do. As we were already agreed upon the idea of a farcical straight play, but was unsure of where we wanted to go with it, we decided to explore the different decades and see if we were drawn to any of them. As we wanted to focus on the issues within the world, we wanted to try and find correlations between the issues within these decades, and the issues within the world of today, and we found that the 1990’s was the best era for this. Within this, we found that 1997 was the best year. We conducted this research during the first few meetings as a group, we adopted a method that we learnt during a workshop with Flickbook Theatre Company in which we were given a specific topic such as ‘technology’ and researched it before feeding back what we had learnt to the group. With the ages of the cast, and the target audience of those 16 and up who enjoy comedy, the piece would also be a very nostalgic piece for those who grew up in the 90’s. During 1997, the world was experiencing ever-advancing technology and battling with terror in the form of the IRA (UPDATE: there has also been a snap election called by a Conservative government), and these are issues that are being experienced within the world today with the new technology emerging as well as the war on terror. Due to the fact that I did not wish to have any blackouts within the piece, we would use original broadcasts within the piece to both show the passing of time throughout the play, but would also use these broadcasts as transitional periods, and have the characters interact and prepare for the next scene on stage in front of the audience.

Research method adapted from the workshop with Flickbook Theatre Company

With the piece taking shape, we now have to begin funding the company in order to transfer the ideas onto the stage. We have been able to begin within the loan from the University of £166; however, we are putting on some fundraisers between now and our performance date on the 24^th of May. We have decided to put on a 90’s themed quiz in order to maintain a theme between our work and the fundraising events for it. In addition to this we will hold a film night in the platform and play a 90’s classic film, however this film has yet to be decided upon. In addition to our own fundraising, we had to think about applying for funding from the Arts Council England (ACE) due to the fact that we were setting up our own theatre company, but also if we want to proceed with the company in the future we will have to do so. We found that if we were to apply for money for our company, we would do so through the Grants For Arts Programme as this is specified as “ a single group of people working towards a shared or common goal” (Arts Council, 2016).

Works Cited: Arts Council (2017) Arts Council England. London: Arts Council England. Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Grants_for_the_Arts_How_to_apply15k_and_under_September2016_0.pdf [accessed 9th March 2017]