Week Twenty-One 2: Shakespeare

Production Meeting

25th February 2014

     With rehearsals under way and the performance improving it's construction, the purpose of today's lesson was to continue our production meetings.  In our previous production meeting we were placed into groups and we all volunteered for a job role for working back stage on the main performance.  I volunteered for the job role of creating a lighting cue list.

     Me and my partners task was to create a list which was to be suitable for the technician to create and was idea for the cast, as we needed their input.  In our second production meeting me and my partner spoke to other members of the cast, so we could get a decent idea of what lighting they would like in their scene.  But it was today's meeting when we started to construct the cue list.  In creating the cue list we had to know the positions of the lights on stage, what colours were on offer and how to make the list understandable for the technician.  To begin with we drew a sketch of the stage so we could know where the lights were positioned.  Then we spoke to other members of the cast, to receive their input in what lighting they liked.  Together me and my partner worked together to create the cue list in chronological order and put detail as to what lighting goes where and why.  An example of this would be the lighting for the actors scene; the idea was to have a green lighting to simulate the back garden, where the scene is set.  I also suggested we add a white lighting on stage left to simulate the moon light, unfortunately that idea was dropped because that one lighting wasn't possible to create.

     After a lesson of constructing the cue list and getting a decent idea of what lighting will be in each scene, we had a rough plan of how to present the cue list for the technician and in time for the performance.  The lesson ended with me and my partner discussing how we could work together outside of college and improve the cue list as to make it more understandable.

 

     During our spare time, before our next lesson, I came up with a decent construction as to what lighting would take place in each individual scene and why.  I included the lighting and the cue line for when it was to start.  For example, green lighting for actors scene was to open on speech cue: "Are we all met?", then fade out on music cue.  I finished my version of the cue list, with the starting prologue, to the multicoloured lighting for our dance routines, to each scene extract, to the climax and the epilogue.  However I still needed my partners input.  So I showed him my idea of the cue list, and he gave me some of his input, of changing a few of the lighting positions and making the list decent enough for the technician.

 

     After a big lesson of a production meeting me and my partner created a decent lighting cue list for the performance.  We concluded the day by continuing rehearsing our dance pieces for the main show, developing each step to make it more realistic and convincing to create the house party atmosphere.