Official Final Performance: The Rovers
Monday 2nd June - Wednesday
11th June 2014
All assignment work had been completed, the final performance of 'Junk' was a
success, it was near time to wrap up year one on the Performing Arts Acting
course and say farewell to Level 2 and begin Level 3 in September 2014.
But first there was another final project. The year two, Level 3,
students had been preparing and rehearsing for their
final Restoration project, and their final performance at the
college. In this performance I and three other Level 2 students,
were to join in and take parts of extras in the Level 3's final
production at the college. We happily agreed to take part in this
production and I personally was delighted to work with the more experienced
students again, after the success of us previously working together of
the college's 2013 Christmas Pantomime. Once we were given the
scripts and watched a few rehearsals, we were all very anticipated to get
started.
When receiving the roles of servants in this piece of drama, titled
'The Rovers', and began to understand the plot of the script, we began to
create ideas as to how we could physically and verbally present these
characters on stage. Even though we all had very little lines to learn
and no more than two scenes each, in which our character was present, we still had
opportunities to acknowledge what type of world this is, what status of living
these characters are (in the amount of money they earn and what conditions they
live in) and how we could present this on stage. We also had to
understand that, even though this is a comedy piece of work, there were many
elements of which had to be taken seriously; in a way to make it a
"dramedy" (a mix of the genres drama and comedy). Therefore the
idea I had was to create a posh, well mannered, and slightly cowardly
character. How I decided to present
these characteristics on stage was simple but, I thought, would give a positive
and effective outcome.
I decided to present “posh” characteristic
through my verbal side of my performance, this, I felt, would add the comedic
tone to my performance, and would also give a hint towards a back story that
this character has been a servant for all of his adulthood and is very loyal
towards his master. When it came to the
presentation of the character being “well mannered” I decided to present this
through the means of physicality, so during the main performance I would have
the character stand straight and use facial expressions to show his
understanding of his status and loyalty amongst his master, and his master’s
rivalries. While on the subject of
rivalries, this is where the next characteristic came in the play, by making my
character a “coward” I thought that would increase tension during the fight
scenes as well as adding more comedy elements to the play, but I also thought
it would back up the characters ambition to assist his master when needed.
Once I had a plan of how I was going to
present this character, we four extras then received another important job for
the main performance. One professional
theatre element used in this production, which I found to be the most
interesting, was the use of a rotating set.
The use of the rotating set was to be able to bring all the scenes to
life. While many plays have had to have
been cut shorter, due to limited staging or timing wise, the plan for this
production was to not cut any scenes at all.
For that reason we had to have a stage which showed the inside and
outside of a multiple buildings, this is where the rotating set comes into the
play. The set was built to show the inside
and the outside of a building. But our
job was to spin the stage during the performance. The job was simple, but at first difficult as
there were some issues concerning the wheels to move the set, which was rectified
during the rehearsal process, and there was also the worry about hitting the
set with lighting rigs or the back wall of the stage. But all problems were quickly solved and then
we managed to create a system in which we could spin the stage to a point that
would seem simply smooth and quick from the audience’s point of view.
The next job we were tasked with was change
the setting of the set to make it seem like different houses and different
streets. How this was accomplished was
by us changing pictures on the wall, tables and chairs, and fruit bowls with
other props. Again all succeeded during
the performance as we entered on stage in character knowing what our jobs were
and changed the set as smoothly as possible, making the scene changes as
equally as successful as the main performance.
I found this whole production a success
and a unique experience, in working with other groups, of both cast and crew
members, to a degree of learning new techniques and expanding my experiences in
the performing arts industries. Memories which I shall treasure and look back on in future.
