Production
Week: ‘13’
Monday 10th
– Thursday 13th November 2014
Last Minute
Rehearsals
Taking these
last minute opportunities, we gathered as a cast and crew and prepared to
organise the last few run through, before the open production at the end of the
week. Going through each scene of each act,
focus particularly on scene changes and entrance and exit calls. We focus specifically on these areas because
our goal was to give a contemporary theatre feel to the production, reflecting
on ‘13’s key theme on reflecting the people and morals of contemporary
society. Plus it would give the pacing
and time spend of ‘13’ seem at a natural and realistic flow to it. All the more making it realistic and
relatable for our target audience, of further education students, and seem as a
professional and entertaining process for us actors.
The sessions
were a little repetitive, yet I personally found them to be rather interesting. I took this opportunity to look deeper into
my portrayal of the character ‘John’.
Putting my understanding of the character to good use and developing any
speech dialect to a level where I was comfortable for delivery, and it was loud
enough for our future audience members.
Plus one area that I really enjoyed particularly was developing ‘John’s’
physicality. Having spent the previous
week looking into detail as to how I could portray ‘John’s’ physical structure,
I put that to good use and developed it to a level of extreme detail and
comfort for myself.
Taking warm up
exercises supported my development of the physicality extremely well, as I could
understand what the character’s current state would be (of my choice) and how
they would react to certain moments. I
enhanced the use of standing in a tall upright structure and increase the
movement within my hands and fingers to suggest ‘John’s’ concern, worry and
control throughout the play.
The end
results were excellent and I was proud of what I had achieved, and I was
extremely eager to bring ‘John’ for life for audience members.
The Technical Side
For my job
role in the play I was to take on portraying ‘John’ within acts one and two,
then allowing another cast member to take over for acts three and four. This would allow the pair of us to give different
interpretations yet relatable characteristics of the same character. Therefore what was my secondary job role, for
when I had completed my portrayal of ‘John’ once act two was completed. For this I was assigned to assist in the
technical sides of ‘13’.
While we did
have some support from second year students, who had the job role of activating
the lighting and sound effect queues, it was my job role to ensure they were on
time and prepared. I found this job role
to be an interesting experience. In the
past I have experience the job role of the Deputy Stage Manager, ensure all
technicians and crew members were on cue for the production. The difference was this time I was sitting
side by side with our technicians and observing first-hand what it takes to produce
and cue the lighting and sound effects.
The lighting
and sound effects were essential particularly for this production as it
reflected the atmosphere of the scenes, the tension between the characters and
even foreshadow future events within the plays storyline. While our lighting effects were pretty simple
with green reflecting a park environment and white lighting within a dark
setting enhanced the feeling of a dark society.
But it was our sound effects that brought them to life, either before or
after an actor has spoken in character.
It was the sound effects that enhanced the relevance of certain props
and montages, all the more to make the storytelling all the more intriguing for
our target audience.
As mentioned
earlier my only job was to double check that the technicians were on cue and in
time with the script. But I did enjoy
being up in the sound box and witnessing the process of perfection to bring the
play to life in fashion which our director intended. Therefore it was a joy to behold and a privilege
to take part in.
Have I Developed?
As the
production week drew to an end I asked myself, have I developed? To which I responded, yes. Yes in two formations. Yes, in the fact that I have developed
extremely in understanding my character, the play he is in, and why he fits
into the play. As well as, yes, I have
developed as an actor.
Throughout
this assignments process I really come to admire Mike Bartlett’s depiction of a
world where morals and responsibility are essential, but are not taken
seriously by the youth generation. I
really liked the hidden details and references in amongst certain characters
and story arcs, making the play all the more interesting and entertaining for
our target audience.
Plus I feel I
have developed as an actor. I loved
using contemporary theatre elements to make my performance all the more
entertaining. As well as understanding
and developing all the hidden details from the script and brought them to life
through this unique form of storytelling.
I have learnt new strategies and techniques in acting and I aim to keep
them and reuse them for any future production work to ensure realism and detail
within portraying a character out of my comfort zone.
All technique
and hidden details I have/shall expand upon within blog entries focusing on my
character and the rehearsal and production process.
The Production –
Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th November
As the week came to an end, the
theatre doors opened. As each production
began and finished I could seriously feel a positive response from the audiences’. Plus I personally found each performance to
be an extremely entertaining experience, as I brought the character of ‘John’
to life the way I intended, and how I hoped Mike Bartlett imagined the
character to be. Making this production
alone one of my personal favourites and it has given me memorises which I shall
treasure and memorise for any future production work.
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