Unit 6 - Performance workshop

Tuesday 13^th June

Today we were working alongside the tech team to sort out the lighting for the performance on Thursday. We were also going over and rehearsing all of the script.

When I walked into the session today, Alys was already sticking the tape to the floor. The tape looks really affective on the floor. We were worried that the yellow tape was going to blend in with the floor but when it was on the floor, it stood out quite well. On Saturday, Alys brought in the coloured tape and asked us which colour we wanted to have and which one suited our character the best. I thought the pink tape would suit my character the best because she is very girly and intelligent. Also, the other side of my character is childish. The lines on the floor will represent corridors within the institute where the characters are. This gives the performance a sense of confinement. The lift in the middle of the stage is where all the characters meet. This is also another place of confinement. Here is a picture of the stage:

Alys also put coloured tape on each box which coordinated with the coloured tape on the floor. This meant that it was easier for the audience to identify which character had which coloured tape. For the blue tape, there was string underneath. This is because Danielle’s character had the blue tape to follow. Danielle has very little sight so can therefore follow the tape with her foot as she can feel the string. We also had string under the tape which marked out the lift so that when we were performing the lift scenes, Danielle wouldn’t move out of the lift. We had a discussion about what we were going to do for the rest of the staging. The original idea was to have different things on the back wall which represented our character. However, we came to the conclusion that because the tape is quite a big feature of the performance, the items on the back wall would take the focus away from the tape. Therefore, we decided to not have the items on the back wall and the only item that we had hanging from the wall was a clock. This is because during the performance, there is a clock sound effect in between each scene to symbolise time passing by. Also Callum’s character has autism so relates to the time a lot throughout the show.

For part of the session we did a quick run-through where we marked out the scenes. We did this so the lighting and sound crew could move the lights around to make sure that we were lit up at all times where we needed to be. Alys could also tell them which lights she wanted for each scene. For most scenes we were just having the lift light on because most of the scenes took part in the lift. However, for the grid we had coloured lights which matched the coloured tape on the floor.

On Thursday (the day of the show) we will be having rehearsals all day. We will be focusing on running through the whole of the show without any stops. We will have a full tech and dress rehearsal on Thursday afternoon before the show. This will give us an approximate running time of the show. As a group, we have decided to meet up outside of lessons to run through the script as some of us are not as confident with the script as others. 
Here are some rehearsal pictures from today:

 The whole cast stood in the lift whilst Graham and the tech team are sorting out and moving the lights around in preparation for the show. 

  The whole cast stood in the lift whilst Graham and the tech team are sorting out and moving the lights around in preparation for the show.

 The different coloured tape on the floor. 

All of the different coloured tape on the floor leading into the lift.