What is my contribution?
My main focus when working on the tempest was working with others in the cast, who i had stage contact with, to look into and work on the scenes to give them more than just a surface performance and find meaning for each scene. For an example my self and two others put some extra time into our character entrances in our first scene as we knew that we were going to be performing this scene as the Shakespeare festival in Shoreham. We looked into each line and thought about why we were doing it. For example i helped a girl with her lines and breaking her speech down into units to determine where the mood changes. This helped her to give context to the lines in order for an audience to understand what was going on. One thing that i found really worked from the Shoreham Shakespeare Festival this year was ourselves introducing the acts and speeches that were going to happen. This gave the audience a brief understanding to what was happening, as they were not a seated audience, giving them a brief overview of the scene that was about to happen, gave them a chance to catch up with the scene and gave us as actors help to understand the scenes.
When it came to the BOAT performance of the tempest i feel that i took on a big role when it came to organisation of set, costumes and props. I did this right from our last rehearsal at the studios, i made a list of everything that was needed in the show, including set and what we needed to make it and what we would need in the case of a repair. This meant that when we got to the theatre as we unpacked all of the set we could check off everything that came out of the van, and make sure that we had brought everything before it was put into the playing area.
How did i help with the content of the Tempest?
For this production i was 100% independent when it came to the construction of my costume, after a introductory meeting with the director, finding out the colour scheme and any ideas that she had in terms of my costume i went on to look into some inspiration pictures.I started off with plain colours of black, white and red. But i went on the top of all of my elements and added details, with extra stitching and embellishments such as sequins. I also felt that i played a big part within the other company members costumes and how they were constructing them. As one of the only members of the cast with sewing and textiles experience I started to give advise and help on the best ways to do things and the easiest ways to do it for someone that doesn't know sewing skills. For example one of the costumes incorporated a bustle under a floor length dress,i started to work with her giving some techniques on where to start and how to get the best look at the end.
At the start of the rehearsal process i took part in music rehearsals, were we looked into some of the different songs in the show, the one i looked into one of my songs in the show, where we came up with some basic choreography and then found all of the different harmonies in the song. Coming up with four harmony lines to teach to the rest of the cast.
When it came to my own work outside of rehearsals i put a lot of effort into making my character a well rounded person, thinking about how and why he would do things. This all started off my researching other actors playing this role, and then also looking into how drunken characters are portrayed in theatre and film and real life, then looking into what parts of these characters i wanted to take forward to my role.
How did you make the most of the creative and artistic possibilities fully?
When it comes to site specific and performing in a theatre that you haven't rehearsed in there are always changes that need to be made to help the show fit around the space used. One of the big changes made to all of my scenes was the spacing, and having to bring everything down stage towards the front of the thrust stage, to bring the action closer to the audience, as once you past half way point a lot of the sound was lost as we were not helped with the wind blowing through the stage,
Finally i had planned to make some of my entrances through the audience, from the back of the performance space. This was a part of the show that i would have to play guess work with until the performance as i couldn't predict where the audience were going to sit.
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Unit 102 - Site Specific Performance (GC2/3)
Legal and Practical demands
Conditions and restrictions
When we applied to perform at the Brighton Open Air Theatre, we were sent some rules and conditions on terms of the contract that was drew up, in partnership with Worthing College and BOAT.
The first is that the college department of performing arts would have to draw up a risk assessment form, evaulating all of the possible problems that our show might have, including set, costume, special effects. This includes risks that would effect the actors and company, but also taking into account the audience and staff at the theatre. This would also need to include a copy of proof of our public liability insurance, that would cover the public attending our show.
The second term of condition would be that BOAT would have some sort of credit in any advertisement or marketing that we made our self, stating that this is where the show would be held, and also that they were in partnership with us.
The final condition would be that any changes made in the contract were to be agreed by both companies and would need to be said in writing to confirm that we would be doing it.
Details of the event
VENUE:Brighton Open Air Theatre
DATE:8/05/2017
TIME:Doors- 6:00pm Start - 7:00pm
GET IN:9:00am 8/05/2017
GET OUT:10:00pm 8/5/2017
NATURE OF SHOW:Education
NUMBER OF SETS:Aprox -425
The other factor stated by BOAT was the services and what they would give us for our show day. The first was their own front of house staff, and a duty manager and stewards on the ratio of 1 to 100 audience members. They would also provide use with lighting and sound accessibility, for us to use our own equipment on.
Tickets and Availability
I feel that boat has offered a very fair and suffice contract that covered all of the different sections that as a company we would want to know. What i really liked was the break down and layout of the contract, it was very easy to understand and the different sections made it clear what was needed and expected from us as a company. It didnt read as like they were trying to confuse us and trick us into things that werent made clear. When it came to the break down of tickets it was a fair split as we still had handle of the majority of the ticket sales. After we had finished the show the venue was very fair and gave us some space while packing up our set and costumes, offering help where needed.
When we first arrived at the theatre, the only access by car is to drive through the park adjacent to the theatre, this is a public park so there were people walking around with dogs and children, to make sure we were applying with the safe conduct we made sure we drove very slowly through the park, giving any member of the public right of way when passing us, and making sure they were completly gone before carrying on. Once we got to the theatre we found a hedgehog sleeping next to one of the power supplies that we would be using to power our sound and band. To make sure the hedgehog was 100% safe we got one of the park rangers to remove him to make sure we didn't disrupt him.
For this production we didn't have to pay for any licensing to do the play,as the playwright (shakespeare) is dead. Additionally to the licensing to the play we had adapted the play far away from the original script. First of all condensing the script to half the size and also exploring gender roles to make character relationships clearer.
When we first performed at BOAT last year we were lucky enough to have fantastic weather, being one of the hottest days of last year, we took the time of year into account this year, thinking about what we were going to wear to make sure we were as cool as possible and not to over heat. However this year we were not as lucky with the weather, as it was very windy and over cast, this meant that the set up of the stage and the rehearsals throughout the day were painful as we were standing around in the cold for longer. To prevent this we made it clear to the cast to not get into costumes until the last minute as we wanted to keep as warm as possible. In terms of the audience keeping warm we began with suggesting them to bring coats and blankets, but we also kept our clear up time quick giving everyone jobs to get it done as soon as possible to prevent the audience standing around in the cold waiting for their family and friends in the cast.
I also have some copies of the conversation between our production manager and the venue manager.
Conditions and restrictions
When we applied to perform at the Brighton Open Air Theatre, we were sent some rules and conditions on terms of the contract that was drew up, in partnership with Worthing College and BOAT.
The first is that the college department of performing arts would have to draw up a risk assessment form, evaulating all of the possible problems that our show might have, including set, costume, special effects. This includes risks that would effect the actors and company, but also taking into account the audience and staff at the theatre. This would also need to include a copy of proof of our public liability insurance, that would cover the public attending our show.
The second term of condition would be that BOAT would have some sort of credit in any advertisement or marketing that we made our self, stating that this is where the show would be held, and also that they were in partnership with us.
The final condition would be that any changes made in the contract were to be agreed by both companies and would need to be said in writing to confirm that we would be doing it.
Details of the event
VENUE:Brighton Open Air Theatre
DATE:8/05/2017
TIME:Doors- 6:00pm Start - 7:00pm
GET IN:9:00am 8/05/2017
GET OUT:10:00pm 8/5/2017
NATURE OF SHOW:Education
NUMBER OF SETS:Aprox -425
The other factor stated by BOAT was the services and what they would give us for our show day. The first was their own front of house staff, and a duty manager and stewards on the ratio of 1 to 100 audience members. They would also provide use with lighting and sound accessibility, for us to use our own equipment on.
Tickets and Availability
- Tickets given to BOAT - 10
- Company and Crew - 40
- Tickets for promotor - 10
- Tickets on sale through Worthing College and Brighton Fringe - 425
- Total Tickets - 485 (BOAT Capacity)
I feel that boat has offered a very fair and suffice contract that covered all of the different sections that as a company we would want to know. What i really liked was the break down and layout of the contract, it was very easy to understand and the different sections made it clear what was needed and expected from us as a company. It didnt read as like they were trying to confuse us and trick us into things that werent made clear. When it came to the break down of tickets it was a fair split as we still had handle of the majority of the ticket sales. After we had finished the show the venue was very fair and gave us some space while packing up our set and costumes, offering help where needed.
When we first arrived at the theatre, the only access by car is to drive through the park adjacent to the theatre, this is a public park so there were people walking around with dogs and children, to make sure we were applying with the safe conduct we made sure we drove very slowly through the park, giving any member of the public right of way when passing us, and making sure they were completly gone before carrying on. Once we got to the theatre we found a hedgehog sleeping next to one of the power supplies that we would be using to power our sound and band. To make sure the hedgehog was 100% safe we got one of the park rangers to remove him to make sure we didn't disrupt him.
For this production we didn't have to pay for any licensing to do the play,as the playwright (shakespeare) is dead. Additionally to the licensing to the play we had adapted the play far away from the original script. First of all condensing the script to half the size and also exploring gender roles to make character relationships clearer.
When we first performed at BOAT last year we were lucky enough to have fantastic weather, being one of the hottest days of last year, we took the time of year into account this year, thinking about what we were going to wear to make sure we were as cool as possible and not to over heat. However this year we were not as lucky with the weather, as it was very windy and over cast, this meant that the set up of the stage and the rehearsals throughout the day were painful as we were standing around in the cold for longer. To prevent this we made it clear to the cast to not get into costumes until the last minute as we wanted to keep as warm as possible. In terms of the audience keeping warm we began with suggesting them to bring coats and blankets, but we also kept our clear up time quick giving everyone jobs to get it done as soon as possible to prevent the audience standing around in the cold waiting for their family and friends in the cast.
I also have some copies of the conversation between our production manager and the venue manager.
7/5/17
Hi Kim
I’m really looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning up at BOAT at 9am.
I just have a few quick questions for you:
Please could you send me through a copy of your PLI.
Please could you also send me a risk assessment covering the show.
and finally do you have any idea of ticket numbers / likely audience. I can see the tickets sold through the Fringe Office but wonder if you have sold more through the college / directly.
If you could let me know so I can set up the theatre appropriately that would be a huge help!
Best Wishes
Anne-Marie Williams
BOAT Manager
07802 299 267
16/1/17
Hi All
I have just been to a Brighton Fringe Venue Managers meeting and wanted to pass on some updated information to you all! Apologies for this list but if you would like more details on any of the items then drop me a line … here goes!
Dates: Fringe goes on sale for ‘fringe friends scheme’ on Wednesday 22nd Feb then on to general sale on 3rd March … PLEASE go on to their website and copy the link to your own events and email them out to your friends / followers … lets get the shows sold out!
They are now taking applications for Fringe City so if you haven’t already applied please do if you think this would be good exposure for you … remember if you do Fringe City to have a person with you who can ‘leaflet’ whilst you are performing. Remember if your flyer has the Brighton Fringe Logo on it then you can flyer without a permit in the centre of town. If it doesn’t you will have to pick up a special permit from the Fringe office … (something to bear in mind if you haven’t completed your design yet!)
If you applied to be a ‘Window' event you should have heard by now … if you were successful please let me know. (Fingers crossed)
FEU - If you are coming from overseas you will need to register on the FEU form (for Tax purposes) in advance of you coming (this means it will not hold up your settlement) more info on this when they send the link through in a couple of weeks.
BOAT will be attending a ‘Meet the Press’ event on your behalf on 27th February… If you have any posters / flyers / images / copy / sample CD's you would like me to take with you or turn into a press pack ready for then … please either pop something in the post to me at
81 Dudley Road, Brighton, BN1 7GL or email something over….
Please check out the Fringe Website for a section about ‘Awards’ … there are about 18 different awards that have different criteria … please take a look at them and see if your show is a ‘fit’ and nominate yourself … it’s good exposure and there are a variety of prizes you could win including the Gemini Award for best artwork which comes with Free entry for next year plus £500 worth of print!!
Take a look around the Fringe site for other useful sections like Fringe Academy .. I think in March they will have sessions on Health and Safety (ooh!) and Insurance (ahhhh) and even Tax (yay!!!)
Do let me know if you have any more questions / comments etc.
Really looking forward to this year kicking off in style!
Best Wishes
Anne-Marie Williams
BOAT Manager
07802 299 267
Tuesday, 23 May 2017
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