January 2017

January 28, 2017Roxy Jarrold No Comments

Yo Ho, Yo Ho a Theatre Company life for me! (Bruns, 1967)

As a newly formed company, we began with a meeting on Tuesday 24th January to decide a suitable name for our company as well as possible production roles we were interested in. Our group had formed just prior to this, except for a few members, so we were all already pretty comfortable with each other, as well as knowing each other’s strengths. 6 girls and 4 boys, what could go wrong?

We began discussing roles, and it became apparent that everyone had a clear idea of what they wanted to be, which very conveniently did not clash with each other. I was very passionate about having a role as choreographer having a strong dance background, and luckily other members accepted this. After confirming production roles, we all stated that these could be subject to change if one role becomes particularly prominent throughout the process, therefore needing more than one person to achieve the role. We researched roles needed before meeting, but if I’m honest none of us actually know what we are letting ourselves in for!

Discussing ideas and roles (Atkinson, 2017)

The name of the company was a much more complicated process, and we had to go through several ‘trial and error’ techniques. After coming to no real decision, we decided it would be best to discuss our ambitions for the show, in hopes to achieve a name this way. We began a lively debate, whereby everyone had an array of ideas which we spread across an A3 sheet of paper. Our original thoughts pointed towards politics and feminism however by doing this, we were automatically in danger of creating a piece that may not be original. Having realised this, we began discussing more personal stories that had big impacts in our lives. This resulted in us realising the idea of focussing on the individual people in a bigger picture could help us to create a successful piece.

It was only then the name of our company became easier to think of. Putting these stories together would create a mismatch of scenes, making the entire show fragmented. With ideas flowing around the room… Fragment Theatre Company was born! Fragmented- ‘a small piece or a part, especially when broken from something whole’ (Dictionary, 2017). Although this meeting was extremely long, we had so much to discuss and we all left the studio overly excited and ready to create our final degree performance. I think we are all about to embark on an adventure together that could possibly shape our futures… how exciting.

Meet the team (Jarrold, 2017)

Work Cited:

Atkinson, B. (2017) Discussing ideas and roles.

Bruns, G. (1967). Yo Ho (A Pirates Life for Me). [Theme Song] Walt Disney.

Dictionary, f. (2017). fragment Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. [online] Dictionary.cambridge.org. Available at: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fragment [Accessed 28 Jan. 2017].

Jarrold, R. (2017) Meet the team.

January 25, 2017Hannah Marie DArcy No Comments

Roles within the company

Things are starting to shape together in terms of ideas for the show itself, However we needed to discuss what roles each of us were prepared to take on within the company. Which lead to the group and I discussing our different talents and how they could work within our team!

I have chosen to become to Producer of Fragment Theatre Company, not because it’s a talent of mine but more because it’s something that I may wish to peruse in the future and I am super exited to try it out! The role of the producer, as explained by James Seabright is to “deliver a good show, in time and on budget […] as well as raising the money required to fund the production (Seabright, 2010, 5).

I am certainly looking forward to creating a fun way for us to raise money towards our final production.

The other members of the group were also assigned roles through choice and matching their specific area of knowledge to a production role.

(D’Arcy,2017)

Above is the list of company roles within Fragment Theatre company, as you can see most of the company members have more than one role, including myself as I will also be performing within the show.

citations

D’Arcy. H. (2017) Company Roles

Seabright, J. (2010) so you want to be a producer?. London: Nick Hern Books limited

January 25, 2017Phillipa May Strickland No Comments

Initial meeting and ideas

On the 24^th of January we all met for the first time to discuss initial ideas for our show. We were all daunted but excited at the thought of devising and creating an hour-long piece of theatre for the first time.

fragment initial meeting

Initial ideas (Chatterway, 2017)

We began by discussing our common interests, in order to find out what our show could be about. It was quickly discovered that we were all interested in theatre that can speak to everybody, in other words theatre that deals with the ‘little people’ and everyday problems faced by us all. With this in mind we went on to brainstorm ideas for the name of our theatre company. This turned out to be much more challenging than expected, as so many names are already used by other theatre companies. For example, we were particularly disappointed to discover that the name ‘Common Thread’ was already in use by another company

Yet, after playing some games and devising exercises, the name ‘Fragment’ was suggested. We all instantly loved this name as it fit perfectly with our newly discovered ideology – that of dealing with fragments of the everyday persons life and the daily challenges that they face.

initial meeting 2

Devising (Nixon, 2017)

Next came a chat about production roles and allocating jobs, of which I took on the role of props manager. Once this was agreed we carried on discussing, in more depth, the idea of the ‘little person’. We talked about our own insecurities and worries with all the trouble currently going on in the world, from Trump, to Brexit to the division and hatred within our society and more. Yet, despite this topical conversation, we decided that we didn’t want to do a piece of theatre focusing specifically on politics. This was due to the problem that such theatre may not be for everybody, especially as we all hear and see so much of such topics already in the mainstream media. We also didn’t want our production to be so directly related to the real world, instead more subtly demonstrating the everyday problems faced by individuals.

This therefore led us onto the idea of escapism, as we started to talk about how we all sometimes just want to ‘get away from it all’, such as by putting on a song or watching a good TV show. It soon became apparent that not only us, but everyone needs their own escape, a place to simply and safely ‘get away’. We then further discussed how with all of the current affairs in the world, as well as everyone’s own personal issues we can all at times feel isolated from society. This idea was also particularly fitting for our chosen name Fragment, meaning ‘An isolated or incomplete part of something’ (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2017).

Citations

Oxforddictionaries.com. (2017) Definition of Fragment. [online] Available from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fragment [accessed 25 January].

Chatterway, A. (2017) Initial Ideas.

Nixon, E. (2017) Devising.

January 24, 2017Emily Nixon No Comments

The Birth of Fragment Theatre Company

This was the week that all ten members met together for the first time. Everyone was so excited until we realised we had to choose a name and what a challenge that was. Every name we wanted seemed to be taken by another theatre company. To try and make the process slightly easier we decided to play a game. Everyone had to write two words on a piece of paper and put them in a hat (we didn’t have a hat so Brodie’s jumper had to do). There were some interesting names but we finally decided we are FRAGMENT THEATRE COMPANY!

Meet the Company (Nixon, 2017)

The next topic of discussion were the roles within the company. Each member brought in a different talent and speciality. We were keen to utilise these and use it to our advantage to create a successful company and ultimately a fantastic show. I was assigned the role as marketing manager due to having some experience from previous modules.

The next task was to decide the topic of our show. We discussed how in the last year many notorious celebrities had died and the aftermath of their death highlighted the impact they had made in the world. This idea then progressed on to music and how meaningful it is to a listener and how the listener can escape into it. Then Brodie suggested we look at escapism as a topic as a whole.

“Escapism, in its most basic form, is intentional detachment and distraction from the real world. It allows a momentary reprieve from your circumstances, giving you a chance to recharge your batteries before you jump back into the fray” (Allan, 2017)

Escapism is a theme that has no limitations. We have the opportunity to look at personal issues, politics, and issues around the world. For us as a company we didn’t want to take the political route but to look specifically at the everyday person and how they as a fragment of society are important.

Brainstorming (Nixon, 2017)

I’m excited to begin work on marketing this great company and creating an exciting show. This first meeting has been full of exhilarating ideas which I cannot wait to develop and bring to life on stage.

Works cited:

Allan, P. (2017). Cite a Website – Cite This For Me. [online] Lifehacker.com. Available at: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-snap-back-to-reality-when-escapism-becomes-av-1723091630 [Accessed 24th January 2017].

Nixon, E. (2017) Brainstorming.

Nixon, E. (2017) Meet the Company.

January 24, 2017Hannah Marie DArcy No Comments

In the beginning…

Ten people, 6 girls, 4 boys. All of which, having no actual idea where to even begin when it comes to making a show, but I’m pretty sure we will get through it somehow! First thing is first we needed to discuss what kind of theatre it is we want to make, and then how on earth we are going to do it. After talking as a group it came apparent quite quickly that we had a similar idea, that idea being ‘addressing the little person’s story’. In a time when society is dominated by people like Donald Trump, and the way that others are treated because of him, it made myself and my group think… what happens to them people, the little people, the individual. Ok so our performance will definitely not be on Donald Trump that was just an example. He gets enough attention. Anyway, getting back to the subject… as a large group we decided that to tell one person’s story may be a waste when we have so many actors. This led us into the decision that we would tell a collection of story’s all coming from the individual’s perspective to tell a story of some sort, I’m sure we will figure that part out later.

So now we have a group, we have an idea (ish) and now we need to figure out what we are going to call ourselves. Never in my life did I think it would take so long, given that we wanted to tell stories of ‘the little people’ we wanted our group name to reflect our performance and any future shows we make… after all there’s plenty of people, plenty of stories, plenty of shows dare I say.

We found literally hundreds of names that suited our company however they rather didn’t have a ‘good ring’ to them, or had already been taken by some other theatre company. But don’t worry, we got there in the end!

(D’Arcy, H. 2017)

(DRUM ROLL)

We are called…

Fragment Theatre Company

“Fragment: small part broken off or separated from something” (Dictionary.com, 2017)

Which is a perfect name for the performance we are aiming to create!

Citations

D’Arcy. H. (2017) what can we call ourselves?: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre: studio x

Dictionary.com. (2017). the definition of fragment. [online] Available at: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/fragment [Accessed 24 Jan. 2017].