March 2017

March 31, 2017Emily Nixon No Comments

One Cold Night at the Top of a Car Park

Although social media is a key element of my marketing strategy it is not the most important. Printed advertising is essential to successful marketing and this made me strive to create a poster and flyer of a high standard. It is important to remember when creating promotional materials “to keep … advertising simple and relevant to the product, and to make sure it is effectively targeted” (Hill, O’Sullivan and O’Sullivan, 2003, 195).

In a meeting with our director Joe Turner and assistant director Brodie Atkinson we discussed that our poster needed to illustrate the sadistic side to escapism but have hints of the fun elements that are within our show. For me it was essential to have a person in the poster as more people are attracted to a poster where you can see a face. As the production was called ‘Exit This Way’ I was keen to find an interesting backdrop for the shoot. As our lighting designer Ben was researching warehouses as a stimulus for lighting, I wanted to utilise this for the poster. So I went on a tour around Lincoln to find warehouse styled spaces with a fire exit sign.

Poster Set Options 1 (Nixon, 2017) Poster Set Options 2 (Nixon, 2017) Poster Set Options 3 (Nixon, 2017)

The location I decided to use was a car park as the lighting created a warehouse effect and also created a sense of unease which the limbo section in our show also generated. I chose to use Rob as the figure in the poster as he was the presenter character who was serious, focussed and created the world of escapism for the “contestants”.

Poster Option 1 (Nixon, 2017)

Poster Photo Option 2 (Nixon, 2017)

These images did not come out as I had hoped due to the cars taking away the focus of Rob and it also didn’t show the fun elements that consisted in our show. I decided to do a reshoot for the poster and changed location to the top floor of the car park and brought in Brodie who was the other presenter in the show. I also added a cake, balloon, pen, and headphones to show the four areas of escapism in the show.

Poster Photo Option 3 (Nixon, 2017) Poster Photo Option 4 (Nixon, 2017) Poster Photo Option 5 (Nixon, 2017)

This is the final poster:

Exit This Way Poster (Fragment Theatre Company, 2017)

At first I found it very difficult to make the poster as I had to teach myself how to use Photoshop. Luckily I had a strong image that did not need editing or any effects layered on the image. I decided to use a simple font as the image was the most important element to the poster. The fancier the font the less effect the image had.

At the start of the process our show had a more serious tone but as the show progressed it veered more towards a tongue in cheek style comedy. Although the poster still represents our show it steers more towards the undertones of the sadistic elements. If I could have created the poster at the end of the process it would highlight more that our show was a comedy.

Another marketing strategy we used was flyers! This is a great marketing method as “face-to-face contact is made… you physically hand out” (Layton Turner, 2006, 193); the flyers having personal contact with your audience. The more warm and friendly you are the better the reputation of your company. This will lead people to wanting to come see your show as they have a good first point of contact with you. For the flyers we again used the poster image to keep a consistent image going throughout all the marketing materials.

Fragment Flyer Side 1 (Fragment Theatre Company, 2017)

Fragment Flyer Side 2 (Fragment Theatre Company, 2017)

Works Cited:

Fragment Theatre Company (2017) Exit This Way Poster

Fragment Theatre Company (2017) Fragment Flyer Side 1

Fragment Theatre Company (2017) Fragment Flyer Side 2

Hill, E., O’Sullivan, C. and O’Sullivan, T. (2003). Creative arts marketing. 2nd edition. [ebook] Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Available at: http://lists.library.lincoln.ac.uk/items/EB051E65-5BD4-50A0-63E2-4A766F27A8E8.html?referrer=%2Flists%2F2F819BDC-9061-08EC-AD65-4A8AF646E284.html%23item-EB051E65-5BD4-50A0-63E2-4A766F27A8E8 [Accessed 31 Mar. 2017].

Layton Turner, M. (2006). The Unofficial Guide to Marketing Your Small Business. 1st edition. New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Nixon, E. (2017) Poster Photo Option 1

Nixon, E. (2017) Poster Photo Option 2

Nixon, E. (2017) Poster Photo Option 3

Nixon, E. (2017) Poster Photo Option 4

Nixon, E. (2017) Poster Photo Option 5

Nixon, E. (2017) Poster Set Options 1

Nixon E. (2017) Poster Set Options 2

Nixon, E. (2017) Poster Set Options 3

March 23, 2017Phillipa May Strickland No Comments

Money doesn’t grow on trees

In a professional theatre company funding is crucial, as without money there can be no show. Therefore, if we were to take Fragment Theatre Company forward in the future we would need to look to alternative funding sources. One of the first places to look would be the Arts council England.

The Arts council is ‘committed to championing and developing the arts’ (Arts Council, 2017), and hence provides grants through the Grants for the Arts program. This is an ‘open access funding programme for individuals, art organisations and other people who use the arts in their work’ (Arts Council, 2017). They offer anything from £1000 to £100,000. As an emerging theatre company you can expect to apply for the lower end of this due to the size of the venture.

The grants are competitive and therefore when applying you need to tell them exactly how you would spend the money. Furthermore, if you receive the funding they check your final spending, so if you have asked for too much than your project is resultantly worth you will be less likely to be granted funding in the future. Such a process is therefore no easy feat, and hence must be undertaken with care in order to receive current and future funding.

Citations

Arts Council (2017) Arts Council England. [online] London: Arts Council England. Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Grants_for_the_Arts_How_to_apply15k_and_under_September2016_0.pdf [accessed 23 March 2017].

March 22, 2017Emily Nixon No Comments

Cake for a Like!

So today to boost our likes on Facebook we held an event on the University of Lincoln Campus. We were giving out free cakes and sweets for a like on Facebook. The day consisted of music, cakes and rain … lots of rain. Although the weather was against us we still managed to achieve our goal of 300 likes. The whole company got involved and used our happy spirits and umbrellas to entice people to like us on Facebook.

Cake for Likes Marketing Event (Nixon, 2017)

The reason for doing this event was to expand the range of people who liked our Facebook page. Before today the majority of our followers were friends and family. By targeting other students around the university it meant we could get new followers from different courses who could spread the word about our company gaining us a new audience. Although the wind and rain limited the number of people around campus we still managed to reach our target of 300 likes.

Thanks to the rest of Fragment Theatre Company for standing in the freezing cold rain with me!

A Cold and Tired Fragment Theatre Company (Nixon, 2017)

Works Cited:

Nixon, E. (2017) A cold and tired fragment theatre company.

Nixon, E. (2017) Cakes for likes marketing event.

March 20, 2017Lucy Workman No Comments

Life as a Stage Manager

As the Stage Manager of Fragment Theatre Company I am ensuring that I know the show inside out. This means arriving early for every rehearsal and ensuring I am making detailed rehearsal notes as well as keeping mental notes for myself so that I am able to answer any questions posed to me about the practicalities of the show or schedules or deadlines that I am in charge of creating.

My job as Stage Manager also consists of booking and running weekly production meetings to ensure each part of the production team is aware of what needs to be done and by setting deadlines in these meetings I ensure everything to do with the production is kept on track. All production meeting notes (that can be found in the Production Documents page) that I create after each meeting will get posted on our private Facebook page so everyone has access to them and is aware of all the deadlines that have been set. For the first few meetings, I prepared a list of things to discuss to keep the meetings on track. However, I quickly realised that a more efficient way of running the meetings was to create an agenda each week and make that available to everyone a few days before so each member can be fully prepared for the meeting, an example of which you can see below.

Figure 1 – Screenshot of Production Meeting Agenda for Friday 17th February 2017 (Workman, 2017)

The first few weeks of this process have been focused on devising material to put into our show, so the need for rehearsal schedules and rehearsal notes has not been necessary until this point. Now we have started getting our show off the page and on its feet, I will be posting weekly rehearsal schedules to our private Facebook page. This will ensure each member of the company knows when and where they need to be for rehearsals. All Rehearsal Schedules will also be posted in the Production Documents page on our blog.

I will also be creating rehearsal notes where necessary so that all discussions about props, set, sound, lighting and costume for each section of the show will be all in one document and easily accessible to whoever may need them. These rehearsal notes will come in handy particularly when members of our company with production roles are not needed for rehearsals, as they can read through the notes once they have been typed up and take the information that relates to their production role.

As a professional theatre company, we are required to provide a technical rider to the theatre, encompassing everything they need to know about the show before we arrive on Tech Day. This document outlines any set, props or lighting we will need them to provide for us, including any other technical requirements we may need. This, alongside all our other technical documents will be posted on the Technical Documents page on our blog.

Our company had a production meeting with Martin Rousseau, Stage Manager at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC), on Tuesday 14^th March to discuss our initial ideas for the show and preliminary technical requirements for our show. This required me to translate our concept for the show into practical terms and communicate that to Martin clearly. I did this by creating a draft technical rider (as seen below) clearly outlining everything we will require from the LPAC. This draft document then formed the basis for our final Technical Rider, as I added and removed things as our show progressed.

Figure 2 – Screenshot of Draft Technical Rider (Workman, 2017)

Figures

Figure 1 – Workman, L. (2017) Screenshot of Production Meeting Agenda for Friday 17th February 2017. Lincoln.

Figure 2 – Workman, L. (2017) Screenshot of Draft Technical Rider. Lincoln.

March 18, 2017Robert Edward Anthony No Comments

Exit This Way

Last night our theatre company attended Wail (2017) by Little Bulb Theatre at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. This performance involved actors Clare Beresford and Dominic Conway, playing a multitude of instruments which were pre-set on the stage and utilised when needed, whilst delivering information to the audience about whales and humans.

Figure 1 – Wail at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (Exeunt Magazine, 2016)

The actors did this in a playful manor through the adoption of exaggerated characters with signifying props and costumes. This performance is described by the company as ‘[part] gig, part lecture’ (Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 2017), which included direct address to the audience and a ‘purposely childlike aesthetic’ (Exeunt Magazine, 2016), resulting in an overall energetic and comical tone to the performance.

(Little Bulb Theatre, 2017)

The influences from this performance, in conjunction with the current progression of our ideas throughout rehearsals, has led our company towards the idea of producing a post dramatic, postmodern styled performance which integrates direct audience address and focuses on the ‘materiality of performance [… and] challenges to the dominance of the text’ (Jürs-Munby in Lehmann, 2006, 4).

As both a writer and actor, I am aware that the process of devising a post dramatic, postmodern piece may include creating a script that functions as a documentation of the devised work, with dialogue being written after the idea of a scene has been formed, to establish scenes and characters where necessary. With the text being ‘just one element in the scenography and general ‘performance writing’’ (Jürs-Munby in Lehmann, 2006, 4), of the piece.

This form of devising and scripting is one which we have already established and will continue to build upon as more material is created. An example of this from our rehearsal process can be seen through the devising of our ‘music section’ which is being generated through experimentation with the cast ‘moving in time with music’ and undertaking daily routines with music.

(Anthony, 2017)

Once these ideas are fully formed as a scene, they will then be scripted and finalised.

During rehearsals and production meetings this week, we have also confirmed the name for our show as ‘Exit This Way’, with alternate names such as ‘Pie in the Sky’, and ‘Pipe Dreams’ being amongst the suggested options.

For my role as digital executive I have also advertised our recent marketing event of a Pub Quiz on the blog’s ‘Get Involved Page’.

Figure 2 – Promotion of Fragment Theatre Company Quiz (Anthony, 2017)

I have since removed this event now the ‘Upcoming Events’ section, and I will update this segment if it is required before, or once the event for our final show has been created by our marketing team.

Works Cited:

Anthony, R. (2017) Moving to Music [online video]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=097_jyVir-U [accessed 16 March 2017].

Exeunt Magazine. (2016) Review: WAIL at BAC. Exeunt Magazine. Available from http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/review-wail-at-bac/ [accessed 18 March 2017].

Jürs-Munby, K. (2006) Introduction. In: H. T. Lehmann Postdramatic theatre. Oxon: Routledge.

Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (2017) Wail. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. Available from https://lpac.co.uk/event/wail/ [accessed 18 March 2017].

Little Bulb Theatre (2017) Wail [live performance]. Performed by Little Bulb Theatre. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 17 March.

Little Bulb Theatre (2017) WAIL – UK TOUR 2017 [online video]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U7zBYhNS3k [accessed 18 March 2017].

Figures:

Figure 1 – Exeunt Magazine (2016) Wail at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. Available from http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/review-wail-at-bac/ [accessed 18 March 2017].

Figure 2 – Anthony, R. (2017) Promotion of Fragment Theatre Company Quiz. Lincoln.