2017 – Page 2

May 25, 2017Brodie Atkinson No Comments

‘Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down’ (Astley, 1987)

‘Now that we are the best. We are going to tour the world with fragment because we’re the best.’ (Goddard, 2017)

Is what most of the members of Fragment Theatre Company would say when the question of the future is brought up.

In all seriousness, this experience has made me believe more in the process of theatre and creating a theatre company. I think the key to it was finding a group of people with the same work ethos and the want to create similar theatre, resulting in the final product being a metaphysical and tongue in cheek interpretation of escapism. Something we had wanted all along. Though we started with a more serious tone, we always knew that our strength would be in dark comedy, a comedy that uses those serious tones but laughs at them.

Making a Monster. (Nixon, 2017)

As this picture shows, throughout the whole process we had this playful approach to the creation of our material and I think the moment we struck gold as a theatre company, was when we fully utilised this approach. We quickly realised that through the metaphysical and DIY style of theatre that we were making, we also were achieving this comical approach to the serious nature of escapism.

Talking about the comical approach we brought to our show, I feel like this had more of an impact then we realised. Even in the tech and dress run, we realised how much quicker and witter the script was. Plus the tongue in cheek and darker comedy was amplified by the audience being there, as was seen by the laughing section in Roxy’s section. This was a serious section, however due to the shows tone, the audience joined in laughing which created a really dark and sadistic moment. That was when I fully knew we had achieved the comical approach to a serious topic.

As well, the DIY aspect of our theatre company means that it creates a fun and quirky presentation of our shows. This was fully utilised with the writing scene, which on show day, found a new level of comedic effect.

The Space Scene comes alive. (O’Donnell, 2017)

Looking towards the future of Fragment Theatre Company, and I see a company that could take their manifesto and create more great content. The shows we would be able to produce, especially within the current political and social climate, would bring a bit of the comedy back to this world. At least on the stage and for some time afterwards, in the minds of our audience. We would of course have to scale down Exit This Way to make it more tour able but I think this is totally achievable and would add more to the play, due to our use of DIY theatre. I feel like due to the metaphysical and DIY aspect of our company, Arts Council Funding would be fully utilised to create a show that could easily be toured around. This is already seen by the fact that all our Props and Costume could be placed into my car and transported around Lincoln, and after dealing with the set and lighting, we could easily have a show that works around the country.

Overall Fragment Theatre Company has developed into a thing that I can be proud of. We stayed true to ourselves and our creativity, even in the face of worries that our style of comedy wouldn’t work with a live audience. We created a company that wanted to bring a bit of fun and humour back to this world, that is finding itself in a rut of sad and evil stories. This isn’t to say that we sugar-coated the world though, we just showed that it is fine to laugh at yourself and the problems within this world. All-in-all, I’m very proud of Exit This Way and Fragment for producing a show that doesn’t need to rely on favouritism or pre-existing opinions and successfully showed the quirky nature of the people within it.

Works Cited

Goddard, C. (2017) Blog Sesh in the Library.

Nixon, E. (2017) Fragment Theatre Company’s Gallery.

O’Donnell, S. (2017) Fragment Theatre Company’s Tech and Dress Run.

May 25, 2017Benjamin Rowan No Comments

Ben Rowan’s Drag Race

“’That’s a wrap’ 3 years of my university degree has come to an end. And I couldn’t of thought of a better way to close the greatest 3 years of my life, dancing to Beyoncé and rocking a bright pink feather boa. Thank you to the entire cast in Fragment Theatre, I am extremely grateful to finish my final show with you guys #fragmentforever” (Rowan, 2017).

(Drag Show Grace Kelly from Odonnell, 2017)

(So I tried a little Freddie from Odonnell, 2017)

(Drag Show Love for Brodie from Odonnell, 2017)

(Hanging out the Washing from Odonnell, 2017)

(Private Detective Johanna Andrews from Odonnell, 2017)

(I am the Solar System from Odonnell, 2017)

(The Perfect Boy from Odonnell, 2017)

(Smile from Odonnell, 2017)

The Creation of Stage Ben

The idea that our show was post dramatic gave the development of my character a unique twist. Reasons for this, was the fact my character was named Ben, in-fact, it was not even a character, more an overdramatised version of myself. I began the development of stage Ben by researching a technique I learnt in Acting for Media, being Stanislavski’s method ‘the magic if’. The Magic If allows “an actor [to] asks themselves a what if question about their character” (Mroczka, 2013). Once I received the script, and became aware on what I was written to do. I began to ask myself the questions as if I was actually stage Ben. Stage Ben wanted to present a better self by using lyrics as ‘they present what we all want to say’. During the Mika section, the song Grace Kelly mentions two personalities, Grace Kelly and Freddie. Due to the fact two personalities and escaping too deep into the lyrics, Ben became confused between the two personalities and ended up having a complete breakdown. Stanislavski’s method allowed me to access how my personal self would react if confronted with a number of different personalities, and the result of this was seen on the 19^th May during the final section of Exit This Way.

Reflection

During the build up to the opening night of Exit This Way was extremely intense with the daily eight hour rehearsals, and the thought that I would be dancing in a pink feather boa and red lipstick to Grace Kelly by Mika (Mika, 2006). Despite the continues sleepless nights and endless meltdowns, it was possibly the most entertaining and sassy thing I have ever done in a performance. The trick to pull it off was to give no cares and to fully go for it, and the response to it was outstanding, making it all worthwhile. To be a part of a post dramatic performance was also a different experience, compared to other productions I have done. The fact I was not playing a character, but an overdramatised version of myself made it more personal to me, as it felt like I was telling the audience my story, rather than someone else’s. Shout out to the writers (Brodie Atkinson & Rob Anthony) for giving me the opportunity to tell a story I can relate to. Overall, performing in Exit This Way, and being a part of Fragment Theatre Company, and working alongside nine other incredibly talented and special people, has certainly been a life-changing experience and something I will treasure always.

Xoxo Technical Designer

Works Cited:

Mika. (2006) Grace Kelly. [CD Track] 3 mins. 5 secs. The Boy Who Knew Too Much. United States: Island.

Mroczka, P. (2013) Stanislavski Method: Magic If and Illusion of the First Time. [online] Available from http://broadwayeducators.com/stanislavski-method-magic-if-and-illusion-of-the-first-time/ [Accessed 18 April 2017].

Odonnell. (2017) Drag Show Grace Kelly.

Odonnell. (2017) Drag Show Love for Brodie.

Odonnell. (2017) So I tried a little Freddie.

Odonnell. (2017) Hanging out the Washing.

Odonnell. (2017) Private Detective Johanna Andrews.

Odonnell. (2017) I am the Solar System.

Odonnell. (2017) The Perfect Boy.

Odonnell. (2017) Smile.

Rowan, B. (2017) End of Show Status. [Facebook] 20 May. Available from https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1378309211 [Accessed 25 May 2017].

May 23, 2017Chloe Catherine Goddard No Comments

The End of Fragment Theatre Company?

Fragment Theatre Company was a new and exciting experience that tested and proved to be much more than I originally thought it could ever be. Though I set out with the idea of creating a piece of theatre with a group of friends, it developed into something beyond just purely rehearsals and performance. Though the rehearsal process wasn’t always as smooth as we had all initially anticipated, the creative differences we had as a group ultimately shaped the piece we created and encouraged us to produce something better than we thought we could.

Alexander Kelly, the co-artistic director of the theatre company Third Angel states that when setting up a theatre company the atmosphere and the member’s attitude has to have an element of fun. Though, keeping professional, he suggests ‘don’t let things get to you too much – build a good support team around you and give them responsibilities’ (Kelly, 2013). I feel Fragment has been a journey of learning for many of the members, not just a journey of learning new skills in how to set up a theatre company, but long lasting skills such as the power of social media, ways of getting involved in the community and cohesively working in groups in a professional and sociable manner.

Though our final performance had glitches, as most theatre companies experience on show day, the response from the audience encouraged us during the show and helped each actor bounce off the energy given resulting in the best version of Exit This Way we had done.

Going forward with Fragment Theatre Company, I feel there are many more ideas and concepts that could be created. However, if we were to tour with ‘Exit This Way’ or any other shows, we would have to evaluate the large set and amount of props that we used, as these would not be viable to tour with for quick get ins and get outs. However I believe with slight adjustments to the script and our aesthetic we would be able to keep creating thought-provoking metaphysical theatre appropriate for vast amounts of audience members.

Fragment Theatre Company, from the start to the end.

(Chattaway, 2017)

Works Cited:

Chattaway, A. (2017)

Kelly, A. (2013) The Guardian, 28 August. Available from https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/aug/28/expert-tips-setting-up-theatre-company [Accessed on 23rd May 2017].

May 23, 2017Phillipa May Strickland No Comments

Failure, a guilty pleasure?

Failure ‘undermines the perceived stability of mainstream capitalist ideology’s preferred aspiration to achieve, succeed, or win and the accumulation of material wealth as proof and effect arranged by those aims’ (Bailes, 2011, 2). This perfectly captures one of fragments main aims to deliver the everyday story, one which is often lost within the ‘bigger’ stories portrayed by the mainstream media. We wanted to represent a realistic point of view of escapism, one which the everyday person faces, and this often means the representation of failure.

We furthermore wanted to portray humanity’s love of failure, this enjoyment of watching others fail is known as Schadenfreude (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2017). So why do we laugh at others? is it simply because it makes us feel better about ourselves, or is it something much darker such as a ‘release of aggresion’ such as freud believed – laughter “can often be an act of release of aggression when the individual is perceived as having some form of power over us, hence the slip being funnier the more powerful the slipper is” (Gray et al, 2009, 10). This idea of the enjoyment of failure was enhanced when we performed the show as the audience would laugh at inappropriate moments, and at the characters failings. After all ‘isn’t it just human nature…we love to watch people fail!’ (Fragment Theatre Company, 2017).

In ‘Exit This Way’ we represent this failure in various ways. This can be seen through the characters escapes all ending in disaster, as they realise the magic disappears once they snap back into their everyday lives. Furthermore each section ends unresolved with the characters giving up or being cut off. This can be seen clearly through the presentation of Alice’s internal battle between fantasy and reality and her ensuing breakdown, and also clearly in Ben’s performance as he can’t use his escape to achieve his goals as its not socially acceptable.

Citations

Bailes, S, (2011) Performance theatre and the poetics of failure. Abingdon: Routledge.

Gray, J. Jones, J. and Thompson, E. (2009) Satire TV: Politics and comedy in the Post-Network Era. New York: New York University Press.

Oxforddictionaries.com. (2017) Definition of Schadenfreude. [online] Available from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/schadenfreude [accessed 20 May 2017].

May 22, 2017Robert Edward Anthony No Comments

Fragment Theatre Company – Exiting This Way

Fragment Theatre Company’s debut show Exit This Way (Anthony and Atkinson, 2017) has now passed. As an actor I believe the presence of the audience intensified the chemistry between the two narrators, with the audience’s laughter as well as silence adding, at times, unexpected emphasis to various serious and comical moments throughout the performance.

Figure 1 – Narrators on Show Day (Odonnell, 2017)

Most notably this was seen within the ‘flashback’ moments between myself and Roxy’s character of Ella. These scenes, which created another ‘switch’ between the variations in my character, magnified the seriousness of the physical endurance Roxy had undergone in the performance as both herself and her character, which had not been as apparent to myself, until the performance date.

Figure 2 – Roxy and Rob on Show Day (Odonnell, 2017)

I believe the narrator’s contrast of comedy and seriousness in their personalities was made clear during the performance which, in parallel to the serious undertones to the different sections which often involved comical elements (such as Brodie’s ‘Wheel of Escapism’ costume), further extenuated both the serious and comical moments throughout the duration of the performance.

In my personal opinion the presence of the audience extenuated the ‘live atmosphere’ of the performance and provided myself with a challenge when my character was not meant to react to, or enjoy Brodie’s character’s antics.

I believe the piece could indeed be classified as a ‘postmodern’ piece as it succeeded in including the ‘characteristics [which] distinguish postmodern [performances]: fragmentation, indeterminacy, reflexivity, intertextuality, montage techniques, temporal conflation, randomness’ (Malkin, 1999, 17), which gave an insight into methods individuals may use to escape from daily life.

After reflecting on the performance I have realised that as well as representing methods of escapism this piece, through the narrator’s creation and interjection of scenes and the intermittent deterioration of characters to actors, the performance also arguably represents the presence of failure in everyday life.

Figure 3 – Ben on Show Day (Odonnell, 2017)

Upon this reflection I decided to research into the notion of failure in regards to performance. In Dr Sara Jane Bailes’ Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure (2011), Bailes describes how ‘[failure] challenges the cultural dominance of instrumental rationality and the fictions of continuity that bind the way we imagine and manufacture the world’ (Bailes, 2011, 2). I believe this notion correlates with our intention of displaying how escapism and the failures of these methods, conflict with and contrast against the ‘rationality’ of ‘the real world’ and ‘every-day life’.

If we were to work as a professional theatre company in the future, and re-produce Exit This Way (Anthony and Atkinson, 2017), I believe utilising Arts Council Funding to increase our budget would allow us to potentially tour the show, with a reduction in cast, set and props for practicality.

I believe the heightened understanding and awareness of our projection of failure within the piece, could also allow us to extenuate the contrast between ‘reality’ and ‘escapism’ already present within the script. In addition, the ‘postmodern’ self-aware characters could give us dramatic scope to acknowledge any changes to the ‘topical jokes’ present in the script, which would add another layer of meta-theatricality to our piece.

Works cited:

Anthony, R. and Atkinson, B. (2017) Exit This Way [live performance]. Performed by Fragment Theatre Company. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 19 May.

Bailes, S. J. (2011) Performance Theatre and The Poetics of Failure. Oxon: Routledge.

Malkin, J. R. (1999) Memory-Theatre and Postmodern Drama. Michigan: University of Michigan.

Figures:

Figure 1 – Odonnell, S. (2017) Narrators on Show Day. Lincoln.

Figure 2 – Odonnell, S. (2017) Roxy and Rob on Show Day. Lincoln.

Figure 3 – Odonnell, S. (2017) Ben on Show Day. Lincoln.