Author: Roxy Jarrold

The day we had worked so hard for had arrived, and we were all so excited. Tech day came and went, and was extremely successful, however with my part being unable to be put to full use it gave me a chance to focus on the proxemics and the choreography of the show.

 

Tech day (Odonnell, 2017).

 

Props galore! (Nixon, 2017).

 

This was very useful as this way I could take on the role of an audience member when I didn’t have dialogue and give movement directions accordingly to others on stage, particularly with the more structured scenes. After having a ‘props day’ at mine and Emily’s house Sunday to finalise some of the more handmade props for our show including the cakes, we all left on a high and ready to show our performance to the people of Lincoln and beyond!

The creation of George on props day (Nixon, 2017).

Show day came, and in true style I consumed 3 bananas in the morning, as apparently its supposed to stop you from being sick. With our performance being entirely post dramatic, it has a huge element of self-awareness via the audience and the actors. The world of the show does not exist, as the stage becomes part of reality. This is the common thread we had throughout our show, and was highlighted through each fragmented scene. During the show of Exit This Way, we gained laughs in places we didn’t expect, which was incredibly heart-warming and made me feel like all our blood sweat and tears were worth it. The comedic approach we took was popular, and the DIY theatre influence we used throughout our piece was very well received. Yes, a few minor hitches happened, but if I’m honest they added to the comedic effect and whilst on stage we collectively realised this and played on it.

   

                Game show featuring cake (Odonnell, 2017).                                                                                    Unenthusiastic Ella (Odonnell, 2017).

Ella on her bike (Odonnell, 2017).

 

To continue this show on tour past the depths of Lincoln University, we would need to seriously consider our staging and props. The amount of props we have would be unmanageable to take on tour. However, with the vast majority of these being homemade and and having a DIY feel, these could be easily remade in a day and throw away to and from each place. We would need to gain funding from Arts Council, and in order to do so, their policy regarding sustainability would result in us needing to do this to achieve funding.

Even though the Banana technique did not work, and I was in the most pain I think I’ve ever been in, I’d do it all again in a heartbreak for these 9 talented, incredible individuals. Fragment Theatre Company has given me the best memories of my final module at Lincoln University, and for that I will be forever thankful. This is only the beginning. ‘What a crazy few months. There’s been laughter, arguments, tears, fun, water fights at 2pm, food, alcohol, a missing pip, props, injuries and bloody hard work but what we’ve achieved will never been forgotten. I am so honoured to have shared the stage with such amazing people and to have been guided through by an outstanding production team. I love you all, always’ (Jarrold, 2017).

                       

                                                     Fragment can celebrate too (Chattaway, 2017).                             Cake for likes (Nixon, 2017).

the beginning of Fragment (Rowan 2017).

Fragment poster (Nixon, 2017).

 

Work cited:

Artscouncil.org.uk. (2017). Our mission and strategy | Arts Council England. [online] Available at: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/about-us/our-mission-and-strategy [Accessed 29 May 2017].

Chattaway, A. (2017) Fragment can celebrate too.

Jarrold, R. (2017).

Nixon, E. (2017) Cake for likes.

Nixon, E. (2017). Props galore!

Nixon, E. (2017) The creation of George on props day.

Nixon, E. (2017) Fragment poster.

Odonnell, S. (2017). Game show featuring cake.

Odonnell, S. (2017). Ella on her bike.

Odonnell, S. (2017) Tech day.

Odonnell, S. (2017). Unenthusiastic Ella.

Rowan, B. (2017). The beginning of Fragment.

Acting. Drama. The degree I’ve been studying for the past 3 years, yet I’ve never in my life experienced anything like this. Endurance? Most people would think of sport or nutrition upon hearing this word, however endurance performance pieces really do exist; safe or not.

When joe approached the group, asking who felt comfortable eating a considerable amount of food on stage, my instant reaction was to throw my hand in the air dramatically. Anyone that knows me will know how much I eat and how usually this would not be a problem. Usually. After accepting the challenge, joe sat me down and explained in detail my role within the show and how I would need to prepare. I waited to write this blog until after I had tried out my scene, so I could really explain it detail.

So, my role appeared from a personal story within the group focusing on eating disorders and obsession. The story was of a girl that became obsessed with calorie counting and exercise alongside her eating habits. The exercise was a form of escapism juxtaposing her eating. The scene would be an ongoing piece throughout the entire play, to show the negative impact escapism can have on our bodies physically and how dangerous it can be. During the show at different intervals, a total of 5 cakes would appear on stage at different times for me to eat one by one, followed by excersising on a spin bike at regular points. Throughout this, there is several passages of dialogue between me Brodie and Rob, whom are, in a gameshow manner, guiding me through the process. Before running the scene through, I did a lot of research into endurance based performances. Carolee Schneeman is a endurance performer and it was intriguing to research her performance ‘Up to and including her limits’ (Schneeman, 1976). Although this was unlike the eating endurance piece I was about to do, it was eye opening to see a performer pushing her body’s limit physically and mentally; something that I was about to do.

The first run through of this scene with the cake happened yesterday and I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting it to be this hard.

Endurance eating (Workman, 2017).

I had to be driven home and proceeded to be sick for the rest of the day. Although it was an awful experience, watching the recording of it today was powerful and very moving. It really brought to light the struggles man people in the world face today with body image, over or under eating, exercise and general self-consciousness. I am very aware that this scene will not be able to be practised with cake many time before the show, as it is very unhealthy and completely impossible to do during daily rehearsal. However, the spin bike is residing in my student house so I shall be training on that daily to prepare myself in the running up to the show.

 

Work sited:

Workman, L. (2017) Endurance eating.

Schneeman, C (1976). Up to and including her limits.

 

 

So, I’ve decided to post a blog purely about my role as a choreographer, as it is VERY separate from my acting role in the show now. In fact, I am involved in no choreographed sequences at all, but we will get to that later.

As our show has progressed, so has the choreography, and it is very exciting to be given the chance to create some funny scenes regarding movement. A scene we’ve been working on today involves shadow work behind a sheet using a big flashlight- something I have no experience with. However, the movement behind it is very similar that of a ‘fairy tale’, so working with the shadows is just a heightened version of something I may choreograph without them. As we are going with the comedic effect throughout our piece, the use of props within this part is very poignant, as it allows us to create funny images and even scenery. The fairy tale begins with a little girl, who’s mother and father spoil her, however as she grows up she no longer has them to rely on and has to make her way in the world. This story involves the entrance of a spinster, a mother and father figure, and a troll. Organising an extra rehearsal specifically for this choreography was extremely helpful going into the next rehearsal as it only involved 4-5 bodies to create the piece.

                                                           

Shadow choreography (Jarrold, 2017).                                                                    Shadows with props (Jarrold, 2017).

As well as this, another scene towards the end of the show has a drag performance in it, whereby Ben is performing a caberet style drag act. Our director Joe started this scene having Ben improvise and as hilarious as it was to watch being friends with him, visually it needed some choreography in order to have a successful scene. I was really exciting to get stuck into this, as although the undertone of this scene was extremely sad, it could be fun and light hearted too. Before organising a rehearsal with Ben, I watched a few drag act routines on youtube, as my dance background doesn’t delve into drag at all. I came across ‘RuPauls drag race’ which I was able to watch on Netflix and was the inspiration behind Bens choreography. The reality show involves ‘emphasis on the survival stories of its contestants reveals how performance can be empowering’ (Betancourt, 2017). Although the choreography needed to be entertaining, our director wanted it to have a message regarding Ben’s struggle in the modern day world.

                                             

Bens scene- Ending (Jarrold,2017).                                                                                                             Bens scene (Jarrold, 2017).

Ben and I had so much fun in rehearsal choreographing this, and having already prepared a routine this was easy to portray to him. The choreography involved Ben as a drag act, with 4 others participating and being his ‘wardrobe’. The routine came naturally to Ben, as he already had a good sense of rhythm and technique, so we were able to add lots of detail. Although this piece was comical, I was very aware of the sad undertone this scene portrays. I decided, towards the end of the routine, to have a 4 beat pause whereby ben does nothing but stare at the audience showing ‘desperation’ just before other company members rush to dress him in yet more drag attire. Watching him do this was very powerful and I believe can only get stronger in the lead up to the final performance.

 

Work Cited:

Betancourt, M. (2017). ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ and the Art of Self-Love. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/05/rupauls-drag-race-and-the-art-of-self-love/482265/ [Accessed 16 May 2017].

Bowie, D. (1983) Lets Dance.

Jarrold, R. (2017) Bens scene-ending.

Jarrold, R. (2017) Bens scene.

Jarrold, R. (2017) Shadow choreography.

Jarrold, R. (2017) Shadows with props.

 

Rehearsals are well under way, and at the moment there are so many ideas for our show I’m not sure we will ever come to a final decision! Although we all have the same overall aim; to show an audience ‘the little people in a bigger picture’, how we send this message is becoming a tough nut to crack.

One thing is certain, individual stories are being used as the main basis of our piece in some form. With this, we all brought in a story personal to us that we are willing to share that has impacted our life in some way. This rehearsal was really eye opening, and came with lots of raw emotion and empathy. This solidified the idea of using personal stories to enhance our performance on stage as emotions would be real. We then played around with how we would go about this, as if the stories we use are true to life, we would need ‘characters’ as such. This is when the word ‘meta-theatrical’ performance was brought to light. It all sounds very fancy and to be honest I wasn’t 100% sure what it meant. Whilst researching meta-theatrical shows together we came across a number of comedic approaches. This greatly excited us, because as an ensemble our talents in acting lean towards comedy and playfulness. I wouldn’t say we are unsure, I’d lean more towards ‘artistic overload’ of ideas. So after this rehearsal, we decided our show would be based on… ESCAPISM. We decided to stick with the personal stories, but rather than tell them, we would show how we escape them. We decided to go with this idea because we felt a lot more people would find our show relatable.

Last week, I volunteered to be in charge of making ad ordering our company t-shirts, and yesterday they have arrived! It’s perfect timing as our fundraising quiz was tonight, so we made our debut in them as a group. Taking away the quiz prizes, we managed to make £88.90 profit!

                                            

Fragment tops (Jarrold,2017).                                        Fundraising quiz (Jarrold, 2017).

This week also came with some exciting news. Brodie has decided to step down from the marketing role to focus on being a writer, so our producer Hannah asked if I would like to help Emily with the marketing side of things. At the moment my role as choreographer is practical in rehearsal but not much outside of them, so of course I am happy to have a more productive role! I got started straight away; overseeing the Twitter account. I’m really enjoying being a marketing assistant so far, as it’s something I’ve never done before. Choreography will always be ‘my thing’ but if the route for the show we are going down is meta-theatrical and comedy, I’m not sure how much choreographed movement there will be. Still, I’m having lots of fun creating different warm ups to keep everyone on their toes!

Warm up (Jarrold, 2017).

 

Another big decision we made this week is the name of our show! Now we are clear on the route we want to take it became easier to think of details such as names. Possibilities were flying left right and centre, but i’m pleased to announce the name of Fragment Theatre Company’s debut show is… EXIT THIS WAY.

 

Work cited:

Jarrold, R. (2017) Fundraising quiz.

Jarrold, R. (2017) Fragment tops.

Jarrold, R. (2017) Warm up.

 

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.