Author: Chloe Catherine Goddard

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].

 

Whilst developing ideas and the story of our show, we discovered that the script was becoming more metaphysical than originally expected. This is because we decided it would be interesting to have all characters on stage at all times being themselves and then every time a section was picked so would an actor to portray the character in that scene. This contributed to the game show style that we wanted to portray as it suggests that each actor is a contestant on the game show who gets chosen for the chance to win.

Metaphysical theatre is the ‘physical fact of spectators watching the performer who is in the same room, while, there was also the sense that fictional spaces [are] being created’ (Power, 2008, 3). This is present in Exit This Way as both the actors and the audience know that there is a show happening and the characters that are introduced are fictional and don’t identify with them as they would in a conventional play.

Due to this idea, and after talking to the technicians regarding the set of the show, we decided to use a scaffolding type cage at the back of the stage and two smaller roasters at the front. This created an interesting allusion as the 5 actors on stage were placed under the cage at the back whilst being controlled by the two hosts. The messy style setting of the aesthetic also gradually got more and more chaotic throughout the course of the show which symbolised the failure and deterioration we wanted to show through our theme.

  Initial designs of our set designed using TinkerCad software.

(Goddard, 2017)

 

 

Final designs of our set after developments exploring metatheatre

(Goddard, 2017)

 

Photos of the final set on tech day

(Goddard, 2017)

This idea was also shown through the costumes we ultimately decided to use. We all had matching t-shirts with our logo and production role on them for fundraising purposes that we wore as part of marketing our show. Consequently, we decided to use these in the actual performance to emphasise the fact that the actors were themselves. As we wanted to make it obvious that we were ourselves, we added personal touches such as our hairstyles and coloured shoes that symbolised our personalities as the show had a personal element about it.

During the creation of each character throughout, we used the technique of layering the costumes on the actor. This creates the allusion the actor is now some form of character, and makes it apparent to the audience they are now not playing themselves. The audience are always aware that though the actor’s t-shirt is masked by a costume, simultaneously the actor is masked by a character and both the character and costume are easily removed at any time during the performance.

Along with metaphysical elements, our show also held a strong post-dramatic sense throughout. A post-dramatic piece of theatre is the idea of a performance that displays ‘the breakdown of dramatic conventions’ (Lehmann, 2006, 1), and one of the main themes throughout ‘Exit This Way’ is this prevalent idea of failure and deconstruction. This was an idea I wanted to show through the set of our show as we wanted to portray this world that looked like it had been made during the show, and letting the audience watch this development or deterioration allows them to understand the positive and negative influences that escapism can have on someone.

An example of the final costumes

(Odonnell, 2017)

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Goddard, C. (2017)

Lehmann, H,T. (2006) Postdramatic Theatre. Oxon, Routledge. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=63KBAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Postdramatic+Theatre&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Postdramatic%20Theatre&f=false [Accessed on 1^st April 2017].

Odonnell, S. (2017) Fragment Theatre Company. Lincoln: SO Photography.

Power, C. (2008) Presence in Play: A Critique of Theories of Presence in the Theatre. Rodopi. Available from: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MbJzjYU10TsC&pg=PA135&dq=metaphysical+theatre&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=metaphysical&f=false [Accessed on 1^st April 2017].

 

The use of costuming is often overlooked as an element within theatre and has been purely regarded as an added embellishment to the stage. However ‘we can consider the power of costuming to shape identity’ (Monks, 2009, 3), which proves an important aspect in the creation of characters within a show, offering the audience a greater insight into who that character is.

At this point in our process, we wanted each character to have a clear costume to display that person’s personality and to make it obvious that the focus of the show was now targeted on this particular character. Our show is centred around the key prop which is named as ‘The Wheel of Escapism’, which ultimately decides the structure of the show by randomly selecting which section will be performed at what time. Each section of the wheel had a different theme and a different colour, for example the food section would be a purple segment with the word ‘food’ written on it. This prop influenced each characters costume vastly, as the colours of each characters outfits had to compliment the colour of each section. This was to enhance the idea of the game show aesthetic we were looking into using as it implies that each character can be seen as a team competing to win this escapism game show.

 

The end result of the costume/prop ‘The Wheel of Escapism’ (Odonnell, 2017)

An initial sketch of ‘The Wheel of Escapism’ (Goddard,, 2017)

The logo for ‘The Wheel of Escapism’ (Odonnell, 2017)

 

Each characters costume symbolised their way of escaping through the assigned colours. For example, the character of Laura escapes through childhood games, such as building a fort in her run down adult flat to avoid her adult responsibility of being in debt. Hence Laura’s costume would be something that she would wear whilst relaxing at home, e.g. a dressing gown.

There’s a heavy use of colour applied to each characters costume apart from the two hosts character that were recently created. This was because the host characters were in charge of this world and held the power over the other characters, therefore the difference between them and the other characters needed to be apparent. To portray this, they were dressed in formal suits to signify their importance and their passive colours of black and white helped to emphasise the fact that they were not participating in the game show.

Sketches of the costumes for each character

(Goddard, 2017)

Works Cited:

Goddard, C. (2017)

Monks, A. (2009) The actor in costume. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillian, United Kingdom.

Odonnell, S. (2017) Fragment Theatre Company. Lincoln: SO Photography.

Creating the name of a show or piece of theatre that had yet to be completed proved more difficult than we initially thought. Though we now had a basis for our show, a complete script was not yet complete and ideas were still being continuing altered.

Through the name of the show we wanted to indicate what the performance was about and what our theatre company stands for, without giving too much away. The name needed to hold a sense of intrigue for potential audience members to entice them enough for them to take an interest in without giving too much away.

Though we had a rough basis for our show, the theme of escapism, and an idea towards the fragmented structure, the rest was still in development and yet to be decided. This consequently made it more difficult to name as it needed to represent something that did not yet entirely exist.

When thinking about ideas regarding the name, the main theme that appeared to me, was the idea that ‘escaping’ is in some way leaving reality into what feels like a safer fantasy. This appeared ironic as theatre itself is a form of escapism for many people, including myself, as it helps to forget your own reality and become absorbed into the spectacle of theatre and the performance. As is the profession of acting as a person escapes their own identity to be become another through within a show.

‘Exit This Way’ came from the glowing, green sign obvious to see in the LPAC auditorium, the very setting the show will take place in. As ‘exit this way’ is a common phrase often used in everyday life, it occurred to me that escaping is something normal that many people do daily also. ‘This way’ also suggests there are multiple ways of leaving or escaping and not everyone does it the same, a key theme that is shown throughout our show.

 

 

Exit This Way sign that inspired our show’s name

(Exit This Way, 2016)

 

The imperative in the title also suggests escapism can be powerful and dominating over a person’s life. This is also portrayed throughout our own show as the character of the host appear to somehow own and construct this world that is built on the stage throughout the show and could represent someone’s own controlling thoughts.

We further tried to show this aesthetic through our poster for the show. The idea regarding the poster was to show the idea that the narrator had a greater power than the other characters in the show and had the ability to influence the way that people escaped. Working with our marketing manager, we decided that as our show was exploring the serious topic of escapism, however through a comical style, the poster and name itself needed to imply this.

 

Our finished poster

(Nixon, E, 2017)

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Exit This Way (2016) Exit This Way. [blog entry] 30 August. Available from http://nerissagolden.com/2016/08/exit-this-way/ [Accessed on 1st April 2017].

Nixon, E. (2017)

Now we had an idea of what we wanted our show to be about and the structure of it, we started to discuss the aesthetic of the piece to create a clearer idea of what the show would look like. As a creative designer, I was responsible for the set and the costuming within our show and began to look at different ways scenography could reflect the themes we were exploring.

When considering the set of our piece, it seemed imperative to fully utilise the space that was available to us; in order for us to showcase the themes and aims of our show and theatre company as a whole. When deciding the overall aesthetic within a theatre production the space is a blank canvas to enhance in a way that the show requires. When creating a set, you have the power to ‘make it and break it, what we need to [do to] create the right space and how it can be constructed with form and colour to enhance the human being and the text’ (Howard, 2009, 1). I wanted the set of our piece to compliment the actors in relation to our theme, and work simultaneously with the actors to create the overall feel of the show.

Taking influence from other theatre sets that explore scaffolding

(Pinterest, 2017) (Wilhelm Layher GmbH & Co, 2014)

 

At this point, our show is focused around the idea of being able to escape everyday issues many people suffer from through different forms of escapism, such as music, reading and writing. Even though ideas are still within the developing process, we know that there will be one main narrator character that will feature throughout, and the setting of the piece would be within this characters ‘world’. As we wanted the set to represent this ‘world’ that the character was creating, altering and manipulating throughout our show my first thought was to use some form of scaffolding. The use of scaffolding signified the narrator’s ‘hands on’ construction of this world, perhaps with the idea that this world is the narrator’s very own escape from his problems.

Initially, my set plans, included a tower of scaffolding positioned along the width of the stage at the very back, with two slightly smaller towers of scaffolding at either side of the stage.

 

 

 

A rough sketch of our initial set layout

(Goddard, C, 2017)

Another aspect of the set we wanted to include was a variety of old and new televisions placed throughout the whole of the stage. This was to indicate an idea that though the media is surrounding our lives constantly, people will continuously have individual personal issues that they want to escape. Therefore by using the towering scaffolding  this creates a distance between the actor and the televisions that are placed on them at different heights. This proposes the idea that the character is surrounded by not only all of the conflicts seen in the media but also their individual problems creating some form of entrapment for the character. This could consequently contradict the theme of escapism and sadistically suggest there is never any real escape from issues in everyday life.

 

Works Cited

Goddard, C. (2017)

Howard, P. (2009) What is Scenography? Abington: Routledge. Available from: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0Kd9AgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=scenography&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=theatre&f=false [Accessed on 4^th March 2017].

Pinterest (2017) Pinterest [online] Available from: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/147141112804219575/ [Accessed on 4^th March 2017].

Wilhelm Layher GmbH & Co. (2014) Layer. [online] Available from: http://www.layher.co.nz/scaffold/rent-scaffolding-set.html [Accessed on 4th March 2017].