Author: Robert Edward Anthony

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.

Our company has recently made the decision to include Brodie as a second narrator, alongside my own character. This decision has been made to enhance the post dramatic style we intend our piece to have.

We plan on using these two narrators (who will be heightened versions of Brodie and I) to explicitly ‘create’ scenes and characters when establishing the four sections of the show (which are childhood, food, writing and music) through fast paced and possibly comical dialogue. The two of us have been selected as actors due to the contrast between our serious and comical natures, which I believe exaggerated on stage, will give us the potential to create enjoyable, energised characters who can be used to set and maintain the pace of the performance.

The intermediate space in which these playful interludes between the different sections will occur has been titled ‘limbo’. This ‘in-between’ space may also adopt themes from an initial idea of including a ‘video game’ or ‘game show’ section as a form of escapism, which will be documented once our technical designer uploads his mood boards to the Technical Documents page of our blog. I believe this deliberately playful aspect this will convey the narrators as a form of ‘game show hosts’ when ‘creating’ the different sections.

This challenges my role as an actor, as for this performance I will be portraying a heightened version of myself as the ‘game show host’ styled narrator, which will entail breaking in and out of moments of ‘polished performance’ and ‘rehearsal discussions’. The difficulty here will be creating a distinct ‘switch’ between these states through either gestures of use of voice, or both.

Whilst scripting and rehearsing the dialogue between the narrators thus far, I have been identifying specific lines which signify the change between the ‘polished’ and ‘rehearsal’ moments to help myself differentiate these switches in pace and tone of delivery.

Figure 1 – Annotated Script (Anthony, 2017)

During rehearsals this week as shown in the above video, we have also experimented with these changes in the narrators dialogues being accompanied by a physical movement either to or away from the proposed microphone stands the narrators will have either side of the stage, to reinforce the idea that the polished performance moments are ‘pre-meditated’ and therefore delivered through the microphones, with the ‘rehearsal conversations’ being delivered in the space between the microphone stands at the front of the stage, at a slower pace to extenuate the illusion that these lines are being thought of in the moment.

Throughout the following weeks I will continue working on the distinction between ‘Rob’ as the ‘polished and prepared narrator/game show host’ and ‘Rob’ as the ‘narrator/game show host in conversations/rehearsals’ during the different sections of the script.

 

    

Figure:

Anthony, R. (2017) Annotated Script. Lincoln.

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.

During the first few weeks of this module we have begun to create material and themes for our show, which will be based upon escapism. We currently aim to include four sections which will show an array of methods that individuals use to escape from everyday life.

On February 3^rd I partook in a workshop with Flick Book Theatre, a company who can be found on their Facebook Page here.

I found this session useful for highlighting various methods of generating material for our show, as our company have decided to generate material during rehearsals to be scripted afterwards, rather than relying on the creation of a script for dramatic influence.

If we proceed with this method of generating material, we will be producing a post-modern piece as ‘[postmodern] theatre is […] characterized through its emphasis on voice and image, rather than on narrative and character, emphasizing the collective and interactive over the individual and self-sufficient text’ (Malkin, 1999, 17). I will undergo further research into post-modern theatre as the process continues if it remains relevant, as being the writer for our theatre company it is important for me to understand how the creative process during rehearsals will influence the way in which the script takes form.

During the workshop with Flick Book Theatre we were prompted to find pages on Wikipedia relevant to the current topics and ideas for our production. This was done to provide us with hyperlinks to correlating or juxtaposing pages which resulted in us having a plethora of ideas and topics on Post-It notes, to explore when continuing the creation of our show.

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Figures 1 – 3 – Pictures of Post-It Notes in Flick Book’s Workshop (Anthony, 2017)

An exercise which stood out for me as both a writer and actor of our cast included our company writing and subsequently answering questions which ranged from personal to seemingly random ones. I found that the impromptu nature of answering questions provided an enjoyable ‘live’ element to the ‘performance’ we participated in when answering, which I personally wish to replicate in some way when creating our final production.

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Figures 4 -10 – Pictures of Flick Book’s Workshop (Anthony, 2017)

During the rehearsals and production meetings following the Flick Book Theatre workshop our group has been continued to discuss the ideas for our final performance.

In order to decide upon the content of the four sections of our show, we are all going to bring in stories surrounding how each cast member escapes, for next week’s rehearsals. I believe this method of generating material from our personal experiences will enhance the content of our script by adding the personal connections with the material present.

During this week I have also taken on the role of ‘digital executive’, which means I will be designing and creating the ‘blog’ which these posts will be present on. This production role will also involve editing videos of rehearsals for use on the blog, and providing links to the social media and marketing of our company.

 

        

 

Works Cited:

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

Facebook (2017) ccessed 12 February 2017].

 

Figures:

Figure 1 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Post-It Notes in Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 2 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Post-It Notes in Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 3 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Post-It Notes in Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 4 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 5 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 6 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 7 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 8 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 9 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

Figure 10 – Anthony, R. (2017) Pictures of Flick Book’s Workshop. Lincoln.

 

Before the first timetabled session for this module, as our theatre company group had already been decided we arranged a meeting on Tuesday 24^th January to establish everyone’s production roles, and to generated potential ideas for both our show and the company’s name.

During this meeting I chose to take on the role of both actor and writer. I decided upon these roles as I wish proceed with acting and script writing on a professional level after university. I believe everyone was happy with their position in the theatre company, and following this finalisation of roles, we decided upon our companies’ hierarchy, in order for us to operate similarly to how a professional theatre company would. The document containing the roles and responsibilities for our cast, will be uploaded to this site once finalised.

Figure 1 – Initial group meeting (Chattaway, 2017)

As a group we then ‘mind mapped’ our initial thoughts for our 45-60 minute assessed piece. From this an idea regarding escaping into music became apparent to us. The concept escapism using music, or the utilisation of lyrics and songs in everyday situations to create a ‘fantasy world’ or ‘ideal scenario’ was one which we believed held a lot of creative potential.

The notion of escapism stemmed from a discussions regarding the current political situations occurring worldwide. Whilst we did not wish to ignore these global issues, we equally did not intend to base a performance explicitly on these matters.

Figure 2 – Mind mapping potential ideas (Chattaway, 2017)

As a result of this, we decided to explore how the ‘individual’ person copes with these ‘big issues’ on a daily basis: by escaping. From this discussion came the word ‘fragment’ and subsequently the name Fragment Theatre Company.

I believe this name suits the initial ideas we have for our company as we intend to focus on the uniqueness of individuals and how their story creates perspectives to ‘big issues’ that aren’t often voiced.

 

Since this initial meeting we have had one seminar with our lecturer, which has reinforced the ideals of having individual production roles, a hierarchy and code of conduct for our company. These documents will be uploaded in the ‘Production’ category of our ‘Documents’ tab on the blog’s menu bar, when completed.

Despite this being an early stage of the module, I have also been made aware of the significance of Art’s Council Funding, in regards to the success and practicality of working as a professional Theatre Company. Although we will receive £166.66 from the School of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln, and aim to fundraise further budget to aid our production, I understand that if we were a professional theatre company we would need to apply to the Art’s Council England (ACE)  for funding.

ACE “offer awards from £1,000 to £100,000 to support a wide variety of arts-related activities, from dance to visual arts, literature to theatre, music to combined arts” (Arts Council England, 2017), through their Grants for the Arts project, which would be vital to our process and budget if we were operating as a professional theatre company.

 

Following this first session we have decided to research further into escapism in order to expand the potential ideas for our final performance.

 

      

Works Cited:

Arts Council England (2017) Arts Council England. London: Arts Council England. Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/ [Accessed 1 February 2017].

Arts Council England (2017) Get Funding. London: Arts Council England. Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding [Accessed 1 February 2017].

 

Figures:

Figure 1 – Chattaway, A. (2017) Initial group meeting. Lincoln.

Figure 2 – Chattaway, A. (2017) Mind mapping potential ideas. Lincoln.