Author: Benjamin Rowan

 “’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].

 

Tech Day

Today was the day we have all been waiting for… TECH DAY!! Today was the day I was given the pleasure to watch my designs change from a bunch of words and pictures on a mood bored, to actually lighting up the stage. I had my script and all ten mood boards with me, so I was able to show the technician exactly what I wanted, and thanks to an extremely organised Stage Manager (Lucy Workman), I was given the exact ques on when the lights should change from wash to wash; This off course made my life and the technicians a whole lot easier (Shout Out to Lucy Workman).

I have to admit, thanks to our lighting technician Alex, programming the lights was not as challenging as what I expected. The show Exit This Way, was based in a Gameshow, and my aim was to create an exciting, colourful and overdramatic lighting show, to cushion the seriousness within the text. It is always interesting hearing a sinister story in a family friendly atmosphere. The Gameshow mood bored can be found on https://fragmenttc.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/technical/ under Lighting Mood Board – Design 3 – Gameshow Design, the same place mentioned in previous posts.

(Gameshow Lighting Show from Rowan, 2017)

The video attached, is a video of the Gameshow Lighting Show, transitioning into the Clinical White Wash, which is discussed on the same link as the Gameshow mood bored above, but under Lighting Mood Board – Design 5 – Food Scene. During the programming on the Gameshow Lighting Show, we experimented with the different colours involved and the speed of the lighting, as during the show there is 3 different lighting shows: The Gameshow Lighting Show, The Nightclub Lighting Show and the Drag Queen Lighting Show (Lighting Mood Board – Design 6 Drag Design). In the show, each looked similar in regards to all three being extremely colourful and dramatic, however, each possessed a unique colour swash. The Gameshow Lighting Show is a mixture of: Red, Yellow, Pink, Green, Orange, Purple and Blue, whereas The Nightclub Lighting Show was a mixture of White, Blue and Green, and The Drag Queen Lighting Show was a crossover of Pink, Purple and White.

(Drag Show Grace Kelly from Odonnell, 2017)

(Drag Show Love for Brodie from Odonnell, 2017)

Help me I’m Poor

          If we were given the opportunity to develop Exit This Way and become a professional Theatre Company outside of education, we would need to apply for funding from the well-known Arts Council England; “Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences to enrich people’s lives” (GOV.uk, 2017). With the funding from Arts Council England, in regards to lighting, we would be able to hire out a portable disco ball, which is used in the Writing Section – Space Scene. Funding from Arts Council England would also support the transportation of lights between different venues, as if we were to reach a venue which did not support the technical needs we would want for our show, for example the disco ball, we would need to purchase and bring our own, in order for our show to continue from venue to venue.

Works Cited:

Drake. (2013) Started From The Bottom. [CD track] 2 mins. 53 secs.  Nothing Was the Same. OVO: Canada.

GOV.uk. (2017) Arts Council England [online] Available from https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/arts-council-england.

Jueves. (2013) Floor Spotlights.

Odonnell. (2017) Drag Show Grace Kelly.

Odonnell. (2017) Drag Show Love for Brodie.

Rowan, B. (2017) Lighting Mood Board – Design 3 – Gameshow Design [online] Available from https://fragmenttc.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/technical/ [Accessed 28 May 2017].

Rowan, B. (2017) Mood Board – Design 5 – Food Scene [online] Available from https://fragmenttc.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/technical/ [Accessed 28 May 2017].

Rowan, B. (2017) Lighting Mood Board – Design 6 Drag Design [online] Available from https://fragmenttc.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/technical/ [Accessed 28 May 2017].

Rowan, B. (2017) Gameshow Lighting Show.

Hello, my name is Benjamin Rowan, and I am the Technical Designer for Fragment Theatre Company. My job is to design the lighting for the final production. Our final production is currently split between 4 sections: Food, Childhood, Writing and Music. I believe I am a visual learner, so I have decided to create a separate mood bored for each section of the play; “A moodboard is a visual tool that communicates our concepts and visual ideas” (Interior Design Hunter, 2015).

First things first, start from the very beginning, the beginning being the opening speech between the two narrators. I have been instructed by the director (Joseph Turner) and assistant director (Brodie Atkison) of Fragment Theatre Company, to create an abandoned warehouse atmosphere. The reason both have suggested an abandoned warehouse as a stimulus, is because the two narrators symbolise the creators of this world the character wish to escape to. The abandoned warehouse also plays into the DIY theatre aspect, as the lighting style created a playground for us to build in.

The images I sourced of an abandoned warehouse and which inspired my designs, can be found on https://fragmenttc.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/technical/ under “Lighting Mood Board – Design 1 – Narrators Opening Speech” (Rowan, 2017).

(Abandoned Warehouse from Pinterest, 2017)

The image above is the first image I have found, and the first I will be using to inspire the lighting design for the opening section. The first thing I spotted and which I wish to recreate is the sunshine beams which shine through the gaps of the building. The abandoned warehouse has been left to naturally self-demolish, causing these gaps seen in the picture above on the ceiling and in the walls. The sunlight beams shine through these gaps causing shaped shining’s on the floor. This inspires me to create similar beams shining through the scaffolding, giving the effect that the dream world has not yet been fully constructed, and gaps remain in the dream like world. My next step is to create a colour scheme which matches the colours seen in the image above. The colour scheme seen through many pictures of abandoned warehouses are very dark and warn. The colours seen in the image above consist of colours such as brown and green. A similar colour scheme which resembles an abandoned warehouse can be seen in films or video games which are based in a post-apocalyptic world (I am Legend & The Last of Us).

My next step is to create a mood bored for a gameshow. As seen on the walls of the buildings in the images seen on the ‘Lighting Mood Board – Design 1 – Narrators Opening Speech,’ there appears to be graffiti from visitors who wishes to express their creative side. The graffiti shows a variety of bright colours, like the colours we see on an actual gameshow on television. The mood bored which created the Gameshow design in the final production can be found at https://fragmenttc.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/technical/ under “Lighting Mood Board – Design 3 – Gameshow Design” (Rowan, 2017).

Works Cited:

Interior Design Hunter (2015) What is a moodboard and how to create one? [online] Available from http://interiorstylehunter.com/what-is-a-moodboard-and-how-to-create-one/ [Accessed 28 May 2017].

Pinterest (2017) Abandoned Warehouse.

Rowan, B. (2017) Lighting Mood Board – Design 1 – Narrators Opening Speech [online] Available from https://fragmenttc.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/technical/ [Accessed 28 May 2017].

Rowan, B. (2017) Lighting Mood Board – Design 3 – Gameshow Design [online] Available from https://fragmenttc.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/technical/ [Accessed 28 May 2017].

The Topic

The 1st of February hit, and the second semester of third year began. Today was the day, 10 students partaking in the theatre company module met for the first time after deciding to create a theatre company together. We began the process by brainstorming any ideas we each had for the final production. We began the discussion by creating an extremely colourful (thanks to me) spider diagram, displaying all our ideas (see Show Idea’s).

 

(Show Idea’s from Rowan, 2017)

The Spider Diagram was designed to create a foundation of our final production regarding the plot of the show. Our first creation was to create a piece based on a known celebrity biography. Two celebrities which were mentioned in the discussion were David Bowie and Ellen DeGeneres. This then continued to spark more idea’s, and changing it from a show based on a biography, to a production based on an album showing the audience how we use music to escape our reality. We all shared a great liking to the idea of escapism, so discussed on creating 5 characters which each possess individual sub stories and show different ways of escaping reality; “The ultimate “goal” of escapism is the destruction of “self”” (Mikey D, 2014). Each character’s story would be told through a song from a variety of different albums and genres. For example, it was discussed to include a character suffering from an alcohol addiction, and the story will be told through the music created by Amy Winehouse. (Amy Winehouse, 2006). Alongside the character suffering with an alcohol addiction, we created a character confused about his sexuality. Inspired by the musical Chicago (Marshall, 2002), we wanted to tell the story of a man who works a 9-5 office job Monday to Friday and on Weekends is the most fabulous Drag performer.

Continuing the discussion, we decided as a group to keep the idea of escapism, and develop other ideas surrounding the idea of escaping reality. We played a game of word association, saying words which related to escapism and other ways of escaping (see Show Ideas). 1^st February 2017 was the day we decided our final production was about escapism and the idea of escaping reality.

Who’s Who?

After creating the topic, it was time to decide our roles within the production. Luckily this did not take long as we all already knew who wanted to do what. The roles can be seen in Job Role’s.

(Job Role’s from Rowan, 2017)

Producer: Hannah D’Arcy

Director: Joseph Turner

Stage Manager: Lucy Workman

Assistant Director: Brodie Atkinson

Marketing: Emily Nixon

Technical Designer: Benjamin Rowan

Props: Phillipa Strickland

Choreographer: Roxy Jarold

Creative Designer: Chloe Goddard

Writer: Rob Anthony & Brodie Atkinson

Performers: Brodie, A. Rob, A. Hannah, D. Chloe, G. Phillipa, S. Emily, N. Benjamin, R. Roxy, J.

 #FragmentTheatreForever

Once the roles were decided, it was time for the fun part. It was time (finally) to decide the name of our theatre company. Bringing back the word association game, we wrote a list of words which linked to each idea seen in Image One (see Theatre Company Name’s and Fundraising Ideas).

(Theatre Company Name’s and Fundraising Ideas from Rowan, 2017)

We then picked two words at random to see what name we would discover. We ended up with a variety of different ideas of theatre company names, and after researching if any of the names already existed, we became … Fragment Theatre Company.

(Cast from Fragment Theatre, 2017)

Works Cited:

Amy Winehouse. (2006) Rehab. [CD track] 3 mins. 34 secs. Amy Winehouse Back to Black. New York: Allido Studios.

Efron, Z. Hudgens, V. (2006) Start Of Something New. [CD track] 3 mins. 17 secs. High School Musical (An Original Walt Disney Soundtrack). Walt Disney: United States.

Marshall, R. (dir.) (2002) Chicago. [film] United States: Miramax Films.

Fragment Theatre Company. (2017) Cast.

Mikey D. (2014) Feel Happiness. [online] Available from: http://feelhappiness.com/escapism-leave-fantasy-world-live-reality/ [Accessed 1 February 2017].

Rowan, B. (2017) Show Idea’s.

Rowan, B. (2017) Job Role’s.

Rowan, B. (2017) Theatre Company Name’s and Fundraising Ideas .