Category: Pip Strickland

After tech day we were all very nervous but excited for our performance, It was amazing to see the set come together and to get a feel for the space. Yet not everything went according to plan and changes had to be made at the last minute.

Nerves were therefore running high on show day, we had all worked so hard and wanted to ensure it would be a success, however we weren’t sure how the audience would react to our ‘tongue and cheek’ style of humour. Watching the audience walk in was a mix of both extreme excitement and nerves. However, as soon as the show started and Brodie came on stage full of energy, the audience immediately responded positively and provided us with plenty of energy to bounce off. For me, it was a new experience to perform in such a Meta theatrical way and to have no real fourth wall, but nevertheless I found it a very enjoyable experience.

As with many first time shows not everything went according to plan, but due to the makeshift nature of our piece and the way in which the problems were handled, it wasn’t really noticeable to anyone who hadn’t previously seen the show.

Overall, I think we achieved our goal of creating an entertaining yet thought provoking piece of theatre, one which got our core message about escapism across to the audience.

‘Think of escapism like sugar or salt. You can sprinkle it on top of your life to make it better, but too much will ruin the whole thing’  (Allen, 2015).

 

 Preparing for the show (Odonnell, 2017)

Brodie and the wheel of Escapism (Odonnell, 2017)

If we were to make more shows as fragment theatre company, we would stick to using dark humour in order to make our audience’s laugh, but as well as to get a deeper meaning across. This is due to the fact that we as a collective are all passionate about making positive changes to the world, but we are also accutely aware that in our current political climate we all need a good laugh to ‘get away’ for a short while. Furthermore we would keep the makeshift elements to our shows, as we are interested in the style of post dramatic theatre and the ‘manufactured performance’. This Makeshift element would also make it more feasible for us to tour.

Citations

Allen , P (2015) How to snap back to reality when “escapism” becomes “avoidance”. [online] Lifehacker. Available from http://lifehacker.com/how-to-snap-back-to-reality-when-escapism-becomes-av-1723091630 [accessed 20 may].

Odonnell, S. (2017) preparing for the show. Lincoln: SO Photography.

Odonnell, S. (2017) Brodie and the wheel of Escapism. Lincoln: SO photography.

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].

Throughout the process I have been undertaking my role as props manager.

This has included sourcing and purchasing props, helping with the aesthetic choices of these, as well as arranging a props day. From reasonably early on in the process it became apparent that it was going to be a very props heavy show, something that made my job harder but also much more interesting.

As soon as the script was finalised I quickly took to sourcing the props. I initially found out what elements we already had between us, in order to save budget, before then moving on to sources such as Ebay, Amazon and Poundland. Luckily, despite the sheer amount of props we needed these were affordable, due largely to the makeshift element of our show. This meant that props could be handmade or purchased from cheaper locations.

This makeshift aspect to the show links into the post dramatic element of the show. Post dramatic theatre is ‘when the progression of a story with its internal logic no longer forms the centre, when composition is no longer experienced as an organising quality but as an artificially imposed ‘manufacture’ (Lehmann, 26). This links into the aesthetics and hence props of the show as they need to look ‘artificially manufatured’. In other words we can’t invest in the props as they are not ‘real’ in the logical sense, and both cast and audience are aware of this. This in no way means a lack of effort into their creation, but more that they don’t need to look naturalistic.

On the 6^th of May, myself and our stage manager Lucy had a meeting to begin the props list. We firstly made sure we ticked off everything we already possessed to determine those aspects still needed, before making an organised list. This proved to be slightly challenging as the props needed changing throughout the rehearsal process as ideas and stylistic choices changed.

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Props day

Closer to the show date I organised a props day, as we needed to utilise all of our skills to make the props for the childhood and writing scenes. I therefore did multiple trips to Homebase and collected as much cardboard as I could carry to make these props with. However, on the day itself it soon became apparent that we would need even more! Our assistant director Brodie therefore kindly offered to drive down to collect more supplies. After many hours, cutting, painting and resulting mess, the props were complete allowing me to return home and finally complete the props list.

 

                                         

 

Creation of the ‘hideous beast’ (Strickland, 2017)      Painting the Solar System (Strickland, 2017)       Amidst the mess (Strickland, 2017)

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 Show day

On the day of the performance my job was to pre-set the props to where they needed to be located as well as to complete the final checks before the show. This was however very challenging due to the sheer number of props and preset locations! But with everyone helping to check that his or her props were in the right places alongside myself, the props were eventually pre-set successfully.

Show day props (Workman, 2017)

Citations

Strickland, P. (2017) Creation of the ‘hideous beast’.

Strickland, P. (2017) Painting the solar system.

Strickland, P. (2017) Amidst the mess.

Workman, L. (2017) Show day props.

This week I saw the updated writing section of the script for mine and Emily’s main characters. It has changed drastically since the initial idea of Charlie and Rosie and the concept of online vlogging. My character is now called Alice and Rosie is an Author, the writers chose this path as it’s more relatable and shows escaping into fantasy worlds more generally through the use of stories. It deals with the idea that we can never achieve as much as characters in a fantasy world are able, meaning the real world can seem boring and empty compared to such fantasy worlds.

 

During the section of the play, Alice changes into multiple characters in order to escape from the dissatisfaction of her own life. She transforms into a range of characters including a private detective, knight, space scientist, and an awkward love struck girl who manages to find her happy ending, before returning to a distraught Alice who has realised she can’t have a life such as these. This is an exciting but challenging prospect for myself, as I need to create distinguishable characters between these different escapes.

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In rehearsals we started off  by simply experimenting, trying different movements and actions to see what was effective and what wasn’t, such as attempting different voices for each of the characters. Yet I needed to do more research to enhance my character development further. For example after a conversation with our writers and directors, I decided to watch old detective movies such as Sin City and The Maltese Falcon, focusing especially on the character of Sam Spade to construct the character of the private detective, through practising the movements and voices to create private Detective Joanna Andrews. For Arkon, the legendary knight of ferimor I’m using inspiration from The Princess Bride, specifically the character of Inigo Montoya. In particular i’m inspired by the arrogance and parts of physicality from his character, but I wish to make Arkon bigger and more over the top, in order to make it as contrasting as possible from the other characters

                                               

Joanna Andrews (Odonnell, 2017)                                       Arkon (Odonnell, 2017)

For Doctor Kate Morrow i’m using characters such as Dr Brennan from Bones as inspiration, making her a strong and collected scientist. Yet her physicality is the hardest for me currently, as I’m finding it difficult to make her sufficiently contrasting from the other characters. In order to resolve this I am going to attempt to make her increasingly upper class, to provide a more distinctive feature from the other parts. For Sally, the final character I play, I am revisiting a part I previously played in college, that of a very nervous schoolteacher, as well as using the Sitcom Miranda. Using these sources, I am aiming to create a heightened sense of awkwardness and nervousness in order to add a comic value, as well as ensure a contrast between the character of Kate Morrow.

 

                                       

Kate Morrow (Odonnell,2017)                                                Sally (Odonnell, 2017)

For Alice’s speech I am using my own experiences and emotions to bring her to life, as I think everyone at some point experiences similar emotions and worries about our dreams and wishes being unattainable.

 

                                    

Alice (Odonnell, 2017)                                                           Characterisation notes (Strickland, 2017)

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Overall I want to create large characters that are comical and over the top. This is both for audience entertainment and to make the switch back to Alice and her breakdown meaningful and noticeable. It furthermore fits in with the post dramatic theme, with the quick character changes and the fragment T’shirts reminding the audience it isn’t real, enhancing the notion of the ‘manufactured’ performance.

 

Citations

Odonnell, S. (2017) Joanna Andrews. Lincoln: SO Photography.

Odonnell, S. (2017) Arkon. Lincoln: SO Photography.

Odonnell, S. (2017) Kate Morrow. Lincoln: SO Photography.

Odonnell, S. (2017) Sally. Lincoln: SO Photography.

Odonnell, S. (2017) Alice. Lincoln: SO Photography.

Strickland, P. (2017) Characterisation notes.

 

In a professional theatre company funding is crucial, as without money there can be no show. Therefore, if we were to take Fragment Theatre Company forward in the future we would need to look to alternative funding sources. One of the first places to look would be the Arts council England.

The Arts council is ‘committed to championing and developing the arts’ (Arts Council, 2017), and hence provides grants through the Grants for the Arts program. This is an ‘open access funding programme for individuals, art organisations and other people who use the arts in their work’ (Arts Council, 2017). They offer anything from £1000 to £100,000. As an emerging theatre company you can expect to apply for the lower end of this due to the size of the venture.

The grants are competitive and therefore when applying you need to tell them exactly how you would spend the money. Furthermore, if you receive the funding they check your final spending, so if you have asked for too much than your project is resultantly worth you will be less likely to be granted funding in the future. Such a process is therefore no easy feat, and hence must be undertaken with care in order to receive current and future funding.

 

Citations

Arts Council (2017) Arts Council England. [online] London: Arts Council England. Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Grants_for_the_Arts_How_to_apply15k_and_under_September2016_0.pdf [accessed 23 March 2017].