Theatre Studies Teacher

The performance has come and gone and I’d like to begin by saying that I really enjoyed spending the week in the theatre with the class.  It was incredible how the team dynamic and the production as a whole grew and developed across this week of working so closely together.The efforts to prepare for bump-in were a little last minute- from me also.  We were incredibly lucky to have Craig in to help on Saturday morning.  Organising this and the willingness of some class members to stay behind on Saturday, ensured that the set was as ready as it could be, to bump in.

The audio and lighting was very last minute.  Althought there were some ideas for both, very little was concrete until we hit the venue.  This meant that some members of the production team had some late nights in preparation.  Audio should have been run a lot more in those final weeks of rehearsals.  I saw very little in the way of lighting ideas- brief descriptions of how scenes might look and there was only limited effort to spend time with me, working through the list of equipment which was available.  It was mere good fortune that we were able to create the lighting we did with the available lantern stocks.

Perhaps in hindsight, we should have looked more closely at matching stagecrafts which didn’t have such a high workload at the same time.

Although audience numbers were pleasing, I felt a little let down by publicity and promotion.  Things sometimes only happened after repeated requests and I am still waiting for the promotions timeline asked for at the first production meeting.

The direction work was excellent in my opinion.  Although Lisa had a clear idea of what she wanted, she was also realistic and worked with the tools she had and the time limitations under which we were working.  An extremely mature approach.

Costumes looked fantastic in the end but the fact that some of the purchases took place after we had bumped in was a little worrying.  Although the make-up looked great, I also feel more thought and design could have gone into hair.  The fact that the cast had issues with doing anything out of the norm is concerning and suggests that they didn’t always grasp the fact fully, that they are no longer themselves but instead are playing a role.  I felt that “The Guides” hair was the only one that was a little out of the ordinary and really added to the character.  The others were a much more conservative and a little too like the actors playing the roles.  A greater sense of non-naturalism might have helped to break people free of the need to feel comfortable with how they looked.  I think there could have been much more experimentation with this element of the production together with the make-up.

Above all, Farmhouse Productions had a very successful season.  Around 130 people saw a College production which was not your usual school show, in a new venue away from the school itself.  Ten students worked together, with varying degrees of comittment, to ensure the production was ready to go on stage and was of a very high standard.  And 130 people went away from a theatre experience with something to think about and discuss.

Now to monologues!

Mood: Burak (apparently)!!! 

It seemed a slow start back to the term with so much else going on.  Losing a class to musical, another to Macbeth and a third to immunisation and absences didn’t help.  The work which was achieved during the one class where we were able to rehearse is still very encouraging.  There is a great deal there for us to work with and continue to build upon.

The Macbeth performance was fairly easy going.  There was a lot to take in though and this should make writing the SAC this Tuesday easier.  What is it you need to think about and consider?  The questions will be reasonably open-ended and provide scope for each of you to show your particular understanding of the play.  I remind you of the following from the handbook….

The assessment task should allow the student to:

·         analyse ways in which historical, social and cultural contexts, of a written playscript were interpreted in performance to an audience

·         analyse and evaluate interpretation of the playscript in performance including application of acting and other stagecraft

·         discuss similarities and differences of theatrical styles between the playscript and the play in performance

·         use appropriate theatrical language, terminology and expressions to describe, analyse and evaluate a production

·         have the opportunity to demonstrate the highest level of performance.

Keep all of these things in mind when you think back over the production.  Also a reminder of the following:

Permitted materials:

Pens, pencils, eraser, playscript.

Excluded materials:

Pre-prepared notes, “cheat” sheets, liquid paper

The excursion to view the “2006 Top Acts” performances was a very valuable one.  Having last year studied some of the pieces performed, you should now have much greater insight into the level of commitment, focus and performance required of you.  From our discussion at Deveroli’s, it is essential that we remember the ways in which silence, change of pace, accent and physicality were all used in developing the monologue.  I am sure each of you also picked up on other key points and hope you discuss them in your own blog.

Unfortunately the week ahead is not going to be great for classes/rehearsing either.  We lose the double due to the SAC, though we could chose to continue it across lunchtime and perhaps use Period 5 to rehearse and we lose a class Wednesday due to the public holiday.  This means that Friday’s class is essential.  We need to ensure that people arrive promptly, get changed quickly and that we get started on time.  I will attempt to set up the room beforehand so we can make the most of the hour we have.  We will have to look at some extra rehearsals, after school and perhaps a Saturday morning once the musical is over.

Keep it in mind and share your thoughts during the week.

What a week! 

• Blocking complete    
• Fantastic set model to work with    
• Timber ordered  
• Poster ideas developing well  
• Costume ideas presented 
• Decisions on props firming up   
• Great character creation happening 

You guys are so great that you make my job so much easier.

 Burak’s poster idea still needs some developing.  Originally, the idea was to have the sillohettes positioned partially inside the 100 and I think there is still merit in this idea.  There are a number of basic inclusions for the poster… the legal details of who wrote the play and who has given us permission to perform it …. and I would like to see everyone’s name listed on the poster as this has been such a collaborative effort!

I also love Erika’s poster idea.  Erika and Burak really need to get together. I think Erika’s background and fonts, Burak’s silohettes and then the slogans Erika has on the bottom should all be included. 

I also love the font work on Erika’s second design for the Farmhouse logo. 

Put all of these different ideas together and we have an absolute winner!!!!!

It is great to read the comments you are all leaving each other.  Some really positive stuff which highlights the ownership of the project which many of you are feeling.

I agree with a lot of people who commented on the difference that adding lighting and audio has made.  Also the amazing transformation and further development of some characters who no longer have scripts in hand.  Keep it up!

Thanks to Gemma for coming in and giving some time to playing around with lighting.  We now need to get together and look at the standard rig at MIPAC, available stock and working out a more concrete LX design.

I know each of you are just as tired as me, so let’s all work together to wrap up the final week of the term … get through musical camp ….  the musical and then what I think might be one of the highlights of the year…. 
 

The Melbourne Amateur

Premiere of “100″.

This week started off on a very pleasing note.  Our first class, the double, began with the news that the class had blocked the majority of the memories while I was away last Friday.  Great leadership Lisa and fantastic work Farmhouse Productions.  The ensuing rehearsal showed that the blocking of these scenes had a marked effect on the confidence and understanding of everyone in the group.  We’re so close to finishing the blocking it is great.  The fantastic work continued on Wednesday’s class.

Tuesday also involved our next whole class Production Meeting.  A  huge congratulations to Jarrod and Tasha on the set work.  The model looks great.  Hopefully, Jarrod can soon have a photo of it up on his Blog.  The massive leap forward made by Bethany and Teigan on costumes is also heartening.  A masterstroke idea to use some of the costume styles we already have in the costume department as a template for the types of costumes that you want to make.

Publicity is still a worry for me.  Although it may not be necessary to have things published yet, to get stuff into newspapers etc often requires three-four weeks prior notice.  Same with producing a poster/brochure or contacting schools.  It is also a little disappointing that great enthusiasm of ideas in both the poster design and the design for Farmhouse Productions logo seems to have stagnated and hasn’t been realised over the past four weeks.

The remaining areas of Audio and Lighting now really need to start to develop.  Mini-production meetings with me should be arranged for the coming week.  Information for standard lighting rig at MIPAC is available in my office and it would be nice if we had some ideas before the visit to Brunswick on the second day of next term.

This week was also about completing audits. Now that all ten students have finished, many have come to the realisation of just how much work is involved in getting this play up and running.  We have probably now hot the point that most productions hit…. the midway point where it starts to get hard to keep up the energy and momentum.  Stick with it team, we’re almost there.

We are now over the half way mark of the term and things seems to be rolling along.  Apart from again losing some classes due to an excursion on Tuesday and my absence on Friday, it feels like we are getting the bulk of the blocking done.

The dedication of the cast, led by Lisa is very impresive, as is Lisa’s direction of the memory scenes.  There is a healthy amount of respect being shown towards Lisa and the job that she has to do.

This week was primarily about audits.  Although a daunting process for most of you, the majority actually seem to have found them less worrying than they first thought.  It has become a great opportunity for discussion and feedback and critical self-analysis.  I encourage urge those who have not been in yet, or in some cases, not even scheduled an appointment to do so immediately.  Like any assignment, I will need to subtract marks/grades for late submission.

‘100′ is becoming more and more exciting with each day and certainly with each rehearsal.  The charcaters are now starting to come very naturally and more importantly, the interactions between each of the characters is becoming much more meaningful.

It is now time that we really begin marketing the show to the public.  I’m looking forward to the production meeting on Tuesday when we can really finalise things.  Do you all realise that we only have four production meetings left until this thing is on-stage?  Still very excited and totally impressed with all of the work you are doing.

The word of the week —— FRUSTRATION.  Nothing to do with the class who continue to do brilliant work and demonstrate a willingness to ‘own’ this project and go beyond the call.  “100″ is really exciting me as a piece of theatre.  It is one that already I am incredibly proud of and one which I hope a lot of people will get to see.  You deserve that with the efforts being put in in all areas.

The frustration I speak of is with the immense interruptions to the timetable.  The effect on us and the work we are undertaking is magnified by the fact that this is an ensemble task, a team-effort…. and even having one person missing or one of you not focused (no names) makes the task more difficult.

This week it has been especially noticable as I felt we lost the flow a little, after the great work of the previous week.  It took greater concentration from everyone to get back on task and get back into the rthym we had discovered.  Thank you.  Let’s just stay focused and keep with it.

Audits begin this week and provide an interesting insight into where you each are at.  I will write more next week but I urge you to take them as an opportunity to review where you are at and what you need to do to ensure a great grade at the end of the process.  Forget that it is an in-progress ’grading’ session, but instead, take the chance to be honest with me and yourselves about how much you have done, what you have or haven’t contributed and what it is that you really need to do over the coming weeks to land the result that you truly deserve.

You are a fantastic class.  I could not have asked for a better group of individuals to work with.  I respect your ideas and the relationship we are all developing, under the title… “Farmhouse Productions”.  Thanks.

This week, I felt, saw a lot of progress.  It is great to watch a project like this ‘take shape’.  The work being done by all of the actors and the assistant Director is fabulous. 

I still feel that people need to loosen up their physicality a little and develop reactions when they’re not directly involved in the dialogue of the time.  Some cast members are so intense into their character that they’re not letting it grow and take shape for itself.  Others are physically tense and too aware which is restricting them and their interactions with each other.  Others a not paying enough attention to each other’s characters and the dialogue/scenes going on around them.

With physical theatre, it is also important to get rid of scripts as soon as possible.  Many actors find it awkward to use their hands and move around freely once their lose the ’security blanket’ of a script in hand.

The greatest frustration this week was discovering the classes we are going to lose over the next few weeks.  This highlights the importance of working individually outside of class and keeping up with research, learning lines, working on designs and blogging!

This coming week is ‘Audit #1′.  Some people don’t seem at all ready for this.  The process is simply a matter of reveiwing your progress within each of your stagecraft areas.  It should also provide an opportunity for setting some goals and direction over the coming weeks to ensure everyone is working towards the same end point.

I’d like to see people more positive about the Vineblogs task…viewing is as a help to the learning process rather than a hinderance.  It requires honesty and an openness to discuss the process and the project.  The critically evalaute our own efforts and being willing to learn from each other.  Given a chance, it is an extremely valuable and, in fact, time SAVING task.  It is a little frustrating that I sometimes need to chase people to get the work done.  I appreciate just how much each of you have on your plate…. and like one student commented, discovering one thing blurring into another is rather unsettling.  For me it is the Musical, Theatre and then my other classes.  It is possible however to train yourself to focus on each independently.

The blog task is the only consistent homework for Theatre Studies and should take no more than about 30 minutes per week.  Alternatively, as was suggested, doing five minutes each night…..

For this week, that’ll do me!!!

This week has been an extremely enjoyable one for me.  My fears at the start of the year related to whether the class would embrace my choice of play, when I know there were others they might have preferred, and whether the class would rise up the the challenges presented by their individual stagecraft areas.

The sometimes heated but always deep discussions that have been had about the play, suggest that the class has welcomed the choice and are taking ownership of the play.  There is a real sense of bonding developing which bodes well for the future of the project.  There is a healthy amount of respect being demonstrated towards one another and everyone has demonstrated a willingness to add their thoughts and opinions on the project.

With the choice of play, some of the stagecraft areas are perhaps fairly challenging.  With very little to work with from the script, students who perhaps don’t have a truckload of experience with a stagecraft area are expected to be creative and explore technical possibilities.  The collegial nature in which this task is being undertaken offers great hope for the process and the product.  The class is working together so well as ‘a production team’, with people offering ideas to other stagecraft groups, in much the same way that any Director would be hoping his/her production team might work together.

It is especially pleasing to realise that no one person is taking over the project, something that some members of this class may have been guilty of in the past.

The blocking is going slowly but with a reasonable level of committment.  One of the tasks set early on (and perhaps we could have spent more time as a class doing this) was dramaturgy.  I posed some questions for each of the characters to consider, research and decide.  Some of this work was undertaken and some wasn’t.  It seems now that the actors are realising how this may have helped and are in fact, seeking out clarification during the blocking.  Perhaps if eaach actor went back over the questions and undertook some research/character development then things might move along a little quicker.  Overall though, I’m not unhappy with the progress as it is really about quality and not quantity.  And the quality of the work being developed is very good.

My only disappointment this week relates to the misunderstanding about the casting.  My intention with the casting was to try out different people in different roles, then discuss the ideas with the class and the individuals involved.  Timing got the better of us with this task and we didn’t get the opportunity to discuss things as a class and I didn’t get to talk to all of the actors.  It was also unfortunate that the most of the initial casting used in the read through also turned out very well for the final cast list.  I wonder if the two roles which changed had been reversed for the reading, would it have been an issue?

One of the most difficult jobs a Director faces is getting the casting correct.  It is sometimes more difficult when the number to choose from is limited, as in a school situation.  Thoughts about the casting continue right up to and often well beyond, opening night.  Have I made the right choice here?  Time will tell however, it was made in good faith, based on the information available, past experience and keeping in mind the look of the overall production and the desired end product.

The thing that strikes me, this year, with the amount of work we need to achieve and the level of committment that will require, is just how essential it will be this year for everyone to keep up with their tasks outside of class.  One of these tasks includes journals and individual blog sites.  As I write this at 8pm on Sunday night, only four of the ten students has published a Week Two blog entry.  One of the important uses that I see in this task, its value as a learning and communication tool is negated a little.  I had taken notes from each of the four blogs I have read so far and had planned to publish an updated response for everyone to read on the class mainpage (aitkents07), however, I am unable to do that.

Interestingly, I see this ensemble task as a precursor to the solo monologue task later in the year.  The Blog exercise is going to become an essential way of supporting you and you supporting each other during Unit 4.  It is important that we make an effort to build good habits now, in preparation for next semester.

Although I think we had only set aside three of the four classes this week to block ‘100′, it might be necessary to use all four.  For those not acting then, you might want to use some of this time to undertake your own research, work with your co-designers if they are available or interact with the students undertaking other stagecraft areas.  We have created a great team and need to continue to build upon this through-out the coming weeks.

Thanks for a great week……Coops….over and out!

The new theatre class is fantastic, offering a great depth of talent in various areas.  Already, after just a week, the group is gelling together extremely well.

I was thrilled with the script reading and people’s reaction to the play.  Even with a cold read, I personally can picture how the final performance may look.  I must say though, it feels like we are quickly jumping into the work and will need to to get this play to the stage by the middle of May.

In my journal entries each week, I will provide you all with some of my thoughts on how the classes go, how rehearsals and production work is progressing and I’d also like to include details that I have posted in each of your individual journal entries for each of you to read.  They will be ‘qoutes’ so if you want to understand further, you should go and have a read through each other’s entries.  We can learn a lot from each other here, which is the main purpose of writing our journals as Blog entries, online.  I will indent them, as I have below, so that you understand these comments have been made within a context of someone else’s Blog.

As far as the ‘actor’s notes’, you might remember that I mentioned the need to undertake some Dramaturgy tasks and across the following week, that is just what we’ll do.  We’ll spend another session in IT/library and part of your homework will be to find out some more info on people’s near death experiences and what different people believe about what happens after we die.  On the surface, sounds a little morbid, but there is some really interesting stuff there as last year’s Yr12s discovered when researching stuff for their ensemble.
I’m happy that your feelings about the play have waivered.  I’d hate it if you all immediately liked what you saw/read.  To me, part of the challenge in performance, is making something work for your audience.  There are elements of ‘Fame’ that I found difficult, so I made slight alterations to the script and there are other areas that I still don’t like totally.  Part of my job as the Director of ‘Fame’ is to take these elements and present them to the audience in such a way that they will work better.
I also agree with your summation of the play now you have read it.  I hope one of the things you guys might learn this year is to not be closed off to the possibilities of a script/performance and instead to take the challenge on board.  There were some students who struggled with their practice monologues last year because they expected it all to come easily.  They chose the monologue they ‘liked’ best, which isn’t always the wisest creative decision to make.  You however, are willing to look for the challenge and work to overcome it, which is what made your monologue one of the most successful last year.
On your comment about the audience thinking about their lives when watching the play….if only one person in the audience is affected this way, then as performers, you have done your job.  You can’t force the audience to be touched by the subject matter, but hopefully, they will.  And I know that sometimes, it can be years later that the experience of seeing something like our play will come back to impact on a person.

 

Thanks to Lisa for providing the impetuous for these comments.

And these from Jarrod-

Your feedback on the cold read were especially welcome. As a Director, the hardest part is actually getting the casting right…which I think we are close to doing. I aappreciate your evaluation of the efforts by Josh, Lisa and Burak. Let’s make sure we support each other by also being willing to share our thoughts in class.
An important part of creating a “Production Team” as we need to for this exercise is that we are supportive of each other. Being supportive doesn’t just mean providing positive feedback, but being honest about your ideas. I always appreciate it when you guys give me feedback. The second tier to this then, is to take comments on board as professionals. This means that you can choose to agree or disagree with the comments, but you also genuinely listen and even if you don’t agree, you are willing to process the comment and try and work out what has led the person to make that comment. I have always said to you all, that I am constantly learning from you as much as you might learn something from me. And we can all learn from each other.