Posted on No Comments on The Importance of Fundraising

The Importance of Fundraising

For a professional theatre company funding is essential to run the company successfully. From sourcing props, costume and set, to hiring rehearsal spaces and performance venues, a company cannot function without money. For an initial lump sum we can look to Arts Council England and other similar organisations for funding and support. Arts Council “invest in art and culture for a lasting return”, in the aim to achieve their “mission of great art and culture for everyone” (Arts Council England, 2018). They can provide companies with a start-up fund allowing them to begin to develop and function as arts professionals. However, arts council are not “able to award funding to everybody that applies” (Arts Council England, 2018), and those that are awarded funding may not receive enough money to fully sustain their company. Therefore, companies must turn to fundraising in order to obtain sufficient funds to run a successful theatre practice.

With this knowledge we, as Sherbet Lemon Theatre, were able to understand the importance of fundraising, initiating our decision to have a fundraising manager. In my role I worked alongside our Producer (Hayley McConnell) and our Lead Marketer (Emily Liddle) in order to arrange fundraising events that optimised our ability to both raise funds and promote our brand. Once we had established how much money we needed to raise, by pricing up items we were required to purchase, I was able to begin working on creating events that would provide us with the funds we needed to create The Truth About Bedtime… Through this we were able to function as a professional theatre company, using the budget provided by the Lincoln School of Fine and Performing Arts as our arts council funding, then further engaging in successful fundraising events in order gain the funds needed to sustain our company.

E.R.

Arts Council England (2018) Funding. England: Arts Council England. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding [accessed 29 March 2018].

Arts Council England (2018) 10 things you need to know about DYCP. England: Arts Council England. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/arts-council-development-funds/10-things-you-need-know-about-dycp [accessed 29 March 2018].

 

Posted on No Comments on Mr Sandman

Mr Sandman

I am fitting into my role as choreographer quite comfortably, working alongside our Director to merge movement and dialogue together. We decided on which scenes work best expressed through the use of voice and, alternatively, figured out where our bodies became the most appropriate story-tellers. The first piece of choreography I have to update you on is a short dance sequence concerning the myth of the Sandman.

There is a lot of magic, mystery and fun surrounding bedtime myths such as the Sandman, and it was quickly agreed a fun dance routine felt appropriate to capture this magic. This dance comes at a point in the show before we talk about ‘night terrors’, which felt fitting after I researched more into the myth of the Sandman. I found some easy links between the stereotypical “benevolent” (Bullerdick, 2016) description of the Sandman and the actual “terrifying origins” (Bullerdick, 2016) that surround the myth. I have included elements of this in the dance, by working alongside our Sound and Light Technician, Chloe, to distort the track Mr Sandman by The Chordettes and also change the lighting state to create a sense of fear within the dance. I have incorporated props such as pillows and blankets that the dancers hide under when the music distorts.

pillow (Farrell, 2018)

blanket(Farrell, 2018)

This dance has been so much fun to choreograph, bringing a nostalgic feel of the bedtime myth magic some of us experienced as children.

choreographers notes (Randles, 2018)

Works Cited:

Bullerdick, M. (2016) Enter Sandman: The Strange Evolution of One of Europe’s Oldest Sleep Fables. New York: Van Winkle’s. Available from: https://vanwinkles.com/the-twisted-history-of-the-sandman [Accessed 17/03/18]

Farrell, L. (2018) Behind the Cushions [image].

Farrell, L. (2018) Hiding under the blanket [image].

Randles, L. (2018) Choreographer’s notes. [image].

 

 

Posted on No Comments on Amanda’s Bedtime Routine

Amanda’s Bedtime Routine

I start my night time routine round about 11 o’clock at night by getting a glass of water from the kitchen.
I then go up stairs, put my drink on a window sill next to my bed, and go next door to the bathroom.
I brush my teeth and remove any make-up I have been wearing on that day.
Washing my mouth out to make sure there is no lingering tooth paste, I rinse my retainer under cold water and put that on.
Once I’m back in my room, I get changed into my pyjamas.
I get under the covers, usually just a duvet cover and I go on my laptop between 40-60 minutes, catching up on YouTube videos, or reading a chapter of a story. Recently I’ve been watching an episode of RuPaul’s drag race on Netflix a night. Once the episode has finished and I’m all caught up with videos I will turn off my laptop and place it beside my bed on the floor. I get up to plug in my phone to charge and turn on a fan on a slow setting as I like to sleep with a constant noise, which blocks out any possible loud noises that can disturb my sleep. The slightest noise will keep me awake. After all that, I turn the lights off.
I get into bed, lying on my front with my head resting to towards the door or pathway in a room and hopefully go to sleep. Depending on how strenuous the day has been it can take up to 20-60 minutes to fall asleep. (There are some days that do not follow this schedule as my sleeping pattern varies).
Most of the time I only get about 5 hours of sleep a night, and while doing this exercise as made me realise that the lack of hours might be due to this route and what I do before sleep.

 

A.M

Posted on No Comments on Our Inspirations.

Our Inspirations.

As previously mentioned we as a group have a lot of inspirations. Most of the theatre we have seen, especially in the last few months has inspired us. And I just thought I’d quickly go into detail about how exactly we’ve been inspired by these other Theatre Companies.

Firstly, Partus (2017), by Third Angel. The first show of the year and the one which has stuck with us for the longest. Partus, used verbatim theatre to tell women’s stories about pregnancy and birth. Those of us who saw it were hugely inspired by it in particular the way it managed to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere. We’ve decided to incorporate this welcoming feel by greeting our audience members at the door and welcoming them into the space with a cup of hot chocolate or herbal tea. We also decided to take Partus as an inspiration when deciding to cap our audience. This was an important decision for us as a group and made us truly question which was more important: the money we could potentially make, or our artistic vision? In the end we decided to go for artistic vision. Meaning that we’ve chosen to cap our audience at 80 allowing for an intimate and homely feel within the performance.

The Audit (2018). It’s a fantastic thing to be able to see the work of our lecturers. Proto-type are a company with very different artistic aims and visions to Sherbet Lemon theatre, however, we have still managed to find inspiration in their work. Particularly when placing a narrative into our story. Much like in The Audit we wanted our narrative to seem like a natural addition to frame our piece, rather than something which was shoehorned in at the final minute just to make the piece seem a bit more coherent. As The Truth Bedtime… is not a strictly narrative driven piece of work, we still felt that we needed a narrative in order for the audience to sympathise and feel invested in our performance.

Finally, Education, Education, Education (2018) was a show we all saw when we were feeling a tad deflated, we were at the part of the process where everything was beginning to feel like a bit of a struggle and this was exactly what we needed to perk ourselves up! Out of all the shows we have seen Education, Education, Education is easily the production which is most similar to ours with a blend of humour and serious moments, it was really important to show us that what we wanted to achieve was actually attainable. Particularly their use of pop culture references and how seamlessly they blended into the production without feeling forced. Their branding as a company, namely their spotify playlist is another idea which we decided we wanted to use within our performance.

 

E.H.

 

Works Cited.

Proto-Type (2018) The Audit [live performance]. Performed by Proto-Type. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 13 March.

Third Angel (2017) Partus [live performance]. Performed by Third Angel. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 18 October.

Wardrobe Ensemble (2018) Education, Education, Education [live performance]. Performed by The Wardrobe Ensemble. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 16 March.

 

 

Posted on No Comments on My Bedtime Routine.

My Bedtime Routine.

I’ve never really had a bedtime routine. I’m incredibly luckily, in the sense that most of the time I have no trouble sleeping at all. I tend to start my routine by brushing my teeth and having a wee (a bit TMI, but you do not want to get caught short when you’re all cosy). I then go upstairs and get into bed. I rarely wear pyjamas and I often just sleep in a t-shirt and leggings. I also keep my socks on in bed, an issue which is surprisingly divisive when you bring it up. Once I’m in bed (if my room is tidy I just get straight in, if it’s not I clear my bed, or just shove everything to the bottom, I have tiny legs, so it tends to not bother me). I’ll normally spend an hour or two on my laptop, making sure I have everything prepared for the next day, or looking at pictures of food. I usually have a podcast on whilst I’m scrolling, I find the noise comforting. When I’m ready to fall asleep, usually sometime between 12 and 1, I find something on YouTube I’d like to listen to as I find it quite difficult to fall asleep in my room with talking as a background noise. And then hopefully between 5 and 20mins later, I’m asleep. Simple as that!

E.H.