Category: Choreographer

With the knowledge that we had been rehearsing in spaces considerably smaller than the Auditorium at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, my main priority for show day was to sort out the staging for The Truth About Bedtime…, in particular the movement scenes. i knew it was important to make sure that the movement I had created really filled the space, and that every little detail had been thought about on my end. To ensure that this process ran as smoothly as possible, I staged the scenes in chronological order, getting the company to mark through the scenes after assigning them their new staging positions. The purpose of marking the scenes through was to ensure that each movement was clearly visible for the audience to see, and so the company members knew exactly where to go.  

The lead up to the final performance was well organised by stage manager, Chloe McKay, allocating time for a dress run where director Emelia Hutchinson, who did not perform, was able to write notes about the staging on my behalf. There was also time afterwards where I could correct any errors that occurred. Before the show began, I made sure that the entire company participated in a physical warm up, including breathing exercises and stretching the body.  

After finishing our final performance of The Truth About Bedtime…, we were overjoyed with the response and feedback we received from our audience. The Exercise Scene received a round of applause from the audience which, as choreographer, filled me with happiness that I had created choreography that was enjoyable for an audience. The decision to hold back on energy in the opening numbers in rehearsals turned out to be the right decision, as the energy from the company on show day was thriving.  

Arts Council England are interested in offering “new experiences” (2018) for audiences, something I believed we created during our pre-set. Where usually audiences enter a theatre space greeted by an empty stage, our decision to interact with the audience members during our pre-set meant that we could really take control on ensuring that our audience were fully catered for. Audience were immediately greeted as they entered the space and three company members were allocated a seating side each.  

Of course, there were things that I would have changed. ‘Lucid Dreaming’, for example. lost the synchronisation we had created in rehearsals in such a big space. This was an unfortunate occurrence which we could not have foreseen, as we felt that we had prepared enough to be able to adapt to a new, bigger space. 

Overall, I was extremely proud of the professionalism of the company and how they dealt with such a high intensity physical performance that I had created. Seeing my choreography come to life was heart-warming and rewarding, and I am eternally grateful to Sherbet Lemon Theatre for helping my crazy ideas come alive.  Here are a few of my favourite choreographed moments from The Truth About Bedtime…

 (Sired, 2018)

 (Sired, 2018)

 (Sired, 2018)

 (Sired, 2018)

 (Sired, 2018)

 (Sired, 2018)

 (Sired, 2018)

 

 

L.R. 

 

Works Cited 

Arts Council England. (2018) Supporting arts, museums and libraries. England: Arts Council England. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-arts-museums-and-libraries [Accessed 19 May 2018]. 

Sired, K. (2018) Exercise machine show day [image].

Sired, K. (2018) Lucid dreaming [image].

Sired, K. (2018) Mr Sandman 1 [image].

Sired, K. (2018) Mr Sandman 2 [image].

Sired, K. (2018) Night terrors [image].

Sired, K. (2018) Sleep paralysis [image].

Sired, K. (2018) The exercise scene [image].

The opening of a production is arguably the most important piece of choreography. It is the first impression we will create as a company and sets the tone for the entire production; therefore, it is crucial that we get it right!  

 

Personally, I would compare the opening of a show to a warm up. In the same way that a warm up sets you up for a productive rehearsal, the opening of a show sets you up for the remainder of the performance time. If an opening is not strong it is likely that the performance will follow a weak tone throughout. An opening was something that we struggled with for a while and after a work-in-progress show back to Bleeding Edge Theatre Company, we realised that our opening didn’t get across the fun attitude we were hoping it would. It was lacking in energy, making it harder, and almost impossible, for the actors to collect enough energy to last throughout the hour-long show, as they had none to begin with. Ultimately, as choreographer, I made it my responsibility to create an opening number that would act as warm up for The Truth About Bedtime… 

 

I had many ideas for the opening number so I decided to take it solely into my hands. By now, I was aware of the ability of each individual member of the company, so I was able to choregraph accordingly. At this point in the rehearsal process we had become too familiar and attached with our show and consequently had reached a stand-still on the creative side of things. Due to this, my main aim for the rehearsal was to get the company laughing and having fun again. I hoped to bring something new and refreshing to the rehearsal and create something the company would have fun performing.  

 

Song choice felt important to me. I wanted a song that was relatively well known and had a fun, upbeat energy to it. I quickly decided on You Make My Dreams by Daryl Hall and John Oates, sticking with the themes of ‘sleep’, ‘bedtime’ and ‘dreams’. The story I wanted to create through this opening number was friends meeting for a sleepover, creating images of pillow fights and singing into hair brushes. Similar to the exercise, I went for recognisable comedy in this opening number in hope that pillow fights and meeting up with friends would be identifiable for the audience. In addition to this, I decided to include specific movements in the opening number that would foreshadow the play, appearing again in later scenes. A few examples of these included the assisted side lift and aeroplane arms, which appeared again later in the Lucid Dreaming scene.   

 

It was clear to me at the end of this rehearsal that the energy had been lifted back into the rehearsal room again and I was keen to keep this energy towards the opening number fresh for the performance. I was not willing to take the risk of the ensemble becoming bored with the choreography, so it was unanimously agreed that the number would never be performed at full energy until closer to show day. The opening had finally become what we wanted it to be, and it is in my opinion that this was achieved because the company began to enjoy the choreography again. I hoped that this enjoyment so clearly on the face of the actors performing this routine would spread to the faces of the audience, and we would get them excited to discover The Truth About Bedtime…  

 

L.R. 

With such light heartedness surrounding our theatre company, I grabbed at the chance to create physical comedy with my choreography. I turned to John Wright’s theory that indicates “four different aspects of comedy” (2006, 5), and felt that the most appropriate strand of laughter to generate for The Truth About Bedtime… would be “The Recognised Laugh” where audiences laugh because “they recognise[…] the parody” (Wright, 2006, 7). The scene where this type of comedy became the most apparent came in ‘The Exercise Scene’, where we set the scene of a gym class. We used recognisable, stylised motifs, such as preparing ourselves for the gym class with headbands and sweatbands. It was our hope that these motifs would be easily identified by the audience, whether it be with their selves or with somebody close to them. John Wright states that “recognition is at the heart of the way we represent our humanity on stage”, so although these movements alone arent necessarily funny, comedy is generated through its recognition (Wright, 2006, 9).  

 

Our bodies were also used to create the illusion of exercise machines and we used glow sticks to create glow in the dark exercise bikes, to replicate a spin class.

 

(Hutchinson, 2018). 

 

This scene also provided us an opportunity to create comedy throughout our faces and bodies. In order for this scene to work, all inhibitions and embarrassments needed to be cast to one side. The aim was to create over the top comedy, again taking these recognisable movements and pushing them to an exaggerated interpretation of them.  

L.R. 

 

Works Cited 

 

Hutchinson, E. (2018) Exercise machine [image]. 

Wright, J. (2006) Why is that so funny? London: Nick Hern Books Limited. 

With such a busy schedule as ours, it wasn’t always guaranteed that movement rehearsals would follow one another. Sometimes there would be several rehearsals in between teaching choreography for the same scene. With this in mind, I decided that at the end of each movement rehearsal the movement that had been created would be filmed and posted on our private Theatre Company page. This enabled the ensemble to have easy access to the video that they could look over in their spare time, so as to not forget any choreography I have taught them, and to enable a smooth transition from one movement rehearsal to the next. In addition to this, it was also an extremely useful way for me to take an outside perspective on the movement that I had created. The inspiration to film any created material came from Frantic Assembly’s video camera in rehearsal technique. Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett explain how “the video camera is not just for capturing and documenting what you know is there. It is also for capturing all the possibilities that emerge by accident” (2014, 26). As I was in most of the movement sequences, this was an opportunity for me to see what it actually looked like, whilst still being able to rehearse with my peers. If there was anything that needed adapting, filming the sequence meant I was able to pinpoint these moments, and allows me to see how I could change material in order to improve the quality. 

 

 

L.R. 

 

Works Cited 

Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2014) The Frantic Assembly book of devising theatre (Second Edition) New York: Routledge. 

Getting ideas up on their feet was quite a time-consuming process, I had to accept that things may need to be changed or altered slightly in rehearsals. It was also important to “be prepared to change direction if the moment calls for it” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 88), realising that everything I had choreographed may not be achievable with the performance space or physical abilities of the company. Therefore, in rehearsals I had to be quick on my feet to provide the company with alternatives to the choreography, many of these I took upon myself to think of before the rehearsal started, should the need to edit choreography occur. Majority of my creative scenes stemmed from the verbatim dialogue, collected by dramaturg Eloise White. Consequently, it was my responsibility to merge movement and dialogue together. Arts Council England state that they “champion, develop and invest in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives” (2018) and it is my opinion that the decision to use verbatim theatre was an enriching choice. Audiences were made aware that the material we had created came from real words from real people, some of those who were amongst the audience. For the participants to see how they had an impact on our creative work has the potential to be highly rewarding. 

 

John Wright suggests that “the conventional approach when rehearsing a scene is to ask: ‘What’s your objective?’ In other words, what do you want at this moment in the action” (2006, 33). I kept this at the forefront of my mind when I was creating new material, constantly making sure I knew exactly what it was I wanted to say from a particular piece of movement. I wanted my movement to be true to the words of the participants, so this technique of knowing my objectives was extremely helpful to make the movement as accurate as possible, especially when dealing with verbatim language.  

 

L.R. 

 

Works Cited 

Arts Council England (2018) About us. England: Arts Council England. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/about-us-0 [Accessed 18 April 2018] 

Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2014) The Frantic Assembly book of devising theatre (Second Edition) New York: Routledge. 

Wright, J. (2006) Why is that so funny? London: Nick Hern Books Limited.