The show has been and gone, and I have loved creating and performing in The Truth About Bedtime… with this amazing group of women. The show was a success, and I am very proud of how it was received by the audience. When in the space, with the set built, the audience was transported into a comfortable and cosy area, where they could feel relaxed enough to laugh loudly to the humour and jokes within the show.
If I was to change anything within the set design, it would be the sheet. On the show day, when the set was fully up in the space and the seating was laid out, I realised that the sheet was not long enough to hide all of the cast members behind it. While standing behind it, the audience on the side rows could clearly see us. To adapt the set for future performances, I would make the sheet wider, so that every cast member that goes behind the sheet is hidden and does not ruin any of the effects behind the sheet for the audience.
Throughout this process, I have enjoyed immensely being a set designer for Sherbet Lemon Theatre. I have been given the chance to express my creativity and imagination. It has been a fun journey to see my wacky designs become a reality. I am excited about the future of the company and would love to work as a performer and set designer again.
Works Cited:
Sired, K. (2018) The Truth About Bedtime… Dress Run Photos [image]. Available from https://www.facebook.com/KSIREDPHOTOGRAPHY/photos/a.1817093908311824.1073741878.1494033543951197/1817101074977774/?type=3&theater [accessed 24 May 2018].
A very sweaty Sherbet Lemon Theatre after their debut performance.
Looking back and reflecting on Sherbet Lemon Theatre’s debut performance of The Truth About Bedtime… I can only beam with pride and joy. The response we have received, for me, can only be a testament for all of our hard work over the past 16 weeks.
As this may be my last blog post for a while, I wouldn’t want to spend it telling you the ins and outs of how show day went and how it can be improved for next time. However, if you’re a bit inquisitive like myself and would like to have peek at how things went, you can have a look at my stage manager performance report here.
I think for me, one of the greatest things to see happen on show day was our aspirations with our audience truly come to life. It has been a goal for all of us to really connect to our audience, ensure that they were comfortable and to spark feeling within them. I think this was recognised throughout all aspects of our performance, and the positive feedback we have been receiving only reaffirms this. Firstly, our intention of using verbatim engaged and connected us to our audience before we even stepped foot onto the stage. I believe that by using verbatim and engaging with the public before the show is a great way to ensure they feel a part of the show, especially through using their words within our performance. This element within itself, I believe, would meet Arts Council England’s (ACE) criteria perfectly. ACE articulate that they “invest public money to make great art that has an impact on everyone’s lives” (ACE, 2018). And what better way to include everyone? A show about sleep using verbatim!
We also extended our pre-set to half an hour, allowing enough time for our audience to come in and grab a hot drink, some biscuits and familiarise themselves with the space and the actors. This was achieved as one audience member commenting “the hot drinking chocolate and the blankets before the show were a really nice touch and I loved how the cast engaged with the audience before the show and during” (Donna, 2018).
For me and my job, I ensured that everyone with accessibility needs would be catered to on arrival. As engagement for everybody is vital to Sherbet Lemon Theatre, I ensured and liaised with Front of House that all people with accessibility needs, which was a total of four people, would not struggle when experiencing our performance. This was important to all of us as it further enables the inclusion of all people to engage with our production.
E.G. White, engaging with our audience during pre-set.
I am unbelievably happy with how everything went and how our audience perceived the show. Sherbet Lemon Theatre have had so much fun creating this, and on top of all of the great responses, I don’t think we’re ready to let The Truth About Bedtime… go just just yet. We’re currently in discussions about how and where we can go with show next, each time making the performance more inclusive for more people!
I have learnt a lot from stage managing this production, lots about communication and organisation, and will take this experience with me through my career.
Theatre is to be engaging and inclusive to everyone, and whether Sherbet Lemon Theatre do take The Truth About Bedtime… further or not, I have thoroughly enjoyed making the production inclusive to as many people as possible.
Sweet Dreams,
C.M.
Works Cited:
Arts Council England (undated) What We Do. London: Arts Council England. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do-0 [accessed 25 May 2018].
McConnell, H. (2018) Sherbet Lemon Theatre after their debut performance. [image]
Lincoln School of Fine and Performing Arts (2018) We’re enjoying the pre-show hot chocolate and pyjama party at @SherbetLTheatre‘s show! [image]. Available from https://twitter.com/LSFPA_Lincoln/status/998630673618530304 [accessed 22 May 2018].
Donna, P. (2018) Comment left on blog post. Available from https://sherbetlemontheatre.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2018/05/22/show-day/#comment_count. [accessed 24 May 2018].
Our Debut Performance of The Truth About Bedtime… was an official SELL OUT! We sold 89 tickets but managed to extend our seating arrangement to accommodate our waiting list attendees as well. This was a massive achievement for us and meant that the atmosphere within the space was incredible. The audience reactions enhanced the lively and upbeat theme we have running throughout the performance and the comedy within our piece was extremely well -received. The feedback I have heard has been incredible and I am sincerely proud of what we have achieved as a company in such a short window of time.
Looking back, I would like to have had the poster designs finalised and sent to print slightly earlier as it would’ve allowed more time for flyering and putting up of posters. The creation of the posters was a learning experience that challenged me to design and produce materials that would hold up to a professional standard. If I were to continue marketing for the performance I would have a few amendments that I believe would improve the quality of the prints aesthetics. I would also want to further our exposure within community groups. Our callout was targeted to specific audiences across Lincoln to attract people from all different circles. For example, we wanted to capture the attention of new parents and so we directed our call out towards new parent groups such as LilPacs. This targeted marketing and outreach was extremely effective and I feel further exploration of this would be hugely beneficial to us as a company in future.
I cannot wait to see what is in store for Sherbet Lemon Theatre next!
Today Sherbet Lemon Theatre premiered The Truth About Bedtime… and we as a company are still blown away from the reception we received from our audience! All of the technical elements of the show ran smoothly and gave the desired effects of ‘sweet’ and ‘sour’ which I wanted. We managed to complete a cue to cue and an open dress run, as our evening performance had sold out. In terms of sound there were a few level changes, and in terms of lighting, I raised the percentage of the flood in the insomnia scene to 20%, as we wanted all slow movements to be clearly seen from the audience members.
I was nervous before the doors opened to the theatre but as soon as I started greeting audience members a lot of that fear disappeared, as we were getting to know the audience members before the performance.
If I were to do anything differently I would definitely look into composing more original music for the show with the help of our director, Emelia!
The Truth About Bedtime… was an amazing experience, and I would be more than happy to carry this theatre company on in the upcoming years! Here are a some of my favourite images taken during our dress run which showcases some of the lighting I designed:
Lucid dreaming sceneREM sceneNight terrors sceneEllie’s song, with the use of a dramatic spotlight!
(Sired, 2018)
Thank you and sweet dreams!
C.D.
Works Cited
Sired, K. (2018) A brand new theatre company! This show was incredible and I am so grateful for being asked to take photos during their dress run. Good luck for the future guys, I’m excited to see what’s in store! Sherbet Lemon Theatre. Katie Sired. Available from https://www.facebook.com/KSIREDPHOTOGRAPHY/ [accessed 21 May 2018].
I’d like to think it went quite well. As we would like to have an intimate atmosphere for The Truth About Bedtime…, our staging required to reflect that intimacy. So, our director requested we do not perform in proscenium arch and have our audience closer to the performance area. As stage manager, I am responsible for ensuring that any production ideas can come to life on stage so I had to confirm with Martin, LPAC stage manager, that flattening the auditorium would be possible in order to achieve an intimate atmosphere. This was confirmed, with fair warning that it would take up to two hours out of our scheduled time in the LPAC auditorium. I’m sure you can imagine that this was quite daunting as we only had four hours scheduled for a tech rehearsal, so we liaised that we would flatten the back end of the auditorium seating as that doesn’t take long at all, and we would still be able to fulfil our technical requirements in the space for our tech rehearsal.
Based on this information, I then created a schedule for tech day so I could ensure that our time in the space was used productively, and so that everyone knew what they were doing. Take a look at the schedule on the link below:
When we first arrived I reaffirmed the staging requirements of the production with the technicians that we were working with. I was then advised that the previous vision of the audience facing the back of the auditorium would take even more unnecessary time out of tech rehearsal as we would have refocus all of the lights when we could still have the same intimate feel if we were positioned on the stage. The more I work as stage manager the more I realise that “communication is the main focus of the stage manager’s role” (Maccoy, 2014, 39). Therefore, I discussed this with our director and set designer and we decided it would be for the best to switch the position of our original staging as it would still have the same desired effect, and would be easier to tech.
The entirety of the tech rehearsal ran smoothly, all company members sticking to their assigned tasks for the duration. Earlier in the week, I organised a meeting with our set designer, Amanda, to ensure the assembling of the set can run as smoothly as possible. We decided it would be best to assign three people to assemble and dissemble the set. Upon discussion, we decided that Amanda would do it as she has designed the set and knows it very well, and Ellie (dramaturg) and Hayley (producer) as they are some of the company members who do not have specific duties on tech day and they showed an interest in the preparation of set. Having three people that are in charge of set assembling ensures a smooth and quick process. The three people who are in charge of set can now get it up in around 15 minutes which is important not just for the show at LPAC but for the future and tour-ability of the show, proving we can adapt to various get in times.
As I was extremely busy on tech day, our technical designer Chloe Denby, took photos on our behalf, here are some now:
The set only takes 15 minutes between 3 people to assemble!Alex, the LPAC technician and I, programming the lighting on tech day
Of course flattening out the LPAC auditorium space is going to take up a large part of our get in, which was daunting as this could be detrimental to the chance of a dress run on the show day. So, I discussed with the LPAC technicians if there would be any chance of a few of us coming into the auditorium Friday evening to flatten the space then, in order to take it out of our get in time. Once this was agreed I got in contact with the stage manager of Thinkbox Theatre to come in after their get out for for their show. We then agreed that once Thinkbox were coming to the end of their get out, we would have the chance to enter and flatten the space ready for our show on Monday.
From now until show day ,
C.M.
Works Cited:
Denby, C. (2018) Blue Lighting State.
Denby, C. (2018) Pink and Blue Lighting State.
Maccoy, P. (2014) Essentials of Stage Management. London: A&C Black.
