Show Developement – Page 2 – Sherbet Lemon Theatre

May 15, 2018Chloe Rose Denby No Comments

Tech Day!

Today was the day of our tech and everything went to plan! I had already designed and programmed sound on my MacBook Air which I distributed to the LPAC’s computer in the tech box, and it was only the sound levels that had to be configured in the space, which took half an hour. We programmed lighting in an hour, as the lighting design had already been decided beforehand. We were, therefore, able to test all of the effects we wanted in terms of lighting, and we were able to start packing down with half an hour to spare!

(McKay, 2018)

There were a few lighting effects we wanted to try, one being the flickering light bulb which had been drawn onto the sheet for our set. The flickering light was created by a profile behind the sheet which had been focused towards the drawing of a light bulb. We programmed it to flicker eight times when certain lines were said in the night terrors scene. The flickering of the light represented the night terrors manifesting themselves in dreams into what is perceived by those involved as ‘reality’. Amanda (set designer) and I, worked together when designing the lighting for the set in order to ensure that the light picked was able to produce the right effect behind the sheet. The alternative option, if this did not work or venues were not able to provide a profile, was a manual torch behind the sheet which would have been turned on and operated by a cast member.

(Denby, 2018)

On the day of the tech I also wanted to try the darkness level in the insomnia scene, incorporating a hint of blue. The reasoning behind this was because this section was in the first stage of the sleep cycle, and I wanted to show that the performers, who were showcasing the verbatim, had turned off the lights in their rooms, switched on their night light and was attempting to get to sleep. I chose to not have a blackout as I wanted the audience to see the subtle movements performed by the cast.

155 — Lighting state in the insomnia scene

(Sired, 2018)

C.D.

Works Cited

Denby, C. (2018) Light bulb flickering on the sheet [ video].

Denby, C. (2018) Light bulb powered by profile behind the sheet. [image].

McKay, C. (2018) Myself programming/ editing sound on tech day! [image].

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].
Sleep.org (undated) What Colours Are Soothing for Sleep. National Sleep Foundation. Available from https://sleep.org/articles/best-colors-for-sleep/ [accessed 12 March 2018].

May 8, 2018Amanda Josephine Mason No Comments

They Only Come Out At Night: The Light Bulb and the Clock

As sleep is a very personal part of our lives, and usually our issues with sleep are kept a secret, I wanted the set to reflect this. Elements of the set are planned to be hidden in a normal bedroom/ den setting, and only revealed while the show is being performed.

One of these features is a light bulb effect on the white sheet. I wanted to experiment with the idea that certain parts of the sheet could light up, to reveal hidden words or features. The drawing of the light bulb would light up and flicker for dramatic effect in certain scenes. It was created by folding a piece of white fabric multiple times to create layers. The section where I wanted the light to shine through was cut down to one layer. The multiple layers around the shape stopped the light passing through and allowed the bulb shape to appear bright and glowing. I then sewed this extra fabric onto the sheet and practised the effect with a torch behind the bulb area.

Once I was happy with how the light bulb looked, I presented this idea to the company and explained to both Chloe Denby (Technical Designer) and Chloe Mckay (Stage Manager) that the effect could be used by either a profile light on a stand behind the sheet, which could be controlled from the lighting desk, or manually turned on and off with a cast member holding a torch. It was then their decision to pick which method would be most beneficial and effective. The profile light behind the sheet method was picked so that all the cast were available to perform in the space.

The addition of the light bulb correlated with the theme of the drawings through our marketing campaign on posters and flyers, and added a quirky lighting feature to a bedroom themed set.

There was one feature of the set that I focused a lot of time on and subsequently felt most proud of. This was the handmade clock. I knew early on that this was going to represent an alarm clock, but with a hidden feature. The plan was to have shelving hidden inside, behind a cloth, which would be individually lit up to reveal a word. These words would represent each stage in the sleep cycle and would highlight our structure for the show. Our original idea for showing each transition to a different stage of the sleep cycle would have been expressed through a sound effect for each stage. However, Emelia (the Director) and Ellie (our Dramaturg) felt the approach was too obvious. I then decided to see if the set could do the job of telling the audience which stage of sleep we were in, instead of the sound effects.

A stencil was created with a cloth placed over it so that the words were hidden and only appeared during transitions when lit from behind. The fairy lights inside were put into compartments which were separated by shelves to stop the light invading into the different sections, making sure each individual word can light up at separate times and are different colours (which fit in with the colour scheme for the costumes and dream catchers). Red lights were used for REM to correlate with the lighting of the scene. Red is a bright and stimulating colour, which links to REM as it is the most active, easiest to wake up from, and the last stage of the sleep cycle.

The clock was made large so that the words could be seen in the performance space, but small enough to still be easily transported to and from rehearsals, which has helped Emma to become accustomed to this piece of the set.

This was my favourite part of the set to make, and I am pleased with the final product. I think it added a fun and quirky way to aid the show in teaching the audience about sleep and fitted with how we are as a company.

(Mason, 2018)

A.M

Works Cited:

Mason, A. (2018) Clock designs [image].

Mason, A. (2018) Clock stencil with lights [image].

Mason, A. (2018) Finished Clock [ video].

McConnell, H. (2018) Light bulb effect [image].

April 13, 2018Emily-May Liddle No Comments

Show Marketing Materials

As our show has developed I have started to draft and design our flyers and posters. My original drafts were paintings designed by Amanda that depicted starry night skies and shadows with text overlaid across the image. After further discussions with the group and an insight from Julie Ellerby (Marketing Manager at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre) it was decided that these images portrayed a show more suited to children than adults. We compared flyers we had seen and found to determine what we could do to capture the aesthetic of our performance. To combat this we contacted a local photographer, Toria Maxwell, and commissioned her to take a variety of images that I used across our marketing materials. This allowed me to use the drawings to break up the empty space on the poster rather than them being the entirety of the poster itself. The bright and neon colours in the drawings foreshadow the neon drawing we use within the performance and tie the two together nicely. In order to appeal to the largest audience demographic possible for our production, I have utilised my understanding the Audience Finder tool (used by Arts Council England) to tailor our approach to specific audiences. This has allowed us to maximise our potential outreach and develop a better understanding of our target audience. This has been helpful ultimately across all areas as we can cater to all demographics by understanding their wants and requirements. When writing the copy for The Truth About Bedtime… I collaborated with our Director, Emelia, to get a better overall impression of her ideas for the show. This helped me write an unbiased copy that summarises the intentions and highlights of our show fairly. Below are our final show flyers, including the reverse side with copy.

Flyer Portrait Design FINAL — Flyer Design (Sherbet Lemon Theatre, 2018)

Flyer Portrait Reverse Design FINAL — Flyer Design Reverse (Sherbet Lemon Theatre, 2018)

E.L.

Cited

Sherbet Lemon Theatre (2018) Flyer Design.

Sherbet Lemon Theatre (2018) Flyer Design Reverse.

April 4, 2018Amanda Josephine Mason No Comments

Count the sheep: The Dreamcatchers

After deciding on an overall theme of the set as a den in a bedroom, I am looking into objects that are usually found in bedrooms to see if I can create some unique elements to the set to make the sheet and poles seem homelier. At this point I wanted to experiment with the concept of the dream catcher. When researching the history of dream catchers, I found that they originate from The Ojibwa. They would hang the decorations above the place they would sleep, to catch dreams. ‘The good dreams, knowing their way, pass through the opening in the center of the webbing while the bad dreams, not knowing the way, are caught in the webbing and destroyed at the first light of the morning sun.’ (DreamCatcher.com, undated). Other legends say that the feathers connected to the bottom of the dream catcher directed the good dreams down to the individual who sleeps below it. I wanted to stay true to the original designs and history of the dream catcher while also doing a unique twist to entertain the audience when they notice them among the set. I want to incorporate a “cheeky” reference to the myth of “counting sheep to help you get to sleep”. Instead of the web design in the centre, I am going to put a geometric simple design of a sheep, allowing a gap in the centre to allow the good dreams through to follow the tradition. The design of the sheep will not be a distraction from the performers during the show, but something for the audience to view, think about, and “count” while being in the space. The idea is for the dream catchers to be hung around the space with feathers pointing downwards towards the performance area, to allow the good dreams to be channelled to the audience and performers.

I decided on the use of dark blue wool to decorate the outer ring and create the central design with light blue wool, in keeping with the colour scheme of the show. When in discussions with Lucy (creative designer), she planned for the pyjamas to follow a blue theme due to research revealing that ‘people whose rooms are painted blue tend to sleep longer than those who get their shuteye in rooms with different colors.’ (National Sleep Foundation, undated). I do not want the set and costumes to clash, so to eliminate this risk I will follow the same colour scheme as the pyjamas. The dreamcatchers, therefore, will be blue with white feathers to fit in with the aesthetic of the show.

A.M

Works Cited:

DreamCatcher.com (undated) The Legend Of the Dream Catcher. USA: DreamCatcher.com. Available from https://dreamcatcher.com/Dream-Catcher-Legend.php [accessed 4 April 2018].

Mason, A. (2018) Dreamcatcher design [image].

National Sleep Foundation (undated) What your bedroom paint colors have to do with sleep quality. USA: National Sleep Foundation. Available from https://sleep.org/articles/best-colors-for-sleep/ [accessed 4 April 2018].

March 22, 2018Chloe Rose Denby No Comments

Performing Verbatim

Our show consists of a variety of real life experiences of sleep from people who were interviewed on behalf of our dramaturg and director. I believe it important to represent these individuals as precisely as possible, especially as we are being given the opportunity to portray their experiences to a theatre audience.

As a performer for The Truth About Bedtime… I am involved in a verbatim section with Emily, where we both explain our lucid dreaming experiences. Lucid dreaming is a “proven scientific ability to become ‘self aware’ in your dreams” (HowToLucid.com, undated). We dedicated rehearsals to our speech and language in order to match the people we were representing. I knew we had to be authentic or it would become unethical to the people involved. I found that researching lucid dreaming and hearing of these individual’s experiences of this practice was interesting, to say the least. It made me aware of the abilities these people possessed, which quite frankly inspired me to experiment with this practice, which at the moment I am unsuccessful at. Throughout discussions with our director Emelia we both agreed that lucid dreaming is one of the more brighter topics in our piece, therefore I researched up beat, positive music and I came across Lucid Dream by Owl City:

(Revoredo, 2018)

The song relates to the scene, as the song is indeed about lucid dreaming. However, I have chosen to use an instrumental version in order to have the audience’s full attention on the verbatim. In terms of lighting, I have decided I want to incorporate a colourful and ‘dreamy’ wash with the use of blue and pink. The reasoning behind this is because we are showcasing these lucid dreams from the verbatim, and “colour meanings in dreams can be very telling about what’s going on in the deepest waters that stir within us” (Venefica, 2018). Therefore, having this lighting state makes the audience aware they are in a dream state. Here is how the lighting was showcased in our performance:

1313 — Lighting state in the lucid dream scene

(Sired, 2018)

In terms of Arts Council funding using verbatim definitely allows engagement from everyone, especially as sleep is something which relates to every human. Arts Council England wants “to give more people the chance to take part in the arts, no matter where they live or their social, educational or financial circumstances” (Arts Council England, 2018). Using verbatim theatre allows our company to reach out to communities no matter what their background is. We allow anyone to get involved with the devising process while giving “a voice to the voiceless” (Burnside, 2003, 5), as we are wanting everyone to get involved in sharing their experiences on sleep which will be showcased in our performance. Furthermore, our set allows us as a company to easily transport our equipment to any location. We are therefore able to use community halls and other various venues to perform our show, which again allows anyone from any background to get involved with the Arts. In terms of sound I already have the program QLAB on my laptop with the show file, therefore all we need would be a speaker. The only lighting item we would have to purchase for non-theatre venues would be a UV Beam PAR for our Sandman and exercise scene. I have priced one of these lights up and it comes to a total of £33.00. This item can be found on this website: https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/black-lights/beamz-uv-beam-par-38?gclid=CjwKCAjwiPbWBRBtEiwAJakcpARQsVvl-htM5P-i1u6Mxlq7Sc8ShzRDGD4mACpBHcGNfbh1D3JcfBoClH0QAvD_BwE (Bax Music, 2018).

C.D.

Works Cited

Arts Council England (2018) Engaging people everywhere. Arts Council England. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/how-we-make-impact/engaging-audiences-everywhere [accessed 29 February 2018].

Bax Music. (2018) Beamz UV Beam PAR 38. Kent: Bax Music. Available from https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/black-lights/beamz-uv-beam-par-38?gclid=CjwKCAjwiPbWBRBtEiwAJakcpARQsVvl-htM5P-i1u6Mxlq7Sc8ShzRDGD4mACpBHcGNfbh1D3JcfBoClH0QAvD_BwE [accessed 1 March 2018].

HowToLucid.com (undated) What Is Lucid Dreaming? A Beginners Overview. HowToLucid.com. Available from http://howtolucid.com/lucid-dreaming-definition/ [accessed 15 March 2018].

Owl City (2018) Lucid Dream [download]. 4 mins. 21 secs. Cinematic. Universal Republic. Available from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucid-Dream/dp/B076H77B84/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524182753&sr=8-1&keywords=lucid+dream+owl+city [accessed 1 March 2018].

Revoredo, W. (2018) Owl City- Lucid Dream (Welington Revoredo Instrumental Cover). Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjxP7L8STzg [accessed 1 March 2018].

Venefica, A. (2018) Colour Meanings in Dreams. Available from https://www.whats-your-sign.com/color-meanings-in-dreams.html [accessed 25 February 2018].