Category: Stage Manager

We did it! Show day is complete!

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.

Stage Manager Performance Report

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.

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].

Hey everyone, we had a tech rehearsal!

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:

Sherbet Lemon Theatre Tech Schedule

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:

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.

Hello again,

On 9th February, a few of our company members went to see The Duke (2017) produced by HoiPolloi, PBJ Management and Theatre Royal Plymouth. The Duke is a solo show, which is very different to our production with 8 actors. However, we did take a lot of inspiration from the show. There are two main influences we took from the show which was the essence of the stage manager in performance and the simplicity of storytelling.

Shôn Dale-Jones, the only actor, greets every audience member as they enter the theatre, shaking their hand and asking how they are. This instantly allowed me, as an audience member, to feel very involved within the performance and the experience as a whole. This was something that, as a company, we discussed the impact of and how this could be incorporated within our piece as we are aiming to creating an inclusive and immersive experience for our audience. We then explored the idea of offering each audience member a hot chocolate as they enter the theatre as hot chocolate is often associated with helping people fall asleep.

Dale-Jones, for the entirety of the performance, is sat behind a desk with a laptop, to control the tech, and a microphone. The essence of the stage manager incorporated into performance was very interesting to me. I think that with the space we are trying to create, an immersive sleepover experience, having a desk on stage with laptops to control the tech will clash with the aesthetic. However, the involvement of the stage manager was definitely something we wanted to consider in our production. We have discussed potentially making reference to the stage manager’s presence, acknowledging that perhaps the sound is too loud or asking for a certain lighting cue. I think this is a nice idea to explore as it rips apart the conventional theatre experience, allowing the audience to forget they are watching a piece of theatre and fully emerge themselves in the art surrounding them.

The Duke was a fully emerging piece of theatre through the simple art of storytelling. The show did not need a lot of things happening on the stage to portray the story and this was something I found fascinating and interesting. This has taken an inspiration in the rehearsal room, allowing us to focus on things in a more sophisticated and simple manner as opposed to trying to imitate sleep disorders in a perhaps, gimmicky and immature fashion.

C.M.

Works Cited:

Dale-Jones, S. (2017) The Duke [live performance]. Performed by Shôn Dale-Jones. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 9 February.

Dale-Jones, S. (2017) The Duke. Cambridge, HoiPolloi.