Our Productions – Page 5 – 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 15, 2018Lauren Jade Randles No Comments

The importance of an opening number

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.

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].

May 4, 2018Emma Louise Round No Comments

Competition time! (part 2)

Hey Guys, it’s me again! Firstly I would like to say thank you to everyone who has donated to our fundraising campaign and has made our debut show possible so far. We have been so grateful for all the generosity we have received here at Sherbet Lemon Theatre and can’t wait for you to see the final product that your kind donations have helped create. Moving forward I am here to tell you about our latest fundraising campaign, Guess the name of the Bear! Our company mascot is lonely and in need of a name and a home. We will be providing a list of names and for £1 you can guess which you think suits our bear the best. When the competition ends we will put the names through a random generator and if your guess is picked you will be the new owner of our huggable friend.

(Liddle, 2018) (Hutchinson, 2018)

If you would like to take part in our newest campaign and be in with a chance of winning this cutie, then head down to Zing Café next Wednesday (9^th May) between 9am-12pm to make your guess. Alternatively, you can make your guess via our social media pages, where you will find a picture of a fury friend and you can make your choice. Our company members will also be around the campus as we enter the last two weeks of rehearsal for our debut show, so if you see one of us and would like a guess just give us a shout.

This competition will be running for one week (until Wednesday 16^th May) for the final push up to our show. If you would like to see how we have used your donations there is still time to grab a ticket for The Truth About Bedtime…

https://lpac.co.uk/event/the-truth-about-bedtime/

Thank you again for all your support and get guessing!

E.R.

Liddle, E. (2018) Our Mascot [image].

Hutchinson, E. (2018) Family Bear [image].

May 3, 2018Lauren Jade Randles No Comments

Creating comedy with the body

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.