Posted on No Comments on The use of Verbatim Theatre

The use of Verbatim Theatre

Our show ‘The Truth About Bedtime…’, will consist of verbatim theatre. “Verbatim theatre is a form of documentary theatre which is based on the spoken words of real people” (Drama Online, undated).

Sleep is for everyone and everyone needs sleep in order to survive. Yet, everyone has different experiences of sleep, it is personal. This meant we are able to speak with everyone and anyone and involve their words and their experiences within our performance. Simply using our own words, would mean we could not have reached into a wider range of sleep experiences, as within our company we are all women, all students and all roughly the same age and therefore we would not be representing sleep issues as widely as they are. I have never realised how complicated sleep is, I have a fairly good relationship with sleep, although I never truly understand why I need sleep, so this process has taught myself a lot and made me realise and become more understanding to other peoples issues regarding sleep.

As a performer, I have the responsibility to learn and deliver the verbatim speeches we are collecting. This does require great focus, as in order to be truthful to the people who have helped us, we will need to make sure we understand the meaning of what they are saying. This will help ensure that our delivery will be as truthful as possible, therefore we must also must include the ‘um’ and ‘ah’ from every person, to indicate they thought process, possible nervousness and even regular speaking, which will reflect on severity of the verbatim sections of our production, The Truth About Bedtime… 

L.F

Works Cited.

Drama online (undated) Verbatim theatre. Drama Online. Available from http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/genres/verbatim-theatre-iid-2551 [accessed 20 April 2018].

Posted on No Comments on Bringing ideas to life

Bringing ideas to life

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. 

Posted on No Comments on Go Fund Me Campaign

Go Fund Me Campaign

As we are currently in between fundraising campaigns, whist we work tirelessly on creating our debut show, I thought I would take this time to draw your attention to our Go Fund Me page. As you may have noticed under the Donate tab on our blog you can find the link to a Go Fund Me page set up in order to raise further funds for our company. When it came to deciding how much money we intended to raise towards our production, it soon became clear that we would in fact need a substantial amount to fund the set and prop heavy show we aimed to create. I had, as previously discussed, intended to run the events relating to our company of ‘Guess the amount of Sherbet Lemons in the Jar’ and ‘Guess the name of the Bear’ with the aim of promoting our brand through our fundraising. However, in discussion and practice of the former of these events, we realised that our target audience was widely reduced due to access only to the university campus and our friends and peers on a personal level. Therefore, by setting up a Go Fund Me page we allowed our friends and family not local to Lincoln, as well as anyone who may encounter our company online, to donate if they wished. This also helped our marketing as we were able to promote our brand to a wider audience through our fundraising techniques.

Go Fund Me page

(Go Fund Me, 2018)

E.R.

Go Fund Me (2018) Sherbet Lemon Theatre [image].

Posted on No Comments on Chloe M’s Bedtime Routine

Chloe M’s Bedtime Routine

So, I wouldn’t necessarily say I have a specific bedtime routine that I stick to every night. There are obviously some things that I do every night like brush my teeth because you know, I’m not disgusting.

I guess I’ve never really given myself a routine because I am usually one of the luckier ones who can take a duvet and a pillow and pretty much sleep anywhere if I’m tired enough. The weird thing is though, ever since starting the creative process for The Truth About Bedtime… I have definitely noticed a difference in my ability to sleep soundly every night. I still haven’t decided whether it’s because we’re spending so much time researching, creating and talking about what it means to sleep and therefore I’m thinking about it so much that when it comes down to it, I’m struggling. I am aware of course that alongside making the show I have SO much going on, with two other modules (one being the big D word that I don’t dare mention) as well as trying to figure out what I’m doing with my life after uni so yeah maybe it is because my mind is going 1000mph constantly and it’s not shutting down at night. So, yeah, maybe it’s that.

I guess you could say then my bedtime routine at the moment consists of changing into PJs, brushing my teeth and having a wee, checking my room thoroughly for a mouse (long story) and then getting into bed and falling asleep… eventually.

 

C.M.

Posted on No Comments on The Importance of a Warm Up

The Importance of a Warm Up

As stated by Frantic Assembly’s artistic directors, Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, “the warm up can set the tone for the whole rehearsals” (2014, 94). As most of my choreography involved a high intensity of physical theatre, I felt it my responsibility as choreographer to ensure my ensemble were fully warmed up before teaching the material. Warm ups are an effective way to ensure that the whole ensemble is on the same level of energy and prepares the body for physical movement. It is also where the brain becomes stimulated, and places the ensemble in a creative mindset, ready for the ensemble to suggest creative alternatives should my choreography need adapting. Warm ups should be about “personal and group development” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 94), designed to improve the physicality of the company 

 leading a warm up (Hutchinson, 2018)

Graham and Hoggett argue that “a room full of warmed-up people leads to amazing results” (2014, 92) and I found that the rehearsals when everybody was fully engaged from the warm up and throughout were when the most productivity occurred. Warming up is the most “essential element” as “it turns a gaggle of individuals into a collective. A team” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 92-93). Graham and Hoggett continue to explain how “a warm up connects a company in a way that even an actual performance cannot surpass” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 93). 

 

An element of trust is created in the warm-up, it can be “where you build your team ethic” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 93). Scenes such as ‘Lucid Dreaming’ were crucial for the ensemble to work as one. Creating a strong team ethic was crucial for this scene, as most of the movements that had to be in time involved the ensemble not having any peripheral vision with each other.  

 

L.R. 

 

Works Cited 

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

Hutchinson, E. (2018) Leading a warm up [image].