I used the internet and looked up lots of different theatres and looked at the way that thy stage different plays to help me use the space and shape of the theatre to my best advantage.
By looking at different plays it helped me to choose a set which worked and meant that the actors were able to still have space to move around and that if props were brought on by them that it didn’t affect the way which they were acting. The use of projection came from looking at information around and helped me realise that a projection of a TV or the projection of park was better than bringing in trees and a real television. When watching plays I looked closely at lighting and sound effects. The reason for this was that the set is brought to life by the use of sound and lighting helps reflect certain aspects of that set. The road scene in the play is a good example of this because even with road lines it didn’t feel like a road but with the noise of traffic and people talking it brought the street to life.
The first stage of my work was to draw a plan of the theatre and work out which scenes we needed. Once I had drawn a plan of the theatre I was able to start drawing out designs and placing the rooms round the theatre in different places and work out which levels we could use. The use of designs meant that I could place paper actors round the theatre and see where they best suited and whether if a person was standing in the street could the audience see the person behind in the café. My next stage was bringing the set to life, placing the furniture in the rooms and not making the actors move. I had a lot of trouble placing the furniture down because a lot of the time one part of the audience couldn’t see what was going on and then another block of the audience couldn’t see and so on. The overall verdict was that at some point through the play one person in the audience will have a characters back to them and I made sure that with the furniture each person in the audience was still able to feel and understand the play if not see the characters faces. The next stage was bringing in the lighting and sound. This was quite hard because there are lots of different places which the actors stand and once the lights are set the characters have a limited space to move in. The sound was tricky because getting the volume was difficult. I had to make sure that if there was background noise the actor speaking could still be heard.
My contribution to the group was finding all the furniture and finding how it was going to be brought into the college and sorting out the sound and lighting. The set had to fit around where the characters were and meant that only a minimum number of props could be used. I made a lot of designs for the group and gave one to each of the group members so that they understood where they were standing and if they had anything to be bought on with them. I wrote up prop lists for each room and then for each scene of the play making sure that the characters had everything that they needed at the right time. I collected furniture and props and also took a lot of photos in order to make the collages and steer away from the idea of realism.
The idea of a spotlight in certain points of the play means that the audience are focused on that particular person and the strength of the light will reflect the mood of the character, for example a bright light will be happiness and a dull light will be a sad moment. The use of sound meant that the scenes came to life and not necessarily looked real but looked close enough to what I was trying to portray. I used the idea of a shadow frame when there is a beating scene because it creates a tension and is something which stands out from the rest and shows a big chunk of how the author was treated. I liked the idea of the shadow frame because with the shadow it makes the audience think about how the author is feeling because facial expressions are not shown. Projection acted as a good idea because it creates more space rather than big chunky objects and uses a symbolic meaning and makes the audience think.
The development of the set was quite a slow process because it took a lot of time to work out the size of the theatre and because of the shape how everyone could feel the emotion and not be to far away. The idea was that we brought the author closer to the audience than the other scenes because she is what the play is focused on and the emotions coming from her are what the rest of the play reflect off of.
I used the idea of creating a fictional set because realism is not possible in a theatre and I wanted to steer clear of the realism effect. I used a lot of photos hanging from the top of the theatre and collages. All these were made up of pictures and articles, which the author had written or had taken through her life. The use of these photos meant that the audience could look up at the pictures and think about why she was in that place and her feelings that reflects off of that certain picture.
My main development in the piece was setting the set up in full. Once the set was up the actors knew exactly where to position themselves. When the pictures and collages were placed around the theatre it began to feel like a real production piece. I think that I prepared my set well because it took a lot of time to build it up and all the time I was given I used. I wanted the outcome of the set to be a sight that the audience didn’t expect and a feeling of interest. I built up little bits of the set at a time, for example I made one collage and then built that up with pictures and then I would make another one and so forth. I tried to use more photos than drawings because it feels more up close and personal. This is a main achievement because the entire group wanted the audience to feel for the author.
The group have worked together really well. Each time there was a problem the group would get together and solve it as one. This meant that there was no constant squabbling and more work could be done. The group were really good with the set and helped me a lot to place particular bits where they were needed and we would then look over it again and maybe change bits. I think that because we didn’t really know each other to well at the beginning it helped us to work because there were fewer arguments and we got to know each other for whom we were. I think that each person in the group added a certain touch to the piece and this helped us to be able to create more ideas.
The final piece went well and the set was in the correct places, the actors had all their props and the set changes ran smoothly. The only thing, which didn’t run smoothly, was the pace. When people forgot their lines they tended to pause rather than carry on. The set was in the right places and really helped to pull the piece together. The only thing I would have liked was to put more collages around the theatre but I ran out of pictures and too many articles would have looked over done. The actors were all confident which acted as strength and they all helped each other when one person got stuck.
I think that the set was quite good but it needed to be bigger and bolder. I would have liked to be able to change where lights went so that they reflected off the pictures and articles and made a bit more of an impact. I liked the window made up of photographs and found that it really worked with the rest of the piece. It was unusual and really stood out. Once this window was in the room it really took shape. The bedroom really looked as though someone lived there. I think my main weakness was that I don’t have enough confidence in myself and I really thought that the set was going to be awful and fall apart. I do think that I could have paid a little more attention to the other sets as well as the bedroom but in a way the bedroom looked better because it was so full of things and the others weren’t. I didn’t enjoy making the set and it gave me a lot of ideas for the future and showed me that if you put enough effort in then it all looks great.
Health and safety
With the piece using a lot of props and scene changes it meant that I had to pay attention to health and safety requirements, The first one was that the floor needed to be clean and people had to be careful if working barefooted because the floor was quite slippery. We had to make sure that no one was working in socks because the floor would be too slippery. The stage space and off stage needed to be clear so that there was no chance of the performers or the audience falling over props of set. The scene changes needed to be done with a working light so that there was no mix up and the set was perfect. We had to make sure that big and heavy props were picked up properly to avoid injury and breakages. All the props and set needed to be fire proofed within the performance space and if not they needed to be covered with a fire retardant solution. All sharp edges on props were covered with sticky back plastic. In the piece glasses are thrown and to prevent glass going everywhere they were covered in sticky back plastic so that when the smashed it didn’t go into peoples feet. The floor was marked with tape for the position of props during blackouts. All flats and set was tied on to bars or weighed down so nothing could fall down and injure anyone. The weights used for the flats were covered with white tape so they were visible during blackouts backstage. All rugs, mats and cables were covered with tape to prevent people falling over them and cables were kept straight under the tape because when coiled they produce heat and can cause a fire. We also checked that the wires were not cut or ripped. When using the lighting we needed to make sure that the rig holding them up was secure and that the lights were on lighting chains and the hook clamps were tight on the barrel. The lighting was not to be handled whilst hot because of burns. The fire equipment was ready in case needed and tested to make sure that it all worked. With the staging I had to make sure that the set and props didn’t get in the way of emergency exits and that the exit signs were clearly lit up. Also all the audience had to be sitting in allocated seats and not in the gangways in case of an emergency.
