Good Woman of SETzuan. Get it? Set.

Well it is a bit late but here it is. Last week (11th - 15th June) we pretty much did set designing and eventually got it finished.

The problem with this blog is that it is gunna be tiny. I mean for Monday (11th) and Wednesday (13th) all we did as a class was continue on our set design which was due in for the Friday, so each one of us was working individually so there is very little to say about it.

This is how I imagined mine would turn out.....It didn't

However I am going to say this, I really am not a fan of set designing, my artistic skills are at the level you would see in a 3 year old I really didn't enjoy it, I enjoyed drawing and planning the set. However creating the scale model was hell, at first I had this elaborate set design which would have lights and projections and everything else but instead it was more in the end a very decorated shoe box. IT DID LOOK PRETTY THOUGH. But I am going to admit that Set Designer is definitely not my most preferred role in theatre so I plan to keep my set deigning to a minimum in the future, I'll leave that to the others to do, in my head I feel like I am quite a creative person however tell me to make a scale model and my creativity begins to lack. But anyway it is done now and it wasn't too bad.

Friday (15th) was the give in day where we would explain and pitch our ideas to our fellow class mates, talking about the ideas behind each part of the set and what each feature would be. I felt I could explain it alot more than I could create it, I found myself in the end being proud of what I had achieved so I wasn't too dis-hearted, but this was clearly a project we all worked very hard on and we should all congratulate each other on being able to do this. Sure some looked better than others but each was a good piece of work and was clear worked on hard, so well done guys!

Really that was it for last week since pretty much we set deigned

Richard #1

THUNDERBOLTS AND LIGHTNING. We are Set Designing!!!!!

This week (4th - 8th June) we have crammed so many things in!

Set Designing, Anthony and Cleopatra Masterclass, Bloody mIST Performance and BLOOPERS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yoq9CWz-GA

I'm going to be unconventional and start backwards in this blog! So on the Friday (8th) it was a day off school for self review day but also we had a performance of Bloody mIST to Victor Hugo (school across the road) in which the students were our age. I think it went pretty well, I don't feel it has been our best performance but it still went pretty well and we recorded this one! I have also put together a video of images and blooper videos from our unconventional rehearsals and here it is: (click the image)

Wednesday (6th) was our double lesson and basically we continued with planning and designing our set for The Good Woman of Setzuan, so I began to sketch out some rough ideas for how the set will be brought on and look. Since I am doing a scene set in a park it will be very interesting to do with a river, bridge, projection and various other things to consider. But that was the basis of the lesson, each student to themselves and work on planning your set.

Tuesday we were very privileged to be invited over to the school across the road (Victor Hugo) to have a workshop with a Royal Shakespeare Company Director (Helen Leblique) on the play Anthony and Cleopatra (since the English class at Victor Hugo are studying it) we began by playing a game which was all about status. The first was you are given a card (King is High and Ace is Low) and you put it up above your forehead for everyone to see but you cant see it, so if a person with a 2 above their head approaches you, you have to act as if they were that status however what must be kept in mind is your status because you could act like a king but you are an Ace, you have to be aware of how others treat you and mould yourself to that. The second game was an alteration of the first however now you are the only person who has seen your card and you have to act accordingly for example as a King you would strut, order people, keep away from the lowers. Whereas for an Ace they will be sitting in a corner not talking to a single person. We then worked with Act 2, Scene 2 in the play which is a rather diplomatic scene, however depending on how the lines are spoke can  make a massive difference on the whole scene, it was really interesting to see the power of lines and how they can be manipulated and but standing up and acting it out you could see a true difference to just sitting down and reading it (unlike what we have done with Hamlet in English Class).

" The three things we discovered as a Theatre class from the workshop were How important status in each scene  since it is always constantly changing and also the difference in characters and how they themselves see their status compared to others. Nearly all stage directions seen in Shakespeare plays have been edited in by an editor and were not in the original manuscripts. The setting whether or not it is a domestic or public scene, the dynamics of language change so much. "

That is it for this week, it has been a pretty good and fun week! Enjoy the bloopers!

Richard #1

You don't have to be mad to work with me. But it helps!

This week (2nd - 6th April) was a dull week class wise.

But me and Georgia were working back stage for the school production also!

New Spotlight!

Tuesday was the day. First day of the school production, everyone stressed and pulling their hair out. We had to be back at school at 5:30PM so that gave us no time at all to do anything but go head get dressed in the crucial backstage black. Before the show whilst Georgia was helping out with make-up I was going through the action plan of the entire play making sure props were in place, the scene was in the right position for the beginning of the play and covering up any areas that were letting light into the hall. Then it began our first show. Georgia and I were sitting backstage (with two other crew members) following the script closely for scene changes and props needed. All went swimmingly except one scene change where the lighting crew didn't put the lights down but it was easily rectified for the next show. Also the new spotlight the school now have is pretty bad-ass it can strobe light, has a vast array of built in colours and its just damn cool. One problem it is MEGA loud (due to two fans keeping it cool). But at least we have one.

Bad-ass Make-up

Wednesday was a long day which started at 8:30 in the morning (normal school with a 2 hour Theatre class) which finished at around 10:30PM due to there being 2 shows. Both went very well, the afternoon one was slightly harder since we had to be 100% sure no light from backstage would pour onto stage but other than that both went really well, and just look at out fancy make-up for the backstage crew!!

Thursday was the last night and the last show. We were all pumped and ready to go since it was the very last one. It went 100% perfect, nothing went wrong and I felt really proud of what the team had managed within 2/3 weeks, sure there were problems backstage (in the sense of forgotten cues by the Orchestra, and some ill actors) but on our part (e.g props and doors) all went well. At the very end the whole crew came on stage, jazz hands and took a bow and it was a really good moment being able to see things you've done come into place (even if we were mean to the kids telling them to be quiet!). Also over the 4 shows Maria, Georgia and Spencer all collected for Theatre Versus Oppression raising around 170 euros in total (give or take). So congrats to you guys too!

As for the lesson side of Theatre we've all been pretty much plodding along with it slowly making progress, I managed to get a rather large chunk of it done just leaving me with influence part of my blog to do and of course check up and polish out areas. Overall this week had been pretty fun in my eyes, since I got to experience a new role that I hadn't done before in theatre which was Stage Manager. It's a pretty stressful job but when it all comes together, it really gives you a sense of achievement! Also whenever everyone is on stage we got up to so much fun, the dance moves I was breaking out! Should've seen them!!!

Thats it for this week but I'll leave you with a picture of Me and the Backstage Crew (well most of us anyway!!)

Me and Some of the Crew

EDIT (11th April) : As of Today, I have now finished my Set Design Investigation into two separate Scenographers - http://ibdesignersproject.wordpress.com/

Richard #1

The Black Orb!

This shorter week (26th - 29th March)

We only had one in class lesson, but we watched the Primary Play and worked on the Secondary Production

In terms of class work this week not much has been done, more research and more learning about set design. We sat there in pretty much silence for an hour, pretty dull but I learnt some interesting things about the 2 designers. But the problem I am faced with is what is theory and what is work?!

The double Wednesday lesson we would usually have was interrupted by the Primary Play (something like the Space Pirates and Planet Booty). It was cute, watching all the little kids doing drama and some bits were rather funny that or the kids had mastered the art of perfect musical timing. They played up on stage but that playing up seemed to actually add to the piece rather that hinder it. It was a nice little play which we all enjoyed to different extents.

Now this week Georgia's and My life has pretty much been taken over by the School Production of the Odyssey, with me being Head Stage Manager and Georgia being my Co. Its been damn hard work even with 7 of us on a team. Wednesday after school was planning on big A3 sheets the props, songs, entrances and exits and all that shabaz. We also pretty much broke every health and safety rule in school, there I am up a ladder, top step, leaning over, scissors in one hand and sellotape in the other trying to fix a curtain so we could black the hall out. But other than that it seemed to go well, trying to get everything properly organised. Also WE HAVE A NEW MEGA COOL FOLLOW SPOT and NEW FUSE BOXES FOR THE LIGHTS.....Granted the new fuses boxes are barely working at the moment but still we got some! 

OUR INCREDIBLE VIEW!!!!

Thursday, Thursday was a successful disaster. Well we started off thinking yeah, props in order, action plan set out lets get on with the dress rehearsal. Thing I learnt: When dealing with props make sure the kids get then instead if you chasing them up. For the first rehearsal we missed scene changes, calls, props couldn't be found and problem after problem. But once we told the kids props are theirs and if THEY don't come to get it they won't have it things began to run so much smoother. I am very grateful for my team of 7 (that includes me) since without them it would have been impossible. One that makes out job so much harder is that backstage you cannot hear anything!!!!!! It was as stated a successful disaster. And just look at our view!!!

(edit 1st of April)
I almost forgot to add that I have finished reading the play we will study after the Easter Holidays which is The Good Woman of Setzuan, it was quite a strange story it will be interest to act our but I was thinking of some good set designs that could be used for it. I did some research into it as well are come across Setzuan apparently being the Modern day Sichaun in China. So it was rather interesting to find out. Can't wait to get started on this piece!!

So yeah that has been my short but rather hectic week! 

Richard #1

DUDE! WAIT!! That page was pretty!

This week (19th - 23rd March) we worked on our Designers Research Project

Bring on the research!!

In terms of blogging this week has been pretty darn dull. We sat down on Monday and began to research out two set designers (who are Edward Gordon Craig and Josef Svoboda). I decided to do my project as a blog instead of the usual on paper in a portfolio I wanted to be different. Blogs also allow you to add multimedia in that otherwise would not be available on paper (music/video). If anyone would like a look at the blog which is currently under construction Finished here it is:

http://ibdesignersproject.wordpress.com

All week we have been gathering information on our intended people, somethings are extremely interesting especially when I started to look at Josef Svoboda's work with technology, lighting and set design. He was a really innovative person, using technology to create cutting edge stage designs such as his really pretty PILLAR OF LIGHT! That's it for class work this week and probably the next few weeks, so keep your eye on that blog listed above.

For our final lesson on friday we watched the Year 13's final Theatre Performance and Production Presentation (TPPP) which was kind of scary in a way since that is us in pretty much a year from now. There were two in total, one standard level TPPP (20 minutes) and one higher level TPPP (30 Minutes) both were different from each other both were well presented. I felt myself more drawn into the higher level TPPP however the student naturally had to go more in depth than the standard level student had to so that is most likely the reason, content wise they seemed just as good as each others give or take. All 4 of us are higher level theatre students, and we have done everything together so far as an ensemble. So it will be interesting to see how by the end of these two years, how our perceptions of Theatre compare to each others, because I'm sure it'll be different in all 4 cases!

Both TPPP's gave me plenty of ideas of what I should maybe start to put towards my final TPPP in Year 13, but for now I'm focused more upon our upcoming end of year Theatre exam, so as of right now I'll keep my mind set on my Set Design Research Project which I think will majorly help me on how to structure our upcoming Research Investigation (RI).

I had a meeting with Mr. Fearnehough about what to do for my Extended Essay this week on Wednesday (21st March) and we talked about my idea(s). Which is / was something along the lines of Asian theatres and masks. We got talking about how I need something that interests me more than just 'interesting for Extended Essay' and I could see where he is coming from. I mean I am always interested to see different perspectives of theatre instead of the narrow minded western view. But it got me think, could I do a whole EE (Extended Essay) on this? Does it REALLY interest me? What can I do? By the end of the day I was so confused. My head was swimming with ideas, good and bad ones of what to do. So I went into metal mind-mapping mode trying to figure out what I could do and what would interest me and another BIG thing was run a workshop on. I went through many ideas, types of theatre ranging from Panto to Butoh. Technical  ranging from pyrotechnics to make-up. Here is a mind-map of what I did:

Idea Splurge

I then whittled it down to a few possibilities and started to think of workshops I could run, the 3 categories I came up with were Comedy since I've always loved comedy and been fascinated by it how people deliver the line, where the jokes come from, and how to get a whole room of different backgrounds and histories to laugh at the same joke. Technical, since for me being backstage and what happens back there is just as important to me as being on stage and performing to people, I've been back stage and worked there and know how it works and what happens. I've always been more interested in the back than the front of the stage since it is what happens back stage that makes the performance, I then started thinking, maybe projection, lighting, sound. All these ideas whizzing around. My final category that I though of was perspective, as mentioned before its amazing how narrow minded theatre can be sometimes and I just love leaning about all types of theatre and how other people perceive it. So now I am at a dilemma. WHERE DO I GO NOW! I'll have to go away over the next week or few and have a major think. Here is a more refined more thought out but still frustrating mind-map (click for larger view):

More 'Refined' sorry about brightness!

One final thing is that on the Sunday (25th March) Me and Georgia both went to the school production of the Odyssey, its all getting very tense at the moment since we are less than a week away from the Dress Rehearsal but still have barely worked with props, flats and scene changes. Georgia and I are Stage Managers (I being head and Georgia being my deputy/co) so it was pretty hectic for us too, trying to hear what's going on, on stage and what not. But lets see how it all turns out shall we? All in all, pretty much a repetitive week, not much to blog about really.

Just want to say have a great paternity leave Mr. Fearnehough, hopefully you'll have a class to come back too :P

Richard #1

We are all so vein!

This week (12th - 16th March) well actually since it is Monday it was last week.

We got our IB Theatre Display up more or less and we were introduced to Set Design!

Tuesday (13th) was the first lesson of the week and instead of moving straight on from our Devised Blood mIST piece we took a detour down the route of creativity and we all decided to create a big-ass display to show our pretty amazing time during IB Theatre! So Tuesday was a planning lesson, what we would have, how big it would have to be, what goes where and this is what we came up with at a prototyping of what the display would eventually look like:

And that is where we pretty much got to during the lesson, but I had a study and a free period at the end of the day so I spent two hours working on my section of the display which was the section on ISTA (when we went to London with TaPS ISTA) adding pictures, captions and quotes all around to show the fun we had and what we had learnt.

Wednesday (14th) we really wanted to get everything at least stuck down and glued ready to be put up, which we managed to just about do, just a slight stick here or there left but overall it was looking pretty dang good, and by no time it was ready to go up. Wednesday after I stayed back at school to help out during the school play "The Odyssey" which I am stage manager for so I was annotating the script making sure what flats have to be on when and what not, and also I have to get a team together which I may need help on since at the moment there is me and two year 10's helping me currently.

Theatre Versus Oppression - The 2 Richards!

Wednesday night was a blast, Georgia, Spencer, and myself all went along to the "So you think you can count?" maths night to help raise a little bit of money for Theatre Versus Oppression (TVO) since Mr. Fearnehough will be going to the Ugandan refugee camp they raise money for in August and so we wanted to get a bit of fund raising going before the big IST'S GOT TALENT! fundraiser. We raised 164 Euros in total, all three of us were blown away by the generosity of the people there (every if some did ask for change)!

Thursday (15th) there was not a lesson but Georgia and I decided to use up our Biology Higher Study to put the entire display up on the display board. We came over a few problems such as most of the staple guns in school don't seem to work and the one that does shoots double stables, a certain high mathematics student counted the size of the board wrong so we kinda ran out of space on one of them and had to slightly cut it up. But other than that, all was good! The display was done...mostly we were just missing a title which is on its way cus we want a SUPER 3-D TITLE OF ULTIMATE DRAMA AMAZINGNESS!Now for the Grand Reveal. This is the IB Theatre Year 12 Amazing Supercalifragilisticexpialidociously epic display of Epicosity: 

THE DISPLAY! (There you go Spencer!)

Amazing? We know. The title at the moment is temperamental but we are getting there.Friday (16th) we left our display hanging on the wall majestically and moved on to a new topic of Set Design (Scenography) where we began to learn the basics of how colours and lines can completely change the atmosphere of a piece. It seems like it will be a really interesting thing to do, can't wait to get stuck in!

Sunday (18th), I was also at school for "The Odyssey" where I went through the whole script and found out how big my job actually is with like 3 weeks till the actual performance I've got alot to do. So BRING IT ON!

Thats it for this week, been mega fun, blasting music out whilst making our display, and starting a new topic! So yeah, successful week!

Richard #1