About – Page 5

April 21, 2016Zach Begg No Comments

When it was decided that the main character of our play would be Chris Petit despite his title as Marketing Director – an understandably large role in the production of our show. Because of this we decided that it would be best for Charlie and myself, alongside Chris, to form a marketing team in order to not overload Chris with work so early on in the process. We began to formulate strategies to market the play and after I drafted the initial budgets (both real-life and actual) we decided that we could use both posters and fliers in order to advertise the show. We also decided that we should maintain a strong social media presence as we intend to reference Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and Tumblr within our show.

We brainstormed ideas for poster and flier design and decided that the general design of the two items need to be similar, therefore making the decision to use the same photograph of the main character on both, but change the orientation of it between fliers and posters (Flier: Landscape, Poster: Portrait). The composition of the image consisted of the back of Chris Petit’s head, staring up at a blackboard/whiteboard. I felt that this image, whilst simple, is incredibly effective at connoting our intentions for the play. The use of a whiteboard/blackboard clearly symbolises the setting of our play and Chris’ positioning within the poster is also incredibly illustrative of his character going into the play. The fact that you can see his back suggests that he is moving forward with his life, also creating comradery with the potential audience member as they are both looking at the same thing: A blackboard/whiteboard with the title of the Play (Ungraded) at the top. Another interesting point to note about Chris’s positioning in this is that he is looking up at the board, suggesting that something to do with school is daunting for him.

Thanks to Iona Carter, a Media student at the University of Lincoln, the composition of these marketing materials was a simple process. Without her photography, the posters and fliers would be of a much lower quality than the final versions of the posters and fliers, shown below.

Flier

Poster

April 10, 2016Emily Cooksey No Comments

Final Production meeting

Having just had our second and final production meeting with Darren and Alex, in which I handed over the technical rider for Ungraded, we have finalized the requirements for set, props, sound and lighting. We have solved the minor issue of the projection screen, which we had to ensure was not going to get in the way of the performers and vice versa. We have decided to use front projection onto a screen which will be high enough to accommodate for our tallest performer and the additional rostrum platform. I has however, become apparent that the cue sheets for lighting and sound are not currently correct and will need changing before our tech day. Furthermore the videos such as the snapchats and the texts still need to be filmed and a cue sheet for them is also required before the tech day. This has been a particularly stressful day as Stage Manager, however I have maintained a calm and positive attitude, whilst simultaneously reinforcing the fact that all the necessary work will have to be completed before tech day, so that I am able to approve everything and complete a full cue script prior to tech day.

March 25, 2016Chloe Harrison No Comments

Audience, Gatecrash and Technology

In order to narrow down an idea and find out more about our target audience we decided to go and ask a few people in our target audience as to what they want to see in a theatre show.

From the beginning of the process it has been clear that we have wanted to produce theatre which is relatable to a target audience of 16-25. We want to create theatre which can be a form of escapism but also relevant at tackling issues that our age target audience will face at some point over the next few years. We arranged to have a chat with Toby Ealdon of Zest Theatre in order to explore how they approached relevant issues, where they get ideas from and how they engage their audience. As Zest have a similar target audience we wanted to see how to achieve engaging our audience successfully without becoming too similar to Zest as a company. In particular, looking at their 2016 Gatecrash tour:

(zesttheatre, 2015)

Gatecrash explores relevant issues for Zest Theatre target audience in an interactive way. In particular, the audience where headphones and tune in to certain areas of the stage in order to hear what is happening. This kept the audience engaged and encouraged us as a company to explore ways of incorporating relevant media such as Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter into our show.

During a production meeting, we were discussing the option of having live media such as a Twitter or Snapchat that the audience could send content into. However, due to the nature and unreliability of technology we decided that this currently would not be a viable option as there would be too many technical risks. However, after more practice and a few experiments with technology we may be able to incorporate a live stream into the performance. We may also be able to adapt the show to incorporate social media into the decisions of the show. This would make the show unpredictable and provide a challenge for the cast, however, with rehearsal it may work.

After managing to have a brief talk with Toby Ealdon, he told me that Zest mainly decide their content by either being commissioned or a member of the company having a creative idea that they want to tackle. In terms of an issue he recommended not getting caught up in ‘issues’ unless the company want to be school and Theatre in Education focussed. He suggested just to make art. Zest are currently developing a show on World War 1 and the moment, it’s topical but has no particular issue which needs tackling. He also recommended that we have a local instead of a national focus purely for funding purposes and then explore further afield.

After exploring further into Arts Council funding and taking on Toby’s advice, including our usage of technology and social media to engage our audience we could apply to get Arts Council England Funding from the Creative Media and Digital activity, and GFTA, due to our involvement with social media. We could increase our chances at getting a grant if we further developed our use of digital art as the Arts Council “wish to support new forms of creativity; emerging arts practice and artforms which embrace digital technologies and push the boundaries of traditional artforms.” (Arts Council England, 2016) However, we could also apply to other grants such as the Public Engagement grant.

Works Cited:

Arts Council England (2016) Creative media and digital activity, and Grants for the Arts. [online] England: A.C.E. Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/information-sheets?search_api_views_fulltext=&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&page=1 [Accessed 3 March 2016]

Zesttheatre (2015) Gatecrash- 2016 Tour [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-mnpE_WjrA [Accessed 3 March 2016]

March 22, 2016Emily Cooksey No Comments

Arts Council

Due to our status as a touring theatre company, we have had to take into consideration the Arts Council policy and how this might affect both our work and funding. Arts Council England (ACE) evaluate the professionalism and value of a theatre company, claiming that a successful company should ensure that “every aspect of [their] activity contributes to achieving [their] artistic aspirations” (Arts Council England, 2016). This pushed us to revisit our mission statement and guarantee that our work is in fact progressing with this in mind.

Our Mission Statement:

Railcard theatre is a new theatre company that specialise in creating entertaining, escapist theatre that tackles relatable and inspiring issues through performance. Our aim is to challenge the stigma around theatre by making it an accessible experience for …young people to learn within and enjoy. We are looking to use real-life stories and experiences as a basis to write our own original content that will aim to help unite and inspire young people. We believe that theatre has the power to provide a creative outlet for young people who need guidance, unity and above all entertainment. Relatable stories are at the heart of our practice and we hope to inspire and entertain you with our performance.

It has been comforting and reassuring to see that the performance we are creating is very much in keeping with our mission statement. Our inclusion of various forms of social media and communication within the piece, although currently proving a little difficult, is fitting and engaging and the content of the piece as a whole is relevant to our target audience and in keeping with the mission statement. Having worked to ensure that our piece is not heading in the direction of education, but rather entertainment, I personally feel we are progressing with arts council policy in mind.

Arts Council England (2016) Self-Evaluation Framework: Artistic Policy/ Statement. [Online] England: Arts Council England. Available from: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160204101926/http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/selfevaluation/framework/artistic-aspirations-and-programme/artistic-policystatement/ [Accessed 22^nd March 2016].

March 19, 2016Emily Cooksey No Comments

Progress as Stage Manager

Over the last few weeks my role as stage manager has become far more important. With the completion of the script we have been able to begin blocking scenes, which has meant I am able to begin to develop our staging, set, lighting and sound. After our production meeting in our Friday lesson (11th March) with Darren, we now know we are able to use the set design proposed by Lauren and are on the right track with PRS forms for music. The Stage Managers handbook is beginning to take shape and I have set up our Indiegogo funding page, which has allowed us to be a little more ambitious when sourcing set and props. We have already established that a great deal of our set and props can be sourced ‘In Kind’.

I have also been maintaining a sense of calm in rehearsals in order to support the producers and directors, as well as reinforcing high standards of care for our rehearsal spaces. In each rehearsal I have ensured we have had sufficient breaks and have mediated the few minor disagreements we have encountered. I believe it is important for a Stage Manager to uphold the professional values set forth in the code of conduct, in order for the company to perform at its best and gain the respect of other organisations and the public.

“An SM must not get pulled in to drama or hysteria. While everyone around may be losing their heads, an SM must maintain enough distance to remain calm and objective, ready to steer the ship through turbulent waters, and keep the show and the company afloat. As soon as an SM shows anything less than confidence and control, directors become nervous, producers fearful and performers insecure.” (Fazio, 2000)

L, Fazio. (2000) Stage Manager: The Professional Experience. Boca Raton: CRC Press.