Initial concept:
The first week of this process has been very experimental, as a company we began by discussing what we wanted to achieve and the style of work we wanted to create. We explored issues that company members were passionate about or affected by, In order to find our common ground. We have decided that we want to create theatre that is accessible and relatable for young adults (16-25 years old), which is both entertaining and inspiring. Our current concept is that of a young postgraduate starting out in a career in teaching, during the play he/she will encounter struggling/difficult GCSE students and learn to balance their work and personal life. We have decided to write our own script as a number of people in our company have script writing experience.
Division of roles:
This week Zach Begg joined our group and we began to discuss the roles which needed to be undertaken by members of the company. We evaluated our strengths and weaknesses and with consideration of peoples past experience, decided the roles would be divided as follows:
- Zach Begg – Co-producer/ Assistant Director.
- Rebecca Bierton – Choreographer/ Health and Safety Officer
- Emily Cooksey – Stage Manager
- Chloe Harrison – Director
- Chris O’Donoghue – Lighting Designer
- Chris Petit – Marketing Director
- Emma Rewse – Costume Designer
- Lauren Towell – Set Designer
- Charlie Watts – Co-producer/ Sound Designer
- Laura Welberry – Hair and Make-up Artist
Having worked as an Assistant Stage Manager for a promenade performance in the past, it was decided I was most suited to the role. Due to the significant workload the falls onto the stage managers shoulders, I will not be taking on a performance role alongside my backstage role.
First Week as Stage Manager:
Now that our roles have been allocated I feel we are able to make more progress as a company. As Stage Manager I scheduled our first production team meeting for earlier in this week. This gave us the opportunity to begin considering our rehearsal schedule and important deadlines, such as the production of marketing materials and our script. We have decided to aim to have some rough designs for potential logos by Thursday next week and have also distributed Code of Conduct contracts to be signed by every member of the company. In regards to our rehearsal schedule, unfortunately we have not been able to produce a full schedule as most of the company members have not yet been informed of their tech/assessment days for other modules. We have also finalised the script writing team, which will be led by Zach, in preparation to begin writing next week.
Script Writing:
After some deliberation, we have now completed a scene breakdown that the entire company is happy with and have been allocated individual scenes to write for the 9th of March, after which we will edit the script as a team to ensure character voices are consistent and scenes flow correctly from one to the next.
Scene One – Chris O’Donoghue
Scene Two – Lauren Towell
Scene Three – Chris O’Donoghue
Scene Four – Zach Begg
Scene Five – Lauren Towell
Scene Six – Chris Petit
Scene Seven – Emily Cooksey
Scene Eight – Zach Begg and Emily Cooksey
Scene Nine – Chris Petit
The method we have chosen to write the script should yield efficient results as we will hopefully be able to produce a full script in a week, however, we are anticipating further work on the script will be required. We hope to have a finalised script by the 23rd of March.
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.”
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, value and potential success 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.
Mission Statement:
Our 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 22nd March 2016].
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.
Tech Day:
Tech day, although incredibly stressful, has gone rather well. Unfortunately we were not able to use more than one rostrum today, when we require six. This has added some slight worry in my mind, as I will not be able to ensure the staging all work correctly together until show day. However, the tasks I set the production team after our last production meeting had been completed, other than the sound cue sheet which still needs working on. Despite not having used Q-lab before, everything went according to plan and once the tech was programmed I got to grips with running the show fairly quickly. Unfortunately after having done a run through with the tech, it became apparent that a fair few changes needed to be made. Although all the changes were fairly minor, other than the rerecording of the texting videos, it was mildly disheartening to leave the tech day knowing that we would need to make more changes on show day.
Show Day:
The show went off without a hitch and although it was an incredibly long day, I am over the moon. I had scheduled the day with the minor tech changes in mind and we followed the schedule for the most part.
We arrived at 9AM and the stage was set up fairly quickly. Unfortunately my fears about not having yet used the rostrum to create the full platform were not misplaced. We quickly realised that 6 rostrum did not yield the dimensions we had expected and we required another two rostrum to accommodate all the set. This caused us to begin our cue to cue somewhat later than planned, however the company were incredibly efficient and by the end of the cue to cue we were back on track in terms of our schedule. We then did a final run through with full tech, set, props and costume and upon feedback we decided to add in some extra sound and shorten the snapchat video. I decided to fix these last minute changes during the lunch break I scheduled for the company, so as not to eat into time I had allocated to rehearsals and feedback for the director, Zach.
As 7:30 drew nearer I began to feel a little unsettled as I had never had the responsibility of calling a show before and was a little unsure of how it would work in regards to the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre’s communication system. The tech crew were incredibly reassuring and when the time came I found that both calling and running the show were very straightforward and I was confident in my ability as a stage manager. Despite my earlier worries I maintained my composure and ensured that the rest of the company were calm and felt that everything was under control. Other than a minor issue in one of the scene changes (during which someone forgot to take a chair off stage, which then had to be carried off just as the lights came up on the scene) the show ran flawlessly.
When it came to the get out after the show, it was a little hectic. However, the company pulled together and with some delegation from myself, we were able to not only leave the theatre as we had found it, with everything clean, tidy and organised, but also help the tech crew with some extra tasks to speed up their night too. Having sent the rest of the company to wait outside, I got the all clear from Darren and thanked the tech crew before leaving. All in all, the day was a firm success in my opinion and I could not be more proud of what we achieved as a company.
