My contribution to this production includes working on harmonies in the song 'All We Do' by Oh Wonder, Jaydee and I looked at this song near the beginning of rehearsals go establish harmonies and tempos that we can use. We experimented to percussion to sing to, which is what we ended up sing in the final performance with our live band members. We then were able to show our work to the cast, teaching them what we had planned with flair.
I also worked outside of lesson to work on my character, to make sure I had a fully provoking sense of characterisation to express at the BOAT, exaggerating enough to reach out to the back of the audience. Jaydee and I would run our lines in and out of college and in and out of lessons to gain a good understand the narrative of our scenes, specifically Act 2 Scene 1, in which we lead this, as it is the longest scene in the production. This responsibility to carry a scene well inspired us to work hard. To add an extra edge to the scenes, we developed the comedic side of our dialogue. The text in this scene is sly and bitchy, so we tried out different ways to deliver these lines, accessing the humorous tone. We researched ugly step sister characters in panto's and films to learn how to move as one together, acting powerful. This also helped us with line confidence, We also looked at court dances from the Elizabethan era, to look into how we could move rhythmically when plotting to kill the king.
To help shape the content and structure of the work I assisted in making the tree, the main part of our set. I auggested that we use a mixture of artificial and natural foliage on the day, to add to the sense of non-naturalism. This tree is a vital part of setting the scene for the show, in the narrative of the show, and in terms of filling the space at the theatre.
I made my own costume for this production, I started eith a dress that my director had provided that fitted the colour scheme, that the royals from Milan had a purple theme. I thought about what materials to use to change my dress that would show my character too. I used shiffon and netting to suggest Antonia's nasty evil side, I made a bustle for the back of my dress to reference the traditional dresses they may have worn in Shakespearean times. I also used layering and feminine flowers in the middle of the bustle with purple to show her girly side, which also worked well with the red flowers that Jaydee had on her dress, playing Bastiana.
I also helped to choreograpph a lot of the physical theatre and dance as mentioned in other posts-
I have used physical theatre in The Tempest to show a shipwreck. We took lines such as ‘take in the top sail, tend to the master’s whistle, blow, till thou burst thy wind!’, ‘stay in your cabins, you do assist the storm.’ And ‘down with the topmast! Lower, lower!’. These quotes allowed us to create an idea of what it was like to be on the ship as our characters. To create sense of panic, in a non-naturalistic way, we decided to use a drum beat between each line, changing position dramatically, using positions such as cowering in fear, looking up to the sky, pleading with our arms, and trying to shield ourselves from the storm. This allowed us to use exaggerated facial expressions, so show the audience fear, desperation and exhaustion. This then went into using a long rope to create a V shape in the middle of the stage, this was efficient due to the thrust style of staging, allowing all of the audience to see some actors on stage. This V represented the ship, I decided to create some dramatic lifts with Luke, who was next to me in the line of the V, so show some people falling off the boat. We, as a cast, used reaches and flung our limbs dramatically over the edge of the rope, and curving our spines backwards to show how we would be thrown about in a storm on a boat. Finally, to show the shipwreck itself, we all, in pairs or trio’s performed these dramatic lifts, and fell to the floor to show the end of the storm, or that we had reached the shore of the island.
In act 3 scene 3 of The Tempest, spirits come onto the stage and manipulate us, with their powers. I choreographed some movement in pairs, using pulling and pushing motions to show how we were under their control. Jaydee and I were together, being manipulated by Charlotte, playing one of the spirits. This choice of pairing was to show that we had a close relationship in the show.
I made the most of the creative and artistic possibilities by trying out different entrances and blocking on the day during our rehearsal time-
Jaydee and I got the opportunity to experiment with our blocking, we often stand near the audience making sly jokes and looking at the other characters together, this rehearsal time gave us a chance to try our different blocking to find what was most effective for reaching all angles of the audience and delivering lines. We also worked on coming onto the stage, for Act 2 Scene 1, we tried walking part way down the back of the audience before the end of the previous scene, to immerse the audience further, acting as if we are exploring the island. It also allowed us to see what our costumes and set looked like on such a big stage, luckily we found that each of the costumes portrayed the relationships in the complex family tree and the characters duties. Ultimately this time at the theatre helped us feel a lot more comfortable, in terms of nerves.
We also developed the tree in our set, by taking real trees and logs from the woods in the park near by, making it more realistic, and allowing us to change it depending on how it looked on the nigger stage with the concrete slats at the back.
We also tried out singing our finale song from the very back of the theatre, standing on the ledge behind the back row of the audience. This was really effective because it allowed us all to sing directly to the audience, avoiding any volume issues, and it also allowed the audience to see every cast member at once for the final time in the show, linking to the 'happy ending' style of finish to the narrative. It gave us a bold ending image to go out on, before bows.
Here are some shots of the theatre itsels, and us performing in it-
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