Production Role

Costume Design
I'm assigned to the role of costume. I'm in a group of 3, the two girls in my group are taking charge of the female costumes in the show and I'm responsible for the male costumes. I've got to select the costume I want and how I want it to look. Luckily the costumes I'm in charge of are for the prison officers so they're simple.
This link includes the job roles of a costume designer:
http://getintotheatre.org/job-profiles/details/costume-designer

I've made brief designs of how I expect the male officers to look on stage. 

Here is a drawing of what the boys will be wearing, it includes a smart white shirt, black tie, smart black trousers and smart black shoes. Also including accessories like name tags, badges and the shoulder patches. These are traditional uniforms for a prison officer as I had done research into prison job roles.
Here is a list of how life is like for a prison officer from:
http://www.prisonofficer.org.uk/welcome1.html
These uniforms which were worn by five members of cast, I think, stood out to the audience because it shows authority and power over the prisoners. The audience, immediatley, would have been able to identify the characters role and that they are the ones in power. Black and white work well together as evreyone knows and so the contrast of the two makes more effect and easier for the audience to see.

Throughout the production of Bad Girls, me and my costume team had meetings from time to time about what we needed and what had to be done. We wrote up spider diagrams showing what we had discussed:

From these you can see what we had discussed and what we decided to do in order to get what we needed to be done in time for the show. This was useful because it helped us develop our ideas as a group on the whole production greater as we adapted our knowledge from background research into the performance.

We expanded our real search and developed our ideas by adjusting some things and making changes: 

Here is another diagram of the male prison officer uniform. We added epuletes and key chains to the costume which are both seen on a prison officers uniform. I made another diagram because it was better to make another one and look at the differences rather than adding it to the original drawing and not seeing the contrast between the two uniforms.

We also discussed using hats as that can sometimes be a tradition but we took it into consideration and decided it wouldn't be a good idea as we would only need about 5 and we though it would look more effective without the hats.

We discussed changing the uniforms from British into American, where the uniforms are different and are the same plain coloured all over such as black or a faded brown.

 

We decided not to do this and to go back to our original idea of having it a traditional British uniform, although it would have been interesting to have an American outlook we though it best to keep it simple. Having this discussion gave us the ability to realise that we can all have good ideas, and even though they may not be used in the final performances, they were good ideas and may have worked well if they had been put into practice.

In order to make sure our costumes were going to stand out, we had to have a discussion with the tech crew about the lighting. We looked through the scenes and picked out where officers such as Jim and Justin were to be lit and asked what sort of lighting would be in place for this scene. The lighting crew showed us what they had in mind. To make sure it would accent the costumes we had to test it in the specific lighting of where we would be stood in character.
Doing this was helpful and made us as a team realise that we had made good decisions, had good ideas and had the best intentions.

Here are pictures of the uniforms in action 

You can see the different levles of lighting that bounce off the white shirt and make it stand out to the audience especially when there is dimmer lighting around the other sections of the stage.

Hours and Environment
Prison officers usually work 39 hours a week on a shift pattern that includes nights and weekends. There are opportunities for part-time work and job-share.
The work is mainly indoors although prison officers often work outdoors when patrolling the grounds or supervising recreation.
Prison officers will sometimes need to use physical force when restraining a prisoner.
Your first post may be with a local prison but you may need to move to another part of the country for work.

Annual Income
Figures are intended as a guideline only.
In England and Wales, the starting salary is £17,400 a year.
This can rise up to £26,500 year with long service.
Senior officers can earn between £28,200 and £30,650 a year.
Additional local pay allowances may be available.
In Scotland, a prison officer starts on £14,400 a year.
The top of the pay scale is currently £19,200 a year.

I researhed into what a prison officer wears when on duty and this is what I found:
http://www.foxtrot-productions.co.uk/costumes/prison/hm-prison-officer/
It's the traditional uniform for a male prison officer and it is a simple attire which makes things easier to adapt into the performance.
 

I have also designed a prison badge to be worn on the uniforms of the prison officers and the number one.

The badge is bottom of this picture, the idea of the bird came from my research into the Latkhall area in Scotland and found things such as primary schools and youth football teams had this symbol displayed on their logos so I thought it would be appropriate to use that. 

Choreographer

Choreographers work with actors and dancers to teach them the required steps and routines for the show. They often either work with, or also work as, movement directors and fight directors. All three jobs exist to help the actors to use the physical space around them in the best way, and to complete entertaining, safe and convincing dance, movement or fight routines on stage. Sometimes a show will employ a separate choreographer and movement director. On other occasions, a single person will fulfil both roles. The movement director may also handle fight direction, or a third person may do this job. Choreographers are employed on any musical theatre shows, but even on productions which only have one dance number, they create the dance, and may be involved in teaching the steps and routines.

Movement directors work on: demonstrating correct period etiquette for a show that is set in the past,
robotic movements or menacing movements for gang warfare sequences, helping actors to physically play animal characters, characters of another gender, drunk characters, and helping to stage theatrical stunts.


Fight Choreographer

The role of the fight arranger, or fight director, involves: coaching the actors in how to appear to fight convincingly, concentrating more on acting and stagecraft than on actual physical fighting or martial arts, as the work is more a specialised form of choreography, working closely with the director, the choreographer and the actors to work up a fight routine from scratch, working to add in the drama of a fight to a scene that’s already been worked on.
The fight director can be called in several times during a production at different times to improve and polish the fight as each scene develops.

Garth Fagan is the recipient of the 1998 Tony Award for Best Choreography and the 2000 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer (London) as well as the Drama Desk Award, the Astaire Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for his work with The Lion King. Mr. Fagan was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and for more than 33 years has toured the world with Garth Fagan Dance. On television the company has appeared on “Great Performances,” “The Tonight Show” and the Academy Awards.  Mr. Fagan forged his own dance language and technique, drawing from modern dance, Afro-Caribbean and ballet, and has choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Jose Limon Company, the New York City Ballet’s 50th Anniversary, and others.

Sound operation

'Sound engineering/ sound technician' is one of three aspects of production in theatre that I'm researching as part of my production research.
The sound technician is the master sound creator for a theatrical production. On top of keeping the microphones used by performers problem free, they also create soundscapes for theatrical productions ranging from musicals to straight plays.

The theatrical sound technician is in charge of running audio equipment during a performance. Skills needed in this role include the ability to run a sound board, create audio recordings for the performances and to work with the director or `production manager to create the sound for a show.
Steve Canyon Kennedy was the production engineer on such Broadway shows as Cats, Starlight Express, Song & Dance, The Phantom of the Opera, Carrie and Aspects of Love. His Broadway sound design credits include Catch Me If You Can, (Tony Nomination) Guys and Dolls, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, Jersey Boys (Drama Desk Award), Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, Hairspray, The Producers, Aida, Titanic, Big, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Carousel and The Who’s Tommy (Drama Desk Award).

 
Lighting designStage lighting is the lighting that applies to the production of theatre and other performance arts. Several different types of stage lighting instruments are used, in addition to basic lighting, modern stage lighting can also include special effects, such as laser and fog machines. People who work on stage lighting are commonly referred to as "lighing techincian".
Donald Holder - lighting design (lion king). He received a Tony award(1998), Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for The Lion King (Broadway) and the Moliere Award for The Lion King (Paris).
Lighting designers
A lighting designer (LD) is familiar with the various types of lighting instruments and their uses. In consultation with the director, the DSM (deputy stage manager) and the scenic designer, and after observing rehearsals, the LD creates an instrument schedule and a light plot as well as informing the DSM where each LX (lighting) cue is designed to be triggered in the script, which the DSM notes down in his plot book. The schedule is a list of all required lighting equipment, including color gel, gobos, color wheels, barndoors and other accessories. The light plot is typically a plan view of the theatre where the performance will take place, with every luminaire marked. This typically specifies the approximate lighting focus and direction, a reference number, accessories, and the DMX512 channel number of the dimmer system or lighting control console.

Stage lighting has multiple functions, including:

Selective Visibility: The simple ability to see what is occurring on stage. Any lighting design will be ineffective if the viewers cannot see the characters, unless this is the explicit intent.
Revelation of form: Altering the perception of shapes onstage, particularly three-dimensional stage elements.
Focus: Directing the audience's attention to an area of the stage or distracting them from another.
Mood: Setting the tone of a scene. Harsh red light has a totally different effect from soft lavender light.
Location and time of day: Establishing or altering position in time and space. Blues can suggest night time while orange and red can suggest a sunrise or sunset. Use of mechanical filters ("gobos") to project sky scenes, the moon, etc.
Projection/stage elements: Lighting may be used to project scenery or to act as scenery onstage.
Plot (script): A lighting event may trigger or advance the action onstage. And off.
Composition: Lighting may be used to show only the areas of the stage which the designer wants the audience to see, and to "paint a picture".

While Lighting Design is an art form, and no one way is the only way, there is a modern movement that simply states that the Lighting Design helps to create the environment in which the action takes place while supporting the style of the piece. "Mood" is arguable while the environment is essential.

Evaluation


Throughout the process of designing different costumes, coming up with new ideas, working around other things such as the lighting, we frequently began to realise what we were having to do in order for everything to work as one. The research we each done helped us so much as it was something we were able to check up on whenever we may have struggled on the facts and figures of our costumes. We used most of our time deciding how we were going to adapt everything into the performances. This was the part where we had to find out what else was going on in terms of other groups such as the lighting crew, which I have mentioned. We had to find out what they were doing in order for us to do what we needed to do. We did all this so that we could keep on top of everything and that when it came to the show days that we wouldn't panic or have anything to worry about as we did all this with a few weeks to spare before the shows. I enjoyed being a part of this team because it gave me a sense of responsibility and I had to do a lot of independent work such as all my research, my diagrams and looking into the life of a prison officer. I hope that what i have done in this project will reflect on my final grade.
Throughout the project I did have some strengths, such as having the innitiative to do my research quickly and write down/draw what I had seen. This helped me and the rest of the team as it gave us all something to do and get on with. Also I was able to bring in my own clothing which is what was required in order to show everyone else what it was going to look like. Itook note that this was a positive thing and I knew I had achieved something good.
I also had a couple of weak points like not getting all the costumes organised as in having the ones who were wearing them not bringing them in and me not getting them organised. And also leaving a few things til last minute because I had planned other parts that needed doing and forgetting about other plans. So my main weakness was my organisation and I know this was a problem because of the issues I've mentioned above. It effected things because there were times when I needed the other costumes and no one had brought them in for us to test on. If I could change how I went about this, I would have been more consistent with the people i needed to see and make sure that they weren't going to let me down. But I tried not to let this stand in the way and just used the two costumes that we already had and worked around not having the full set of costumes and as they were all the same we just used the 2 and assumed the others would work the same with the lighting.
These setbacks made us realise that it wasn't going to be as straight forward as we had thought, but we got through it and developed our skills greater.







 

Principals of acting - Boal and Stanislavski

Augusto Boal
Quick introduction to Boal:
Rachel introduced to the class a new drama practicioner Augusto Boal (16 March 1931 - 2 May 2009) a Brazillian theatre director, writer and politician. He was the founder of "Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical popular education movements.
Our practical work consisted of two exercises famous of Boal's theory:


“The theater itself is not revolutionary: it is a rehearsal for the revolution.”- Augusto Boal
Theater of the Oppressed is an arsenal of theater techniques and games that seeks to motivate people, restore true dialogue, and create space for participants to rehearse taking action. It begins with the idea that everyone has the capacity to act in the “theater” of their own lives; everybody is at once an actor and a spectator. We are “spect-actors!” — a term which Boal coined. http://beautifultrouble.org/theory/theater-of-the-oppressed/

In my opinion, as I've become fond of Boal's theories and so on, I like the idea of taking personal experiences maybe good memories or bad memories to help develop your characterization. If you can put yourself into the same situation, or near enough something similar, then you can really feel the emotions that the character will have. If you can do this and really get it into you that you are this character and you are feeling these emotions to make you feel happy or depressed or maybe angry then it changes your performance entirely for the better. The mood given off to the spectators is always manipulated by the emotions used in facial expressions, body language and tone of voice because that's where the power of the character is shown most effectively.

Why is it important to share a disciplined approach to performance work?It's important because it shows dedication and understanding of rules that are respected of you as students/actors and it also improves the final performance.What do you think are your main challenges? (skills & behaviour)

I think showing respect to everyone involved in your group/class because everyone deserved the same treatment and it's important that everyone knows how to treat the rest of the class.
Why were you interested in the production role you have selected?
I've chosen costume because I have yet to be a part of this sector and have wanted to give off my thoughts and ideas of how people should be dressed on stage.
What would you like to achieve in this production?
I hope that from this role I can take the skills I learn into my future career and can expand on the knowledge of costume designing and arranging.
Who is Augusto Boal? What did he want to achieve?
Most of Augusto Boal’s techniques were created after he realized the limitations of didactic, politically motivated theatre in the poor areas where he worked. He found that his attempts to inspire the people living in poor or "slum" areas to rise up against racial and class inequality were inhibited by his own racial and class background, since he was white and comparatively financially comfortable.
Explain how each exercise developed your skills and the skills of the group?


Constantin StanislavskiBorn in 1863 in Moscow, Russia, Constantin Stanislavski started working in theater as a teen, going on to become an acclaimed thespian and director of stage productions. He co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre in 1897 and developed a performance process known as method acting, allowing actors to use their personal histories to express authentic emotion and create rich characters. He died in Moscow in 1938.
When he observed the great actors and actresses, Stanislavski noticed how fluid and lifelike their movements were. They seemed to be in a state of complete freedom and relaxation, letting the behavior of the character come through effortlessly. He concluded that unwanted tension has to be eliminated and that the performer at all times attain a state of physical and vocal relaxation.Apart from one-person shows, performers are not on stage alone. They interact with other people and Stanislavski was aware that many performers tend to "stop acting," or lose their concentration, when they are not the main role in a scene or when someone else has dialogue. These performers make a great effort when they are speaking but not when they're listening. This disrupts the performer and causes them to move into and out of a role. That, in turn, weakens the sense of the ensemble - the playing together of all the performers.
From the book 'THE SYSTEM' on Stanislavski written by Jean Benedetti I have been looking at techniques he uses to create a better of experience in the acting world and develop your skills as an actor. The certain technique I've chosen is a concentration technique which evidentally helps concentration. "Moreover, the actor who focuses entirely on the stage action is more likely to produce active participation in the audience. They no longer sit back in their seats, waiting to be 'entertained'; they are drawn to watch more closely and understand."
The technique is clearly to have the audience interested in what they're watching on stage and have them engaging with the actors. I will apply this to my character in various scenes, mainly in my scene with Helen at her flat and also using 'Circles of attention' an exercise we were shown and performed in class. I will use it and have a sense that the flat is the whole world and the other settings are there but not to be an interest in this scene. 

Each of us were given a warm up exercise of Boal's to perform to and with the rest of the class which was recorded. 

http://youtu.be/OwO4U2R9zOY

This is the video link of my exercise 'blind person and the bomb'. This exercise helps to develop your senses of awareness on stage, knowing where other actors are and what props and set are placed where without having to assure yourself. I feel this is quite a useful skill to have as you do need to know where everything is placed on stage. 

I did enjoy doing this exercise as it's a physical exercise which is something I prefer being involved in and I feel I did it well. I'm no teacher and don't have amazing teaching skills but doing this has improved my abilities and I know what I did wrong and what I must do next time to be more convincing.