Author: Alice Saxton

Being stage manager for Fill in the Blank has been a true eye opener. Not only have I had the chance to work with some truly amazing people, and watch our piece develop (which I have never done before due to usually performing!), I have discovered and developed skills within myself that I never imagined I would have. I have developed the ability to remain outside of disputes, and ‘develop[ed] a critical eye, to observe the performance from an objective point of view’ (Palmer, 2000, 96). My key technical terms list has become rather extensive:

Key terms

I actually understand what all of them mean, which is a bonus!

As for the performance, technically, very little went wrong. I feel like our thorough ‘amount of pre-show planning and preparation… paid off’ (Palmer, 2000, 93). All the cue’s were on time and in the correct chronology. We made minor changes to two of our lighting states just before the doors opened: LX23 changed from fading into a blackout, to fading down to a 15% dimmed lighting state; LX32 and 32.5 became 7 second fades instead of 10seconds. During the Ribbon Sequence, there were 7 different strobe LX’s that were cued visually. As the sequence was performed slightly faster, possibly due to nerves, I was unable to complete all 7 cues and skipped the last one to avoid the stage right mic spot coming on too late. I also added SQ 12.5, a fade and stop cue for SQ12 as in both earlier runs the Solo Sequence was again performed too fast as a result of nerves; ‘the presence of a large audience makes a huge difference to performers… all members of the company will experience increased levels of adrenaline’ (Palmer, 2000, 93). Despite this, the cast successfully used all of their required props, with none being misplaced or misused as a result of said nerves. All the spacing of the chairs was marked in white tape on the floor to avoid the cast misplacing them in scenes. But most importantly, no ribbons were dropped in the Ribbon Sequence!

In hindsight, it would have been nice to have had more time practising with the microphones. Although we had them in 4 rehearsals leading up to the performance, the cast still struggled with their diction and their P’s and B’s when speaking into each mic. As obtaining performance space in the LPAC building proved difficult throughout the process, as well as the introduction of the mics in our piece coming in quite late, unfortunately we were unable to rehearse with them as much as we needed to. A further detailed report of the day can be found on my Post Show Report:

Post Show Report

Overall, the piece ran incredibly smoothly. Although sequences were performed faster than rehearsed at times, the production still managed to run smoothly, and the cast adapted excellently to any excess music as a result of this. I am immensely proud of The Man Whose Memories Fell Out, and the company that created it!

Works Cited

Palmer, S. (2000) Essential Guide to Stage Management Lighting and Sound. Oxon: Bookpoint.
Crowe, P. (2015) [image] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/17713112130/in/album-72157653093111156/

So today was the day, the opportunity to finally put together the rest of our piece. Our lighting and sound designers have been working so hard, having only 24hours to put together our tech documents, so it was amazing to see their ideas come to life of stage!

Two weeks before our tech, our ASM organised a session with the LPAC stage manager, Darren, for us to try out a few ideas before making our final decisions for tech. We asked the team to provide us with 2 microphones, a Black Optima Pro projector and a small collapsible projection screen. We experimented with the cast performing with rear projection -‘a subset of the silhouette… where figures are seen against a brightly lit background’ (Campbell, 2004, 79)- and front projection -which will reflect the projected image onto the actors bodies- in order to get an idea of the kind of shadows we could create through the light from the projector. As the scene that requires the projection is a timelapse, the front projection seemed to really highlight the character’s confusion. We also decided that the footage would look more effective on the auditorium’s Cyclorama rather than a small screen. This extra time to explore tech really set us up for our Tech day.

I decided that for the first two hours of our 4 hour tech that only 6members of the cast should attend: SM, ASM, SD, LD, PR and DESIGNER. This was purely based on the session with Darren mentioned earlier. Although the power of our creativeness so far has stemmed from there being a large number of us, when it comes to making final decisions so many voices can become confusing. Tech day is the ‘point where everything that has been worked out on paper comes to fruition in practice’ (Bond, 1991, 71), and so the first 2hour session only required those necessary for the set up of production. Attached below is the schedule I created for that day, to which we almost 100% stuck to. The only changes were the cast were rescheduled to arrive at 11.30, and that instead of doing a cue to cue, we in fact fitted in a full run:

FITB Tech Schedule

Having in-putted all of our sound and video cue’s into Qlab prior to the day, our main focus was on the stage setup and lighting. Due to our piece exposing the science and emotion behind memory loss, we wanted our set to mimic such unmasking…literally! We asked for all of the soft masking and borders around the stage to be removed, exposing the lighting rig and wings. This fed into our scenic ‘statement’ we were aiming to achieve: ‘scenic design can be thought of as the art of addressing three issues: space, texture and “the statement”’ (Campbell, 2004, 21). All of the technical elements were designed to create an aesthetic to the science behind memory loss. The lighting only ever explores three colours, white, blue and red to represent the clinical feeling of a hospital. The set, 18 white box frames with a front cover of sheet music, was then the visual that tied the emotion of the piece and the science of the tech together:

Works Cited

Cambell, D. (2004) Technical Theatre: For Nontechnical People. New York: Allworth Press

Bond, D. (1991) The Stage Management: A Gentle Art. New York: Routledge.

Although traditionally the stage manager has little to no creative input in the development of the piece, my company have allowed myself and our producer Verity to become a form of dramaturg! As we are always on the outside of the devising process looking in, it is much easier for us to notice if ideas aren’t quite working, or need something new. In the last few rehearsals we have been looking at our Music and Science scene, in which we combine the science of memory loss with the art of music. Encephalitis sufferers may not be able to remember anything short term, but, as the disease does not typically affect this side of the brain, they can remember art subjects, such as music. Our central male character, although suffering from memory loss as quick as 7seconds, can still remember how to play the piano with his wife, and thus we want this scene to explore how that effects the way in which the couple communicate and deal with the illness: ‘The person you knew, or who was you, may have changed and the person they have become, or you have become, may present with a number of problems’ (Encephalitis Society, 2015). As the focus of the scene was the man remembering how to play the piano, I found that the choreography needed to be centred around his hands; Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett suggest in The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising that ‘what is important is the process behind the genesis of the choreography, not the choreography itself’ (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 122). Thus I asked the actor and choreographer to explore the idea of the man trying to listen to and understand the science behind his illness, but whilst he is being pulled towards the piano by his hands. Having explored this concept for choreography, myself and the producer then created a video that would compliment this idea, with images of the man scribbling out the scientific words in a notepad and instead writing music.

Works Cited

Encephalitis Society (2015) Recovery and Rehabilitation. [online] Available from: http://www.encephalitis.info/information/recovery-and-rehab/ [Accessed 26 March 2015]

Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2014) Frantic Assembly Book of Devising. Oxon: Routledge.

Crowe, P. (2015) [image] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/17277714474/in/album-72157653093111156/

As of January when our process began, I have been creating a company schedule. ‘A well organized rehearsal schedule is the key to dealing effectively with the stage management workload’ (Bond, 1991, 49) and allows both the creative and production sides of the company to remain on track. As of this week I have found the most effective way to create this schedule, is to dedicate 15minutes to the beginning of the rehearsal week to find out cast availability; although ideally the company would be free to partake in any rehearsals or meetings required of them, the circumstances in which we are creating this piece really hinders availability.

Schedule

As seen by this schedule, we have been work-shopping for a few weeks now and more defined style and concept is beginning to emerge! Having discovered the illness Encephalitis, a form of the herpes simplex that transfers to the brain and causes severe memory loss, our piece has started to focus on the effects memory loss has upon relationships. In terms of production, some very distinctive ideas have surfaced. A couple of the company recently attended a show at Lincoln Drill Hall called Stateless (2014). The piece was inherently dance theatre, and thus the set had to be adaptable in order to allow the space the performers required – as, so far, our piece ia appearing very physical, this was an important idea for us to consider in these early stages. They used large, misshapen blocks that progressively came together to create one larger block. For myself and our company designer, this really inspired some concept ideas for set. In our most recent production meeting, we discussed having numerous blocks or boxes that come together to create an image. The boxes would incorporate photos, letters and objects that represented the memories of our characters. ‘The distinction between props and scenery gets muddy at times, and clear assignments should always be made’ (Campbell, 2004, 4), especially when all the aspects of your set can be handled and moved by the cast. In order to avoid this confusion, we have agreed that our designer will focus more-so on sourcing all props – ‘anything that is carried by the actor’ (Campbell, 2004, 4) – whilst I will begin to source the materials etc. for our set.

So far all of our technical ideas are quite sciencey in style, and I am extremely excited to see how this concept develops!

Works Cited

Bond, D. (1991) The Stage Management: A Gentle Art. New York: Routledge.

Cambell, D. (2004) Technical Theatre: For Nontechnical People. New York: Allworth Press

Joli Vyann. (2014) Stateless. [performance] Lincoln Drill Hall, 19th February 2015.

This whole process is a brand new experience for me. I have never been involved in anything more than basic tech: choosing whether the music does or doesn’t play, and deciding if the lights should be coloured, dimmed or a spot light. So the role of Stage Manager is completely alien to me!

As this is the case, I have been doing as much research as possible in order to fulfil the role as best I can for the company; The biggest task I am facing currently is defining my job title. On the surface, ‘a stage manager takes blocking notes, calls the lighting and sound cues during performances, and gives acting notes once the director leaves. But such a simple list of physical activities does not completely describe the stage manager’s real role in a theatre project’ (Kelly, 2009, 20). The biggest task, I feel, for any Stage Manager is to provide effective communication between all members of the company. There are ten of us in Fill In The Blank Theatre, which means there are a lot of voices to be heard! I have taken to recording group discussions and scribing notes in order to keep everyone up-to-date with our ideas, as there is ‘no one to feed the stage manager the line if he or she doesn’t communicate fully… expressing oneself clearly and without editorializing [is] of vital importance’ (Kelly, 2009, 24).

Production Notes

These notes are a more defined compilation of my rehearsal reports. These reports are colour co-ordinated, for my own personal ease, into four categories: Performance, Lighting, Set/Props and Sound. As we are devising, and in the early stages of creating our performance, we are still deciding exactly which ideas we will definitely be using. By colour coding my rehearsal reports I can easily group specific elements together when creating the above production notes, which makes referring back to ideas if the company require me to do so within rehearsals simpler.

Alongside this, I have been and will be attending numerous Tech classes in order to obtain as much knowledge of the subject as possible. Myself, our ASM and DESIGNER are currently attending set design classes, where we are learning how to design and create ground plans. Following these classes will be lighting design, where myself and our LD will have the opportunity to experiment with ‘Front light… Side light… Back light… Down light… [and] Up light’ (Campbell, 2004, 79) in order to add dramatic effect to scenes. As well as both these classes, a few of us will be attending a Technical Masterclass, which will allow us to learn the skills necessary to use the equipment within the LPAC auditorium (Qlab etc.).

If you read these rehearsal notes closely, you;ll get a sneak peak into our current ideas for our performance-in-progress, The Man Whose Memories Fell Out!

Works Cited

Cambell, D. (2004) Technical Theatre: For Nontechnical People. New York: Allworth Press

Kelly, T. (2009) The Backstage Guide to Stage Management. 3rd edition. New York: Back Stage Books.