Contemporary design books

 

Rubbish!

http://www.theatre-rites.co.uk/index.php/projects

This was a children's puppet show performed by the company theatre rites.I enjoyed this production from the beginning I felt it engaged me throughout and would be entertaining for children that may attend.
However i think there were some parts that could have been made different and from a puppeteer/designer point of views things that could have been made better for the story. To start with the entrance of the characters was interesting and grabbed attention but was rather long before anything really got going. The set, costumes and music all came together well to draw the audiences attention and i liked how each character showed there personalities through different movements in the rubbish and through their costume.

The use of the puppets was engaging for the audience and each puppet had different feel to it and would allow the children to connect with it with the use of sounds. The characters and style of the puppets developed as the play went on and within this they developed different moral and stories for the children to remember and take away. However i felt that when the end of a puppets story came up they didn't seem to exit the space properly and it seemed like they were just being 'thrown away' and also one of the last puppets made an 'epic' entrance and seemed to play a large part but then the puppeteers seemed to just let it go.
I think overall the show was entertaining and would have grabbed the attention of the children.

Amanda Whittington

I found the lecture with Amanda Whittington very interesting to hear her views on the book and how she adapted her version of the play. It was interesting to hear how she felt about the characters and what she wanted to say through her adaption, the things she wanted to focus on and how she wanted to audience to experience the life of Arthur Seaton.
After listening to her talk about what she wanted to achieve and why she adapted it the way she did I felt this helped with my design process in the way I wanted to portray characters and how I wanted the words of the play to speak for my design and keep it quite naturalistic. It also helped with the idea that I want some of the parts to be represented with actions or lights and sounds rather than the physical thing being there. I found it helpful to hear how the novel and other things from that time inspired her to adapt the book and the reasons behind her motivation and interest in the era.

Saturday night and sunday morning adapted by Amanda Whittington

Play 'Saturday night and sunday morning' adapted by Amanda Whittington from the novel by Alan Sillitoe.

And then the dark

http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/4280/shows/and-then-the-dark.html
This is a piece of theatre that I went to see at the New Wolsey theatre in Ipswich, the story is that a man has lost his wife and child in a house fire and believes its his fault and we see his life seven years on from the incident. I didn't really know anything about the story when it started but i had read in the programme that it was a psychological thriller so i was a bit apprehensive as to how they were going to develop the story, the design was by Foxton and it was set in an Edwardian house and it was all in the same room throughout the play but they refer to upstairs where the accident happened. The first half of the play I found was quite slow because it was all the back story and explanation of what happened and who the characters were but the second half was better and a lot more started to happen.
The only downside to the design that I had was that there were speakers within the pieces of scenery but they didn't seem to fit the period of the house and wasn't sure if this was part of the design or just a way of achieving the sounds effects to give them a more eery feel.
I really enjoyed this production once the story started to develop there were lots of twists and it kept you guessing all the way through as to how it was going to end, it was full of suspense helped along with the sudden blackouts and loud sounds for the train going passed the window and the echoing screams.

Lighting session 3

This session we started to look at pyrotechnics, we learnt how to connect the charge to the pyro and then to the main control box to be able to set them off. The control box needs to be turned on with a key and the key is removed whenever the you walk away from it so it doesnt accidentally get set off when your up close the pyro. We looked at pyros that emit light as they explode and ones that emit sound, we also looked at line rockets that have to be connect ed to a line that can reach across a space and the rocket will emit sound and light along the line. I was able to connect a charge to one of them and set it off, I set off the confetti cannon. This can be pointed in a certain direction and angle by adjusting it on the holder. I really enjoyed this session as it gave us a look at something different that can be used in theatre but they can also be used for other events and it was interesting to see how theyre are connected up and can be placed together in a sequence and set of with one button.

Ligthing session 2

This session we learnt about colour gels and gobos, this was to enable us to light our scenery with different effects. For our groups scenery we chose to use cool colours and leaves and tress for the gobos to make the piece look more like it was part of a secret garden. The effect worked well we added a warmer tone over the top to balance the other tones. We also made our own gobos using a craft knife and think sheets of metal, this was harder to be able to get a clean cut and you have to make sure there arent any thin bits so you dont accidently cut throught them. I made simple shapes with mine and made them a repeating pattern.

Master class twelve led by theatre trust and julies bicycle

The theatre trust-http://www.theatrestrust.org.uk/
Julie's bicycle-http://www.juliesbicycle.com/

I found this master class very useful in understanding how both of these companies can help theatres be more sustainable when putting on a production. It was interesting in how different the talks were from each of the companies, julies bicycle provide a service where you input all the information of a production and they will tell how much energy you can save by changing different aspects like sending some of you set to recycle rather than all to landfill.

Final construction presentation

 The final stage of our construction project was to be able to light the piece and present it along with our groups sketchbook work. Part of the presentation was to add the history wo it so we chose to have a member of our group dressed in 50's fashion and sit on our step. We chose the 50's because the main part of the research we found about the waverly building was to do with the art students from that decade.

 

 

To present our work we had a small table at the side and also a washing line style section. The lights on ours was kept simple but one of them had a blue gel added to it to make it more sutble and to make it look more like an outdoors light.

Scale model figure

 

For the scale figure you start with a lenth of piano wire and fold it in half, the bend of the wire becomes the head once you twist it to make a small circle. you form the body similar to how you work out the body proportion by creating shoulders and hips then wokring down to the legs. Arms are another piece of wire twisted round the shoulders.
The wire structure is then built upon with an epoxy putty called milliput, the two parts are worked together till the colour is even then worked onto the structure to pad the body out. The milliput has to be worked whilst its soft but can be carved and added to whilst its hardened, the clothes are added using tissue paper with PVA glue. I added a thin layer at first at let it dry as a base to build on, i then added more layers to build up the shapes of the clothes. I found this quite easy to do and really liked the effect that the tissue paper gave to the texture of the clothing, it was easy to manipulate to the style i needed for my figure. I painted it using guoache paint.

Saturday night and sunday morning screening

 

I read the novel of the 'Saturday night and sunday morning before seeing the film so I had some preconceptions to the story but I knew that there would be differences.There were a couple of large differences between the two but I the story still came across well and still made the main character come across how I read him in the book. I felt that he came across a bit more like he didnt care about some of what happened within the story for example the character Brenda becomes pregnant and tries to get rid of it- in the book it is successful but in the film it doesnt work and she decides to keep it in the end and he doesnt seem to care about what she went through to try and get rid of the child.
I thought the film was still successful despite the differences from the novel.

Saturday night and sunday morning

For this project we started of by reading the novel of saturday night and sunday morning, a revolutionary book of its time about a rebellious, hard-living factory worker juggles relationships with two women, one of whom is married to another man but pregnant with his child. We then looked at the play that was adapted by Amanda Whittington, this will enable us to develop a design in reponse to the play. The idea of the project is to design for the play allowing us to show our own interpretation of the text and trying to contain the chaos of the main characters life within one performance area and encompassing all the scenes and changes.

Lighting session 1

For the first lighting session we started to look at the different types of lights that are available in the theatre and what effects they could have on a subject. We looked at a profile light and by moving it to project light on a subject at different angles what effects it may have on shadows or what highlights it may cause on features. We also climbed scaffolding that reached 4.5 metres and an a frame ladder to adjust a light and get the feel for being at height working on lights. I preferred using the scaffolding I feel i could work better up higher on this equipment, I felt safer on the ladder once I had hooked my led through the rung of the ladder but found I could not reached the light properly once up there so could not focus it where it was needed without the ladder leaning very slightly.

Theatre model box

The model box for this project is a 1:25 scale of the theatre space in the waverly building. For the model box we needed to create a scale version of the theatre space I was given a ground plan of the space from which I coud then work out the wall sizes, plavement of doors and centreline, the only extra thing needed were the door height measurements. The walls are the height of the grid not the ceiling and the card thickness and placement off walls in accordance to floor space all has to be taken in to account to be able to get all measurements correct so that it fits to gether properly and has the right sizings.

Saturday night sunday morning exhibition

http://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/Exhibitions/ViewEvent.html?e=2219&c=5&d=0

 

The exhibition for the film 'Saturday night and Sunday morning' showed pictures from the films-on screen and off screen-next to pictures of people from the 1950's. I really enjoyed this exhibition, I liked how the pictures were combined together because it made me feel as though I could connect with the people within the photos. Watching the film you get the idea that it is of the time but you just take it as the film and actors but seeing the photos it makes you realise that even though they are actors they are experiencing those times just the same as the other people.

Looking at the pictures you get a real sense of how the people lived and how they felt that at any moment it could all change-theories have been proposed that because of the threat of nuclear power release (that eventually lead to the cold war) people were living in the moment because they felt that anything could happen at any time.

 

Whilst we were there we had to find a picture that we liked and make a quick sketch of it then later develop this into a comic strip, developing a story that could relate or not to the picture as what it is. We could make it into a different style and change the aesthetics of the picture altogether. I chose this picture because it has a very simple feel to it and the idea behind the story I chose is to do with children playing in the street, this is a very big part of growing up in the 50's.

Final group construction 4

We started painting our scenery by picking the darker colours from each section, we mixed these colours and added them to the stucture. We pick the darker colours so that we can work on the lighter colours to build up the layers of colours and textures. We needed to make the top part look like it has moss and lycans growing on it so we added sawdust to green paint and PVA, we then spread this on the top in patches paying close attention to the placement. Later when this was dry we built into it with darker brown round the edges and lighter greens into the moss to make it more realistic.

 

 

We worked into the bricks with different shades and made the mortar stand out to define the bricks a bit more, we spread the moss down the side and repeated the process of adding tones. The idea of this piece was so that it looked realistic and as close to the real piece as possible so all through this project we kept a close link with the real space and always checked back to see if we had got parts of it correct. We also found it useful to alwayds have a picture reference at hand when painting and mixing colours.

 

For the stairs we used the spray gun, we layered the different colours that we could notice in the main stairs to create the overall effect. This was a good method as it added texture but i think we should have added texture in the earlier stages because it made the stairs look too clean so we had to scuff the edges and add final pieces to the overall scenery like dust and bits of dirt that would fall onto the piece naturally and go into the edges and corners.

Final group construction 3

Final Group construction 2

For the second session we started to shape the polystyrene so it would look like like our chosen space, the main part that needed the detail was the main column at the side of the steps so this was the part we had polystyrene on. We needed work in the detail of the bricks, the shaping at the top and all the angles of the column. Alot of the shaping and detail was done with sandpaper and rasps, this meant we could shape the structure quickly and give a good overall finish.

 

 

The polystyrene wasn't very thick in places once we started filing it down so we have to be careful that we didn't ruin the detail or lose parts when shaping. The polystyrene was stuck on with an adhesive called copydex which took a while to dry so we had to wait for this initially.We had to put in as much detail as possible at this stage so that when we started painting it we could add colours into to pick out some of the detail just by dding highlights rather than having to paint them in completely.

 

The last stage before painting we needed to add a plastic paint called idenden, this is used to make the polystyrene stronger so that it is not easily damaged and to make it look less like polystyrene to be able to give it the effect we need during painting. The only thing we found with the idenden was we didn't realise how much you needed to put on so we felt we lost some of the detail within our bricks, other than this i think it gave a good overall look and a good base to start painting.

Final Group Construction 1

In our group we decided to start the construction by breaking down our chosen space into smaller bits so we could work out how to make them so that it would be easier to make in smaller sections to put togther at the end to create our overall structure. The sections are madeup of frames created from lengths of 3 by 1 which we then nailgun MDF sheets to once we have cut them out using the wall saw. This makes the sections strong but light so we can move the pieces once weve started decorating them. For the stairs we started with the side panels and added supports in between to stand them up whilst we add risers and treads. We cut off any excess at the edge using a router which gives it a clean smooth finish.

 

 

I think we worked well within our group and we managed to work on our piece without overcrowding, we had equal amount of jobs and each of us was prepared to use the different equipment when needed. Our piece was quick to construct because it was similar structure for all the separate parts once we had worked out the sizes we were able to cut out the parts quickly.

 

Once we had constructed all the parts out of wood we covered the parts that we were going to need to shape in sheets of polystyrene, this meant we could add the detail we needed easily but it would still be light enough to move. We accounted for the thickness of the polystyrene in our original measurements for the sections, so by adding the right thickness of polystyrene it made it the right size from our technical drawing and model.

So that we would be able to add history to our scenery we decided to also make the bottom step from polystyrene because this would make it easier to shape to add wearing/weathering. This would mean that the steps would not be able to be used they would just be a show piece, for this project that would be able to happen but if we wanted to make them functional we would have to think of an alternative solution.

Gary Wright-production manager session 4

In this session we were shown a picture of a production and asked how we would budget the aspects of it, looking at things like equipment used, labour, costumes etc. As a group we broke it down into the different section and started pricing from here, we didnt know anything to be able to start to really price things so we had to estimate everything as to how we think it would be. A few of the prices that we came up with were very close however alot of them we were out quite alot.

This showed that if we would need to sit down with the right people we would have to have a really good idea of what we would want and the kind of budget that we would be working with and sharing out. This was a good exercise to carry out as to give us a better understanding of the type of budget we would need for different size/types of shows.

Gary Wright-production manager session 3

 The theatre is more than just a building, it is a space that the unimaginable can happen. The theatre connects like no other form of media. It is an experience from the beginning to end, a place to engage with real people.

 

 

 

This workshop was useful to find out different aspects of a theatre and what the different parts are called and how parts can be added to a theatre space. I think this was very useful to see what kind of things would appear on a ground plan so when presented with them in the future I would be able to read them and work out what is needed.

Passing on

http://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/Drama/ViewEvent.html?e=2181&c=4&d=2440

I enjoyed this performance, I found it was well researched and the stories that the actors were performing came across very strongly. the actors delivered the lines well and there was a really natural/realistic feel to their performance. I found it easy to connect with the story and the people within the play. However I felt that my preconceptions of what the play was about were not how it actually turned out. I thought that their was going to be more than one family's story along the way and how they share the experience. having said this I think the way it turned out was still very good and well researched in and i liked that they showed the points of view of the professionals as well as the patience relatives. I think they dealt with the issues very well and the audience was able to relate because it was easy to connect with the characters and under the experiences shown in the play. I found the discussion afterwards useful rom a research perspective, it gave me more information on the reasoning behind the research and how it was carried out however I felt that it did not benefit greatly from a design perspective.

the main problems that I had with this show were regarding the puppet. I thought that overall the puppet itself was well made and easy to see it as someone you may know and the involvement within the piece was very symbolic however I that in some cases it was not treated in a way that you would expect a puppeteer to treat a puppet. I think this was because it was the actors using the puppet so therefore they may not have had that connection. there were moments such as the placement of the puppet into the wheelchair that was not done with care and also when they were walking her to the chair the foot got stuck and the actor kicked the foot so I felt this was not good practice on the level of it being a puppet and having respect for it but also that it was suppose to represent a person.

Gary Wright-production manager session 2

 This session was about the use of materials within theatre and designing:

-understanding more than just the wood etc.

-material selection is crictical when conveying your design it is important that you share your thoughts, opinions and references on material selection when discussing your design

-it is important to learn and get to know how to manipulate as many materials as possible, this will only make you a better designer in the long term.

common materials

-wood

-steel

-aluminium

-sheet material

-use of materials can be important- think about design safety

-think about material weight for transport

-in theatre we need to learn how to manipulate materials to achieve the desired effect

*plastics-vac form

-painters journal

*colours

-RAL colours-standard colour mixes

*fabrics

-J.C. Joels catalogue

*fibreglass

-cast in a mold-paint it, spray it

*acrylic

-different colours, thicknesses

-what is a material=a material is a medium that can convey your design to an audience

*projection

-projection mapping-design is in the projection

Workshop safety

This session was the first induction in to the workshop and how each machine worked so we would be able to use them to construct our chosen scenery from the Waverly. We started by looking at the health and safety in the workshop so knowing what equipment to use when, safety boots at all times and the ear plugs in the second machine room because of the noise levels it reaches when the extractor fan and machinery is on. We then moved on to using machinery to be able to cut a piece of 3 by 1 in half then being able to shape the end of it using a jigsaw, and shaping the other end by using the bansaw. On one end of the first piece of wood we created a tenon and on the other piece of wood we had to mark out so we could cut out the mortise part to create the tenon and mortise joint. To strengthen the joint we added a triangle piece of ply wood using the staple gun connected to a compressor. We left the triangle hanging over the edge a little to give us the chance to use a router to cut the ply wood flush to the other wood. Lastly we used the sander to shape the corner and make a smooth curve. As well as these machines we used a saw that was able to cut wood sheets down to a required size.

Boris Godinov

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/9712362/Boris-Godunov-Swan-Theatre-Stratford-upon-Avon-review.html

http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/boris-godunov/

We attended a preview talk about the lighting design and i found this useful to my skills but also it meant that i was able to pay more attention to the lighting throughout the show. The stage is set as a thrust but i was positioned in the upstairs part so did not feel the effect of the idea of the stage, i found the play very good and the use of costume changes and multirolling was an interesting take on the play. I realised after that it was a Russian version of Macbeth and throughout the play it slowly brought the costumes and the setting into the modern day which i felt was a comment on the situations and conflict within Russian being the same throughout history.

In the lighting talk preshow theres was a point made about the use of the type of lights within the performance some of which were street lamps and they were chosen especially for their effects however i felt that this did not really make a major difference when seeing the performance they were not needed to be street lamps in particular.
I also felt that the idea of there being no set also sometimes questionable, because of the type of stage it is it is very hard to use setting however theyre were pieces of 'set' that were used that did not really need to be put into the play because i felt that if you are going to start your play in a certain way you then break that illusion with the use of somethingm why be representational then put something physical within the performace.

 

 

Masterclass nine led by James Farncombe lighting designer

I found this masterclass really useful to be able to gather an idea of the relationship between lighting and set designers. James Farncombe gave us a lot of information towards this, he said things that it would be useful to know as a set designer that would make the design better, if we have some knowledge about lighting and the ways they can improve/assist our designs.

 

some useful questions to think about:

-how does the physical set inform the lighting?

-does the lighting need to convey certain information and if so does the set allow for this?

-how would you describe the aesthetic?

-are specific materials required to achieve certain effects?

-how will the costumes work with the light?

-how might the lighting be used to define space or suggest location?

-does the design already incorporate elements of the lighting? how might this affect the lighting design?

-is there scope to introduce alternative light sources?

-does the chosen aesthetic dictate the lighting design?

-where does the set design end...and the lighting design begin?

three performances mentioned:

*three sisters-young vic (designer Scheutz)

-thrust stage, control lighting so as not to light audience

-ceiling made up of fluorescent lights that are able to be dimmed

-designer didnt understand ideas of designers (light and sound) purpose

-not many places to light successfully-adapted in production

*men should weep-national theatre Lyttleton

*the overcoat-gecko theatre

-lots of side-lines

-as much about absence of light as well as the presence of it

 

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