STARS!

Yesterday I worked on Stars in Their Eyes at Blatchingtonmill!

It was the first time ever that I have worked on a sound desk during an actual show, and nothing major went wrong at all, I didn't need any help with any of the show run, although I needed a lot of guidance setting up during the production week, however I am sure that next time I will be able to set most of the sound on stage up.
This is me!
I realised yesterday that I am never going to be in control of the lighting at the Windmill Theatre ever again, my last time was Billy! This year I'm working on LX at Teenspirit which is at the Concorde 2, which is a well know venue in Brighton and I'm very excited about working on it, but I'll still miss the lighting programme at Blatch.

The Titanic

Finally, another show to work on...
Over the past couple of days I have had the privilege to work on 'The Titanic' which was being put on by Southwick Opera :http://www.southwickopera.co.uk/

Titanic was a 1997 Broadway hit . Inspired by the discovery of the wreckage of the RMS Titanic in 1985 Maury Yeston composed the music and wrote the lyrics based on the book by Peter Stone. It won five Tony awards, including Best Musical.

Titanic is set on the famous ocean liner which sank on its maiden voyage on April 14 1912 and interweaves the lives of the different types of people that were on board at the time and all about to share the same fate.

Although the theatre was fully functioning and seated about 120 people, it was one of the smallest I had ever worked on, the wings were very small and made it extremely hard to move the pieces of set about. These included a large staircase with a locked gate at the top, a truck with a large tilted area with railings, made to represent the boat as it slowly tilted and sunk. I joined the crew a couple of days late due to work, so they had planned most of the big scene changes already. Therefore my main job was to help out when I could and then follow the script, making sure I always knew when an important scene change was coming up, and that the rest of the crew knew how long we had. I had to always know where in the script we were throughout the show, so whenever the Stage Manager asked where we were I could point to where exactly. 
My most favourite part about this show that I had never seen or heard of before was the score, I would happily pay to watch it just for that.
Moving on to Blatchingtonmills production of Our House that is coming up in February, we are Building building building! We are also in search of the bodies of 3 cars, although we only want the front half on two of them. This is the biggest show Blatch has ever done, and myself and my crew seem determined to make sure that it will go down in memory for the school. Lets just hope all goes to plan.
I can't wait to blog about more hopeful set pieces!

Mark Ups and Models

We started full on work on Our House today in Stage Management.
We decided how we were going to perform all the snappy scene changes that happen constantly throughout the show. The stage will have steel decking placed higgledy piggledy across the stage, at different heights too, getting lower as they come towards the audience, most of these will have a hard board cover, that, when propped up will provide different backdrops for the different environments in the show, with the enormous help of sound and lighting, of course. As a constant backdrop we will have a four foot high flat, painted to look like terraced houses along the back of the stage, giving us room to be able to project above them.
We moved on to making a rough, 1:50 scale model of this idea to show our director, and luckily he was very happy with it. Once we have finished the model completely I will upload a post about it alone with a picture!
All in all this had taken us the good part of 3 hours, after this I went with a fellow crew member and we had to mark out the rehearsal room in the correct scale as the stage will be, will all the decking marked out and the different heights. This took another 3 hours. After only about 2 corrections throughout. It was my first ever mark up, it was a lot easier than I realised.
Next week we begin painting and cutting these flats. This is the earliest Blatchingtonmill has ever stared for a February show!

Interviewing and production meetings!

Responsibilities!

On Tuesday, I, along with two other Blatch6 students were asked to interview candidates for the new job offer at Blatchington Mill. Tom, our main technician, left Blatch so we are in need of someone to replace him (a very hard job indeed!)

Nothing much has gone on recently when it comes to Stage Management. There have been a couple production meetings in school with the directors for Blatchington Mill's production of Stars in Your Eyes, and the more eventful production meeting of Our House, where we learnt, that when it came to the staging, that the Director has no image of what he wants it to look like, what so ever. 

I can't decide whether that's a good thing or not.

A sudden flow of jobs!..

After getting settled into Year 13 at College I have been given all my 'roles' for the next year at college, and I have been offered a couple more small jobs with the company who I did "Hairspray" with! These include 'Footloose' at Rodean again, but ALSO 'The Full Monty' at the Theatre Royal, I am definitely going to accept both these offers, but I won't be to attend a couple of the dates due to work and college, I hope that doesn't affect anything.

I am extremely pleased with the roles I was given via college. The school have seemed to start caring a lot more about their production team, and have given us a huge workshop behind the stage so we can build set, and more opportunities in the shows Blatch puts on elsewhere in Brighton. This year Blatchingtonmill is putting on a whole school production, which will be extremely different from the usual lower and upper school productions. I'm Stage Manager for this Production, and I'm extremely excited!

Starting her last year of college!

I'm finally back in College, and I can't wait to be given my role for the next Blatch production. I honestly don't mind what job I am given, as long as it isn't crew, I want to be in control of some aspect at least.
So far I have done lighting and DSM. Sound or ASM would be the two I wouldn't mind getting.
On a side note, I've been reading Dracula for English Lit and I have never heard of any sort of production based on it, so I decided to do a little research!
In 1924 the novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker was adapted into a play that toured England for 3 years before settling in London and was even moved to Broadway at the end of 1927 and won many awards.
According to a rumour, before the summer next year, the entire school are putting on a production of "Madness The Musical" or "Our House". Which is a very modern musical, based on the songs from the well known ska band 'Madness'. Excited about that :D

Sound..

Sound is the one aspect of Technical Theatre that I am not comfortable with. I'm working with it for the first time at the end of this week, and I'm petrified, mainly because whenever it has been my first time to use or do anything in the theatre I have been under the supervision of Tom the technician at Blatchington Mill who I trust.

This time I won't have anyone looking over me, I will be working on something I have never done before in front of a group of people I have never met. 

Honestly, I am overreacting, I do know how t do the jobs I am going to be set, I've just never done the job at the Windmill theatre before, so I am a little unprepared and I don't know any of the lingo. I'm sure they'll all be lovely!

I'm working on the dress and technical on Wednesday, so I'll post info about the show after that.

Chicago The Musical

Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to see a story murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery, all the thing we hold near and dear to our hearts, thank you. 

Chicago is one of my most favourite Musicals. Mainly because it has a fresh modern feel to it, without it being too mainstream. It's set in 1924 and contains all of the vibrant life of the 20s in America, as well as the contrasting dirt and poverty.
Even though the musical is famous for it's sexiness, it also has a classical element to it, the big 20s show tunes have been modernised in the film version, however, the classic feathers and risqué dresses keep it in the right era.Unlike Les Miserables, Chicago has a large amount of dialogue, which tells the main story. The songs, all 20 of them, reveal what the characters seem to be thinking, what their dreams and aspirations or life stories are. After watching the film and the West End version of Chicago, you notice that the main colours are red, white and black. Therefore the lighting seems to be only white and red light, although there is an occasional blue light, to enhance the rare appearance of innocence in this musical.These lights are perfect as they keep within the theme exactly. The set is very simple, with black backdrop with an occasional change and only small furnishings are brought on and off stage, and also, of course, prison bars.

Obviously in the film there is a lot more going on around the actors, as you can create a much more realistic atmosphere when you can film anywhere you want, taking the audience into a small bedroom then suddenly to a crowded nightclub then to a busy street and a court room. This is much harder to achieve on stage, and I believe the crew on Chicago in the West End have done an amazing job on changing the atmosphere very slightly so the audience know where they are and the crew have done hardly anything

I was asked the other day whether I would prefer to work for film crews, my initial reaction was yes, but after thinking about it, I realised I wouldn't want to. There is such a huge difference between working on a live performance to hours after hours of the same scene. The atmosphere is completely different, you only get one shot at making a film, but after every night of a show, you can sit down and work out what you can do better tomorrow. I wouldn't want to lose that. Nothing beats listening to a whole audience laughing or gasping or, especially, clapping.

Other roles behind the wings..

Some recognition of other roles that I haven't mentioned much about:

• Prop Maker -  They do what it says on the tin. They make the props! Which is not as easy as it sounds, making something look realistic and to do exactly what the director wants it to do, and for the actor who uses it (if the do) are comfortable with it, can be very difficult.
• Costume - One of the most tedious jobs backstage, as you can end up making the same costume for about 50 cast members. We had to make 30 muchkin suits for the Wiz and 'personalise' them all..
• Make-up - This makes sure the actor can be seen on stage. You have to put make-up onto EVERY actor.. effort.
• Sound-on-stage - Mic-ing up all the actors who need them. Sometimes this can be a BIG responsibility.as if someone is having a quick change AND needs a mic, you have to be very good at mic-ing people up. Also, you have to look after the mics, if they break YOU are blamed!
• 

Scan in Tuesday

Being recognised! Finally!

When I saw my name at the top of this section in "The Wiz" programme I got slightly over excited, it was nice to be acknowledged and to be given my actual job title. It saddens me that not many of the public will know the amount of work the goes into the DSM job. They never seem to stop and thing how exactly everything runs smoothly together, unless they've seen the chaos of backstage before!

Why I didn't carry on acting

Basically, because I suddenly realised I wanted to make theatre not be in it.

I started helping out backstage on a couple small School productions and very quickly realised that I loved it. One of the worse things about acting is that you can never see the work in progress or the final piece. With technical theatre you can have an input in all levels of a production and then be able to see the finished result cannot compare to acting. Actors are almost always just puppets, and I hated that. There were so many moments while I was acting that I wanted to change parts of the set, or mention something to the Director, and I would normally be pushed aside and not listened to. However, once you start working on the productions themselves, you are always listened to.

I can't say that I don't miss acting, but this is mainly because I want to yell at the actors for doing stuff wrong and then I usually just tell the director and he/she sorts it out.

History

I have always had a passion for History. Sometimes it even challenged my love of Theatre.

However, a light has shined upon this slight problem, RADA does a supplementary course alongside the one I want to take called "The History of Theatre".

My favourite era of History is the Tudor period, mainly because I love the drama in the Royal Court and all the secrets historians keep finding out about different people who were once high in society. I read many Phillipa Gregory novels, which manage to create that exact feeling of mystery and the Tudor court that I love. One of my main ambitions is to take one of her books and create a stage production (preferably a play) of one of them. I can imagine this being effective because the Tudor court was well know for its extravagance and colours; reds, greens, golds. Making a stage which represents the Tudor Court would be a visual masterpiece and a delight to work on.

The story lines of Gregorys novels could easily be re-written as a script, especially as her most famous novel "The Other Boylen Girl" has already been made into a film.

After leaving University I would love to be able to work behind the Globe Theatre and help run the famous Shakespearean plays that are run there throughout the year. The Globes stage is the closest to resembling a Tudor court, or a theatre in those times. This is mainly because it is replicated from the Elizabethan period which came literally right after the Tudor era (Queen Elizabeth was the Daughter of Henry VIII).

Maybe one day I'll be able to work on a production of "The Constant Princess" or some sort of Tudor play.

Scan in Tuesday

Publicity over the years


I've decided that every Tuesday I am going to scan in some sort of programme or mention in the local papers of a show I have worked on.
Today I am going to start with one of the more recent ones, this is a small article from the local Argus of our four main stars from 'The Wiz'.
You can't really see much of the crews work from this image or article, however you can see the wonderful costumes some of my team made.
I think I'm going to push more to have pictures of the set in the background and such for the papers in next years show.

Decisions

To lead or design?.. Lead designers?

Even though I know I want to work on stage productions, I haven't decided what aspect I want to focus on. I like the idea of being a Stage Manager because I believe I can be a natural leader when needed. However, I think that my creative side would be wasted on the Stage Manager role. This is when the jobs like Prop maker or Lighting designer become more appealing.

This uncertainty of what I want to do exactly is one of the reasons I really want to go to RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts), because the course I would take covers all areas within technical theatre and stage management. During my gap year I am going to volunteer or even search for a job (if i'm lucky) in the field. I will try my best to cover different roles within the technical team, so then I can be sure what jobs I shall offer to do when I go to University and work on the productions there.

Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts

My aim for two and a bit years.
Technical Theatre and Stage Management - RADA - London


In the first year you get involved with work on RADA productions as crew and/or operators. Then, in the second year, you will be ready to take on senior roles as Stage Manager, Production Electrician and Prop Maker on the Academy's public productions, along side professional directors and designers.
I can only go into the third year if I gain a high award in the foundation degree and I need to be chosen. Then I can go on to gain the BA Hons degree.


The training covers: 
- Stage Management   - Stage electrics and lighting design
- Sound   - Scenic Art
- Scenic Construction   - Property provision and making
- Costume   - Set Design
- Production Management   - Stage Craft
- A four to six week professional secondment to a theatre company, organisation or practitioner.


Supplementary classes take place in:
- First Aid   - Health and Safety
- Technical Drawing   - Music Score Reading
- History of Theatre   - Company Management
- Television and Film   - Career Development


I am strongly considering taking a gap year after my next year of college, so I can gain more experience so I can have more of a chance of getting into RADA. Their requirements are mainly, confidence and experience, and to be able to use those together. I need to be able to show them my passion for Technical Theatre and Stage Management and that I have an understanding of what it takes and involves, e.g. the long hours and the personal rewards. Of course I must have some sort of experience, which I already do, however, I want to gain much more over the next two years.

General Update!

Nothing huge has happened to me the past week to do with Theatre...
So I thought I would tell you the little things I've been doing, and what I've realised and what I've been offered:

• I've put together a schedule sheet and a contact sheet for The Wiz  with the information I have for now, which is slightly limited as for the schedule I need: The exact times and who exactly needs to be there each day. And for the Contact Sheet I need: Emails and mobile/contact number.
• I've put together "The Book" for The Wiz, which proves very difficult when your hole-puncher doesn't work very well and only makes one of the two necessary holes, so I had to make the other hole with scissors which caused the prompt copy took a lot longer to do than anticipated. Luckily the back of each sheet in the script had the columns for the cues already written out, so that saved me some time where I lost it. Now all it needs are the cues!
• I've been offered a couple jobs, neither of them for definite but both of them VERY good. I can't give much away on them, because 1, I don't know anything about it, could be secret and 2, the other might not happen. But still, I could get some very good connections through these jobs! Summer is going to be exciting!

Lesson learned today:

In this business, always have a working hole-puncher, trust me.

Plenty more fish in the sea...

The Stage Manager of 'Beauty and The Beast' (which will be showing at the Theatre Royal Brighton the first week of June) called me a few days ago asking if I would be able to help out backstage during the production week. My first reaction was "Yes yes yes! Thank you so much!" but then after thinking about it I realised something, my exams are in the beginning of June, I rushed to find my Exam Timetable to find, with slight relief and dismay that the exams do not fall on any of the dates of the show, but surround the entire week. My two most important exams occur only a day after the production will have ended. Sadly I have decided to not participate in this show, although it would have been the biggest one I'd have worked on yet. Plenty more fish in the sea.


Lesson I learned today:
Never get your hopes up before you check the dates!

My Role in ‘The Wiz’

During my Stage Management Class last week, my fellow students and I were given our roles for the production of ‘The Wiz’ at Blatchington Mill in July.

I was granted a role that I was partly pleased with, partly dreading. I was given the role of Deputy Stage Manager (DSM), but not only would I have to do all the jobs of a DSM, I would also have to do most of a Stage Managers role also. For those of you who don’t know what the exact jobs these roles entail, here’s a list:

For DSM:

·        The Book (big deal!)

·        Call Cues

·        Rehearsal Room Management

·        Makes notes throughout Rehearsal (if a prop or line is cut)

For SM:

·        Issues Calls

·        Runs the Technical Rehearsal

·        Is the Leader (Technically the teacher is, however I am the leader within the students)

·        Communicates between all people and levels of the production.

·        Makes sure everyone else is doing their job

·        Schedule

·        Contact Sheet

·        Mark Up

·        Makes sure everyone turns up

I don’t think I am going to run the Technical Rehearsal, as I’ll be too busy doing ‘The Book’ I assume Tom the Theatre Technician will do it.

The Book

The Book is a broken down script that the DSM writes all the lighting, sound, props, effects, follow spot, tabs (curtains), scenery changes and any other change that happens on stage aside from the actors, cues into. The DSM has to sit with a headset on throughout the entire run of shows, telling (calling) each person who controls different things throughout the theatre to “Go!” An example of what would be said exactly is “Lx Q 13 standby” Lighting would reply by saying “Standing by” and a few second later the DSM would call “Lx Q 13 …. Go!” The DSM has to ensure that the word “Go” is exactly along side a word the actor says that signifies the Cue, the director points this out. No one throughout the show would change anything before they hear their cue being called, and they have to go exactly on “Go” funnily enough.

Rehearsal Room Management is not as important in the school production. As before the crew even get involved the actors have already been rehearsing for a few weeks, and we always have facilities to rehearse in open after school for the director to use.

A link to a better description of the roles: SM, DSM and ASM

This means that I have the largest work load than anyone else working on ‘The Wiz’ and I just know that I will be helping get props and build the set and many other jobs I’m not ‘supposed’ to do.

A lesson learned today:

Don’t be afraid of a hard job, look forward to the rewards!

Standing Ovation!

Friday night and Saturday night!

The show went amazingly, nothing went wrong and yes, we had all the audience standing in the last two nights. 


On the last day I had come down with something or another and was feeling terrible, so on Saturday night my Stage Manager let me sit at the top of the auditorium with the spotlight operators (including Tom the technician from The Windmill in Blatch) and watch the very last show. I'm incredibly grateful  to my SM for letting me do that, as seeing the show from the front, instead of from the wings is very interesting as you can see your work in progress. Although it was odd seeing people do my job even if they did do it perfectly.


The show was featured in the local newspaper the Argus: Link to Article
Also, while I was standing in the box office, a punter came up and asked the Ticket Collector next to me where the show was touring to next, she assumed we were the professional Touring Hairspray!


A lesson learned today:
Always try to see the show you're working on from the audiences point of view at some point. It's a completely different experience.

It's been a long few days...

Get in - Technical Rehearsal - Dress Rehearsal - Opening Night!

• Get In - During this I mainly had to paint all the trucks a dark grey colour so they would match the stage. The trucks were originally black, which is a normal colour for a stage. Think of it like a camouflage
• Technical Rehearsal - This was almost a smooth run through! Other than when the crew and I had to mark up/out or even 'Spike' the stage; which is a process of placing pieces of coloured tape on the stage at the base of set pieces so we know where they go during scene changes. "How to spike a stage!"
• Dress Rehearsal - The dress run went very well, the only times we had to stop was when the choreographer wanted to change a couple of dance moves.
• Opening night! - The audience was great, laughing at every joke, and even booing the baddies when they came on stage. Only one slip up on our part, when we were pulling one of the trucks out from the wings during a non-blackout scene change it got caught up with the black tabs (curtains). So I was on stage for much longer than anticipated trying to untangle the blacks from a very small wheel.

There's another evening performance tonight, then matinees and evenings until Saturday night. I've been wearing jeans and a pink shirt because the director wanted us to fit in with the cast and the 60s theme during scene changes, it's a nice change from blacks.
A lesson learned today:
Always check the colour of the stage floor before building the scenery onto your trucks, you might be in for a surprise.

Hairspray starts tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the get-in (building the set) for Hairspray. Not much to report today, other than I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty tomorrow. I love influencing the Artistic Director during the get-in, so throughout the show I can point at a certain piece of set and say: "That was my idea!"

Lesson I've learned today:
If you're working on a show, make sure you have enough clothes for the entire week (or however long you are working on it for). You can't wear the same outfit all week, however it has to look the same throughout.
Make a clothes schedule?

Some more on "The Wiz"

I've been doing a little research...

The Wiz is BASICALLY "The Wizard of Oz" but with a completely different soundtrack and slightly more modern dialogue. The story line is almost exactly the same, which personally I find a little frustrating. I would have loved to have worked on The Wizard Of Oz, however I have to cope with a terrible compromise, and so do the rest of the team I work with. No doubt though, we'll all be singing the songs by the end of it and know every line by heart.


I think I'll give you guys some links, that can explain this ghastly musical properly:


The trailer for the motion picture, not very good quality but I think the actual film wasn't very good quality not just this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZC_sdHwBAQ


The "Official" site: http://www.broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/wiz.htm


And the Wikipedia site, mainly because they have the more information than any other site that I can find: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wiz


Lesson I've learnt today:
The Wizard of Oz / Wicked / The Wiz are all one musical!! 
How can they manage to stretch one storyline so far?

The Wiz!

Ever heard of it? Because I haven't!

It's the next production to be performed at The Windmill. Lower school from Blatchington Mill are going to stage it, which'll be interesting because I've never worked on a Lower School production before, and I can't wait to find out what raw talent we have at Blatchington Mill.


I hope to be given the role of Stage Manager on this next show, mainly because I want to be able to show my communication skills to the teachers and technicians working around the theatre. I really believe I could get things done!


I'm going to do some research on The Wiz, and give you a little run down on it in tomorrows post!


Lesson learned today:
Never underestimate Blatchington Mill's ability to find the least well known musicals ever.

Being Tracked Down...

Guess what?
I've been tracked down by the Stage Manager from Les Miserables (who I previously worked with) and now I'm going to be working as part of the crew on a local production of Hairspray all half-term week!

I knew that the show would be running during half-term, because Tom the technician from The Windmill is going to be working the follow-spot during the performances. I had asked him if he could get me in on it, but he said there was no chance! I guess I was just lucky to have past experiences with the crew - they must have liked me.


I've done a little research on Hairspray, and did you know that Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester from Glee) was the original Link from the Broadway performance of Hairspray!


It's being performed at Roedean Theatre, and I'm ecstatic about working there, mainly because I performed there when I was little and can't wait for the nostalgia to kick in once I'm behind the wings again.


Here's a link to the show: http://www.brightontg.com/hairspray/
I promise it'll be a show worth seeing!


A lesson learnt today:
Always give people with connections your contact details, including your Mobile Number and Email... Although, never give out your address until you know and trust the person fully.

Billy The Musical

BILLY THE MUSICAL (Based on Billy Liar) see Billy The Musical Wiki Page

Which was performed at: The Windmill Theatre, Blatchington Mill School:

My Role within Billy was to organise and design the lighting, then to operate the cues during the performances.


The specials (Lighting on stage) included:

An old lamp on a stand:
Found on a prop sourcing trip to Emmaus, the standard lamp had a nondescript cream lampshade on which I decided to paint a brown stripe, so it would fit in with our all round brown and beige theme.

A fireplace:
Within the fireplace, we set 2 erratic flashing bulbs with red gels, and 1
constantly lit orange gelled bulb, we then put a little tin foil around it and covered it with logs, it was very effective, if a little ‘rave like’.

A window:
 At the very beginning of Billy Liar, dawn breaks over the stage and you become aware of a dimly lit figure in bed. I decided to light this through a net curtained window with the use of a birdie light. The director didn’t use this light as much as I would have liked, however the effect it gave when it was being used I thought worked well and was realistic.

Many times during the play Billy snaps from reality to his own fantasy world, and this is mainly indicated through an obvious lighting change. When Billy is in the real world, it is dreary Yorkshire in the 1960s. I wanted to give the cast and set during these scenes an old sepia look. However, this was harder to achieve than I expected, especially as I didn't get any input into what the cast  would be wearing. Some of them were wearing reds and other bright colours that didn’t fit in with my sepia idea. To overcome this problem I decided to use brown gels in six Frasnels across the lighting bar located at the front of the stage. This gave the cast and set a brown, almost dirty tinge which was close to my original idea.

I was quite pleased with the look I created in the end. The fantasy scenes consisted of down light from centre stage so you could only really see the cast's silhouettes, and a deep pink back wash to the entire set. This gave an other-worldly feel to the scenes. The Director did however want some front light, so that the faces of the cast would be visible. I felt this made sense, even if it did dilute the fantasy look that I created and loved.

Rope/cable light:
We used this on the set during a nightclub scene. I was slightly concerned that this was a mistake. Rope light has a bit of a cheesy reputation, I wasn't sure that it was really appropriate for a nightclub in 1960s Yorkshire. In my opinion it gives a 1970s or 80s look. Don't get me wrong, personally I love the stuff, but I worried that it wouldn't fit what we were aiming to achieve.
I'm happy to report that despite my worries the rope light did work. It helped create a totally new scene without any major set changes.

Propping:
Our main technician Tom, sourced 200 Friday Ads (free local advertising paper). These were for the calendars needed to play a significant part in the play. Myself  and others spent a good part of an hour sticking covers onto them so they resembled calendars.

I had a plan that when the lighting changed from reality to fantasy, the cast would quickly whip out colourful props, in place of the plain ones they had been using, this would include multicoloured feather dusters in place of  old yellow dusting cloths, and crochet blankets could quickly be thrown over the drab furniture. Sadly this didn't happen  - it didn't work time-wise as the cue changes were meant to take only a split second, and this isn't possible when an actor is trying to tug a blanket from under an armchair five minutes in.

A lesson learned today:
When operating the specific lighting programme at the Windmill during performances:
Don't be nervous - shaking hands can cause double clicks when single ones are intended. This happened to me, and confused the actors terribly because we went from nightclub to blackout, instead of fantasy like rehearsed. Luckily my nervous shakes made the double clicks so fast that the audience didn’t notice, and it seemed as if the blackout was meant to be there.

All in all, the performances went amazingly!

Les Miserables (Day One)

What ever happened to carpenters?

7.30am

My alarm goes off. It's one of those alarms when the longer you ignore it the faster and the louder the beeping gets. Basically, one of those alarms that everyone hates, including me. I pull out the clothing I’m supposed to wear, even though I am a little confused about whether to wear blacks or not, I decide on wearing mainly black but not entirely. This is because the SM told me to wear black clothing (which I expected) but I knew we were building today, so I wasn’t sure, I didn’t want to get the black jeans I was going to have to wear in the week covered in paint.

9.00am

It is raining. Almost freezing cold, and I am stuck outside the main entrance of the Sallis Benny Theatre with the ‘Master Joiner’ and a guy called Derrick and a fellow crewmember Martin. They are both telling me about their years in the world of show business, even if it is behind the wings.

Finally, after about 10 minuets, someone from lighting comes to let us in. Telling us in the process that “everyone else is round the back and unloading stuff from the van.” I swiftly walk into the stage area, trying to look like I know what I am doing, and that I am completely confident. This is ruined a few seconds later when I lose my way to a dressing room, and find myself outside, only having to return to the SM to ask for a second set of directions. Turns out HE got stage right and left mixed up.

9.30am

Right in the middle of unloading a nice mixture of wooden planks, flats, music stands, old lighting boxes, old wagon wheels (not the chocolate biscuits ACTUAL wagon wheels) and a few other odd bits and pieces.

I’m being given a little less to carry from the man unloading the truck than any of the other ‘men’ who are to be honest all over 45 except one 31 year old. But still, I’m no weakling! I could have carried about the same as nearly all of the people there. However they were all still very lovely about it “Don’t take more than you can handle my sweetest.”

11.00am

8 flats, all about 12 foot high and 5 foot wide, are now joined together and standing across the back of the stage, to give a backdrop to the set we are about to construct. Only after the SM goes and makes some tea, it’s about time, people have been hollering for it.

1.00pm

Okay, I want to be able to explain how the set looks like, BUT I will not be able to tell it to its true glory (I’m proud of it yes). So, I will post a picture:

Well, by 11 we had about half of the entire structure sound, and the separate parts coming off the sides.

Time for lunch, they all head off for a pint, I have a cheap sandwiches in the park/ old stein, unfair? I think so.

5.00pm

The Barricades are done, as is the set, all that is left is sorting the odd bit and bobs out across the stage. I’m given a large bucket, full of a very assorted mixture of rusty screw, and a few other bits. After about an hour I’ve sorted them all into about 20 different piles and I’m free to go home, happy in the knowledge that I’ve done a hard days work.

6.30pm

Sat down, in front of Doctor Who, with a nice plate of beans on toast. The perfect dinner for a long day.

Before Les Miserables!

To build or not to build?

That is the question.

On Sunday (This was about a month ago now) I’ve been given the privilege to decide whether or not I want to go in to The Sallis Benny Theatre in Brighton, to build the set for Les Miserables… I assume it will be the Barricades. I am quite sure I’ll go along, as I don’t have any other plans for Sunday. However, I’m worried after the SM Nigel, said that I may “Get bored easily” that I might be sitting around doing nothing. I’m really hoping to get my hands stuck in to some serious ‘barricade building’ but I don’t want to just be sat in the wings for 6 hours doing nothing and feeling awkward.

I’m sure that my worries are completely silly, and I should show up and demand a job, if its from de-tangling cables to helping design the barricades themselves.

To build it is!

The First Few Weeks into SM Lessons

The Beginnning


Having not taken part in any productions (as of yet, Les Miserables the whole of next week, which you should hear a lot about) I do not have much to write about in the context of being backstage or working the lights etc. However, I have taken part in 5 and a half Stage Management ‘lessons’ with the ultimate Mark Shayle.

Upon meeting this new tutor, having heard the odd description from friends within the year above me, who had been with Mark for a whole extra year, he was basically what I expected, a typical laid back, but at the same time pretty full on ‘Tutor’, he definitely gave off the whole “Stage Management” aura. Anyhow, back to the content of these lessons:
The first session was spent going over the basics of the stage. We had the basic outline of a ‘Proscenium Arch’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proscenium) and were asked to name it, instinctively we all chorused “it’s a stage!” Which was unusual for our normally tired, sleepy Monday morning class. After a few more guesses, hand gestures and clues Mark finally gave in and told us the name of the box-shaped image on the board.

Over the next few weeks we learnt a few more names and tricks of the trade of Stage Management, for example, Typical jobs of SMs, DSMs and ASMs. To watch out not to flick the wrong switch or pull the wrong lever, which would either lead to making a complete idiot of yourself and chatting to a half full auditorium or covering the audience in a couple gallons of water. However, at the moment we are only skimming the surface of what is yet to be learnt about the life of a stage manager, and I am yearning for more.

I never though that there could be so much information packed into one of the many jobs in a theatre, for now I don’t know nearly enough, but in time, I hope I’ll have most of the help I need tucked under my hat so I can set off and work behind the wings of a proper stage, not just the Windmill Theatre.