Today we met with the technical team, and they shared their ideas with us.The first thing we need to think is, how do we make the world of the play come to life. This is through all the combined elements, and we are all a team with the tech lot to make the world exist.
The first things we learned was about the space, the New Theatre. It has four entrances, labelled A, B, C & D. Entrances A & D are behind the audience, B & C go backstage to the run-through which links the two together. There is the paint frame between C & D with the props table and other things on it. D is the closest exit to the dressing room.
The set we have to work with include.
- Dry Trees/branches (Stationary)
- Prospero's Cell (Stationary, although Prospero can go inside)
- Rocks (these are moveable, and make up the different scene changes and can be stood on and used)
- Victoria's shrine (this can be moved down to become rocks, these cannot be stood on!)
- Sign to FreeTown, representing the indiginous Africans.
Vic Shrine
Prospero's Cell
We were then shown the costume designs, which were all beautiful, here they are,
This is my costume, it's really good to see what we'll be working with, and I feel like I know more about the play and it's world now that I've seen some of the set.
One last thing we will have is a cyclorama which is a backdrop. We're going to have a waxing and waning sun, which rises and sets, and also a moon. This will add a value of time and urgency to the production, and add to our personal given circumstances regarding time, temperature, exhaustion, etc.
I think on a whole the set and costume designs are incredible, it'll help colour the world we are trying to create and give us all so much to work with. I am looking forward to working in the space.
We then split up the scenes and worked out the positioning of the rocks, so we know how to block in future rehearsals. I will upload and scan my sketches of this soon.
After the Set Presentation we went on to:
Rehearsal
The first thing we did was learn the Becky Jelly Song, which we will sing during the curtain call.
These are the lyrics:
Becky jelly laquale 'u yalan da'ua
Becky jelly yonkey in da wo
Becky jelly laquale 'u yalan da'ua
La poo ayon somla yalan da'ua
Ariel - Somlan da'ua!
The song is a very high spirited that requires a lot of belting. It gives the tribal feel and makes us feel very grounded in physicality.
The blocking was very very long and we didn't get very far, but this is because it is important for us to understand our objectives and why we're saying what we say. It is very challenging, and Tian had a lot to say for the first twelve pages so naturally he wasn't off book, which makes it harder to act. It took a lot of energy out of him trying to play the objectives through words that are quite foreign to him.
Will got us all to do an exercise where we all read part of one of Prospero's monologues and thought about playing the objective before the words so it is organic and logical. This is because as humans we get feelings before we say our words.
So far the contextualisation feels successful but it needs more pushing, I think it will come out more when we get to the arrival of the slaves (Ariel and Caliban).
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