Study Break Two  - Week Eight 2006

Study Break Two

During one of the production meetings was given the task of coordinating the props for our production. I was unsure what this involved so i got together with Jenny and she explained that it basically involved getting together a list of props, going out and getting the props (in line with a budget) and being responsible for the props and ensuring actors put things back as they were found. 

It sound like a lot of work and a big challenge, however I believe I am very organized and responsible person so I decided to take the task on. Each week i've been  getting together with the costume people and going through costume designs, and discussing props used in the script. I’m really glad I’m getting a chance to work with the team at the costume department as I feel I am not alone in this huge task, and I know I will get some good ideas to include in the Ed pack (which i'm also involved in).  

The first thing i did to get organized is to read through the whole script and highlight all props mentioned, which character is going to use them, at which scene, from this I compiled a list (included below) of props. I then researched the each of the props and brainstorm ideas on where i could find them and what i could use.  I constructed a props book which provides information on props being borrowed by actors for rehearsal, with their contact details, the date they were borrowed and the date they were returned. This way i can keep track of everything, and ensure that all is organized, available, bought back and taken care of.

I'm really enjoying this unit, and in the past couple of weeks i have learnt so many things. Such as all the hard work put in by the team behind the scene's in order to put on a sell out production. I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester, and working together with such a diverse team.

Here is the list of props (as i handed out during last weeks session) i've added in a couple of new items so please take the time to go through it. If you have any of these items at home it would be grate if you could bring them in, as i have to stick to a budget.  I would also appreciate some feedback and ideas on what we could use and where we could find them! Thanks Jennie V!

Jennifer Vega

Thanks for all you work!!!

 Tara Walker

(The following is Emmet's 'sagely insights' of week seven's events) During this workshop we continued the blocking process, followed by a short session where each character group worked on characterisation. This session was invaluable to the performance, as was evident in the progress of the 'Snottygobbles' group last week. After just a short time in squash courts, they came out and had their posture, gesture, facial expression and voice all synchronised so that they we all clearly Snottygobbles.

Each group had someone to oversee and assist in this process, which was very helpful - it is hard to know what you actually look like when you try something, and whether or not it is working. This also made it seem like every part in the show was important. Even though it was only for about 20 minutes, it improved the characters dramatically, as we were all rehearsing with the same ideas in mind. It will however, be important for me to focus on these things when I practice my lines throughout the week. We will be able to see the effects next week in rehearsal, but if the Snottygobbles from last week are anything to judge by, the show will have improved dramatically... excuse the pun.
 

Emmet Nichols

Well, we?re more than halfway through this unit now? blocking is still underway but we have a solid foundation to work with? costumes sound interesting and varied? the preliminary music screenings sound fantastic? things are really starting to draw together? and for actors, this is the crucial time for working on character development! Although the acting and production team are still mostly disparate at this point in time, I was happy this week to see a number of Brian Froud?s art books floating around the room during the production meeting. Brian Froud is one of my personal favourite artists, and I cannot recommend his work highly enough to inspire both the production and acting teams.For those who are not familiar with Froud?s work, he is an accomplished fantasy illustrator and character designer ? particularly of faeries and goblins. His is probably best known for his work on the Jim Henson movies, ?The Dark Crystal? (1983) and ?The Labyrinth? (1986). On both of these movies Froud was the Conceptual Designer; he designed and illustrated the motley crew of creatures and characters that populate the vast fantasy realms of these movies. For those of us who are playing Snottygobbles or goblins in the final production, I?d recommend viewing ?The Labyrinth? at least once. This movie offers a wealth of goblin resources in terms of voice, movement, character and socialisation, which may inspire the development of your character. On the same note, Froud also released an art book called ?The Goblins of Labyrinth? which showcases some of Froud?s character design work. This work is highly inspiring, but unfortunately, this book has been out of print for some time and is very rare and expensive! However, some local libraries still stock it, so if you have time hunt around for it!

You can also check out Froud?s website at http://www.worldoffroud.com

Good luck with your character building!

 

Melody Savill
 

Week Eight

I am writing in response to the following quote on the children's theatre website:

"It has come to my attention that some people believe this website shows way to much of Paul Grabovac! This criticism has been taken seriously; and from now on, less photos of Paul will be found here..."

And i would just like to say that this website, in my opinion, has a dangerously low level of Paul. On a scale from one to ten of my satisfaction with the amount of Paul on this website, i think it would be at the -300 million mark. Only five pictures and quotes from Paul a page? That's an insult! I demand more Paul on the children's theatre website.
Nay, a website should be constructed purely of, for and about Paul. Or at the very least a monumental statue of him in the drama workshop. Please update the website to include more Paul. And Joe, he's pretty cool too.
 

Kit Sparrow
 

Click here... Paul to view some of photos of Paul that have not been shown lately, because of the ban!

On second thoughts, there are far too many cool people to dedicate the website to. How could i forget Nathan "Rocks My World" Hoyle? Why not set up a little profile on every cast and crew member where they can write and say how cool they are with a mini-bio? Would be a great way for us to get to know each other, and how awersome we all are.

Kit Sparrow
 

What a ride we've been having so far this year. With such a BIG class it has been a truly monumental effort on everyone's part to get to the stage we are now at. From my perspective, this year's production is showing some awesome potential. And as the momentum of the creative process begins to pick up, I am seeing more and more of that potential develop. Kudos to the work being done people :)

I'd like to say a few things about the work that I am doing with the fairies of the enchanted garden (FOTEG). We've been doing some pretty intense workshopping behind closed doors over the past couple of weeks and I'm really pleased to see they way the characters (and by extension the scenes they are in) are growing and developing throughout the process. One of the beautiful things about theatrical projects is the time that we get to spend on creating and expanding our roles. As a group, the FOTEG have been doing a lot of work around movement and voice. The poor souls have been put through a crash course on vocal studies, down to and including the anatomical requirements/restraints of this
field. They've basically had almost everything I know from 16 years of study thrown at them over 3 weeks. I repeat, the poor souls. But their hard work and diligence has helped them to reap the rewards as the entire group is beginning to grasp the concepts we've been working on. As a whole, the group has developed much better clarity and diction, a greater level of projection and we are now beginning to work on vocal nuance for specific lines in order to get the most out of their performances. On top of all the vocal work, the FOTEG have also been working on some pretty intense movement stuff. We've been looking at bringing elemental energy into their movements in order to give their characters a specific movement style. As fairies, we decided that all the characters have a base of air as part of their personality. Air gives them a light, energetic feel that is realised by the simple expedient of shifting much of their weight onto the balls of their feet. Each actor has then considered how the other elements may or may not fit into their character. Fire for intense energy (Anger, Exuberance etc.); Water for fluidity, grace and calmness; Earth for grounding, solidarity and strength. The actors have then taken that further to consider how those energies will change when mixed. Kita for example has combined Air and Earth to give his character (Oberon) great strength while maintaining the lightness and energy of air. Perhaps this is something the other actors could consider for their own character development.

What the FOTEG will be moving onto now (and this is something I think everyone will benefit from) is extending that characterisation beyond what is happening in the script. This allows the actor to bring more depth to their character. Just because we are doing children's theatre does not mean that we should be creating 2 dimensional caricature style characters. (In fact, because we are performing to children we should be taking extra care to ensure that our performances are as three dimensional as possible. Children as an audience are VERY astute and will pick up on any half-assed jobs presented to them on stage!) We will begin to look at who the characters are in different temporal positions. For example, how do the characters interact with one another when everything is going well in the Enchanted Garden? When Oberon and Titania are friends what different energies might the different characters have? What happens in times of crisis when the fairy court is unified rather than divided? What will life be like after the current
situation? These are facets of the character that an actor should know in order to produce a performance that is real. The answers to these questions will more than likely not come up in performance, but you still need to know them!

Anyway, enough dribble from me, keep up the good work everyone :)
 

Darren Bilston

“The first word of the theatrical vocabulary is the human body… [a] man must, first of all, control his own body, know his own body, in order to be capable of making it more expressive.” (Boal, cited in McCaslin, 2000: 52).

 As you can guess, the focus of this workshop was movement. Movement is an extremely important aspect of theatre, often able to convey as much, if not more, meaning than dialogue. In fact, good mime artists are able to express powerful emotions and complex storylines entirely without the aid of speech. To reflect this, Jenny had called on the services of Salmiyah to guide us with developing movement for our characters. Today’s warm-ups were longer and more intensive, and designed to prepare us for what turned out to be an exhausting (at least for the Snottygobbles) workshop.

 When the warm-ups had concluded we took over an empty squash court, and as a group, were able to learn much from the suggestions of our coach. Importantly, we managed to reconcile a lot of the difficulties we were having with the creeping, flowing movements that the Snotties employ when hiding. It was also possible to find a range of motions that were comfortable for my knees. I feel however, that Snottygobbles do not ‘flow’ when upright, and thus become very lumbering and awkward, in much the same way as a walrus does when removed from water. I see the military-like uprightness as being very unnatural for these ground dwelling creatures, who have been forced into this behaviour by necessity rather than choice.

 As I have previously mentioned, the movement of the Sarki presents somewhat of a challenge for me. I am finding it difficult to combine his slouching, spreading gait with his military uprightness, and the fact that in camouflage mode much of his awkward ‘clumsiness’ is replaced by smooth flowing ‘horizontal’ motions. During the week, I studied pictures of cane toads, as I can see parallels between this type of movement and the movement a Snottygobble might have while hiding. I think that with some practice I will be able to combine the cane toad’s creeping with the side-to-side waddle of the walrus into a coherent series of movements.

 The workshop was exhausting, as we worked for two and a half hours without a break, so the production barbeque was a welcome diversion. This class is so large that I still seem to be bumping into people that I haven’t met! It was a great opportunity to get to know these people and find out a little more about their experiences in the unit, as well as gain an insight into the behind-the-scenes madness of the production. Even now, I am still constantly amazed at the depth of talent that this unit showcases, and I am very much looking forward to that first curtain up.

Julian Hembrough

Really i haven't had time to think about anything at the minute. I'd imagine most people, especially those involved in Summer (what a kickass show that was), have had any time to consider children's theatre, any other units/commitments, or for that matter life in general. Hands up if you've had a proper night's sleep recently? NO ONE! So kudos for the coffee and tea, god knows we're just going to be eating it raw by the end, if we haven't begun already.

I think one week someone, or all of us, should bring a stereo and music to amp us up in the morning. I mean really, what kind of arts students can wake up before 3pm, or at the very least something with double digits? I've got some awful 80's music that would work a treat, billy idol anyone? But now that things are settling down i think more people will have time to really commit and contribute to children's theatre. Expect things to get really crazy intense over the next couple of weeks.

I would also like to take this opportunity to publically apologise to the cast and crew, and the universe, for my italian accent. Sweet, Jesus it gets worse each lession. Why did the Commedia dell'Arte have to be from Italy? Couldn't they have picked an easier, less offensive stereotypical country's accent to originate from? Or mime? Maybe Cucurucu could be a deaf mute, and only communicate through games of charades? Kids love charades right? They'd be all like "It's a Movie!", "Six Words!", "Back to the Future: Part II!".

Kit Sparrow

View other 2006 'Notice Board' entries...     Week One - Week Two     Week Three - Week Four

Study Break One - Week Five    Week Six - Week Seven    Study Break Two - Week Eight

Week Nine - Week Ten     Week Eleven - Week Twelve    Week Thirteen     Week Fourteen

...or view other 'Snottygobble' production extras...     Julian's Drawings One     Julian's Drawings Two

Circus Skills Photo Gallery     Mel's Acting CV     Geoff Glencross Theatre History

First Draft     Second Draft     Final Script - Act One     Final Script - Act Two

Samantha's Costume One     Samantha's Costume Two     Paul's Unbanned     Suicide Run     Costume Fitting

Dance Workshop     Darren's Character Profile     First Dress Rehearsal One   First Dress Rehearsal Two

First Dress Rehearsal Three     First Dress Rehearsal Four     Jamie at the Final Dress Rehearsal

Final Dress Rehearsal One     Final Dress Rehearsal Two     Final Dress Rehearsal Three

Final Dress Rehearsal Four     Pre-show     Make-up     Wrap-up

...or view other Notice Board entries... 2005 Children's Theatre Notice Board

Go to Children's Theatre:     My Journal     History      Notice Board     Your Work

Contact Andrew @ thechaseison@optusnet.com.au

This page last updated: 30th June 2006