Week One - Week Two 2007
Week
One: Introduction to the Unit
(Returning Children's Theatre veterans, including Emmet, Cheryl and Nikki...)
(...and a whole lot of new faces as well)
One of the best pieces of advice that I love to offer (when it comes to writing journals) is a 10% description - 90% reflection ratio. Don't spend all the time explaining what happened... we know, we were there too. Write about why you believe it was important. Here are some ideas for starting your journals...
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What did you like (or dislike) about today's activities? |
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How well do you think you went? |
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What did you learn about yourself, or the theatre? |
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What goals would you set for yourself to achieve by the end of the semester? |
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Why did your group's improvisation work (or not work)? |
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How would you improve your performance next time? |
Andrew Kocsis
(One of the disturbing images seen in a re-working of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs')
Week Two: Movement and Improvisation
(Lindsay Lloyd's initial design of the Snow Queen backdrops)
The following is the transcript of a 2005 interview with Lindsay Lloyd, backdrop designer for this year's Children's Theatre production...
Q. How long have you actually been in theatre?
Lindsay - Only since I’ve known Jenny…this would be number five or six…so, for the last five years anyway I’ve been working with Jenny, on her production’s only. I’m a painter, I started in London and then when I came here to Australia I started doing lots of landscape scenes…
Q. What attracted you to painting landscapes?
Lindsay - ...‘Cause Australia’s so dramatic, it’s wonderful…baron landscape, amazing colours… as far as children are concerned, as far as I’m concerned for children, colour in any storybook is an important factor.
Q. Besides colour, what would you say would be another important factor of a backdrop?
Lindsay - As far as children are concerned, it’s the images…easy identification… I suppose that’s me anyway, I like to keep them fairly simple… the backdrop obviously sets the scene, literally, and gives everything else a stabilising focal point from which to work, but with all of the costumes and lighting and everything else that comes in, I see the backdrop as one important part of everything… it all comes together as a whole.
Q. How long would a backdrop take to make?
Lindsay - Jenny gives me an idea, we talk about the theme and I come up with ideas and discuss them with Jenny and then I go off and research and come up with a design… I research what we’re doing, I make drawings, I look at things in books…and then I put the whole thing together and make a backdrop… I see the thing as a whole…the side pieces I see with the beach scene and link that with the colours in the sea scene. It’s not just little bits, it’s all seen as a whole…I draw the picture, we then take a copy for Perspex…projection, and then we project the drawings on to the backdrops which are eight metres by six.
Q. ...And from beginning to end, from the initial idea of sketches all the way through to the final painting and charcoaling, how long would it take?
Lindsay - It takes me a day for each scene, to draw out each scene. First of all I have to think about it, then I have to research it, then I have to draw the scene and then I have to put the colours in, so that’s another day for each scene generally. Filling in is quite time consuming, we got the backdrops drawn in a whole day, in one day this time which is a record time, we normally spread it out over two or three days…and then we actually painted, because we had a full team of keen people who came in on a Monday, it took us three days to paint those scenes.
Q. How does your backdrop enhance a child’s viewing of the play?
Lindsay - If the children can place what’s going on… can actually put it into a place, I remember from my own childhood, the importance of drawings in stories…to form an idea of something. For me colour is a major factor…for children I like to keep everything light and bright…it’s not just the colours in the backdrop because the lighting makes a big difference to the colours in the backdrop as well…for me it’s a visual sight, how can you do without the visual sight?
Lindsay Lloyd
(Lindsay Lloyd's finalised design of the backdrops for the latest production)
(Sam and Lisa help to create a Medieval machine through improvisation)
Metacognition is (quickly described) as the act of thinking about thinking. When writing in your journals, write your thoughts as a means to reflect. In your journal, present your thoughts on your...
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Expectations (Be it academic, theatrical or education institution) |
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Goals (What are you ambitions?) |
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Accomplishments (What are you proud of?) |
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Beliefs and current knowledge (How will it change as the semester progresses?) |
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Feelings (How are you doing?) |
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Problems (What went wrong, and how will could it be improved?) |
Andrew Kocsis
(The whole class works together to create a giant machine)
One of my favored approaches to journal writing is the consistent reflection of my personal progress, with that of the unit objectives. As these are the aims of the unit, focusing on them will allow you to achieve great academic and personal growth. As these objectives are how you are to be assessed, ask yourself questions. How will I achieve these objectives? Why are they important? And at the end of your process you can reflect back on your success of achieving these goals...
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To develop (as applicable) production process skills |
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To develop (as applicable) performance skills |
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To develop an understanding of collaborative/ensemble work in the theatre |
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To develop a critical awareness of the tenets of T.I.E (Theatre in Education) |
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To develop an awareness of the demands of a professional theatre company for efficiency, responsibility and commitment in theatre practice. |
Andrew Kocsis
(Wedding improvisations completed this week's workshop)
View other Notice Board entries... 2006 Children's Theatre Notice Board
...or... 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: 9th March 2007