Week Nine - Week Ten
Week Nine
Click here... SCRIPT to read the final script
Press
Release
Murdoch University’s Children’s Theatre
unit has a reputation for producing quality theatre pieces. The combination of
elements from education, entertainment, comedy as well as live music, means that
the productions are usually a sell-out, with many schools and teachers repeating
bookings each year.
This year’s production of Captain Quokka’s Adventures on the High Seas looks set to follow
the impressive standards established by the collaborations of writer/director
Associate Professor Jenny de Reuck, artist Lindsay Lloyd and the students at
Murdoch University.
Captain
Quokka’s Adventures on the High Seas is set on and around Rottnest Island
in the early 17th Century and is loosely based on the events that
arose off the west coast during the time of the Spice Trade between Europe and
Batavia. The story skilfully blends historical fact and fiction to incorporate
action and adventure, romance and comedy, pirates and swordfights with the
characterisation of both regional and local sea creatures (dugongs, turtles,
fairy penguins and many more). A live band, ‘Shark-Bait’, provides original
music and songs.
Writer director Jenny de Reuck says: “This
production should appeal to children (and their parents and teachers) in primary
school and, as always, we’re trying to educate as well as entertain with Captain Quokka. Live theatre has an extraordinary ability to connect
with audiences and this show is visually and musically one of our best.”
General admission performances will be held on Saturday 11th June 2005 at 2pm and 4.30pm at a cost of $5 per person. Performances for schools will be held on Tuesday 7th – Friday 10th June at 10am and 12.30pm (cost $4 per child plus GST). All school bookings will receive a complimentary Education Package. The production will be staged in Nexus Theatre which is located on Murdoch University’s South Street Campus. Bookings can be made during office hours by contacting Cheryl Miller on 93602504.
Captain
Quokka and our progress so far...
By Jenny de Reuck
Director/Writer and Unit Co-ordinator.
I am happy to say that
the unit from my perspective is running very well. All the ‘departments’ –
whether performers or crew – are working very well and this year I’ve found
the overall level of commitment to the project to be exemplary. What helps us at
this point in the process is that we (Brien, Darren, Salmiyah and I) now have a
really good structure and a timetable that we know works, so that even the curve
balls (such as all the pie-rats heading off on prac in weeks 8 and 9) haven’t
really damaged us (as far as we know!) and then they’ve also been dedicated
enough to voluntarily rehearse on the
Sundays in between. This is really both reassuring and rewarding and bodes very
well for the more intensive times to come.
I am aware that people on
the production team haven’t always felt they were doing as much as they’d
like, but I hope that the rhythms of the production will be clearer from the
vantage point of the last few weeks. We all earn our keep once we bump into
Nexus and the next weeks will see an increasing level of engagement: lines to be
learned, sound to be finalized, lighting to be designed, sets to be
completed/painted, props to be sourced and costumes to be resourced and refined,
as well as attention to be paid to publicity and the completion of the Edpack.
And then there’s the music …. and the movement. What an exciting challenge we now face of layering our text in all the subtle ways the various facets of theatre allow us. My sense of our progress at this point is that we are on target for a wonderful production but that we’ll need to maintain our levels of engagement … after which it’s “Crouching penguin, hidden dugong” time and we’re on!
Jenny de Reuck
(Melissa Merchant tries on part of her turtle costume)
Oooh, next Wednesday is going to be so
exciting! For a start, everyone is off prac so we should have a full cast
- all together in one place. It'll be all singing, all dancing! And as
costuming is moving on apace, Sam would like as many actors as possible to be in
before 9 am next Wednesday for fittings. Bet you can't wait to try yours
on.
Valerie O'Neill
(Alexa points to the man who just found out he has another solo)
Hello boys and girls,
How's everyone doing? This is Nick, the dude in charge of the music... hope
everyone's doing great. I'm doing okay myself. Just had a group presentation
yesterday worth forty percent of oh my i'm digressing anyway back to the
point...
here it is:
I trust everyone (i.e. primarily the performers) has a copy of the demo CD.
Please, please, please, PLEASE familiarise yourselves with the songs, especially
the songs that YOU are involved in (which basically means every ensemble
number)... I can't stress how important this is because it would really be
difficult for us to get into rehearsal stages with the singing unless we all
know WHAT we're going to sing. :)
Some good news (or bad, depending on how you look at it) is that Jenny and
Darren are very enthusiastic about the music and are hoping that, as much as
possible, we will not have to cut too much out... SOOO i reiterate that in spite
of the fact that you have to put up with my wailing while you're at it, it would
really be good to get to know the songs to the point of them echoing in your
head while you're in bed trying to get to sleep, driving you crazy until you
eventually scream at empty air "STOP IT! MAKE THE NOISES STOP!!!!"
At the moment the musos and I are trying to figure out *our* roles in the
show; meaning I'm heavily involved in writing music scores for the flute, and
chords for the guitar, and all sorts of stuff. One of the important stages
involved in this is DETERMINING THE KEY of the song you guys sing. In other
words, finding out and confirming the best key a song would be in TO SUIT YOUR
VOCAL RANGE. We've already started on this process last week, but again I say
it's hard to find out what's best for you if you don't know the songs. And until
we confirm the key, I can't really to go on with the writing work because it's
pointless our rehearsing hard in G major only to later have it moved to Dflat or
something. Hmmm. I apologise if this might not be too clear for those who aren't
musically inclined. Heh. Sorry...
Anyway, thanks for putting up with my singing and my emails and announcements. I
know the song-and-dance can be a pain in the behind, but believe me, at the end
of the day when you're entertaining the crowds with them, you'll realise it'll
all be worth it. I know I did! *wink*!
Okay that's all
Thanks bois and girls
hope this next week will be a good one for ya
cheers and hugs and kisses where appropriate and necessary to soothe hurt
feelings and deflated egos,
(Carol, Alexa and Erica pose in character)
Week Ten
The following is the transcript of an interview with Lindsay Lloyd, set 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
(Trying on costumes was a large part of today's rehearsal )
Well I have to say that I am very impressed
with where everybody is at for this production. Next week we will begin to
move into Nexus Theatre for the run into the season proper. Please meet in the
Drama Workshop to start with. We will be moving up over the course of the
day - BUT MEET IN THE DW!! This includes the production meeting at 8.30am.
Brien
Keys
(Alexa, May and John try on their costumes)
(Alex, Jessica, Shola and myself also try on our costumes)
The
following are two extracts for Alexa's journal... Week
Two: Movement and Improvisation with Darren and Salmiyah
I
loved watching people get bigger and braver just in the process of this
workshop. Seeing some of the class members (including myself at times) being
awkward and embarrassed in the first movement exercise, looking around
self-consciously and moving their hands with an expression on their face that
seemed to say 'oh my god I can't believe I'm trying to move like wind...I
mean really, wind?...'. As the workshop went on people seemed to feel a
bit safer, and by the final improvisation exercise -a game of space jump- it was
wonderful to watch everyone in the group have their own little moment when they
went in and took charge of the situation, thinking on their feet and not caring
(too much) if they looked like an idiot.
This
is one of the things I love most about theatre- seeing people challenging
themselves, and getting to connect with each other in a different, playful kind
of way. Getting some sense of
friendliness and closeness is essential for a production to go well, and I find
that in my theatre units I tend to get to know people much better and more
quickly. There are not many places in society where it's deemed okay for adults
to crawl around on the floor pretending to be animals together. Or move like
water, or play at giving each other presents...it seems to me that in some ways
Children's Theatre is the art of making a complete fool of oneself! I look
forward to the challenge...
Week
Eight:
One
of the things that has been holding me back somewhat in my character
construction is a fear of overacting; I am aware that "far too many
stereotypes have been imposed on children" (McCaslin, 2000, p334) and that
overacting is a common mistake in children's theatre, and this has made me
somewhat cautious. Children have not had as much time to gather information
about the world as adults have, but they are no less intelligent than grown-ups,
and can tell when they are being patronised. I am sure they would be able to
tell if an actor was simply hamming it up rather than acting on stage; indeed, I
suspect they will be our most honest critics!
The
other day, however, I watched the video in the library of 'Shakespeare at Sea',
and was struck by Bridget's excellent portrayal of Mistress Quickly. She was
absolutely hilarious. I thought she was an excellent example of a construction
of a children's theatre character. She was also very big, very theatrical- very
over-the-top. And with this I had a realisation; that being 'over the top' is
different to 'overacting'. Nellie McCaslin states that "credible characters
are those in whom the audience can believe, whether or not they are real...the
characters may be witches, giants, ghosts, or elves, but the audience must
accept them as real" (McCaslin, 2000, p331). My revelation was that being
credible as a character has no relation whatsoever to being 'realistic'. Jenny,
Darren and Salmiyah have talked quite a lot about making our characters 'big,'
with reference Commedia dell'Arte and pantomime; Indeed, as I saw in the video
in children's theatre it seems highly unlikely that a character can be 'too
big'- as long as it is the right sort of 'bigness'.
But
then, what is it that makes one performance engaging and funny another
patronisingly overdone? The closest I've gotten so far to figuring it out is
that I think it has a lot to do with focus and motivation. Yes yes, I know, big
words but what do they actually mean? Well, in plainer words, I think it comes
down to letting go of trying to be a Great and Funny Actor, and simply playfully
having fun with your part.
If
the actor is being over-the-top in wishing to look Big and Magnificent and
Impressive in a Theatrical Manner, I think that it would be much more likely to
come across as 'hamming it up'. The motivation is to be a Grand and Memorable
Actor, and the focus is on thinking about the performance you, the actor, are
giving and the effect it is having on the audience. The 'bigness' comes from a
feeling of desperation to impress. I think a performance is enhanced, however,
if the sense of being over-the-top comes from a playful engagement with the
other characters onstage. The motivation is to engage with the audience and the
other characters in an enjoyable manner, and the focus is on being present in
the moment and responding to what is actually happening on stage, and engaging with
the audience rather than 'having an effect on them' -or acting 'at' them.
Did that long-winded spiel make any sense? It's perhaps more easy to say in theory than to actually put into practice. But what I do know is that this week in rehearsal I decided to play, to be silly and have fun with playing Miss Severity, and it made a very distinct difference to my character. I don't mean that there isn't a space for hard work in character construction- a lot of figuring out a character is hard work indeed! But I think that hard work needs to be a supplement to the place where playing your character gets to be simply that..playing (in fact, it can be a big challenge in itself to play and be silly and over-the-top; we're all pretty conditioned to be serious and embarrassed!). And anyway, how on earth are we supposed to convince a nexus-full of children that theatre is fun unless we ourselves are having fun doing it?
Alexa Taylor
(Costume time for Jane, Ilona and Paul)
(Final costume checks for Steven, Bree and Daniel)
This has been a great unit and the best part is yet to come. I have worked a lot with a variety of kids and I know that if we can all pull this off, the audience is going to love it and love us in turn. But if anyone thinks that they really need to get their butts in gear, now is the time because kids are nothing if honest, and guys, no pressure, but if you are not up to par trust me when I say the kids will let you know. In saying that if anyone thinks they need some extra work I am available to help you rehearse lines or work on the music. I know that everyone is working hard and I am sure that this is going to be the greatest children's theatre performance yet! ha ha ha ha ha...... Just kidding, but it's gonna be good.
See you guys next week....
Maybe with another treat.....
Lauren aka Clarissa the Princess.
Lauren Boon
(The dance rehearsal was the other focus of today's workshop)
MEEEEEEEEEEOW!!!
... your website is really nice... I mean
I try to log on every Weds night or Thurs, just in case you've updated it...
doing a great job, keep it up!
Your 'crabby' friend,
Carol Li-an
(Costume check time for Carol who plays Cordelia the crab)
View other Notice Board entries... Week One - Week Two Week Three - Week Four
Week Five - Week Six Week Seven - Study Break: Week One Study Break: Week Two - Week Eight
Week Nine - Week Ten Week Eleven - Week Twelve Week Thirteen Week Fourteen
View other 'Quokka' production extras... Draft Music - Act One Music - Act Two
Script and Music - Act One Script and Music - Act Two Photo Gallery Production Wrap-up Cast and Crew Party
Go to Children's Theatre: My Journal History Notice Board Your Work
Contact Andrew @ thechaseison@optusnet.com.au
This page last updated: 22nd December 2005