THE PERFORMANCE

If An Orchid Was All You Had                                                     Photo Credit: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre

Our debut performance of If An Orchid Was All You Had (2017) went unbelievably well! We were all so pleased with how the piece ran. We chose to have an hours instillation piece before the actual performance started, this was to enable the audience to feel welcomed into our world. From day one, we wanted the audience to be immersed in our theatre, in which the instillation piece allowed us to do.

The Instillation                                                                             Photo Credit: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre

FINAL HAIR AND MAKE-UP

Make-up                                                                                        Photo Credit: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre

For the final performance I chose to use dark greens and blacks around the eyes, this was to make them pop, while also looking creepy, especially for when we walk on in the awakening.

The colours I chose were to coincide with James’ colours on the set design. With browns, blacks and greens to keep the earthy nature feel. And the bright colours of orange, purple and red to match the fruits and flowers.

The make-up was mask-like to show that we were kind of supernatural like beings, also imagined figures, which after research this is what masks are said to symbolise.

I looked at images of tribal make up, and lines and dots were an occurring theme, also the idea of having a mask like make up also frequently appeared when I was looking at images, so I chose this for the final performance.

I chose to plait everyone’s hair as this to me was practical as it kept everyone’s hair off of their faces, yet it was used to still bring the tribal essence to the piece. The men’s hair is completely plaited, whereas the women’s hair is plaited on the top and wavy on the bottom.

Men’s Hair                                                                       Photo Credit: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre

Women’s Hair                                                                              Photo Credit: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre

FEEDBACK

The feedback from our performance was amazing, and we were overwhelmed by the audiences’ comments. “Once the curtain falls on a play, it is over, but it is also unfinished. The action continues in the mind of the audience” (Mudford, 2000, 1).

“Aesthetically stunning” (Anonymous 1, 2017)

“I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, it was amazing” (Anonymous 2, 2017)

“I could not fault it” (Anonymous 3, 2017)

“The costume and make-up looked so good” (Anonymous 4, 2017)

Works Cited

Anonymous 1. (2017) Audience Feedback. [speech] Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 22 May.

Anonymous 2. (2017) Audience Feedback. [speech] Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 22 May.

Anonymous 3. (2017) Audience Feedback. [speech] Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 22 May.

Anonymous 4. (2017) Audience Feedback. [speech] Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 22 May.

Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts (2017) IAOWAYH photos [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/34016768033/ [accessed 27 May 2017].

Mudford, P. (2000) Making Theatre From Text to Performance. London: The Athlone Press.

We are a couple of weeks away from our debut performance of If An Orchid Was All You Had (2017) and we had invited Michael Pinchbeck to one of our rehearsals, in which we ran a couple. His comments left us all a little lost to begin with. We were so sure we had nearly polished off our performance and then everything was put into perspective for us. Michael coming to our rehearsal was the BEST thing that has happened to us as a company. It was like all of a sudden something had clicked within us. We were more motivated than ever to finish creating our show.

The most fundamental requirement for devising theatre is a passion or desire to say something, a need to question or make sense of a starting point that encourages you to investigate further through a variety of processes and close enquiry

(Oddey, 1996, 42).

DENIAL

Michael Pinchbeck had previously seen the scene we had named ‘Denial’, which when we got to this point in the process we had cut this from the performance. After this meeting with him, he suggested that this was brought back. As performers this is the scene we come to life, and where the motif of our smiling faces begins. This scene enables the audience to feel a part of our world, also allowing them to feel relaxed as it is a comedy scene, with dark humour.

MEMORY

Pinchbeck made the suggestion that there was too much going on in the memory scene, and that the poetic text that James had written should be heard. We were influenced by Samuel Beckett’s Play (1963) for this scene. “Play, Beckett’s ultimate version of the Protestant Hell, everyone is trapped in a condemnation to repeat, repeat, versions of what happened elsewhere, long ago, not to their credit” (Kenner, 1973, 153). We chose to speed the pacing of our spoken text, yet slow down our movements, using Steven Berkoff’s ‘hypermotion’ to make our way onto the stage.

Works Cited

Kenny, H. (1973) A Reader’s Guide to Samuel Beckett. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.

Oddey, A. (1996) Devising Theatre a Practical and Theoretical Handbook. London: Routledge.

IMPACT

As the the weeks progressed, so did our process. The theatre company Frantic Assembly inspired us as a theatre company for our rehearsals and developing our work. Frantic Assembly’s Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett use many rehearsal techniques when creating a performance. As a Theatre Company Rubbish Theatre have been inspired by some of these when creating our performance If An Orchid Was All You Had (2017). The use of video camera in rehearsal was one of the techniques that inspired us. This allowed us to record all the material we were making, and enabled us to see what worked, and what didn’t. Graham and Hoggett state: “by filming […] sessions on the video camera we provided ourselves with a wealth of information that used constantly throughout the entire rehearsal period” (Graham and Hoggett, 2009, 39). Our process is documented through the use of video camera, while enlightening us to the areas that need working on.

In the early stages of rehearsals we used another of Frantic Assembly’s rehearsal techniques by using music. Music enabled us to build a bond as a theatre company, which was paramount as we work very closely as an ensemble throughout the performance. The use of music also allowed us to merge our ideas together, as the music would make each of us have a different feeling, in which we could carry into our performance and into our characterisation of The Creatures. For me as a performer this was very helpful in developing my movement as a Creature, and being able to use this to get into character.

DEVELOPMENT

A group coming together for the first may find introductory practical work an instrumental way of getting to know each other, using games, concentration, and trust exercises to develop a sense of discipline, fun, and spontaneity at the same time

(Oddey, 1996, 171).

As our performance is really starting to take shape, we are learning about each other as performers. As earlier on in the process we were interested in the idea of circuses, we have tried many exercises to start to develop our characters. One of the techniques we tried was embodying an animal, and moving around the room like this. We then further developed this idea by all of us becoming circus monkeys, and passing the video camera around between us. “The process of setting up improvisations in the creative development does not draw on Stanislavskian ideas of character and motivation, but centres on formal tasks and interactions between performers” (Heddon and Milling, 2006, 168).

In a previous blog post you can see my make-up ideas, which involve a handprint on the face. We have now developed this, and have chosen to integrate this within the piece and use this as a ritual at the beginning of the performance. The Woman places a single handprint on our faces to symbolise us committing to the madness of The Man’s inner psyche.

CHARACTERISATION

SCENE BY SCENE

AWAKENING PART ONE 

• Regimented
• Creepy

This scene was choreographed by Kerrie, and as The Creatures in this scene we are regimented in the beginning, this is an indicator into The Man’s life, as we had decided as an ensemble that he may have previously been in the Army.

AWAKENING PART TWO 

• Happy
• Over dramatic
• Big smiles

My characterisation for this scene was influenced by Forced Entertainments First Night (2001), as in their performance they use creepy smiling faces throughout, even when talking about issues that are not happy subjects.

First Night (2001)                                                                                                                                                                           (Real Time, 2004)

Devised performance [is] an opportunity for the actors to create new rituals

(Heddon and Milling, 2006, 48).

In our performance we have many motifs/rituals, which follow through to different scenes. One of these being our smiling faces, in which we use throughout the performance. This scene was also influenced by a Saturday Night Live Sketch called Great Day.

Attached is the video of the sketch, in which you can see that everything is going wrong for the man, yet he still has a massive smile on his face and ignores the problems that arise, which is what we do within this scene.

MEMORY

• Sneaky
• Eclectic

For some of this scene I take on the role of The Man, yet still as a Creature. For this scene I was able to reflect on my own experience of speaking to a councillor to portray speaking to a therapist. This scene is rather difficult as a performer, as I was playing The Man but I was a Creature, messing with The Man’s memory.

 SADISM

• Cheesy
• Crazy

For this scene I have taken inspiration from watching videos of ring girls at boxing matches. I am someone who is trying to boost the audience, while holding up signs saying: LAUGH NOW, APPLAUSE and AWW. With this I still play with dark comedy throughout the scene.

Works Cited:

Graham, S., and Hoggett, S. (2009) The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre. Abington, Oxon: Routledge.

Heddon, D., and Milling, J. (2006) Devising Performance a critical history. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Oddey, A. (1996) Devising Theatre a Practical and Theoretical Handbook. London: Routledge.

Real Time (2004) First Night [image]. Available from http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue59/7335 [accessed 27 April 2017].

Saturday Night Live (2013) SNL Digital Short: Great Day – Saturday Night Live. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNgZJrdTCug [accessed 12 May 2017].

We have now started to immerse ourselves into our roles that each of us has taken on within the theatre company, learning about them and putting them into practice. My primary role in Rubbish Theatre is a performer, with my secondary role being the hair and make-up stylist.

PERFORMER

 Acting is the art of performing in theatre, especially using the actor’s voice and body

(Allain and Harvie, 2006, 127).

As Rubbish Theatre we are very focused on each of us working equally together to make a collaborative performance. “Company structure, roles or responsibilities within the group, and the use of a variety of processes all contribute to the making of the devised product” (Oddey, 1996, 73). Our performance relies heavily on ensemble work, as a theatre company we wanted to ensure each of us is a performer in our debut show If An Orchid Was All You Had. We have two protagonists that form the through-line to our piece. We have chosen not to name them, and we refer to them as ‘The Man’ and ‘The Woman’. The rest of the ensemble we have named ‘The Creatures’. The Man is on a bike throughout the performance, to represent the cyclic motion of life. He gets off of the bike five times to form the interludes to our piece. This allows for the audience to build a relationship with The Man. It is the interludes where you see The Man’s obsession and relationship with the orchid, while each of the scenes are extensions of his inner psyche represented by The Creatures on stage.

As performers, we have developed our characterisation of The Creatures, which was done by using different rehearsal techniques to inspire us. We were influenced by Jacques Lecoq’s methods of training “Lecoq has influenced many artists specializing [sic] in comic and physically exaggerated styles of performance” (Allain and Harvie, 2006, 50). This was to help us develop as performers, and believe our roles as The Creatures. “”great deceivers” are so entrancing as performers that they convince themselves of the truth of what they perform” (Schechner, 2013, 215).

HAIR AND MAKE-UP

As the hair and make-up stylist for the theatre company, I wanted to ensure that my ideas matched the aesthetic of the set and costume. The costume designer, Aiden Clark has been working very closely with the set designer James Crawford enabling us all to collaborate with our ideas on the visual that we want to achieve. The costume and set focuses on our dystopian world, in which I wanted to carry through into the hair and make-up. Below are a number of the ideas I have:

The Hand Print

Each of The Creatures would have an individual hand print on their face – this would represent:

• We are all the same
• We are in The Man’s mind
• We are controlled

James has chosen to have aluminous colours within the set, and glow in the dark paint, with this I want the make-up to be reflective of that and will choose a colour that also can be seen aluminous.

The Woman

I also want The Woman’s make-up to be aluminous, but it needs to be separate from The Creatures. My ideas are:

• Two opposing colours – this is to represent pain and pleasure
• Mask like
• Beautiful and powerful

Works Cited

Allain, P., and Harvie, J. (2006) The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance. Abington, Oxon: Routledge.

Oddey, A. (1996) Devising Theatre a Practical and Theoretical Handbook. London: Routledge.

Schechner, R. (2013) Performance Studies: An Introduction, 3^rd edition. Abington, Oxon: Routledge.

Michael Pinchbeck invited us to go and view some Master graduate students artwork. Their work was all about process. We were able to see their starting points and their process into their final product. This was an eye-opener for me, as I could see how something can be formed from nothing. The famous quote by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” (Hungerford, 1878). This was completely true for the artists work, you could how they saw something from the normal items and created something beautiful. One of the artists had formed a beautiful painting out of wood chippings; it startled me at how something so simple could create something so lovely. The picture below is an image I took at the art exhibition of the start and finish of the process for one of the artists:

Credit: Emily Brunt

Seeing these pieces art allowed me to open up my imagination into what we as a Theatre Company could create. It also made me aware that not everything needs to be complicated, and how simplicity can be just as effective.

Works Cited:

Hungerford, M.W. (1878) Molly Bawn. Britain: Bernhard Tauchnitz.