Week 9: Director's Challenge

Run-throughs and lighting ideas

Run-throughs in Rehearsal

In the previous rehearsal we had managed to do a whole run through of the piece and so we decided that every week from now on we should aim to do at least 1 full run through in the rehearsal so that the cast get used to the length of the piece and it also gives us a good chance to check up on the cast's line learning. At this point, we made sure to specific that at this juncture, we have completed the blocking of the whole piece and we are now moving onto refining it all which means that in order for us to do this, line learning is key. We needed the cast to know that it is now up to them to remember their lines as we are getting closer to what it will actually be like onstage and we also wanted them to realise that what they have achieved at this point is really good. Throughout the run through, we found that all of the cast, were beginning to understand why we had asked them to not move unless choreographed as this would attract the audience's attention and Etchells wanted to see how long they could last just watching without anything happening. We started to see the cast truly understanding this as we got comments about actions that attract an audience's attention more like uncrossing your legs or simply just standing. In our plan, we wanted the cast, at this point, to be asking questions about why we are doing this. It is a pretty hard concept to grasp as the play is nothing that anyone has done before in our school environment and so we expected them asking a lot of question but in reality they are actually understanding it and it is starting to show through the run throughs that we are doing.

Lighting experimenting after rehearsal

After the rehearsal, me and Alexis decide to experiment with some lights. We wanted to see how different filters looked onstage and also if we got certain people to stand in the light, we wanted to see where their shadows ended and how we could create some interesting shapes with the shadows. 

I like the effect of the shadows on the wall from the white circular light as we could have this at the start when Peter is turning on all of the lights and I think that the audience would find it quite interesting to watch his shadow move around whilst he's putting on more lights. If we were to use this light I think that we would have to fade it out almost immediately once there were more lights on as it's quite concentrated and when there are more people on stage, we want the audience to be looking at them as a whole not just individuals.

I really like the overlapping shadows that these two lights create as we can say that the different colours show the different people yet when their shadows overlap it shows that they are talking about the same subject and it is both affecting them.

I like the contrast that these two lights create and the shadows that are created, as you can clearly see James' shadow yet if the audience were behind Harry his shadow would be on them. I think that if we use a variety of different filters on the lights then we can make the semiotics reflect the amount of different topics that we address throughout the piece and the severity of them.

I think that we could definitely use the orange colours when regarding the light-hearted subjects such as names and the smaller topics that don't seem very important as the semiotics can reflect the topics that the cast are addressing as they seem quite simple and then when they moved onto more serious topics such as the scientific explanations and death then we can change the lighting to the green in the picture above it as they juxtapose and can create a bigger contrast to show the audience that the topic has now changed.

We could use the circular spotlight when regarding the different people's fears so that they are isolated from the rest but when we rehearse it without lights I think that it looks more effective, not knowing who the cast are talking about and if we introduce the circular light, it may take away the mystery of who the lines are about.

We liked the shadows that this one created with red in the middle and then the blue light shining from behind making their shadows look into the red light. We thought that this could be used for a simple movement that could be emphasised with the lights.