Week 23: TIE (Storms)

Last rehearsal before performance

We used this week to focus on the SToRMS T.I.E in order to get it as fluid as possible and performance ready because we had our performance the following Friday. We wanted to do as many run-throughs as possible both cue runs and full runs in order for us to feel confident and prepared for the performance. We wanted to get as much feedback as possible from our teacher so that we had the best performance that the audience would gain the most advantage from. One of the run-throughs, we found that we could emphasise the fact that we have fake penises and use it to our advantage so we wanted to go out in front of the audience and actually show them what we have to make them feel uncomfortable. We found that we could do it in a Berkoff style so using the extreme facial expressions to emphasise the fact that we are all females and we are talking to an all male audience. This also added to the comedic elements of the piece but the fact that we were being so serious about it meant that that also added to the comedy.

http://youtu.be/eaUhkcPPA0M

The piece was around 40 minutes long and that was without the interactive group section at the end which we thought was enough time for the audience to grasp the idea of what we wanted them to take from the piece.

The main feedback that we got from the run-throughs was:

• All of the earlier scenes - perfectly timed and the speed of the lines was slow enough for the audience to grasp what was going on in the scene.
• Start sequence - nice timing, allowed the atmosphere to be established and the tone of the piece to be set.
• More noise - need more noise when we are doing the crossover transition where we are saying lines. The atmosphere needs to be kept up so that they are constantly being interested in the piece in order for them to both understand what is going on and to gain the most out of the performance.
• Centre the scenes - Because of the new audience seating arrangement, we are so used to being further to one side than the other and so we needed to realign the scenes so that they were central and the whole audience were involved in the scene.
• Asides - Need to be shared with all sides of the audience so that they all felt like they can understand what is going on and understand the information that the asides are sharing with them because that's the whole purpose of the sides - to add extra information to the scene.
• Pace - the overall pace of the piece was very sustained and allowed the piece to have a calmer atmosphere so that the audience were more inclined to listen to what we were saying and therefore understand it more.
• Line pick ups- need to be slightly quicker during the societal pressures on boys section as this is a quicker pace section where the audience's attention needs to be verbally taken through what each little scene is so that they understand.
• Facilitator tone - The tone of the facilitators was good and accurate so that the audience were getting the information that they need in a tone that was easy to listen to and easy for them to take in.
• More irritated thank yous - When Caitlin is getting annoyed with Imogen, we wanted the thank yous to get more irritated to add to the joke and comedic timing of the lines.
• Family scene - needs to be brought further forward on the stage so that the audience feel more connect and immersed in the scene. But we also need to make sure that when we bring it forward, we don't close the scene from the audience on the outside. We need to involve the whole audience and not just those at the front and centre.
• Define the asides - For the maximum effect of the asides, there needs to be a juxtaposing atmosphere change to make them more defined and stand out more. One of the ones that need to be changed is the aside that is done by the school teacher in the school scene as we need it to be giving the audience the right message and the atmosphere helps set that up.
• Murmuring - We need to have continuous murmuring in the background of when the thoughts are building up on John as it adds to the atmosphere and when we go past John in the crossover scene, the lines that are being singled out at that point need to be shouted over the top which also adds to the tension that is building reflecting the breaking point that John is at.
• No props- At the start of the rehearsal process, we started using props like a cup and bottle in the scene but in particular when John "throws" the bottle, we found that there was the sound of the bottle bouncing along the floor whilst Hannah was trying to carry on her John lines which was taking the focus away from the lines that were being said.
• Caitlin's narrator tone - As the piece goes on, we wanted the narrator's tone to reflect the status that we had given them at the start of the piece as the leaders of the performance and so their tone, towards the middle and end of the piece, needed to be more formal. And then when we go into the smaller groups that is when they are able to use a slightly less formal approach.
• Corridor scene - volume needs to be louder to reflect the atmosphere of the school
• Barriers to Communication facilitation - doesn't make sense as the lines that are said are repeated and so we need to add in the line "John may think that he's communicating clearly," so that the audience can understand that John is communicating but perhaps not in a way that is clear enough for Holly to understand what he is trying to say.
• Context for the friends scene - If we add in some context then it might make more sense for the audience to understand the timeline that we are using and so we want to add in the line "Earlier in the evening."
• Echoing lines - There was a line that was repeated that we needed to change so that the audience didn't get confused about what was going on and so after the small scene where we fake what John's friends would look like when he tries to talk to them about his feelings, we got the facilitator to say "that looks ridiculous" instead of repeating the same line of " nothing like this would ever happen."
• Reflective listening - We originally had a version of the reflective listening on a slide on the powerpoint but after considering it we found that it wasn't as helpful as we thought and it was also a distraction from the subjects that we would be talking about it in our groups.