Transformers
I
was very pleased that I was put in to the Murder Mystery performance because
it’s something that we have touched upon but wanted to expand our ideas and
this was the perfect opportunity to do so. We had a very good production team
to work with they were excellent at communicating with us throughout the event
and took our ideas on board from day one and so did we. On the second day of
the event we had to quickly decide who the murderer was so in the morning each
actor came up with a character personality, backstory and actions behind if we
did or did not kill the victim. In the same afternoon we met back up with the
production team to do a hot seating of all of our characters for them to
determine which of us could have killed the murder victim and which was easiest
for the audience to get.
Everything
we did was fast paced to keep within the time scale so once they had decided on
the murderer they wanted to use voiceovers in the performance. We did this in a
quite studio classroom where we all had the chance to become the detective’s voice,
(who was never going to be seen, only heard) which was going to be distorted. Within
the piece each character was going to interact with one another, mine was an
argument with the Butler accusing me of stealing jewelry and the other was Nancy
and Charles forging a will, which is later found in the bookcase.
The
performance was going to be consisted of the audience answering the ringing
phone (which was outside the performance area) where they were going to be told
by the head detective that they were detectives and their job was to gather
evidence into who murdered Malcolm Herald and for them to talk to whoever was
in the area. Once within the space, us four characters were already gathered
around the chalk outline of the victim with the room filled with smoke and dark
red to blue lighting, each of us said a line and departed into our separate areas.
The audience were then allowed to communicate with us while each clue and voice
over was lit up for the audience to examine the area. To show the audience that
the time was up the clocks chimed which allowed us as actors to get into the
line up where the detective would ask the audience who they thought killed
Malcolm. They were given time to choose, if they got it correct the Butler
would come forward and confess to the murder, if wrong the detective would tell
them they got it incorrect and asked the Butler to confess to his actions.
Our
group were all nice and friendly to work with throughout the transformers
project. Although I remember being worried that the audience weren’t going to
converse with us which is why we came up with a continuous movement of three
points, one showing a clue, one interacting with another character and one by
showing what we do around the house. Myself started at the ironing board then
talked to the Butler and finished it by showing remorse for my ex husband around
the chalk outline. This was a good idea because we didn’t know how interactive
the audience was going to be, so even if they didn’t talk to us our characters
would be still moving around the performance area rather than being stuck in
one place. I am very pleased with the way the show was set up and performed, the
audience were great at asking questions and because we did the hot seating at
the start we all had ideas on how to answer each question. I liked immersing
and interacting with the audience as they kept you on your toes and watching
them watching you make every move kept them wondering if what you did had a
under lying meaning which made them conjure up strange and sometimes rather
believable motives for each character, I hope to do something like this again.
Endgame
We
started off this project by reading the script in groups, at first I couldn’t
understand what was going on, I knew that there were four characters but I
didn’t see it clearly that Hamm couldn’t stand up or see and that Nagg and Nell
had no legs. The only thing I could get from reading the first section of the
script was that Clov was the only one that could move around the space. As we
came back as a group and done some research only then I could see what the
characters were saying and what the play was about. We did an exercise where
two people kept the same distance but couldn’t get to one another this created
and was called sate of tension, if one walked forward the other would walk back
– like a magnet. We also learned about grids and how long can you stay doing
one thing before it gets tedious this was a good introduction because three
characters don’t move in the play so we wanted to come up with a way of making
it more interesting to look at. Clov for example could only walk in grids around
Hamm, to the windows and back.
There
are so many different versions of the play but theme’s were a massive starting
point of us as a group, language and communication Hamm
controls everyone in the play, he bosses Clov around and silences his parents
Nagg and Nell. He has an angry tone to his voice and with most things he says,
which we can see due to the exclamation marks, full stops and pauses. Even
though he cannot see, the way he speaks tells the audience and other characters
what exactly he wants or needs. Clov and Hamm’s conversations are generally to
keep them all entertained (alive), to keep their spirits up and to give some
hope, which is the case for Nagg and Nell. Hamm’s parents hardly ever talk to
him or Clov because they are always told to shut up. Nagg try's to converse
with Nell about giving her a kiss and a biscuit which I believe that is what
keeps him going but Nell knows that there is almost no hope, even though she
try's to keep the peace amongst everyone she's the only one in the play who
fully gives up. As well as the other themes of suffering, religion, persistence
and life and death to name a few.
We had a very short time to develop our ideas to
come up with a show so we quickly had to cut down the script and decipher who
was going to be who. Even though there were four characters in the play we
decided as a group that the others were going to be either physical theatre,
director or set/lighting/sound designers. I was given the chance to play Nell
and I was so happy that I could experiment with her and create someone that I
haven’t done before. My colleague and I thought that even though that our
characters may be old we wanted to be young at heart. We played around with old
characters with their voice, style and movement but we soon realized that the
voice that suited both of our characters was a posh, clear diction with
changing pitches depending on what we were saying. This was mimicked by their
upper body movement which was elaborate and over exaggerated as she spoke with
their arms and facial expressions. We both sat with our legs crossed on a
diagonal so that we unable to see each other and too far to touch each other.
The biscuit he talks about symbolizes hope, he keeps offering and when Nell
does want one she’s already given up on the hope. Just before she dies Nagg and
Nell have a dream sequence showing the audience how they were and want to be
with hopes, dreams, movement and being together forever. This is acted out with
the chorus in a form of dance while Nagg and Nell are being moved by air with
the scarves from a member of the physical theatre group. Once the dream is over
she’s slumps back down and doesn’t wake up, Nagg then realizes that she’s no
longer here.
Once decided we played around with ideas and came
up with a good solid base, the set was going to be simple with two rostures
which were going to be placed at the back of the stage were Nagg and Nell were
going to sit to play with levels. Around the performance area there was drawings
of clocks, chess pieces, windows, word phrases and pieces of the script dotted
around so there was something to look at and to show all the themes in one
place as well as in the performance. To emphasize the theme of life and death
the designers chose to replicate that with lighting, by using birdies to light
up certain areas while most of the set was in darkness of shadows, which were
projected onto the walls of the set. Sound was played and controlled though a
laptop via speakers and the director.
Time was going quickly and we were pushed to our
limits, one of the makeup team was going to age just Nagg and Nell, our teeth
looked rotted, broken, deep lines in our forehead and sucked in cheekbones to
make us look gaunt while looking extremely pail which would all stand out in
the lighting. I was put to the task of doing a poster, which I did complete but
because it was only two performances, which were already booked we decided not
to print them.
Overall I am very happy with the performances we gave
and developed in such a short amount of time. I loved playing around with
Nell’s character I believe that she suited my personality and I suited hers and
I would like to re-visit her again to transform and create another dimension of
her character. The set fitted perfectly because all the focus was on the actors
rather than costumes or elaborate screens and set pieces. The idea of none of us coming off and on stage
was a great idea, we were all on set from the moment the audience walked in to
the moment they walked out, I hope to use this idea again in another show.
No comments:
Post a Comment