Notes from production meetings

12th March 2015

• Masks
  -Everyone to make their own masks.
  -These are to be made as soon as possible.
• Physicality
  -need to rehearse in this position all the time.
  -need at least 3-4 weeks conditioning otherwise it will hurt.
  -Ensure you have put characterisation and physicality in the rehearsal schedule.
• Set
  -Keeping the set that is already in place.
  -Will cover the crash mat with black sheet.
  -Hide the trampette behind something.
• Slapstick
  -could be used to escalate argument?
• Costumes
  -If it impacts on how you perform you need to be rehearsing in this ASAP.
• Music
  -If it's needed it needs to be given to Daniel ASAP in MP3 format.
• Lighting
  -What type is wanted? Theatrical?
  Lighting up the stage looks historically accurate.

19th March 2015

• Set - Complete 17.3.15
• Cross sourced - complete
• Deadline for masks - ASAP
  -Watch videos on Facebook
• Costume/props
  -Need to brought in for rehearsals if it effects performance

26th March 2015

• 5 weeks of rehearsal left - Performance 19th May 2015
• Need to sort out if you are in any other groups performance or if anyone is in yours
  -what is needed?
  -costumes / props
• Write 3/4 lines of self assessment of where you are up to at this point.
• Next week need to work on 2 crowd scenes.
• Andrew's workshop on Monday morning.
• No longer doing Lazarus scene.
• Mask still needs making.
• The set is definitely staying the same for all scenes!
• Is blocking done?
• After Easter - NO scripts on stage (for longer speeches this will be extended)
• Update deadline and rehearsal schedules.

2nd April 2015

• Record in your blog that you have checked your progress against your rehearsal and task list. If needed you can extend your deadlines. You just need to explain the reason why you have had to extend the deadline.
• Set yourself targets for over Easter for anything that you still have to do, make or get hold of.
• Your mask must be ready for when you return after Easter!!
• If you have any props in your scene these also need to be ready for after Easter. 
• Costumes aren't as important as the masks and props but if they affect how you perform they need to be ready for after Easter.
• Come in over Easter break for rehearsals - Tuesday 7th April 2015.
• Have a think about how the different scenes are going to be linked.
  -This can be through cheap slapstick gags - these don't have to be linked to the scene.
  -Can just be a 30 second additional sketch.
• Pre-show in the foyer- this will be improvised but need to decide what characters are going to be doing 

23rd April 2015

• 4 weeks left to production!
• 3 weeks of rehearsals!
• 2 weeks on Tuesday full rehearsal with all the masks.
• In your groups work out the transitions, ready for Mondays and Tuesdays lessons.
• Your Journal must outline your progress made on the tasks, in order to achieve full marks.
• Make sure your know your lines!!!
• All props must be ready!!!
• Monday morning Centre Stage 9-12 noon. Don't be late!

30th April 2015

• Full rehearsal Tuesday 5th May in the afternoon session
• Figure out the scenes which have not been rehearsed.
• Work out the transitions. Use slapstick and comedy between scenes to inject momentum.
• Practice time slots for each scene.
• Monday 11th May, to do full tech- with masks, costumes and props.
• To discuss all details as a group.

12th May 2015

In your Journal:

• Research themes in the text
• Rehearsal reviews after each session or weekly basis
• Record your progress in each session

Responses to feedback must NOT be only one sentence, it needs more detail to analyse and reflect.

Hand in date for coursework 4th June.

Next week: Special entry in your journal. A detailed entry that involves more than one full dress rehearsal information.

• Draw up a checklist for the Show day
• Draw up a checklist for the whole of next week

On the evening of the performance

Produce a checklist for Health & safety, stage building correctly, the correct safety for crash mats, the prop table, the masks and the costumes.

All of the above are performance day etiquette.

Get in - go in and start

Get out - clean and tidy up

Do a physical warm up before the show, your limbs and your vocal chords too.

Project Proposal

For the FMP our objective is to create a piece of theatre in the style of commedia dell'arte using the text from the play Mistero Buffo as a stimulus. An important part of the process will be improvisation and experimentation. We will also be using styles of physical theatre practitioners such as Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Jacques Lecoq, Pina Bausch and Steven Berkoff in particular during the process of producing this.

Throughout the rehearsal process we will be running workshops ourselves to work on various themes of the performance.

The performance is the week beginning the 18th of May, so we have about 11 weeks of rehearsal.

Tasks and Deadlines

Task	Date to be completed	Date completed	Comments and notes
Learn lines	26.03.15	07.04.15	The work we have been doing has been more in the area of the physicality and the blocking of the scene and less focus on the lines so I extended the deadline to 13.04.15.
Design a workshop	26.03.15	23.03.15	I will be using my completed workshop Monday 30.03.15.
Blocking	28.04.15	N/a	As we were improvising things right up to performance day. Blocking was never really finished as we dealt with it in a non-traditional way
Staging	28.04.15	16.03.15	We used a pre-constructed set from another performance and made slight alterations
Costume	05.05.15	12.05.15	The costume design was completed weeks earlier. Specific items were missing, which caused delays.
Props	05.05.15	19.05.15	Two or three props were missing right up to the last minute. We knew what we needed but sourcing them proved difficult than we originally anticipated.

Learning lines - learning both the spoken word and the intended meaning and feeling behind the lines. During this process members of our group will be running line learning workshops to aid us in the process as well as reading through them individually to learn them. Whereas in other performances it would be more important to have the lines completely dedicated to memory. The style of commedia dell'arte is improvised so the understanding of the meaning of the lines is more important than how the lines are said. The actual line themselves sometimes aren't perfect with it being a translation from Italian to English. Again, it is more important to get the meaning behind the lines right than the actual spoken word.

Blocking - We will be running through and experimenting with our scenes. We will see what works best and by the deadline we will set the chosen movements in concrete. However, with the slapstick and physical elements to the performance it will have to be decided on quite quickly so that we can ensure health and safety is followed to prevent injuries. Improvisation will still take place but not for the more complex parts to the performance. 

Staging - At this point we haven't decided on how to decide how to design the set. Whether we will have one big set design and everyone will use that in their scene or whether everyone will say what they need in their scene and we will design the set around that. 

Costume - Deciding on the costume first, after that we will have to locate and source costume pieces with enough time that we can still change our mind if they don't fit our intentions. 

Props - During the rehearsal and blocking process we will decide on what props are needed. We will source them by the deadline. 

Roles 
Ryan - Tech eg lighting and sound
Throughout the rehearsal process whenever a decision about lighting and sound is made, Ryan will make thorough notes about what we have decided we need. He will discuss these with the technicians to ensure that they understand what we need.
Adam - Props
Throughout the rehearsal process Adam will identify props that we will require and make sure that someone is able to obtain them. It will then be up to him to manage them so that he knows where they are kept for when we need them.
Dan - Digital note taker and document rehearsal process on film 
Dan will record important events during the rehearsal process and talk about them after the rehearsal on camera to help with the journal entries on the process. Having it on film means we are able to look back at the whole process on a digital format rather than having to remember it. It will also help for deciding what worked and what didn't as we can all look at it from the prospective of an audience member, so rather than deciding what we think works we can actually see what works. 
Andrew - Costume/camera operator
I will design several versions of potential costumes and discuss these costumes with the group. I will discuss with the members of the group what we have access to e.g. items of clothing that we can use and clothing I have that we can use as well as things that we may have to purchase. After sourcing the items I will then take care of the costumes to ensure that none of it is lost or misplaced. 
As well as costumes I will operate the camera whilst Dan is on camera or stage as it is my camera that we will be using. 

We will all be working together to ensure health and safety is adhered to during our rehearsals and performance. 

Potential Problems

Who is going to be Jesus in our scene? 
    We are considering various solutions including an empty cross and a projection of the scene of the crucifixion to having somebody stand in as Jesus dressed in plain white clothes. 
    
Sourcing and maneuvering of the cross in the scene.
    We could ask the caretakers if they could make us one alternatively we could contact a local Catholic high school such as St. Chads Roman Catholic Church of England Multi-Faith School. Having attended this school I know for certain that they have one. In all likelihood we will = probably have to make the cross ourselves using this website tutorial:   http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6777758_make-wooden-easter-cross.html . 
Making or sourcing of the mask.
    First we will probably look at online stores but assuming they will be out of our price range we will probably end up making the masks from scratch if it's not too hard. Alternatively we could buy blank pre-made masks and customising them to our desired result. 

These are not the only problems we will encounter but these are the ones that will pose the most difficulty. 

As costume manager I have been tracking down as many pieces of costumes that our group has agreed on. As a part of this I have been speaking to 2 acquaintances who each say that they could get their hands on some of the costume that I require. 

Performance day tasks

Tasks	Responsibility	Description	Complete
Construct/maintain set	All	Depending on whether the set is already constructed or not. We will either assemble or alter it	Was completed on time.
Safety check to make sure set and floor space	Daniel	Examining the set for weak points & secure them firmly. Removing any trip hazards	Was completed on time.
Prop management	Adam	In charge of maintaining props table	Was completed on time.
Costume management	Andrew	In charge of maintaining costumes	Was completed on time.
Space management	Lofty	Remove any non- piece related items from stage	Was completed on time.