Media

I'm in a video that has recently surfaced as an advert for the media course at the college I taught at.

Crucially, I didn't didn't teach media, but the video features footage of the actors and dancers as well. I can be seen silently directing the cast of The Cherry Orchard with bigger gestures than I remember, while some of the cast of the The Undiscovered shot a scene which would be played into their show.

The Cherry Orchard & The Undiscovered Feedback

I've been reading and marking various evaluations of the two shows, which I won't trouble you with, but it's nice to get a bit of feedback.

Siobhan Dunne, the Deputy Head Of HRC's Creative Arts and Industries Department wrote this about The Cherry Orchard:

"This week has been a hot and hectic start to the CAI-Brox End of Year Shows. On Tuesday we saw an engrossing production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard under the thoughtful guidance of our guest Theatre Director David Williams. A lyrical adaptation of this Russian Classic which made exacting demands on our Year 1 level 3 Performing Arts student actors. This 1904 play tackled the difficult issues of living in a time of transformation and the inevitability of change."

and then this about The Undiscovered:

"Last week the year 2 drama also performed their devised show which conjured up ghosts in theatre and a battle between the living and the dead over the "Scottish Play". Thanks to David Williams our guest director for all his hard work this term – we hope to be able to invite him back again."

Which was nice.

The Undiscovered Yesterday

The last two performances of The Undiscovered were yesterday. I was reluctant to reveal the content of the show in my first post about it, but now the show has taken place I can go into a bit more detail.

The cast initially came up with two ideas: the first concerned a group of actors locked in a haunted theatre, while the second was a murder mystery. The two ideas became entwined. Over the first month of rehearsals, the cast divided themselves into actors and ghosts. I won't give away whodunnit, but three of the actors shuffle off this mortal coil over the course of the play and become ghosts.

The devising process took its toll on the cast and there was a distinct lack of confidence in their material when they performed a version of the show-so-far for a hand picked audience in the fifth week of rehearsals. Some used this opportunity to realise the elements they needed to complete the play and some made excuses. Rehearsal attendance has suffered and those who have been more committed have done a good job. The cast were also been assigned production roles for various off stage elements. I was hoping this would make some of them realise how much work still needed to be done. It didn't really work.

The fifth week saw us hotseating the characters that the cast had come up with. Easily my favourite question asked was "How old are you, and why?"

The sixth week was spent running the scenes we had and identifying what was missing. The group scenes were tough going sometimes, but they started to come together.

I spent much of week seven with the first years working on The Cherry Orchard and it seemed as though the cast had spent most of the time arguing, but when I rejoined the second years they had changed several scenes. They also added performances of the songs 'Well, Did You Evah' and 'It's Oh So Quiet'. We had a run of the show and I gave some notes. The eighth week was once-again shortened by bank holidays, but thankfully many of the cast came in to rehearse in their own time.

This is week nine: performance week. For reasons too dull to go into the second year show had three performances and two of those were matinees. After a run-through which was intended to be the dress rehearsal, the cast impressed me by deciding to undertake another before the first performance.

Wednesday's matinee turned out to be a raucous event. The addition of an audience saw the cast play the comedy scenes far more broadly and the students laughed so loudly that it began to affect other scenes. In particular, one of the three death scenes took on comedic connotations that previously weren't there and this disappointed many of the cast. The Thursday matinee and evening shows were a little more sedate and felt very different as a result.

The end result is that the second year class has finished their course with a quirky, energetic and entertaining theatre piece of their own creation.

Devising The Undiscovered

The second years are busy devising their own show. I've tagged this post as directing, but I'm really more of a facilitator for their ideas. The group have come up with some fantastic ideas, but convincing them that they are ideas worth keeping is the hardest part of the job so far.

The first week we talked through the initial ideas that the group had and improvised around them. We got into a routine of working on things in smaller groups, showing scenes to the rest of the group and making obervations of how they could be improved.

Many of the cast came prepared for the second week with ideas, scripts and we had a great flurry of activity. A narrative had begun to present itself which was fantastic, but there was a danger that it would limit the creativity of the group.

For the third week I split the cast up into pairs and smaller groups, none of whom would normally work together. This proved fruitful and the scenes that cam out of these improvisations are some of the most interesting. The narrative developed into a running order and the cast were getting very good at deciding what best fitted where and what their characters ought to know and when.

The fourth week was curtailed by losing the Bank Holiday Monday and getting the cast back into a working frame of mind. They are filming some elements today. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

I haven't quite been sworn to secrecy, but I'm loathe to reveal too much about someone else's story. Especially while things could still change. The cast have written and improvised various scenes. There is a possibility that they are incorporating songs and dance routines.

The cast have come up with a name for their play...The Undiscovered. I like it. It doesn't reveal too much, but it does give the audience a flavour of what to expect. I thought that naming the play would be more of a problem, but they all agreed quite readily.

D Is For...Directing

The fourth post for the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge, D Is For... Directing:

I recently accepted a job working for a term at a local college of further education on their BTEC Performing Arts course and will be directing two shows. I have directed bits and pieces in the past: Caryl Churchill's Far Away whilst at university, a piece that I wrote called Four Doors Down during the Bike Shed Festival, a version of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter with the second year students at this very college and I have assisted other people with several productions over the years.

The second year class will be devising their own theatre piece, while the first year class will be performing a play text.

This is the first time that I have had to choose a play for others to perform in this manner. It wasn't a blank slate, it never is, but having to choose a play that serves a cast of sixteen, can possibly incorporate songs, but isn't a musical and is suitable for students. After reading several plays, I would get so far in to a play I liked and then face a wall of impenetrable Russian, Jacobean verse or swearing that proved unsuitable for the age group.

After much deliberation I have decided that the first years will be performing The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.

I'll keep you posted on our progress...