Despite the many obstacles we came across during this last few months, and especially the last week, we had successful performances. I've got many good feedback from the audience.
Here is a video of my reflection:
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Thoroughly Modern Millie: Last Rehearsals
It was the performance week (on the 23rd of November) and the time started running quickly. Problems were solved and created at the same time. One that affected me the most was the fact that the sound technician was not in the country. So I had to take over the sound effects and control the microphones. The sound effects gave me a little bit of difficulty at first but I got used to it quickly, as I knew the script thoroughly.
What was more complicated was controlling the sound with the sound-board. Genki Unno helped me with the technical part but it was mostly practice. I also wanted the songs to blend in smoothly with the dialogue, so I constantly changed the volume of the microphones. However I felt more at ease when I was responsible for everything (regarding sound). There was one time during rehearsal that the actor came on with the microphone muted and there was nothing I could do about it. So Genki and I fixed this problem by turning them on and taping the switch button so no one touches it.
Here are some things I've learned about the sound board
These are the sliders that adjust volume for the microphones.
These are the sliders that adjust the master volume (for the speakers).
The top row is what adjusts the "GAIN." The gain is how much sound is picked up.
There must be a balance between the gain and the volume. If the volume is too loud, then feedback will be picked up and there will be a "howl." If there is too much gain, then unwanted sound (in other words, noise) will be picked up. This balance greatly for each voice.
Other than my adventure with sound, the set was also finished. I helped painting some parts and putting up the wallpaper.
Here are some pictures:
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Sara did most of the design (such as the sincere trust insurance company billboard (figure 1) along with the billy ball and the bees-knees poster (figure 1), the speakeasy hidden door (figure 6)), but I helped with painting the bricks on the walls (figure 1 and 4). On Figure 4, we thought that it might look weird if the speakeasy wall just started from there, so I decided to blend it in with the hotel by painting some bricks on the grey area.
The crew and I also painted the flats grey before they went up. However Sara wasnt there on that day. We thought that she would paint over the whole thing (we were just priming it), so we were not really worried about having the same tone of grey for every flat. Then we decided to have the wallpaper only go up mid-way. However it did not look so bad since it gave the effect of a "cheap hotel."
Figure 2 and 3 are pictures of the hotel. The couch was lent by Maria's mom.
The counter in picture 3 was built by Mr. Meiklejohn, but Sara and I painted it. We tried to mix chinese and american 1920's designs. We thought that it would reflect what Mrs. Meers was, but also (since at that time, mixing different cultures was not so common) we thought it would show Mrs. Meers' lack of knowledge.
Figure 5 shows the whole backdrop and Figure 6 shows the whole set.
Overall, this set was amazing (seeing that we only had a limited time in doing this, and it was our first time in building such a big set). However, it could have been much better if we had started early. Especially with the painting. We only finished the set completely on the performing night.
What was more complicated was controlling the sound with the sound-board. Genki Unno helped me with the technical part but it was mostly practice. I also wanted the songs to blend in smoothly with the dialogue, so I constantly changed the volume of the microphones. However I felt more at ease when I was responsible for everything (regarding sound). There was one time during rehearsal that the actor came on with the microphone muted and there was nothing I could do about it. So Genki and I fixed this problem by turning them on and taping the switch button so no one touches it.
Here are some things I've learned about the sound board
These are the sliders that adjust volume for the microphones.
These are the sliders that adjust the master volume (for the speakers).
The top row is what adjusts the "GAIN." The gain is how much sound is picked up.
There must be a balance between the gain and the volume. If the volume is too loud, then feedback will be picked up and there will be a "howl." If there is too much gain, then unwanted sound (in other words, noise) will be picked up. This balance greatly for each voice.
Other than my adventure with sound, the set was also finished. I helped painting some parts and putting up the wallpaper.
Here are some pictures:
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Sara did most of the design (such as the sincere trust insurance company billboard (figure 1) along with the billy ball and the bees-knees poster (figure 1), the speakeasy hidden door (figure 6)), but I helped with painting the bricks on the walls (figure 1 and 4). On Figure 4, we thought that it might look weird if the speakeasy wall just started from there, so I decided to blend it in with the hotel by painting some bricks on the grey area.
The crew and I also painted the flats grey before they went up. However Sara wasnt there on that day. We thought that she would paint over the whole thing (we were just priming it), so we were not really worried about having the same tone of grey for every flat. Then we decided to have the wallpaper only go up mid-way. However it did not look so bad since it gave the effect of a "cheap hotel."
Figure 2 and 3 are pictures of the hotel. The couch was lent by Maria's mom.
The counter in picture 3 was built by Mr. Meiklejohn, but Sara and I painted it. We tried to mix chinese and american 1920's designs. We thought that it would reflect what Mrs. Meers was, but also (since at that time, mixing different cultures was not so common) we thought it would show Mrs. Meers' lack of knowledge.
Figure 5 shows the whole backdrop and Figure 6 shows the whole set.
Overall, this set was amazing (seeing that we only had a limited time in doing this, and it was our first time in building such a big set). However, it could have been much better if we had started early. Especially with the painting. We only finished the set completely on the performing night.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Thoroughly Modern Millie: Week 5
On Sunday, Sara, Mr. Meiklejohn and I have finally figured how to arrange the rostrums.
Here's a more simpler diagram:
When figuring this out, we needed to bear in mind some concepts:
1 - The audience's perspectives
2 - The area for the main section of the stage (there's going to be dancing so the actors need enough space for that).
3 - The area for the actors to move around on the elevated stage
4 - Area for backstage (The actors will have to be able to enter and exit freely and move around backstage swiftly).
Also, Mr. Meiklejohn had assigned me some musical numbers for me to block the movement for it. This coming Sunday, we will be working on Not for the Life of Me, Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life, They don't knowand What do I need with love?.
I have been listening to the music (from the cd sent by MTI) and trying to visualise how it could look onstage. This can be quite challenging as I do not know the full capacity of the actor. Since this is also a musical, I also have to know their voices as well. Sometimes there has to be some alterations due to the actor's voice. This will then affect the acting/movement for the scene.
This proves that the idea and visualisation is not enough and the director really needs to see it actually happen on stage. If it does not work, then an alternative has to be found.
To prepare and get some ideas, I've looked at some youtube videos and how the other schools/universities has approached this play. Here are two videos that I liked, especially the interpretation.
Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life:
The director had gone after a humorous effect here. When I first read/listened to the song, I felt that it was more of a romantic feeling to it.
What do I need with Love?
The contrast between the start of the song and the rest of the song is very clear in this interpretation.
Our stage has different levels so I could use that to my advantage and play with it (to compensate for not having the bars. Also, our stage has more of a connection with the audience. This helps a great deal since this song is Jimmy talking to the audience.
Soon, we will have to:
-start making the props we have to make
-start and finish collecting props
-Take out the flats and see what we can do with them
Here's a more simpler diagram:
When figuring this out, we needed to bear in mind some concepts:
1 - The audience's perspectives
2 - The area for the main section of the stage (there's going to be dancing so the actors need enough space for that).
3 - The area for the actors to move around on the elevated stage
4 - Area for backstage (The actors will have to be able to enter and exit freely and move around backstage swiftly).
Also, Mr. Meiklejohn had assigned me some musical numbers for me to block the movement for it. This coming Sunday, we will be working on Not for the Life of Me, Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life, They don't knowand What do I need with love?.
I have been listening to the music (from the cd sent by MTI) and trying to visualise how it could look onstage. This can be quite challenging as I do not know the full capacity of the actor. Since this is also a musical, I also have to know their voices as well. Sometimes there has to be some alterations due to the actor's voice. This will then affect the acting/movement for the scene.
This proves that the idea and visualisation is not enough and the director really needs to see it actually happen on stage. If it does not work, then an alternative has to be found.
To prepare and get some ideas, I've looked at some youtube videos and how the other schools/universities has approached this play. Here are two videos that I liked, especially the interpretation.
Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life:
The director had gone after a humorous effect here. When I first read/listened to the song, I felt that it was more of a romantic feeling to it.
What do I need with Love?
The contrast between the start of the song and the rest of the song is very clear in this interpretation.
Our stage has different levels so I could use that to my advantage and play with it (to compensate for not having the bars. Also, our stage has more of a connection with the audience. This helps a great deal since this song is Jimmy talking to the audience.
Soon, we will have to:
-start making the props we have to make
-start and finish collecting props
-Take out the flats and see what we can do with them
Monday, October 5, 2009
2009 Drama Festival
There has been a change since last year's drama festival; this year, no school takes anything with them. Everyone gathers, there are a few speeches and a quick warm up. After that, everyone just goes to their assigned workshop group. With our groups, we had to have a play ready to perform by 3:00.
I was in Kimberly Tierny's group. We started with some physical and vocal exercises just to quickly warm up. Then we jumped into brainstorming about the theme "dirt." We decided to work a bit on "dirt cheap" and do some improvisation exercises. Firstly, we went around (all at the same time) talking with other people, talking about anything they were wearing. This exercise was to help us think about anything and quickly, thus creating a story or a fact.
Then, with this idea, we did another improvisation exercise, where there were two people, one the model and the other the presenter. Basically, the presenter chooses what to model and says anything that comes to mind, even if it is bizarre. The model then has to listen and react to what the presenter says. If, for example, the presenter talks about the jacket, then a more exaggerated movement, showing the jacket, should be done.
From there, we moved into a discussion on a plot line for our play. We decided to go with dirt, as in earth. We then came to create a plot where two farmers are opposing each other and fighting for the cow. One farmer is rich and the other poor.
Once we had a basic outline of the plot, we then developed other character by just jumping right into improvisation. Once we had a few minutes of improv, Kimberly stopped us and asked each one of us what character we were, what our relationship was with the other characters and what the character wanted.
Although she did not mention it, I recognised this Stanislavski method. By having us answer in first person, it helped us develop more the character and thus become the character.
We then decided to devise another piece so that we have two to choose from. We used the method that David Ball presented, "But do it backwards." We started with the theme "dirty politics" or something along those lines. Then we started with the last scene, with a murder. Then we went "back in time" and saw the upcoming of the murder.
However, we made the plot too complicated. So complicated that even we, the actors, did not really understand it. So we decided to stay with the devised piece about the farm.
After lunch, we concentrated on refining the piece. We had difficulties in putting it together because the audience was in a round (all around the actors), we had to stage our play so that it was seen by everyone, and not neglecting half of our audience.
Some techniques we used to overcome this were speaking while facing outwards as if we were facing each other, created a scene where actors face many different directions and led the audience with words. To introduce our play, we each introduced ourselves with an introduction in 3rd person. For example, instead of me saying, "I am a 10 year old child, crying her eyes out," I said "The 10 year old child was crying her eyes out." Some how it gives more of a connection between the character and actor. If I had said it in first person, it would have a slight Brechtian element to it since it has a connotation of me saying "I am playing a role of a 1o year old child."
Overall, I found that this, out of all the drama festivals I have attended (3 years), was the best workshop day I have been to. We not only learnt techniques, theories and warm-ups (though Kimberly did not state it) we also got to know the other members from our group. Last year, I did attend and my workshop leader took us through improvisations however he split us into groups and we basically did only improvisations. Kimberly had taught us how to approach a theme (to devise a piece) with different methods, and how to develop our character etc.
Even though I had already learnt the theories of Stanislavski and David Ball, it was interesting to see their theories in practice.
I was in Kimberly Tierny's group. We started with some physical and vocal exercises just to quickly warm up. Then we jumped into brainstorming about the theme "dirt." We decided to work a bit on "dirt cheap" and do some improvisation exercises. Firstly, we went around (all at the same time) talking with other people, talking about anything they were wearing. This exercise was to help us think about anything and quickly, thus creating a story or a fact.
Then, with this idea, we did another improvisation exercise, where there were two people, one the model and the other the presenter. Basically, the presenter chooses what to model and says anything that comes to mind, even if it is bizarre. The model then has to listen and react to what the presenter says. If, for example, the presenter talks about the jacket, then a more exaggerated movement, showing the jacket, should be done.
From there, we moved into a discussion on a plot line for our play. We decided to go with dirt, as in earth. We then came to create a plot where two farmers are opposing each other and fighting for the cow. One farmer is rich and the other poor.
Once we had a basic outline of the plot, we then developed other character by just jumping right into improvisation. Once we had a few minutes of improv, Kimberly stopped us and asked each one of us what character we were, what our relationship was with the other characters and what the character wanted.
Although she did not mention it, I recognised this Stanislavski method. By having us answer in first person, it helped us develop more the character and thus become the character.
We then decided to devise another piece so that we have two to choose from. We used the method that David Ball presented, "But do it backwards." We started with the theme "dirty politics" or something along those lines. Then we started with the last scene, with a murder. Then we went "back in time" and saw the upcoming of the murder.
However, we made the plot too complicated. So complicated that even we, the actors, did not really understand it. So we decided to stay with the devised piece about the farm.
After lunch, we concentrated on refining the piece. We had difficulties in putting it together because the audience was in a round (all around the actors), we had to stage our play so that it was seen by everyone, and not neglecting half of our audience.
Some techniques we used to overcome this were speaking while facing outwards as if we were facing each other, created a scene where actors face many different directions and led the audience with words. To introduce our play, we each introduced ourselves with an introduction in 3rd person. For example, instead of me saying, "I am a 10 year old child, crying her eyes out," I said "The 10 year old child was crying her eyes out." Some how it gives more of a connection between the character and actor. If I had said it in first person, it would have a slight Brechtian element to it since it has a connotation of me saying "I am playing a role of a 1o year old child."
Overall, I found that this, out of all the drama festivals I have attended (3 years), was the best workshop day I have been to. We not only learnt techniques, theories and warm-ups (though Kimberly did not state it) we also got to know the other members from our group. Last year, I did attend and my workshop leader took us through improvisations however he split us into groups and we basically did only improvisations. Kimberly had taught us how to approach a theme (to devise a piece) with different methods, and how to develop our character etc.
Even though I had already learnt the theories of Stanislavski and David Ball, it was interesting to see their theories in practice.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thoroughly Modern Millie: Week 4
This past week, we have started to collect props and fabric. Mei had contacted the "Yokohama Theatre Group" asking whether we could see if there were any props in their prop-shed we could use. We went on Sunday and although we could not find suitcases or the candlestick phone we were trying to find, we did find four items that could be used as either set decoration or props (mainly personal props).
We also made modifications in the set design:
* Drawn by Sara Suzuki
The only thing we have to figure out now is the balcony where act 1 scene 11 and act 2 scene 2 takes place.
We also made modifications in the set design:
* Drawn by Sara Suzuki
The only thing we have to figure out now is the balcony where act 1 scene 11 and act 2 scene 2 takes place.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Thoroughly Modern Millie: Week 3
Rehearsals have been going smoothly (although it could have been better, it was a good start) and so far, I've attended rehearsals, took notes and made the register, gathered personnel to help with the jobs done behind the scenes.
Our class has decided on the portfolio heads:
Andrea - Assistant Director
Mei - Lighting and Sounds Head
Maria- Make-up Head
Sofia - Costumes Head
Sara - Props and Set Head
Portfolio head just means that if there is something wrong, we go to the responsible.
For example, today, Sofia came to us to say that we did not design costumes for the minor roles and so she assigned some character to each person again.
Here are the characters in which I drew the costumes for:
-Rodney
-Kenneth
-Daphne
-Dexter
-Ms. Flannery
-The Pearl Lady
By the end of this week, we had to also calculate the Budget Projection.
For this, we have to put into consideration the costumes, make-up, set construction, props and also how many audiences will come. This is to see how much we will profit from it and how much we will lose.
Our class has decided on the portfolio heads:
Andrea - Assistant Director
Mei - Lighting and Sounds Head
Maria- Make-up Head
Sofia - Costumes Head
Sara - Props and Set Head
Portfolio head just means that if there is something wrong, we go to the responsible.
For example, today, Sofia came to us to say that we did not design costumes for the minor roles and so she assigned some character to each person again.
Here are the characters in which I drew the costumes for:
-Rodney
-Kenneth
-Daphne
-Dexter
-Ms. Flannery
-The Pearl Lady
By the end of this week, we had to also calculate the Budget Projection.
For this, we have to put into consideration the costumes, make-up, set construction, props and also how many audiences will come. This is to see how much we will profit from it and how much we will lose.
Thoroughly Modern Millie: Week 2
Already into week 2, we have discussed about costumes, props etc. For costumes, we designed the costumes for the main roles and the minor roles as well. However before this, we did some research on 1920's fashion. I found a good site that shows the types of outfits they wore in each year.
http://www.fashion-era.com/C20th_costume_history/1922_silhouettes_1.htm
Using this as a base, we discussed and exchanged ideas, and then assigned each person (who is doing costuming) a character or two. I was in charge of designing Millie's costume and Mrs Meers' costume.
Millie:
Millie has a total of 5 outfits.
- beginning where she is not a modern yet (1.1)
- Beginning where she turns into a modern (1.1)
- Muzzy's party (1.9)
- Scene where she tries to seduce her boss (2.1)
- When she goes on her date with Jimmy (2.4)
Mrs. Meers:
Although Mrs. Meers is the antagonist, we decided to have her wear only one outfit since she does not come out that much.
However there is one scene where she comes out in the middle of the night to attend to Muzzy. I thought that a night gown on top of her dress would do.
This week, we also decided on our portfolio. I am going to do Assistant Directing as my major and Costuming as my Minor.
As an assistant director, I have to:
- Attend rehearsals.
- Take note of blocking, staging, problems etc.
- organise paper work (such as registers, lists etc)
- Take actors through rehearsals when the Director is not there.
- Assist the director in any way.
This is kind of similar to Robin Hood, however in that play, I was more of an assistant stage manager.
http://www.fashion-era.com/C20th_costume_history/1922_silhouettes_1.htm
Using this as a base, we discussed and exchanged ideas, and then assigned each person (who is doing costuming) a character or two. I was in charge of designing Millie's costume and Mrs Meers' costume.
Millie:
Millie has a total of 5 outfits.
- beginning where she is not a modern yet (1.1)
- Beginning where she turns into a modern (1.1)
- Muzzy's party (1.9)
- Scene where she tries to seduce her boss (2.1)
- When she goes on her date with Jimmy (2.4)
Mrs. Meers:
Although Mrs. Meers is the antagonist, we decided to have her wear only one outfit since she does not come out that much.
However there is one scene where she comes out in the middle of the night to attend to Muzzy. I thought that a night gown on top of her dress would do.
This week, we also decided on our portfolio. I am going to do Assistant Directing as my major and Costuming as my Minor.
As an assistant director, I have to:
- Attend rehearsals.
- Take note of blocking, staging, problems etc.
- organise paper work (such as registers, lists etc)
- Take actors through rehearsals when the Director is not there.
- Assist the director in any way.
This is kind of similar to Robin Hood, however in that play, I was more of an assistant stage manager.
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