Unit 1&2
Monday 21st September 2020
Technical Theatre
The objective of my technical theatre lesson with Becca was to start with learning the basics of the lights, such as
- Profile lights
- Parcan lights
- Frensel
At the start of the lesson I started off by Re-rigging a profile spot with a G-clamp. Ezra had showed me step by step how to re-rig the profile spot, By taking the safety cable of the profile light first, then unscrewing the G-clamp that allows the light to stay secure and still on the pole, then lift the light off the pole and unplug the light.
HOW TO ATTACH THE PROFILE LIGHT BACK.
To attach the profile light back onto the pole, you must put the G-clamp on the pole first, then apply the safety cable so the light doesn't full and get damaged, which what the safety cable prevents from happening and tighten the clamp so it is secure.
After re-rigging the profile lights I also had used the lighting and sound desks. I used the lighting desk first and learnt how to use the magic sheet and highlighting different lights on the magic sheet. Ezra had shown me how to blackout the stage and how to go to different cues on my magic sheet.
Here is a video of my lighting work;
This is an video of my lighting work during my first lesson using the profile lights, the flood battens , fresnels and parcans.
By the end of my technical lesson I was very proud of what I had achieved in my first lesson, I learnt how to used the lighting desk really quickly and how to use the sound desk. At the end of the lesson Becca had set a goal for to be fully confident with both desks by the end of October. The only problem I had while Becca and Ezra were showing me the different lights was when I used the remote that controls the lights the button was really stiff and I had to use the emergency button to stop the bar from getting too close to the ground.
Production design
During my first production design lesson with Shelley, we had a recap of the different types of stages over time, Such as
- Amphitheatre
- Thrust stage
- Theatre in the round( arena stage )
- Traverse Staging
- End-on Theatre
- Proscenium Theatre
For each stage/Theatre we wrote down their main features, historical context and advantages and disadvantages.
Amphitheatre- The shape of the theatre helped the the actors projection in their voice.
Historical Context- Ancient Greek and Roman theatre.
- The earliest Roman amphitheatre date from the middle of the first century BCE.
- Imperial amphitheatre were built throughout the Roman empire.
Advantages and Disadvantages
- Outdoors (weather).
- Not all amphitheatres have electricity.
- Outdoor theatres allowed a bigger audience .
- The set could be elaborate .
Thrust Stage- Mostly used in concerts.
Historical context- the Thrust stage is the earliest stage type in western theatre, first appearing in Greek theatre
- Evolved into classical Greek theatre
- Came to England during Elizabethan Era
Advantages and disadvantages
- Actors are closer to the audience.
- Creates an intimate atmosphere.
- many entrances and exits for actors.
- it can have restricted view for the audience.
Transverse Staging- Audience on the sides and stage in the centre, used for fashion shows.
Advantages and disadvantages
- New prospective in theatre pieces because it isn't used in traditional theatre
- Actors will have to give their back to half the audience at any given time
- staging isn't wide
End-on theatre- The stage and auditorium are the same width
only has the audience on one side of the theatre
Advantages and Disadvantages
- Easier for actors to act
- Sight lines may be an issue
Proscenium theatre- West End theatre
- Creates a 4th wall between actors and audience
Historical context- Greek and Roman theatre
Advantages and disadvantages
- Easy to build yours sets on stage
- best sight lines
- Least intimate stage space
Tuesday 22nd September 2020
Technical Theatre
During my second Technical theatre lesson I had a recap at the start of lesson with Becca about the lights. Becca and I went down to the theatre to watch a few clips she had for me and Ezra to watch. One of the videos were on 'gobos' and where they are placed on the lights. After watching the gobos videos, Becca made me identify the lights in the theatre;
- Fresnels
- profiles
- flood battens
- parcans
- LEDs
- moving lights
- follow spot
After identifying the lights in the theatre, we went back upstairs into gallery, Becca gave me a box of different gobos pieces to choose from. I choose 4 different gobos pieces for the profile lights, Becca told me where the gobos piece goes and how to focus the light so the image from the gobos slot is clear enough so when it is reflected it is clear enough to see. Once I had chosen 4 different gobos and placed them in the profile lights, Ezra was working on his LEDs and added light to my 4 gobo pieces.
What went really well during this lesson was that I got the work done really quickly and got use to the profile lights and how to focus the gobos pieces in the slots. The only problem during this lesson was in the two pictures you can see that there are tables and chairs on the stage, so you can't really see the reflections of my chosen gobos pieces reflected onto the stage. Also when working with the profile lights and gobos I kept burning myself with the light and forgot to put the gloves on to prevent that from happening.
Monday 28th September 2020
Technical Theatre
Today in my technical lesson, The level 3 acting students came into the theatre to practise their pieces with their chosen partner and I had to set the scene with the lights based on the scene they were acting
During this lesson the only problem I had was I felt like I kept repeating the same lights, but as I kept playing with the lights I got the hang of it and had more ideas to set the scenery.
In the first picture I used it for the first two actors, Shadhut and Asha. There scene was set outside the palace during the day, so I decided to used all the yellow baton lights to show the daylight during the day and put on all the side lights at around 30% to emphasise the daylight effect and make it more brighter
In the second picture I used it for Hanna and Susan, Antigone 2. In this scene the two actors are standing in the palace gardens at nighttime. When I did this light I was so impressed at how it looked because it really looked as if it was nighttime the side lights really set the mood and created shadows which gave off a nighttime atmosphere.
Monday 6th October 2020
Technical Theatre
In todays lesson, I created cues and subs for the upcoming Induction show for the year 1 level 2 and 3 actors along with the level 3 dance and musical theatre students. I continued to use the same lights from last week that I created for the level 3 actors and saved that as a cue for there acting pieces ready for the show next week. During this lesson it was quite stressful and tight as it was a tech rehearsal and all performing art groups had to have a tech rehearsal. Each group had about 45 mins to an hour to get all there lighting and sound exactly how they wanted it. During Rob time with his level 3 students, it went bye very quickly as I already make cues and saved the lights that I had make from the previous lesson I had when they came to the theatre to perform the pieces and get used to the environment and to the surroundings when performing. During the level 3 dance rehearsal it was quick but Shelley was quite demanding and knew what exactly she wanted which was good because then it was quick, but when the Rosas piece was done it was quite long as Shelley wanted use movers in the musical theatre and I didn't know how to use them or set them up so Ezra had to set them up and focus the spot. From watching Ezra setting up the movers it looked very technical and hard to set and use. After the musical theatre piece it was the 'Vinegar Tom' acting pieces with Shenagh, as I didn't take any pictures of the lighting I had done for 'Vinegar Tom', I had just matched the lighting to what Shenagh described where it was located which was in a barn.
During my lesson with Mandy I had done a hazard check list around the theatre, while Ezra, Mandy and I had been doing this we had found so many hazards around the theatre, props where covering the exits tangled wires on the floor and tables and chairs on the stage. These are the my results from the hazard check.
Also while doing my checklist I took a few pictures of the many hazards in the theatre.
Induction show
The morning of the Induction show came, and when Ezra and I got to the gallery we were told that L3 Dance and musical theatre will not be performing due to one of the students getting Coronavirus and they all had to go into isolation for 2 weeks and would perform after half-term, so only the L2&3 Actors will be performing during the induction show.
During this time Ezra and I were a little worried because during our tech rehearsal we had put the cues in order of the performance but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
When the first show started it went really well but I was a little bit nervous but everything went to plan and there were no problems during the first show it went extremely well as Becca wasn’t with me during my first show.
When the L3 Dance and MT students came back from self isolation, we had a quick tech rehearsal to go over lights, sound and new cues and Shelley was happy with all the states I had made before their self isolation. Before they all went into isolation, in their first tech rehearsal we hadn’t finished all their cues and lights as Ezra and I were working on a scheduled time where everyone had 30-45minutes of tech rehearsal but as Shelley’s students were the only ones who hadn’t performed we extra time in perfecting what she wanted.
As the tech rehearsal continued, Ezra and I noticed that all the cues were in the wrong order and had to be re-arranged which was quite difficult as we done the tech rehearsal in the running order. Just before the show started one of the monitors shut down which contained the cue list and our running order. This was caused by one of the cables connected to the monitor that had been worn out. This caused Ezra and I to stress as we needed to see what cues we needed and we had to re order them, but we then realised we could move the cue list to one of the screens on lighting desk that resolved the issue for the time being, until Becca changes the VGA cable. Other then the monitor cutting out, the second induction show went exceptionally well with no other problems.
Here are some pictures of me using the desk during the second
induction show Ezra and I had worked through.
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