HOME MRC Performance.

 On 23rd April 2019 the company had the privilege to take our version of Chaos to be performed at the home in Manchester arts center hosting multiple creative spaces.

Rehearsal before the performance 17^th April 9am-1pm

After the production at the grange where Shane Dempsey a national connections director came to watch the Friday night performance, he sent us a copy of the note and review of the show. 

“You have made a beautiful, bold and emotionally engaging production of Chaos. The choice to keep all the actors in the space was truly engaging and I loved how they made contact with the audience, sometimes coming and sitting beside us and directly sharing their text with us. Your brave and ambitious directorial choices make this a thrilling and charged performance. The production feels like a lucid and sometimes disturbing dream. The integration of the ensemble with the named characters was an effective and exciting directorial choice. You have fully embraced the challenges of this non-linear play and the actors feel really supported and encouraged throughout the process.

From talking to the cast after the show it is clear that they have had an incredibly fruitful journey and have a true sense of ownership in the work. It was particularly moving to hear the young actor, for whom this was his first ever performance, sharing how ‘he now feels so much more confident and comfortable’. The actors mentioned feeling empowered and have really grown while making this production. They expressed that they ‘wanted to go even further’ now and this ambition is beautiful to witness. You have helped make them a tight-knit ensemble who support and constantly encourage each other. The way they coped with Courtney’s last-minute illness was incredibly encouraging and Angelina’s bravery to step up and cover her part with such grace is highly commendable. I hope you feel really proud of all that you have achieved with the production, not only have you made a thrilling piece you have provided an opportunity for your young actors to make something truly memorable. The characters are well defined and the relationships are really clear. The acting choices are strong and it’s clear that you have encouraged them to embrace the heightened nature of the play and explore a scale of performance that is larger than everyday life. This is by no means an easy task but your process has ensured that they are confident and competent in this work.

My main point of concentration is to offer some staging suggestions to make the process of reworking the show from the round to an end on configuration a little easier. My aim is to help you make what is already a truly mesmerizing production even better. The opening movement sequence with the red balloons and the ensemble was a beautiful way of enticing the audience into this heightened world. Could you increase the sound level of this track as it felt a little too quiet? Once the company moves into the grid, can you ask them to lower the volume of their ‘ssssshhhhh’, so we can bring our attention completely to the opening monologue on pg4? If the sound is dropped back to an underscore level it will help us engage with the text. The transition of them exploding out of the cluster and playing piggy in the middle was a brilliant way of setting up the next scene and shifting our focus. Can you look at the possibility of adding another music track before Hands scene on pg7? The choice of him traveling through the space was very effective and I think some underscoring will help us to understand what story you are telling at this point? It could be the same track that is used later when he smashes up the room. For Betrayal on pg.’s 9-13, I suggest you keep the actors in the same configuration on the ground but simply rotate their bodies so that they are all facing out into the auditorium. It could be fun for them to imagine they are looking into a large mirror while preparing for their night out. Could you look at the shift into the beginning of Michael and Aleph it felt like there was some hesitation and it felt a little slow? The protest scene will work for the transfer if you isolate Chiarra and Mo within the circle of the ensemble and it might be worth her standing rather than sitting. The collective breath at the beginning of Late on pg. 24 worked well but I feel it could be shorter. Can you try that there are just two exhalations and then start the text? This scene will need to be reworked physically to ensure that we can see both actors in the end on the configuration. For Depression on pg. 30 -31 I suggest you create a diagonal line with the ensemble that cuts through the space at a 45degree angle, with the ensemble kneeling. Could you place the girl who has locked herself in the room on the downstage side and the other on the upstage side as if the actors are creating the wall physically? The actors mentioned that they would like to spend some time working on Platform 2. The choreography worked really well, just encourage the actors to keep their eye line high so that our attention is not brought down to the floor. The physical movement/dance of the boy smashing up the room was truly exhilarating and a beautiful example of using the particular skills of the actors in the room. The overall use of movement as a mode of storytelling was breath-taking and to see the actors embracing this way of working was wonderful. Could you explore a moment of absolute stillness from the ensemble during part 3, pg. 61? It feels like there is a place for everyone to slow down, take stock and breath. The final image of returning to the red balloon dance was a strong choice and it brought the show beautifully to its conclusion. As we mentioned in our post-show chat with the actors, I would like them to focus on increasing their overall level of vocal energy. The carpet lined floor soaked up some of the actors' text. The acoustics will be much more forgiving at HOME but the space is larger so please encourage the actors to think up and out and send their text right to the back of the space.”

After reading the notes Shane gave us we set to work re blocking the show to fir the stage of HOME. Taking his suggestion and simply taking away one of the rostra’s was the quickest and most sufficient way to re-block the play. We did increase the sound level of the opening track and we found that HOME has celling drop that can be used in performances taking advantage of this we had the balloons drop from the ceiling of the theatre for the opening after I say the rules for the opening of the show. All the scenes were slightly shifted to face outward do the performance was more suited to the proscenium arch, this was relatively easy to do. A few of Shanes suggested directions after trying them in the rehearsal room didn’t quite work, for example, have Chiarra and Mo within the circle of the ensemble. We decide to instead have everyone face outwards at6 the front of the apron and once we sir (as we did in the Grange) we sit over the front of the stage directly in front of the audience with Mo’s dialogue happening behind us. Another of the directions we were given was for the “depression” scene, we did try the diagonal line but found that it didn’t work within the scene while Ellie is interacting with Katie. We decided to have a box with one open side facing the audience. However after being in the theatre during TEC, this didn’t work either because it looked very messy or under-rehearsed, there was no way to hide any mistake and we didn’t have time to perfect this scene. Instead, we had the last minute decision to reposition around the stage and on the rostra’s, spaced and staggered out with the dance remaining the same. During platform two I was repositioned to be in the center of the stage rather than stand on the second rostra, this meant that the chaos of the train platform was happening around me. Rising the eye line level of the ensemble really improved this section it felt a lot cleaner and more rehearsed.

When we first went into HOME, after introducing ourselves to the second director from the National we had a vocal warm-up and practiced projection in the theatre. Shane was right about the vocal space at Home and it was a lot more forgiving, unlike the Grange. Without the amount of fabric to soak in the sound, none of the cast had to strain to project and it felt like a more natural environment to perform in.

The in house stage manager at HOME was a little worried about health and safety for our group because we are so used to being able to use our set as we wished. However, with the change over the rostra’s were closer together and not set down as they normally were in the Grange. The space of the stage was also smaller than the Grange and the audience below us rather than around us, with there being to stalls top stage access wither The 5ft drop was a little disconcerting especially for the “chaos” scene in part 3. Our main advice to cover all the health and safety was just to be more cautious and wary of the stage within the performance and luckily there were no issues. One of the directions I got from the director was to open out the ending to include the audience in the ending. I did this by staying center stage, close to the audience and keeping direct eye contact with the audience. I think this lifted the performance and tied the whole piece together, starting with the audience and ending with them.

My personal Headshot.

Overall the performance at HOME was a satisfying way to leave Chaos and with the redirection in a new theatre and having the opportunity for professionals to see the performance, both at HOME and in the Grange. I believe the cast and crew of this project created a beautiful and unique piece of new and exciting theatre. As an actor, this project has taught me so much and has challenged to push my creativity. It has taught me to not just rely on the direction of a director but my own intuition. This production has also lead me to decide in the future regarding the course will be counting on to at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the type of professional work and I want to create and be involved with.