Show week at Grange Arts Theatre.

Technical rehearsal dates.

Friday 22nd   11 am-4:30

Monday 25th 11am-4:30

Tuesday 26th 11am-1pm

We found that we didn't want to over rehearsal the show as we felt that it would lose its emotion and the “in the moment atmosphere” that the whole show projects so some of these rehearsals were ended early.

Performance Dates

Wednesday 27th 1pm matinee 7:30 evening

Thursday 28th    1pm matinee 7:30 evening

Friday 29th         1pm matinee 7:30 evening

Going into the theatre to Tec the show was by far the exciting part of the rehearsal process, seeing the set in real life for the first time was definitely a real eye opener to the whole show being real, and the anticipation of having an audience see this for the first time increased massively.

One of the major issues we had once we were in the theatre was the spacing, within the rehearsal space we didn't the rostra’s to practice on we only used a rough guide of what we knew it would look like. We didn't anticipate the lack of space had once the audience was in the theatre. We went from using the whole rostra in scenes and moving transitions to less than a fraction of what we were used to. However there was no real way to fix this issues without an audience so we just became more wary of where we were on stage, this seemed to work as even when the theatre was over capacity the show still ran just as smoothly. 

A note we had continued to be given throughout the Tec and performances was volume, with the amount of fabric our vices were just being drowned. This lead to a short workshop warm-up Neil a former Oldham college student who is currently studying at ALRA North on foundation acting course. He tough us about owning our space and breathing techniques. A lot of us where straining put voices to be heard by using our throats instead of our diaphragms. I think that by the end of the shows running everyone vocal skills had improved staggeringly and the techniques we learned in this workshop will be invaluable in future projects. https://www.stagemilk.com/vocal-warm-ups/ an article on the importance of vocal warm-ups for actors. This discusses how the voice is an actors tool as well as tips on how to look after the mouth and throat with warm-ups.

Sound within Chaos

The music that we chose to use was representational for each scene and was carefully chosen to consider with each scene. We didn’t want to use the music just for the sake of having an extra element, most of the play is quiet and a lot of the scene relay purely on the acting of the actors. The opening music while the audience came in was “Electric Counterpoint” by Steve Reich, this gave the stage a strange atmosphere including with the set and how the cast was already positioned on stage, all the audience walked in with anticipation. I feel that as a performer the music played a big part in the show because I could really my characters' emotions at the moment. For example, before  the scene, “race” Connors dance in “Anger” had a slow 3 minute crossfade from a gentle instrumental into a screeching uncomfortable sound to the music used. This fade was purposely very slow so that the audience wouldn’t hear the uncomfortable sound straight away building a level of suspense for the dance. Once chaos starts in part 3 of the script where the stage becomes a mix of all the scenes and motifs we’ve seen throughout the performance the song was chosen was Sail by Awolnation as we took inspiration from the comedy series Fleabag on how we wanted the scene to start. We also used the power of having no sound and how dramatic pauses can be just as powerful as words, paying close attention to the scrip we never wanted to rush scenes, giving the audience time to process the scene within the silence. https://www.pioneerdrama.com/Newsletter/Articles/Using_Pauses_in_Dialog.asp

The ending of the show during Tec week felt that there was something missing from the monologue, it was later decided that a piece of music was needed to lift the piece “agape by Nicholas Britell” and it gave a very poetic ending.

Audience response -

 Josie ex-teaching assistant at Oldham college.-

“I haven't been creatively inspired by a piece of theatre for long!!!! That was absolutely incredible, honestly loved every minute of it. You are amazing!!!”

Jamie Kellett 3rd year BA acting Student at The Arden School of theatre. -

“It really did make me feel something I thought it was extremely creative and I loved the sort of plot threads with the great movement bits, it worked really nice and I loved watching”

Conclusion of the performance at Grange.

The performance at the Grange was I feel a onetime experience for the audiences who came to watch and it will most likely never be done like it was again. The amount of hard work that was put into this production from all accepts of the company will be difficult to recreate and it is unlikely that we will recreate this show. Even though the company is performing the show in a new venue having the freedom of using our own theatre giving the opportunity to create something purely unique and the intimacy of the Grange cannot be perfectly recreated anywhere else. The artistic vision of all the company came together in a piece of art which I believe has touched the lives of every audience member and made them feel a range of emotions because of our performance. Although I am looking forward to the perforce at HOME and how far we can take our production of Chaos, our specific version of the show in our theatre will be missed greatly.