There were many positives, negatives, regrets and achievements throughout the final performance. The audience seemed to connect to the performance quickly and easily which made the overall performance run with a boost of confidence from the cast. The entire ensemble took a few chances on stage that seemed to pay off however, there were negatives such as projection which meant if I could notice it from the wings the audience would be struggling to. The songs were not sung as well as other times but that can be as most of the cast were non singers or slightly more able and with a sudden change to sing two songs acoustically due to tech and timing issues did not help the situation.
However, the audience connected and when the ‘Tinder’ scene had started the audience filled the room with laughter, the acting from the cast in the scene worked well because the characters were exaggerated and that complimented the bizarre dialogue. The characters could have been pushed a little further and be more expressive but the scene still worked. As for the ‘Catholic vs. Church of England’ scene I choreographed, I believed it worked well especially seeing as both actors were not dancers. But I could see there was room for improvement in regards to the dancing, the pace and the speed. Although I do believe there was an issue for the actors on who to listen to, either myself or the director. We both had differing visions for the scene and I was having the scene changed without my knowing or input.
There was one scene too that we thought might have to go… The Doctors scene. The final scene which I feature in as Ashleigh, gets news of a brain tumor. The scene deals with a sensitive issue and as the overhead a voiceover of a diary is played I am onstage. I need a purpose to be there and what could I be doing? Mia (Choreographer) and I looked at the lines and thought carefully about the scenes intention. The scene is very much based on the confusion of Ashleigh’s lifetime. This needed to be expressed.
I ended up creating a simple frame of movements that linked smoothly and could be associated with waiting and confusion. This complemented the audio well. Oliver (acting as the Doctor) needed to have a way of getting off and onto the scene. As the scene was like a memory from Ashleigh’s character In the workshop, we had me puppeteering Oliver in a variety of ways, until in the end certain hand gestures I gave Oliver the direction to move and turn, and the placing of my feet walking on the spot gave him chance to move as though he was being put into place. Shoes from Ashleigh’s earlier scene were used in my movement I used them as a devise to bring back Ashleigh’s memories from her younger years.
Throughout the process one of the main things we had to consider through the marketing and the show is how cohesive it all was, how well it all worked together. One main way of doing this was having a colour scheme we settled on a dark rich purple, that you would associate with Cadburys, a turquoise blue and a warm grey. The purple is present in our company logo as well as the show logo, and other work, clearly and noticeably linking them.
Forefront Theatre. (2015) Forefront Theatre Company Logo. Lincoln.Forefront Theatre (2015) Shoes to Fill Logo. Lincoln.
The only struggle I have had with the creation of posters and flyers was that I wanted something that would clearly link to our show, but with it being in the development process it was hard to find one image that could reflect it without have a finished piece. Some themes that were constant throughout the process however were the use of shoes and the different stages of life, almost like a time line.
We used a converse style shoe as our main image, as it is very universally known shoe and as it was a white shoe it worked well with the injection of our colour scheme around it. We also used very long ribbons as the laces; it reflects our idea of a time line. This however was also affected by the con of not having a final piece, as we were originally going to use the ribbon in a choreographed dance piece in the performance but instead this was developed into a more realistic tender moment of a dance between a couple, it no longer linked back to the marketing but it did work better with the rest of the show.
We also made sure we used the same images online as well as the same fonts throughout or work, Dk Snemand and Krinkes can be seen in the poster, flyers, programme and marketing pack.
We definetly had a development of the image throughout our process from our very first copy image to the one used as our poster at the end, the ability to learn new skills has been vital to our visual marketing as I have learnt how to use a DSLR camera, lighting and photoshop to create a more polished and proffesional product in the end.
Samuals. 2015. Forefront Theatre, Shoes to Fill, Copy Image. Lincoln
Samuals. 2015. Forefront Theatre, Shoes to Fill, Copy Image idea 2. LincolnTarney-Peters. 2015. Forefront Theatre, Shoes to Fill, Final Poster. Lincoln.Tarney-Peters. 2015. Forefront Theatre, Shoes to Fill, Final Front Flyer. Lincoln.Tarney-Peters. 2015. Forefront Theatre, Shoes to Fill, Final Flyer Back. Lincoln.
“Through the power of distinctive, dynamic design, businesses can harness the immense potential of event branding – but it’s only through an intelligent and cohesive approach that you’ll experience the full effect.” (Atkinson, 2015) Haveing a few products, the flyers, posters, online presence and programmes, it is important that they all stay recongnisable, making sure we avoid creating any confusion and instead send out a clear message that tells a viewer about our show and how they can access all the information about it. Minus the copy image I believe we achieved this and therefore were able to build a strong relationship with our audience. Our colour scheme and the use of shoes instead of a person on our work allowed us stand out from many other companies.
Tarney-Peters. 2015. Poster in Library. Lincoln.Tarney-Peters. 2015. Shoes to Fill paper marketing. Lincoln
Atikinson, Tori. 2015. Experiential Design: the Importance of Cohesive Event Branding. London.
This week I have collected verbatim interviews and statements on the subject of role models, acting on behalf of others, responsibility, adulthood and expectations in life for Shoes To Fill.
I have also collected statements of expectations of being a parent as a parent seems to be a person coming up frequently as someone whom people wish to fill the shoes of but at times avoid this and walk their own path in life.
The recordings are important to us as a company as the way words are spoken can show us how a person felt at the time of speaking. Pauses, slurs and speech idiosyncrasies all reveal emotion and thought process that are essential when portraying one of the important people that have given up their time to help create Shoes To Fill truthfully.
Script and inspirations
The group has had a script read through where I offered my feedback from the perspective of dramaturge to ensure clarity for the audience whilst maintaining that filling people’s shoes is the main theme of the piece. I have offered to attend all rehearsals to ensure the theme continues to have clarity from the point of view of a spectator or in case research is quickly needed on areas actors are unsure of. There has been edits and ideas to help shape the script in its final editing phase.
I shall gain more perspectives by interviewing others of multiple ages allowing the piece to be less unbiased. A role I play includes narrating verbatim about forced marriage to bring this issue to the forefront, so I decided to research into this more to give my acting more depth on the websites Plan-uk and Gov.uk. I also watched Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage which showed an engaging way to tell verbatim stories. I saw that the eyes played a large part here and looking at the audience was important to create a connection with them.
An element that runs through our piece is an expectations versus reality section for this I researched into common sayings and ideas relating to 5 areas of expectations in life. For this I looked at common expectations for children thinking about Christmas presents, expectations of school and nursery being fun educational and the best time of your life. I then looked at expectations about university such as one about being able to do many hobbies and keeping friends for life.
Different expectations of parenthood were taken from parents in snippets of verbatim and then taken from this we have created more expectations versus reality scenes about having children and how this feels. The last section was expectations of old age and the one expectation we all have – death. I passed this onto Ollie so he could make this comical.
I also looked into different elements in the media that are and have been role models. The writers came up with the idea of unrealistic love in the media to create the Finding the one song.
