Unit 2

Unit 2 - Performing to an Audience

Year 1 Induction Show

Context

The first show we worked on was the Year 1 Induction Show. We had two days of tech rehearsal to figure out the technical aspects of each piece and apply them. Prior to the other students came to rehearse, we had a small production meeting with the teachers from the courses that would perform later that week. We got given a running order and their view for the lighting and sound for the performances.
As my role during this production was Stage Manager it was my task to keep the cues orderly and make sure that the run troughs went smoothly and to keep communicating with the directors, performers and the technical crew. Because we didn't get a script for the acting pieces I had to write down at which moments/lines the cues needed to be called for music and lighting. We went through all the pieces individually to create the lighting and sound cues.

Research

As this was my first show of being a stage manager, I decided to do some research on how I could best fulfill my duties. I looked at the website from The Stage Management Association and even watched some YouTube video's on how other Stage Managers call the show. Another bit of research that I did was read through Stage Management: The Essential Handbook which helped me explain things like marking up a script and how to work professionally with performers. 

The Stage Management Association: https://www.stagemanagementassociation.co.uk

The YouTube video's that I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dU3RlYQIVM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QTlMBAqJvc - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZciB5U0KQLA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvfpjRegjfo 

(The last video is in Dutch as I'm looking to work in the industry in The Netherlands as well)

The Show Pieces

Dance Cert
The first performance of the show was the Dance Certificate. This was one of the more challenging ones since we only had a couple of hours to program the cues for the performance due to the dancers and director not being able to come in during the tech days. Luckily the director wanted simple dance lighting and was very clear about the cues for lighting and sound. This piece had four lighting cues and one sound cue.

Level 2 Acting: Identity
The second performance was the Level 2 Acting Students who performed an original piece called Identity. Because the group was quite big it was more difficult to get the lighting done as the director lost control of the group at some points. During this time I should have tried to keep the group together and to continue with the lighting cues. We eventually got the group to focus and finished the lighting quite quickly which made it possible to do multiple run throughs. This piece had 5 lighting cues and two sound cues.



Level 3 Acting: Greek Pieces
This performance consisted of two pieces of Greek theatre. This made for two small groups of performers. The lighting and sound for these pieces were quite easy since the director wanted the same lighting for all of the pieces. This gave is time to run through the pieces multiple times. This piece had 4 lighting cues.

Musical Theatre: The Party
This performance was our first musical theatre piece and was called The Party. It was the first time that we had to make the lighting and sound coherent to the movements of the performers. This took a longer than the acting pieces but the clarity of the director helped us to get the lighting cues right and on time. This is one of the pieces that we ran through the most since it was one of the more challenging pieces for me to cue. This piece had 10 lighting cues and one sound cue.

Level 3 Acting: Greek Pieces
This piece consisted of one piece of Greek theatre. This performance was similar to the previous acting pieces with the same lighting cues. This piece had 4 lighting cues.

Musical Theatre Jazz: Wicked
This performance was a combination of acting, singing and dance. Due to some issues with the backing track we had to run through the piece without sound at times. The lighting cues were very clear from the directors point of view. We ran trough this piece multiple times with different backing tracks but unfortunately the track got changed moments before the show started which made the track start earlier than I expected it to. This confused the tech crew and actors a bit but we managed to go through with the performance without any other issues occurring. This piece had 4 lighting cues and one sound cue.

Evaluation

Proceeding into later productions I would schedule more production meetings during the rehearsals to create more clarity for the production team and prevent issues from happening. Another thing that I would push more during the next production is an actual script for the acting pieces so I could mark up the cues. This would create more clarity for me as a stage manager and for the lighting and sound technicians as well.