Playhouse Problems II

I find the thick black proscenium at the Playhouse really intrusive.

My plan for this production is to cover it up. DSR will be a large tree whose branches reach across the arch itself, while DSL this token of nature will be balanced by a large classical column. These are rather blatant symbols of themes within the play and the designer is going to try and persuade me to more subtlety on the column front...but the tree, at least, I think will work and its sheer scale will really emphasize the size of the children.

These items will help break up the otherwise bare set and give some physical colour to what is otherwise entirely generated by lighting.

Aromatheatre

Has anyone ever used smells in theatre?

The answer must be yes, I would have thought, as it's pretty obvious and I shouldn't have thought it's that technically difficult; but it's not something I've ever come across (beyond 'flavoured' liquid for smoke machines).

I was in the Oxford Playhouse the other week in the fourth row, being pelted by their keenly efficient ventilation system. It was like being blown incessantly be a small petulant child. Not very nice. But it did make me think: with air circulating that well, if an actor were laced with some kind of scent, every time they came onto the stage they would waft out over the stalls and stimulate the assemblage in their olfactory regions.

Is that a thought worth investigating?

Lotte Reiniger

I found a review from the National's 1974 production of Spring Awakening which mentioned some tableaux that were reminiscent of Lotte Reiniger. I had never heard of Reiniger but the Internet revealed quite a feast. She is credited with creating the first feature-length animated films before Disney erased her from the history books. So the story goes.

She worked by stop-frame animating silhouette-figures on light-boxes to create a very distinctive style.

As soon as I saw some of her work I knew that it tied in perfectly with some of my other ideas for the production. The white cyclorama will effectively by like a lightbox when lit alone, casting anyone on stage into silhouette. My idea for moving between scenes, rather than going to a full blackout, is to drop down just to vivid coloured lights on the cyclorama, for the actors to move off in character and for the next scene to assemble in character, thus maintaining the fluidity of the numerous transitions.

This first clips is not in fact Lotte Reidiger but someone aping her style. I have put it first as it is very short to give a quick impression of what she did. Two excerpts from her original films follow.

Who is the masked man?

Who should play the masked man in the final scene?

- An actor only in this part?

- Melchior's father?

- Moritz's father?

- Melchior's mother?

- Wendla?

August Macke

In Designing III I talk about a bold use of colour.

The German expressionist painter August Macke (1887-1914) painted in a style which almost epitomizes on a canvas what I have described, although he was painting twenty years after the play was written.

Here is a little slideshow of some of his paintings I have put together as an image board. Some of them are almost like illustrations of scenes from Spring Awakening.

Synopsis

There is a synopsis of the play among other titbits here.

Set solution

How to create a host of different locations and move between them seamlessly.

One thing I like to do is create smaller theatrical spaces within a larger space by using lighting. A fine example of what lighting can achieve in this respect is in Antony Sher's Primo [see photo], a stonking production and one that I utterly recommend even on DVD.

Specific to Spring Awakening, lighting will help capture the intense colours that I mention in Designing III. The white cyclorama will literally be a blank canvas on which to project all manner of different colours.

I want to combine this highly stylized use of lighting with the flying in of impressionistic pieces of set. To create a dressing room, a mirror and portrait will be flown in at 45 degrees to each other, the eye will fill in the perspective and a 3D room will be created within the larger space. To create the reformatory corridor, barred windows will be flown in flat across the front of the stage leaving a metre and a half strip to be lit as said corridor. And so on and so forth. We will be limited by how much we can fly but even if we can only manage a few elements I think it will be worth it.

Why flying? The audience will see the items as they fly in and out between scenes and this, I hope, will create a dream-like atmosphere which will feed into the final scene of the play and also relieve the tension of the earlier scenes.

This way there will be very little physical set to move on and off which means the scenes can follow hot on each other's heels.

Playhouse Problems

One problem with the Oxford Playhouse is that the acoustics are really hard, especially for untrained actors. The space is very dead.

The temptation is to use the mechanical fore-stage to help bring the actors out from under the proscenium but when it is up it makes the stage incredibly wide.

My current plan is to use the thrust and a large curved white cyclorama to shift the whole performance space forward several metres. The curve in the cyclorama will help stop the space feeling quite so large and should help give some depth. This will make it easier to project and if we use the thrust as a semi-stage (i.e. a foot lower than the main stage) it will make the action much more immediate.

I wonder if this is going to work.

Designing III

This post will make most sense after you have read Designing II.

What I wrote in Designing II was actually a bluff of sorts. You see, I don't think Spring Awakening is a drab, monotone play at all.

The play is seen through the eyes of the children. We know this because the adults (especially the teachers) are caricatures with names like Professor Gutgrinder and Professor Thickstick (maybe he should have been in the History Boys). Besides, the play centres around the children and their perspectives.

These are children at an extremely vivid time of their lives. Discovering new sensations and finding new depth in things they had already taken for granted. Surely that is a world filled with colour?

So although the cut of the costumes will be dictated by the era in which the play is set I think the design (including the lighting) should feature a lot of very intense colour. The girls may be in long skirts but should have coloured ribbons (where the script permits); the boys may be in breeches but should have coloured stockings and so on.

If there is a place for greys, it is in the parents' attire.

French Short Film

Another Valentine's day over, just.



When she does say it smiling, it really works, doesn't it? It's a lovely piece of direction which would probably have slipped me by if it weren't spelt out. It's a nice reminder to steer clear of the obvious. It makes me think of David Mamet, too: if you're angry, you don't have to put on an angry voice.

First Highlight of Oxford Drama

I mentioned three shows I've seen at Oxford that really popped my cork.

The first to do this was One for the Road.

Titas Halder directed Tim Hoare in Hertford Bop Cellar.

I was lucky to get in. I'd heard it was a stonking show so turned up on spec even though the last night was sold out. I squeezed in the back and stood through it. I can't quite put my finger on why it shook me. The tension set up between the controlled malice yet the persistent drinking really wormed its way under my skin. Clinical: nice suit. Yet out of place: whitewashed cellar.

No theatrical effects. Just a couple of lights on stands. And words. I think above all it was a beautiful sense of pace.



NB If you do a google image search for Pinter, it tries to correct you to printer. Fancy that.

Assistant Directing II

Today I have been interviewing potential Assistant Directors. Well how are you meant to do that?

I decided that the only real option was to see them in action. A really kind actor called Matt learnt a monologue (he didn't even know I was going to buy him Jaffa Cakes at the time) and everyone had 20 mins one on one (with me and the producer watching) to tart it up. Everyone did something different which was pretty good to see as I don't get much chance to see other directors doing their thing.

There are still some more people to see.

It may not be a case of choosing the best stand alone director but the person I think can bring something to the team that I cannot myself. (Quite a lot of scope then.)

The text of Spring Awakening

Is Spring Awakening an opera without music?

The text and dialogue are highly stylized. There are moments of naturalistc dialogue especially between the children, but at other times the dialogue is extremely stilted with speeches which are just too long. Even the monologues have oddities in them. I don't think it's down to the translation we're using which is meant to be very faithful.

I think it is an extremely operatic play in many ways.

Assistant Directing

The first time I realized an Assistant Director could do more than simply be an extra body in a rehearsal room (or sit out the back running through dialogue) was in a cracking production of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People (photo: Ian McKellen in a different production of the play).

The public meeting scene (which featured a large cast) had been directed by three different people. The director had wanted to split the cast into three different groups to help generate different dynamics in the crowd.

Spring Awakening has a large cast but it does not have any ensemble scenes like this. I am really keen to point an Assistant Director for different reasons, however.

First, to get around the perennial problem in Oxford of short rehearsal periods. Because at any one time the majority of the cast will not be in rehearsal, it makes sense to have an AD running separate rehearsals to prep/recap material elsewhere. It would also provide the actors with a great opportunity to play around with ideas and explore bits of the text/their characters in more detail. It means we can block and keep grounded in the main rehearsals and then maybe be more experimental in the AD's rehearsals.

I also think an AD can have a significant creative input in terms of helping to build the relationships between the characters. I would be anxious to find an AD who will be able to share wholeheartedly in my vision of the show rather than seek to imprint themselves -- someone who can take a pair of actors away and work on a scene for an hour and really deliver a result would be wonderful.

And I reckon an extra perceptive pair of eyes in any endeavour is invaluable.

Best Stage Direction

Is this the best stage direction ever written?

MORITZ STIEFEL, with his head under his arm, comes stamping across the graves.

Designing II

So, Spring Awakening.

Oppressive society. Emphasis on discipline, achieving in school. Children are expected to be young adults but aren't told what that really means. Stifling sexual atmosphere. Even the parents feel powerless against the machine.

Where does this leave us in terms of design? Well take another look at the photo of the National's 1974 production on the cover of the Edward Bond translation.

The black and white image says it all. Starched collars, stark set, uniformity. Monochrome.

An emotional wilderness. Barren design.

If Sibelius did theatre...

Designing

Particularly if you're into visual aspects of theatre, it's tempting to come up with natty ideas for design and roll with them when they aren't really justified by the text.

I think that all aspects of the design should stem (in an ideal world) from your interpretation of the play and, more importantly, from what the author gives you.

It sounds pretty obvious but I'll try and give an example over the next few days.

[Pic: Marlene takes a break from the photo shoot.]

Publicity photos

A really good photographer called Nikolai took our publicity photos for us. He is studying at the London Film School. We shot them in the scrubland behind the boathouses on the Isis. Costumes came from Bead Games on the Cowley Road. What a shop - sells penny sweets which are terribly hard to come by at the moment.

We tried to get a variety of shots which I'll post here at intervals.

Originally I had wanted to do a set of 4 or 5 different posters (i.e. same branding but different image) so that people would keep noticing them, but things never quite work out as planned.

Three highlights of Oxford drama

I've seen three shows in Oxford that I've really taken something away from. Shows that I've really connected with in some way.

I think that's what theatre is about. It's worth sitting through all the interminable dross for those ineffable moments that shake your world. Isn't that why people like Wagner?

If I can create one such moment for one person in a show. That'd be super.

The funny thing is, that of those three shows that I'll take with me forever, none of them was performed in a theatre.

The Continental Bunch

I always get the impression they are far more switched on in the continent - especially Germany - when it comes to cleverly conceived theatre. (Not everyone's cup of tea.) I think it's particularly noticeable in opera. At any one time the majority of leading opera directors seem to be Teutonic.

Blah. What I mean to say is what a poster this is for a German production of Spring Awakening. Words cannot express quite how good it is.

The Appeal of Spring Awakening

The last post may go some way to explaining the particular appeal Spring Awakening has for me at the moment.

The play has 19 short scenes in 19 different locations. It is rather like a film script. Some of the scenes are a scant paragraph. It's ideal for the crap concentrator in me.

The different locations also pose some really interesting challenges in staging the show. How can we create these various spaces within the theatre without losing fluidity? I am planning on using movement to create the links between the scenes.

37 characters is ridiculous for a play. All right, so Peter Kandke's The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other may just have been programmed for the forthcoming season at the National with 450 characters, but 37 is plenty for me. I am going to try and squeeze them out of 20 actors. This is an opportunity to try out the interest I claim in physical characterization. Identities need to be instantly recognizable for the doubling to work. Since the play is seen through the eyes of the children, the adults are caricatures (notably the teachers) so this permits a certain exaggeration in this characterization.

Of course it's a cracking story, too. Just look at the passion on display in this photo I googled.

Spectating

My perception of theatre as a spectator has been distorted by the fact that I suffer from chronic headaches. This means that I cannot sit through even the shortest scene without tuning out of the words.

I therefore have a particular fascination with visual aspects of theatre. I love dance (and directed part of a dance show last year - see photo), am very fond of physical characterization and I like strong use of lighting.

But within the framework of straight drama I still think the text must come first, and I am particularly keen on finding the musicality of the lines which can shine through for me even when the words themselves do not engage.