The Final Bow

May 27, 2017May 29, 2017 Holly Margaret Lomas Choreographer finale, improvements

Our debut show has finally come to an end. The months of hard work to make Kalopsia was an inspiring one; the process was a struggle, yet one which brought us closer as a company and stronger as an ensemble. From our initial ideas of love, to the final product of individuality and delusions, I believed we stayed true to our company’s ethos of showing what it means to be human and discovering what shapes our identity.

As our identity as a company has been shaped, so to have we in our individual job roles. Our journey has helped us discover our strengths as performers, our roles as company members, and my personal capabilities as a Movement Choreographer. I have discovered where my passions lie – in showing true connections between characters and allowing choreography of Frantic Assembly to influence my own work.

Kalopsia came together quite splendidly; I was overjoyed to see that with the help of extra UV lighting bars provided by our Stage Manager, we were able to combine elements of Black Light Theatre and Puppetry to create a visually stunning space scene which represented limitless possibilities and gave the feeling of floating in air. I was also extremely pleased to see the progression of our actor’ physicality. After working with Sam on the exercises I had fashioned, his movement became much more fluid and less tense. Also, the silent movie actors really took on the Commedia Dell’Arte archetypes I provided to create a much more interesting physical performance.

silent movie 2 — The ‘villain’ in *Kalopsia* rehearsals.

silent movie 3 — Emily Bickerdike, Sam Coggin and Jay Petherick in *Kalopsia*. Photography by George Howard Rees-Jones Media.

To improve this show, I would have developed the Black Light element of the space scene further to fully hide the ensemble performers and emphasise the illusion of floating. With the right lighting technology and having the ensemble cover all skin with black clothing, I would have worked on making the cast fully invisible but for the UV stars and the space man, as this would have made the lifts much more magical as Sam would truly look like he is flying. Analysing where I could improve has set me up for higher aspirations in next projects, and from my experiences creating Kalopsia, I now have higher targets set regarding my choreographic ability which I am ambitious to develop and eager to progress.

Howard Rees-Jones, G. (2017) Kalopsia. Lincoln: George Howard Rees-Jones Media.

The Curtain Closes: A Reflection

May 27, 2017May 29, 2017 Jason Lodge Assistant Stage Manager

Now Kalopsia is finally over, it now let me look at the bigger picture and reflect on the final performance. The show aimed to be a technically heavy show, filled with projections, audio and lighting. The creative design both me and Dan produced, was adventurous as well as testing, but seeing the show in its final form as something of a emotional moment.

Of course the difficulty lied in the correct balance real and imaginary, this gave me a challenge on two different scales. The first being, in the office scenes highlighting the reality, in these scenes the focus was making sure the sounds and the design for the aesthetic matched a naturalistic performance. Challenging me to make something ‘real’ yet visually interesting. Whereas, the second challenge the delusions, present me the complete opposite. The delusions gave me creative free reign, allowing me to explore different ideas as well as collaborate with various members of the company to make something beautiful. However, seeing the finished show on the stage, i had great pride in the delusions and their fantasy led breaks away from the main story, my personal favorite being Sams space delusion.

(Howard Rees-Jones, undated, cited in Facebook.com, 2017)

Although i could not say the same for the office scenes. I felt that although these scenes were meant to be very naturalistic i felt they lacked that extra feel of a office, of course the audience could understand where the performance took place due to the set design and the clinical lighting. Yet, i believed sound wise the office scenes needed more, if i were to reproduce this show I feel more noise should be added to the office, the sound of phones, computers, printers and the subtle murmur of works talking under their breathe, with these additions alongside the current set i believe the show would be regarded as even more of a spectacle.

(Howard Rees-Jones, undated, cited in Facebook.com, 2017)

Finally, I would like to reflect on my secondary role i will be assessed on, my acting in the performance. Playing Simon held various challenges to my own acting abilities. Throughout my acting career at university i have usually been the comic relief role, playing the comedy to add energy to the performance, however, Kalopsia presented me with the something completely different. My character Simon was the villain of the performance, full of menacing lines and a dark stage presences whenever he was on stage.

(Howard Rees-Jones, undated, cited in Facebook.com, 2017)

playing, the villain was different for me, it made all of my knowledge of acting to relearn. All of my energy i usually hold on stage had to be changed as my normal performance style would not match Simon’s stage presences. To counter act this, i had to work closely with our director Dwain, to learn how to pull away from being comedic, but after weeks of practice I learnt to redirect my energy to but instead of having a comedic presence change it to a dark powerful presence on stage.

(Howard Rees-Jones, undated, cited in Facebook.com, 2017)

Overall, Kalopsia allowed me to create a visually stunning as well as challenging my acting. I allowed me to see what as a actor and a theatre maker what i am able to achieve. I think the show has made me understand how diverse my acting can be, as well as taught me how to improve my range as a actor. Therefore, I am sad to see such a brilliant show draw to a close, however, i hope this is not the end of Kalopsia or The Pin Hinge Collective, as the feedback our show received was very clear the audiences wanted to see more of the show, making me believe that our hour long production can be extended even further.

Works Cited

Howard Rees-Jones, G. (undated) Kalopsia. [online] Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. Available from https://www.facebook.com/ghrjmedia/?fref=mentions [Accessed 29 May 2017].

The Curtain Call

May 27, 2017May 28, 2017 Dwain Brown Director

And so Kalopsia comes to an end. A production I’m incredibly proud to have written, directed and be part of. I was supported by an amazing Stage Manager, a fantastic Producer and a great cast that helped along the way. When we first began making Kalopsia we knew we wanted to step away from the conventions of contemporary theatre but we also knew we didn’t want to tell a naturalistic play either.

That put us in quite a tricky position and made it hard to get a show on it’s feet, we aimed to create contemporary episodic theatre through a structured naturalistic narrative. We didn’t know who we were as a company and it was difficult to pin down an exact idea. Once we realised our aim, the show quickly came together. The idea of Delusions gave us freedom to do anything we pleased, but always having a reason to back it up.

We continued to adjust our show until the very end, after our final dress run as a group we were a little disheartened. Our show didn’t perhaps seem as good as it had been, everyone seemed fatigued, worried and with the combination of having, tech, dress, props and set all in a new space all at once became too much for the cast, giving weak performances. Not that it was there fault, they were concentrating on so much at once.

We were given notes by Michael Pinchbeck and Karen Savage, and implanted them immediately. Their wasn’t many, but after seeing how these few notes helped fix so many scenes, everyone in the cast seemed in a much better mood and really took everything in their stride, giving them a boost of confidence for the performance itself. They did themselves proud and put on amazing production that they should all be proud of.

On reflection, if I were to do it all again. I’d make sure we had a clear hierarchy from the start, with constructed, planned rehearsals. Find out who we are as a company and what we wanted to create as a performance from the get go, rather than attempting to make scenes without an idea of where they were going.

And finally, not to be afraid to ask for help. We are an ensemble and we can all help each other out without fear of judgement.

An Audience Awaits

May 27, 2017May 29, 2017 Emily Claire Bickerdike Marketing Manager Arts Council England, audience, Audience Segments, distribution, flyers, marketing, posters

Reflecting on our show, I believe it is important to consider the audience we received, feedback we collated, and how this data could have differed through different marketing techniques based on ACE policy.

Arts Council England divide the Audience Spectrum into 10 distinct groups:

Metroculturals, Commuterland culture buffs, Experience seekers, Dormitory dependables, Trips and treats, Home and heritage, Up our street, Facebook families, Kaleidoscope creativity, and Heydays.

Based on my knowledge of the LPAC’s usual audience (mainly College of Arts students and younger to middle aged people), I predicted that our main audience segment would fall under both:

Meteroculturals – “Prosperous, liberal, urbanites interested in a very wide cultural spectrum” (Arts Council England, 2017).

and

Experience seekers – “Highly active diverse, social and ambitious, engaging with arts on a regular basis” (Arts Council England, 2017).

These groups are both what ACE call “highly engaged” (Arts Council England, 2017) with the arts. Therefore, much of our marketing was focused on social media, particularly Facebook which these audiences use on a regular basis. The promotion of our material across Facebook was targeted to people between the ages of 18 and 40. However, what I noticed from seeing our audience on the day and the feedback we received on social media was that a large proportion of our audience were older than this, and mainly fell under the Trips and Treats segment. These are people who “Enjoy mainstream arts and popular culture influenced by children, family and friends” (Arts Council England, 2017). This is because our cast invited their families and family friends to celebrate the occasion.

Learning from this, I would have perhaps approached marketing our show slightly differently and spent more time distributing flyers and posters in town and making conversation to members of the public who fell under this category, rather than targeting younger people and students on campus and in trendy coffee shops. The feedback we received from our older audience was wonderful and showed us that our show is suitable for people of all ages, not just the young.

Works Cited:

Arts Council England (2017) Culture-based segmentation. [online] Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/participating-and-attending/culture-based-segmentation [Accessed 27 May 2017].

The Pin Hinge Collective

Theatre that pins together what makes us human

Month: May 2017

The Final Bow

The Curtain Closes: A Reflection

The Curtain Call

An Audience Awaits