Year: 2017

Arts Council England

Holly Margaret Lomas Choreographer , ,

The Pin Hinge Collective are a subsidised company. This means we are a not-for-profit organisation and we can only fund the work we make. As we are a small-scale theatre company, if we were to seek government funding we would primarily look at the Big Lottery Fund, and specifically the Grants for the Arts pot, which is their “open access funding programme for individuals, art organisations and other people who use the arts in their work” (Arts Council England, 2017). Here you can get grants between £1,000 and £100,000. The type of projects they fund are outlined on their website, and include “festival, organisational development, original work, participation, performance, production” (ibid). Despite being eligible for government funds, they will only fund up to 90% of a project and so fundraising is key to ensuring we receive a grant. We have already successfully raised money from a themed quiz night and a raffle, and so we are able to prove our stability and innovation when applying for this grant.

However, in order to receive funding from Arts Council England we would not only have to provide a detailed income and expenditure’s list alongside suitable eligibility, we also have to give details of our organisation’s artistic quality. Because we are an emerging theatre company with no past work to reference to, we would have to give details on how the current project will develop our organisation. We would also need to give details on public engagement; from this it is important to understand the ten different audience segments that The Audience Agency identify. For our performance of Kalopsia, the identified audience segments we will be engaging are Metroculturals: “[p]rosperous, liberal, urbanites interested in a very wide cultural spectrum” (ibid), and Experience Seekers: “[h]ighly active, diverse, social and ambitious, engaging with arts on a regular basis” (ibid); this is due to the diverse student population of Lincoln. By intertwining a straight play with contemporary means such as Black Light elements and physical theatre, these segments are engaging with modern cultural performance.

As choreographer, my focus principally falls on the artistic quality and public engagement of our project. I need to understand which audience segments our project targets and to understand our audiences level of cultural engagement, to determine how the demographic will respond to the content we create. As  our primary audience are already engaged with the arts on a regular basis and are open to new cultural experiences, I am allowing for a more liberal exploration with our use of physical theatre in the performance as there are fewer limitations.

 

Arts Council England (2017) Grants for the Arts. London: Arts Council England. [online] Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/grants-arts [Accessed 16 May 2017].

Arts Council England (2017) Culture-based segmentation. London: Arts Council England. [online] Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/participating-and-attending/culture-based-segmentation [Accessed 16 May 2017].

QLAB issues

Image Danielle Louise Galley Stage Manager

The week leading up to the show and we have had full attendance to every rehearsal so far. I’ve downloaded a QLAB demo onto my Mac so that we can start running scenes with all the sound effects as well. The sound cues for Kalopsia are mainly visual and therefore very hard to cue if you are not familiar with the show. There are much fewer lighting cues and therefore I have discussed with our director that I will be operating the sound desk for the show instead of the lighting desk. This week we have been rehearsing will set and props in order to smoothen some of the transitions between scenes. Tomorrow we have a large rehearsal space all day and we plan on doing a dress run with all the set and props so we can properly time the whole thing.18816063_1321346337960469_1858184236_n

Tech Rehearsal

Image Danielle Louise Galley Stage Manager

Yesterday we had our tech rehearsal, gradually over the course of the devising process our show has become more and more tech reliant and yesterday allowed everyone to see how many technical elements there are in our show. The delusions themselves have many lighting and sound effects as well as use of projection. Yesterday we managed to programme all the lights and sound effects but did not manage to finish a cue-to-cue. However, we did get some really important feedback regarding the effects we are using. These included concerns about the appropriateness of certain pieces of music as well as some face lighting issues that I will address and refocus the morning of the show. Unfortunately, the auditorium does not have any UV bars or a UV cannon. We experimented with another blue light that did bring out the UV paint but was not true ultraviolet light. Unfortunately, the blue wash across the stage just made it look badly lit as you could not see the actors faces at all. I’m going to try and source some external UV bars before the show. However, if this is not possible I have discussed with the director some alternative lighting designs involving use of the glitter ball and possible use of gobos to create a space-like environment. During the cue-to-cue, there were a lot of cueing issues with the sound script so today I have borrowed a Mac from the LPAC and got access to our QLAB file so I can swap over some of the tracks and also make sure they are all in the right order and make a need sound cue script. The QLAB file is now complete and the rest of the company have been out filming the rest of the projections today which I will insert into the QLAB file the morning of the show.ph4

“Great art and culture for everyone” – Understanding ACE

Jay Charles Petherick Producer

Throughout the process we continually strove to meet the high standards and criteria of Arts Council England.  We always sought to meet each of their 5 goals:

Excellence – We always promised to commit 100% when working on our show, be it devising or rehearsing. This meant our expectation of one-another was very high and we hope that our quality of work reflected this.

For Everyone – As demonstrated, our company ethos seeks to celebrate everyone and their individuality, with our show reflecting a variety of characters and performances styles layered within.

Resilience and Sustainability –  We showed our resilience throughout the process, it was tough at times, but we pulled together as a company and created a strong show. Sustainability would be a huge issue for some companies, not for us. We do not rely heavily on props, set and costume and could therefore tour relatively cheaply, making us adaptable and thus a sustainable company.

Diversity and Skills – This is what sets us apart. We are nine individuals who all bring different skills and strengths to the table. We all originate from different areas of the UK, showing our diversity as a company.

Children and Young People – Whilst Kalopsia was not specifically created for children, it was certainly suitable for young people. Furthermore, being a diverse and talented group of people, The Pin Hinge Collective would not disregard the idea of creating a children’s show.