Author: Holly Margaret Lomas

The Final Bow

Holly Margaret Lomas Choreographer ,

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.

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].

Black Light Theatre

Holly Margaret Lomas Choreographer , , , ,

Outer space offers up visually incredible scenery. Our company believe that the best way to represent such beauty is to use Black Light Theatre, a form that originated in Asia and is now famously performed in Prague and other parts of the world, as a depiction of space during the Handyman’s delusion. The use of UV lighting in this style of performance allows for the possible illusion for objects and people to float in darkness. Along with the Handyman, I also want the space helmet to float across the stage, and have the ensemble actors use gloves and UV paint to represent shining stars that move and whizz around the stage. Black Light Theatre seems the most effective and appropriate way to achieve these aims.

Here are some examples from Jiri Srnec Theatre, the founder and first ever company of Black Light Theatre. This video displays the sense of magic that this type of theatre can create, and the creative imagery that we want to capture in our performance.

Despite the goal to use UV light in this way, we have to be conscious of the limitations of the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre’s stage lighting. If UV lighting is not possible to use, an alternative is to use LED lights to represent stars, and allow for more visible ensemble work such as puppetry theatre, seen in War Horse – choreographed by Tony Sedgwick and puppets created by Handspring Puppet Company.

WAR HORSE London Cast 2014
War Horse from warhorseonstage.com

By encompassing the puppetry type methods that are used in War Horse, the emphasis is placed on the stars, and not the actors embodying the stars. Just as Poppiti states of the puppetry in War Horse: “[t]he animation and voices of the horse puppets must be believable, or the entire illusion is shattered” (Poppiti, 2011, 47), so must be the case in our performance, else the audience will not be captivated by the illusion of space and stars.

 

BlackLightTheatre (2009) The Best of Black Light Theatre – Black Light Theatre of Jiri Srnec. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L7-cLP9AOc&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 28 April 2017].

Poppiti, K. (2011) War Horse. Theatre Design & Technology, 47 (4) 42-53.

War Horse on Stage (2017) London: warhorseonstage.com.

Developing the actors body

Holly Margaret Lomas Choreographer , ,

In order to prepare our actors for extensive physical theatre, I have planned a series of exercises, many of which are influenced by Jerzy Grotowski, to train the body to develop and embrace intricate movements. Grotowski created the notion of ‘poor theatre’, and was “grounded in the belief that the personal and scenic technique of the actor is the core of theatre art” (Slowiak and Cuesta, 2007, 44), meaning  practising exercises and techniques is of primary importance to performers.  I have particularly focused on exercises which loosen the body, build balance and help the actors to find and use their ‘centre’ – the point where the actor’s physicality should emanate from; Grotowski believes that one must “eliminate the body’s resistances” (ibid, 93), and so the result of these exercises will particularly help Sam, the main actor for the ‘space scene’, with the difficult task of representing weightlessness and anti-gravity. Below are videos which show me being taught specific exercises fashioned to benefit the body in physical teatre, which I will then further prepare to target my specific aims. I am going to be continuing to lead these exercises throughout the rehearsal process, as consistency when practising these warm up exercises mean that over time the body will be trained to allow for more technicality in physicality, as aspects such as balance, flexibility and strength will be further developed.

The slowness of the spaceman’s choreography puts pressure on Sam’s balance, and so building this ability allows for more stable and fluid movements. Also, by finding and using his ‘centre’, Sam will develop a stronger core and hence gain more control on each movement; this will correspondingly help him give the appearance of weightlessness. In the video below, we can see the type of choreography that the spaceman does that will be developed from these exercises.

 

Slowiak, J. and Cuesta, J. (2007) Jerzy Grotowski. London, Routledge.

The First British Man on the Moon

Holly Margaret Lomas Choreographer , , , ,

Since our performance has developed from focusing on moments of love to moments of life, we have found that the daily delusions of everyday people provides a fascinating representation of individuality and great opportunities for moments of artistic creativity. We have hence integrated another full scene of physical theatre, this time with dance incorporated movement.

The main scene that I am now choreographing is the Handyman’s delusion, also known as the ‘space scene’; this involves the character building a rocket and flying into space. It holds elements of escapism, as well as him chasing his dreams – all executed through the means of physical theatre. When thinking of movement, I began by researching ways to represent anti-gravity. I considered that the best way to represent anti-gravity was through the use of lifts, leans and balancing methods. For these to be implemented, ensemble work is necessary and therefore teamwork is crucial.

To prepare for choreography, I watched many spacewalk videos to analyse the speed, pace, and the physicality of astronauts.

After watching videos such as these, I noted the height, bounciness and floating elements of the movement and started to use the ensemble to practice ways to represent space walking. Our experiments can be seen from the video below.

 

After experimenting with base movements, I had to find a story within the choreography. Through discussion and character analysis, I worked with the director to develop the scenes narrative to hold representations of the Handyman chasing his dreams, but unable to reach or touch them. To portray this in a visually stimulating way, I incorporated a female dancer into the piece to represent a personified embodiment of the galaxy. The act of chasing his dreams can then be more clearly portrayed through a series of chasing sequences, as well as creating a magnetic draw between the Handyman and the Galaxy, yet having no contact between the dancers. Below are some video examples of this: here you can see the ensemble experimenting with leans and lifts, whilst incorporating the chase and non-contact elements.

 

We also often film in slow motion to analyse our intricate movements in more detail. This helps each actor clearly see where they need to improve, and how every part of their body works throughout each movement.

 

Graham and Hoggett talk of the importance of filming rehearsals when creating physical theatre. For their rehearsals with Frantic Assembly, the choreographers explain how “the video camera became a necessity in the rehearsal studio” (Graham and Hoggett, 2009, 33). The media provides actors to reflect of how their movement looks to an outside party; “[i]t is there to show you what you don’t yet know” (ibid, 35). I will continue to film videos for the actor’s benefit, so we can continue to improve and develop the movement scenes, and analyse the details of the choreography.

 

amovees (2013) Astronauts tripping on the surface of the Moon. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2adl6LszcE&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 19 April 2017].

Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2009) The Frantic Assembly book of Devising Theatre. Abingdon: Routledge.

NTDTV (2012) Neil Armstrong – First Moon Landing 1969. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwZb2mqId0A&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 19 April 2017].