Looking back on the process I had never imagined to create something as beautiful or fantastic as Kalopsia and I feel very proud of our debut show as a company. I feel the company’s work ethic and positivity has held us together as a collectively in trying new ideas and ways to create theatre. On reflection the performance was a huge success in conveying what we proposed in our ethos and mission statement through contemporary means of performance and an episodic structure.

The original performance changed a lot in our four months, through stages of looking at love, illness, disability, background. Until we realised what all of these things came to create: Individuality. From that point on I feel we where set on a goal of showing each character’s uniqueness, their hopes and aspirations through a vast range of delusions.

We have received strong feedback on the performance from a variety of audience members; and although it is difficult to pinpoint our audience demographic, from those that where there including Lecturers, family and friends, students and peers. I feel that our audience fell under categories outlined by Arts Council England including Meteroculturals – “Prosperous, liberal, urbanites interested in a very wide cultural spectrum” (Arts Council England, 2017). As well as Experience seekers – “Highly active diverse, social and ambitious, engaging with arts on a regular basis” (Arts Council England, 2017).

From this demographic it is also interesting to see that a range of different age groups that came to the performance, outside of these two categories, but I feel that these built up the majority of our audience. However it is interesting to see feedback from a broad spectrum allowing us as a company to grow and improve with the feedback that we receive.

Arts Council England (2017) Culture-based segmentation. [online] Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/participating-and-attending/culture-based-segmentation [Accessed 28 May 2017].

For my character Thomas Clarke’s delusion, I was aspiring to better myself; and so within my delusion I became an astronaut reaching for the stars. We as a company are very focused on contemporary means of performance and wanted to explore as many ways as possible to depict each character’s originality within each delusion. Therefore for my delusion we decided upon showing this through physical theatre.

I have done a small amount of physical theatre, however it was not my forte, luckily several members of the company took part in the module last semester and where a great help in preparing me for such a physical and challenging scene. In preparation for this we watched a lot of tutorial videos by Frantic Assembly, in their workshops for Ignition and clips of their performance Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Time (2012).

We workshopped a lot of these lifts and moves however the scene was still struggling to reach its full potential. However on the 12^th May we had our lecturer Diane Dubois come to watch the scene along with Téo Ghil, a lecturer who specialises in physical theatre. Thankfully he was able to give a lot of advice and guidance in how to progress the space walk by slowing everything right down and having a stronger focus on finding my centre and remembering to breathe, allowing for the space walk to appear weightless in anti-gravity.

This took a long time to perfect, in allowing each step to ripple through the rest of my body and carry me forwards, and so I had to regularly do stretches and exercises to build up my core strength and flexibility.

I would do these exercises before and during every rehearsal leading up to the performance and variations of this on days in between to ensure my control and balance over these movements conveyed the weightlessness and elegance needed within the scene.

There was also falls and lifts used within this sequence, one in particular that stuck out for me was the trust fall onto Dwain’s feet. This again took a lot of refinement and luckily we both have a strong relationship where we will push and challenge each other to do better. Therefore by the performance the fall to me seemed to last much longer, in knowing Dwain would catch me, and also in his precision and control that we had perfected in pushing me back up to my feet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7U2g0QKfgA&feature=youtu.be

Bickerdike, E. (2017) Sam and Holly’s fall. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7U2g0QKfgA&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 29 May 2017].

Lomas, H. (2017) exercises 1. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lK9TLXP2RE&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 27 May 2017].

Lomas, H. (2017) exercises 2. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asAXayfMXyo&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 27 May 2017].

Lomas, H. (2017) space man walk. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TqohtIbwaU&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 28 May 2017]

National Theatre. (2015) Frantic Assembly Masterclass: Learning to Fly. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4mXhW7TXQ8 [Accessed 24 May 2017].

When designing the set for Kalopsia I wanted to create a space that emulated that of an average office, but also be capable of smoothly transitioning between this space and the delusional space of each character. A ladder being turned into a train track and later on into a rocket, the re-positioning of desks bringing them together centre stage and covering them with a map to create a world war two army headquarters. I aimed to create the extraordinary of characters’ delusions, within the ordinary and dreariness of the workplace.

Lighting, sound and props added greatly to this effect, particularly with the space scene, with the strong use of UV bars, and also the UV paint used on the stars costume. As is true of props and costume in the war scene, with characters coming on in military helmets, the map and soldiers being laid over the two central desks and the old fashioned phone being used for the communications desk. All these elements worked superbly well in creating the line between reality and delusion.

Throughout the performance we wanted transition of scenes to be very slick, but also not hide anything from the audience. We have no blackouts in the piece and so each movement of set had to be done with purpose. This was made much easier by the office chairs and desks I managed to source, all of which being on wheels.

For the breakout of the silent film my character Tom had to remove the ladder positioned centre stage as the train tracks. To get around any awkward reason behind moving the ladders, I simply picked them and my toolbox up and begin making the ‘ladder of success’ which was to be used immediately after Louisa’s presentation.

In other instances the set change needed to replicate the emotion or objective within the scene; going into the war scene (Jo’s delusion) the change needed to be regimented and orderly to create a military feel to the scene we were entering into. This urgency and precision was then removed in the exiting of this scene; Jo being brought back to reality by her father’s phone call, the mood and atmosphere of panic needed to be dropped. Therefore the tables and props where repositioned in a slow stylized manner reflecting Jo’s emotional state when on the phone.

This was also the case with my character Tom’s delusion of going into space. The scene going into this Tom being ridiculed by Simon for his position in the office and his dreams of becoming an engineer, Tom needs to fix a light bulb. In my placing of ladders and getting of tools Michael, after leaving a Mars bar removes one of the desks. The second was removed by Zoe after reminding Tom of what to do when she hands out the result of the promotion. When laying out a dust sheet I go onto push the two remaining office chairs offstage as they are in the way of the job at hand. It’s at this point that I re-notice the Mars bar, reminiscing about my childhood I go onto dress the ladders with the dust sheet creating a make shift rocket. The whole transition is very slow in showing Tom being alone with his thoughts. This is the same in coming out of the delusion in that Tom brings himself back down to earth before going back to his book to study. This is then interrupted by Zoe coming on with the ‘board of banned words’ and asking for help. The interruption and break in the stylised journey back to reality worked well in showing the elements of Tom’s life that where in the way of him trying to better himself.

Particular parts of the set came across as quite individual and necessary for particular characters. This was evident in the character of Zoe and her strategies within the office to keep the workplace motivated. These came across in the ladder of success, and the board of banned words; both of which I wanted to stand out as separate from the dreary feel of the office, but also have a homemade feel to the projects, reflected in Zoe’s character. Therefore the choice to colour code the board but have the letters and words cut out seemed a successful way to approach this, as where the cheap battery powered fairy lights to ‘attempt’ to give a game show feel to the ladder of success. The ladder was greatly influenced from a scene I saw in Little Bulb’s performance Wail, in which the performers’ brought a board of facts and figures and dressed as game show hosts went onto explain the information through comic means, the host continually asking Tony to “flip that chart” (Little Bulb, 2017).

Little Bulb Theatre. (2017) Wail. [performance] Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 16 March.