The morning of the show was a little slow due to some problems with the computers in the tech box, however, in spite of the technical difficulties in the morning, we managed to do a cue-to-cue and as well as a whole dress run in front of two tutors. They gave us feedback on specific scenes which we were able to work on after the lunch break. I managed to source three UV bars so we spent quite a while rehearsing under the dark UV conditions. As there are many lifts involved in the “space sequence” it is paramount that all the actors had a chance to rehearse under these lighting conditions to make sure they could still conduct all the lifts safely. We got a fantastic reception from the audience to our first show and I believe if we had more time to develop to some of the more intricate scenes it could really become a fantastic show! On reflection having come to the end of our process now that we have had experience with fundraising I think we could really expand this going forward. As well as fundraising I feel like we have learnt a lot about creating a show from scratch as an ensemble. The devising process was probably the most time-consuming part of our journey as a theatre company. We had so many ideas it was hard to filter them to decide which ones we were going to take forward into this show. Now that we have finished Kalopsia and it was successful we might go back to some of those earlier ideas and further explore where they might take us as a company.

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.

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.

This week has been one of the most important weeks so far. Director Dwain has already started writing the script for our new idea that has adopted a lot of the work we had already done. It is set in a modern office and we are going to explore the delusions or daydreams of all the people working within the office setting instead of staging the delusions of love as we had originally planned. This has enabled us to keep our show name and poster design for Kalopsia. We are aware that this change has put us slightly behind schedule so I have worked with producer Jay and Director Dwain to come up with a more intensive rehearsal schedule to keep us on track. We have also set a date for the script to be finished so all the actors have enough time to learn their lines. We have kept the ‘silent movie scene’ as our opening delusion and have simply adjusted it slightly to fit our new characters and storyline. The new idea has also led us to rethink who we are as a company. The office narrative that runs throughout the play is going to take the form of a traditional play format, however, for each of the delusions we want to experiment with different styles of performance. As our choreographer is a dancer we are hoping to experiment with this style in one of the delusions. Therefore, we aim to make Kalopsia as a whole a fusion of traditional and modernist theatre styles. We feel this gives us a more unique selling point in terms of any future applications to Arts Council England as well. We hope that this fusion will draw in different audience demographics. For example, the traditional comedy style of the office scenes will draw in the ‘trips and treats’ category as well as the ‘Facebook families’ and ‘up our street’ groups. At the same time, the contemporary style of the delusions will appeal to the ‘Metroculturals’ and ‘commuterland culture buffs’. The fusion will also mean we are introducing certain audience members to more contemporary styles of theatre that they might not otherwise choose to go and see.