May 25, 2016 by Winona Makanji

We are Twisted Ivy Productions. (Final Blog Post)

Us as a Company

Twisted Ivy Productions consists of a diverse group of skilled drama students. We are an all female theatre company and believed this was a unique selling point. We had discovered that we all had similar views on feminism and what our role, as women, in todays society is. The majority of the company had previously worked on projects that were based on feminism in a hard-hitting form. Although enjoying the idea of a feminism piece, we preferred to create something more light-hearted and relatable for an audience of our age. We discussed what genre of theatre we would like our debut show to be and we all agreed on comedy. We, as a company, believed we are all fun and energetic individuals therefore as a whole, we wanted to bring these characteristics together and provide an audience with an energetic show that holds farcical and comedy aspects throughout.

Where Our Idea Started

We explored feminism, and what we believe feminism is and how are, we as women, discriminated against at this age in society. We found ourselves looking and naming inspirations of ours from a young age. One major influence that sparked us as a company was ‘Disney’. We looked closely at ‘Cinderella‘ and discovered that the story and the representation of the character gives children a false idea of what to expect in adulthood. Although it is a magical, make-believe story, children helplessly inspire to be like Cinderella and wish for and believe that marrying a Prince will solve everything. In a sense it is showing that a woman’s happiness is in the hands of a man. Believing strongly that this is untrue, we discussed the realities of dark issues that exist today, such as depression and addiction, and how women fight for comfort, happiness and freedom while dealing with such problems without the ‘need’ of ‘Prince Charming’.

This is where the idea of combining fairytales and debauchery together came from. We wanted to create a dark and twisted illustration of the harsh realities that exist in adulthood.

‘Artist José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros’s “Profanity Pop”, in which Disney characters appear drunk, gay, pregnant, and fat, just made me happy. This art does not destroy my childhood, and they don’t scar my moral reflection of society. I feel the same about my beloved Disney princesses as I did as a child, but now i think about them with a smirk: “I know your secrets” (Scheriau, 2105).

(Imgur, 2013)

‘Secrets’ is the word that enlightened us. We wanted to show Cinderella in her fairytale attire yet slowly present her ‘dark secrets’, possibly depression. This being an illness that is common yet kept hidden and unnoticed in many cases, we wanted to use this to create an effective juxtaposition between a fairytale and dark realties today.

While discussing our ideas, we knew that the illnesses such as depression and anxiety are serious and real, therefore there is a extremely thin line between being comedic with elements and possibly offending as audience. This was a huge worry in the company.

The Development

To avoid being trapped in a state of worrying whether we may offend an audience, we looked closely at the dark, twisted story behind the Cinderella itself. By shifting the audiences sympathy onto the step sisters gives a whole new light to the story. It enables us to alter the story’s background as we are focusing on how the step sisters feel in the presence of Cinderella, presented as a beautiful, thin and perfect girl. Understanding that how an individual is brought up will effect the way that individual will act, sometimes in a negative way and sometimes in a positive way. By playing on this idea with the sisters, we discovered that in Cinderella, the step mother is usually called ‘the evil step mother’ granting that not only is she evil to Cinderella, but she is just an evil individual. Being the mother of the two sisters leads us to believe that they have been exposed to such immoral behaviour therefore know this is the only way to live, to despise and disrespect everything, including themselves. It became a story of accepting and understanding others to guide them in the right direction instead of worsening their issues by imitating their actions. The more we discussed this idea the more we believed that Cinderella should almost become similar to the evil step mother. Therefore we had Cinderella provoke the sisters to a point that their actions towards her was a means of defence and not so much evil and spitefulness.

To assist our dark and twisted genre even more, we discussed the characteristics of Cinderella and how she feels inside when being treated badly and discriminated against. Words and actions came to mind such as:

Pain
Torture
Loneliness
Murder
Vulnerability
Disownment

Surrealism and Theatre of Cruelty

The idea of what Cinderella fantasized in her head became an something that would open us up to endless possibilities. The world of dreams. A fantasy world. The unconscious. This inspired us to look at Surrealism, ‘A movement founded in the 1920’s which was inspired by Sigmund Freud’s work on the unconscious. Surrealist artists experimented with ways of unleashing their subconscious imagination’ (Moseley, 2016). We therefore decided that our performance presents ‘Cinderella finding creative ways to abuse her step sisters in an act of taking revenge in her mind, this is because in reality she cannot find the strength to cope with the situation’ (Moseley, 2016).

Through researching surrealism further we found that Theatre of Cruelty was a theatrical practice that we wanted to combine with surrealism. Surrealism and Theatre of Cruelty are often linked together as it was Surrealism that influenced the artist Antonin Artaud to create Experimental theatre with Theatre of Cruelty. He quotes,

‘If fundamental theatre is like the plague, this is not because it is contagious, but because like the plague it is revelation, urging forwards the exteriorization of a latent undercurrent of cruelty through which all the perversity of which the mind is capable, whether in a person or a nation. Becomes localized.’ (Artaud 2010, 20)

(Twisted Ivy Productions, leaflets for Every Rose…)

The concept of ‘urging forward the exteriorisation of a latent undercurrent of cruelty’ is presented in Cinderella. Through Cinderella’s dream all of her dark fantasies and obsessions towards her sisters are found, as Artaud suggested, the mind is capable of such cruelty, not only for a performance character but with everyone. Artaud also proposed the production of ‘mythic spectacles that would include verbal incantations, groans and screams [and] pulsating lighting effects’ (CITE PROPERLY http://www.britannica.com/art/Theatre-of-Cruelty).The concept of ‘mythic spectacles’ was attained throughout the whole production, with Cinderella creating torturous obstructions for her sisters by just imagining it was almost like a magical spell. Cinderella’s thoughts were voiced through a voiceover recorded while Cinderella reacted in a surprised and demented way. The scenes changed as Cinderella thought of new ways to take revenge on her sisters, leaving the sisters confused and frustrated.

However, by remaining consistent to Surrealism as a separate style of performance, the setting of the scenes and performance was to be set in a surrealistic world. As my role in this particular production was set designer, I researched into surrealistic paintings as I know that the movements major achievements lay here. I wanted to gain inspiration from the paintings and how words and psychological aspects had been merged and juxtaposed together. Noel Fielding explained what he believed Surrealism is in a nut shell,

‘It’s about things that shouldn’t go together’ (Noel Fielding).

(Salvador Dali, 2011)

(DAAM, 2012)

The Set

I wanted to create an other-worldly set that wasn’t confined to the realm of reality. I wanted to turn the space into a place where an audience will ask themselves whether or not the stage is a specific ‘place’ or a limitless ‘space’.

The idea of a ‘limitless space’, sparked the image of a forest. For when you look through a forest, with tall trees, you see no end. Each gap between the trees holds a new space, a new adventure. It is almost like the trees are doors to the unknown. It suggests mystery, fear and curiosity. I spoke to the director about the idea and she enjoyed it. We spoke about how the aesthetic of her vision suits it. I wanted to create the trees in a sense that they could be mistaken for something else. I wanted them to seem distorted yet allow the audience to know what they are.

I researched and drew ideas of how i could make the forest and how i wish it to look like. I aimed for the stage to look simple yet effective. Simple in the sense that it shall look darker due to the simplicity of the other-worldly space. It is the other aspects of theatre that enhances the atmosphere for the play along with the set. I know through research that the set designer has to stay in close communication with the director and other designers such as costume and lighting. I spoke to Laura, our lighting designer, and we discussed the drawings and ideas i had. We spoke about the idea of a gauze behind the trees to create a large shadow behind. This will give the spectacle of a forest as it produced and shows more layers to the stage. I made a scaled down version of the design i chose so i could play with shadows on a white wall and a white sheet as i wanted to see the effect it would have on a gauze behind.

(Scaled down sculpture of the final tree design)

The sharp edges on the model and how the tree stood gave it a mythic spectacle. In some aspects the tree took a different shape. When being in a different colour light, for instance red, the tree looked like fire. when being lit with light green, the tree looked like a cactus. This was very effective due to scene genres such as a Western scene and the Horror scene. The trees have potential to transform into another symbolic object depending on the state of light to complement each scene.

I used plywood to make the trees because I knew it was easy to cut and it was light in weight. I had trouble in cutting the plywood at the beginning of the process with the scaled down sculpture because i was cutting it with a Stanley knife. I changed my choice of tool to a jigsaw, which is an electric saw. I found it easier to cut the ply for the final product.

I had cut all the trees out and had glued each separate part together in sections. Before glueing the whole flat cut out together first I made sure the base of each tree fitted together perfectly, so i knew i had the measurements correct and therefore i knew the trees would stand up safely and securely.

IMG_0054-1

(The base to the tree)

When all the trees had been stuck together, I had the cast help me put them together. As we put the trees up, they were not properly sturdy. The top of each tree was flimsy, therefore i knew i had to strengthen them by glueing pieces of wood and extra ply to the flimsy sections. Finding this problem out on our technical rehearsal (12th May 2016), while the cast was rehearsing i had a friend (Cherie) along with our producer (Emma) to help strengthen the trees, ready for performance day (18th May 2016).

(The tree stood up on technical day, the top being balanced, unpainted)

Along with the dark forest, I wanted to place a swing in between the two trees centre stage. For me, a swing is usually seen in pairs or in fours, on a park for children to play on and have an enjoyable time. However, when a swing is placed on its own, in a dark empty space, the meaning and image becomes the opposite. I believed that this image of a lonely swing is a symbolic representation of Cinderella. Mislead, lonely and out of place. Having Cinderella swing slowly on the swing gave a beautiful image that truly exposed the madness and subliminal characteristics of her, a single spotlight of Cinderella, closed the world off and slowed down time to see the insanity she was plotting.

(Photo by Phil Crow, 2016)

Final Performance

On performance day I found that the light didn’t complement the colour of the trees. It seemed that they were not grey and white, there was no distinction of white and grey painted areas as the light created shadows, therefore each side to the trees shadowed the other side. To improve, I would only paint the trees white, and relied on stage lights to project a specific colour onto the trees to create the correct effect i want. I was thrilled with how the performance turned out, we had a lively audience that heightened the atmosphere and transferred energy to the performers creating a truly enjoyable experience for all.

(The set before the performance)

Works cited

Artaud, A. (2010) The Theatre and its Double. London: Oneworld Classics Ltd.

DAAM (2012) The Amazing Surreal Art by Vladimir Kush. London: DAAM. Available from http://drawasamaniac.com/2012/12/the-amazing-surreal-art-by-vladimir-kush.html [Accessed on 21 May 2016].

Images by Phil Crow, Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/albums/72157668477406316 [Accessed 18 May 2016].

Imgur (2013) ‘Disasterland’ by José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros. London: Imur. Available from http://imgur.com/gallery/YFb8P [Accessed 19 May 2016].

Moseley, K. (2016) Twisted Ivy Productions: ‘Every Rose…’ Pitch. [Presentation]. Theatre Company DRA3045M-1516, University of Lincoln, 17 February.

Salvador Dali. (2011) Heritage Painting. London: Salvador Dali. Available from http://www.dalipaintings.net/persistence-of-memory.jsp#prettyPhoto [Accessed on 21 May 2016].

Scheriau, L. (2015) Why we need Disney’s dirty princesses. London: The Mantle. Available from http://www.mantlethought.org/arts-and-culture/why-we-need-disney-dirty-princesses [Accessed 10 May 2016].

May 25, 2016 by Emily Jeffs

Final Blog Submission – Emily Jeffs

Running up to the show (Not literally, I’m very unfit)

(Twisted Ivy, 2016)

As a newly formed Theatre Company, we had to choose an appropriate and eye-catching name. After many meetings and much deliberation, the group decided on the name ‘Twisted Ivy Productions’. This was chosen because in typical fairy-tale stories, there is some form of plant or flower prevalent. For instance, in the fairy-tale Snow White they incorporate a rose; “she took the rose trees with her…” (Brothers, 2016) and in the story ‘The Two Cakes’, they speak about many different flowers; “…that when you breathe, roses and jessamines may fall from your mouth…” (Giambattista, 2002).

The group discussed the idea of completely twisting the original story of a fairy-tale and having a completely alternative story which was based on surrealism. This idea also helped with the name of the company, as it is a ‘twisted’ idea and we felt it was necessary to have the company name reflect that also. The reason we used ‘Ivy’ in the name because we felt a need to keep the theme of a key plant or flower throughout the story. The choice of ‘Ivy’ as the focus plant because it is an unusual plant that will wrap itself around buildings and fixtures. This made Ivy a good metaphor for the story, as Cinderella was slowly letting the thoughts of revenge “wrap itself around” her and take its toll.

This then led the group to think of a name for the show itself, and based around the theme of flowers or plants within the name. Through this, the group unanimously decided on the name ‘Every Rose…’, as we liked the idea of using a Rose, specifically. The head of the rose holds great beauty, despite the sharp thorns that protect it from the outside world. This was another good metaphor for our Cinderella as she was beautiful in appearance but she could be dangerous once the sisters bullied her until she could no longer take it.

We came up with the idea of a twisted tale of Cinderella, taking inspiration from the original Cinderella story by Jacob and Wilheim Grimm. We liked the idea of a different idea towards a fairy-tale, as we all know fairy-tales to have a ‘and they lived happily ever after’ feel, we wanted our show to incorporate the story but make it completely different. The original story is a lot darker than any other versions we had read; “Cut off your toe. When you are queen you will no longer have to go on foot” (Grimm & Grimm, 2011). We liked the idea of the disgusting, abnormal, gruesome side to the Cinderella story we all knew and loved and so we wanted to keep the influence from the brothers Grimm in our performance somehow.

(Goodreads, 2016)

We’re all in the same boat – working together as an Ensemble:

(Twisted Ivy, 2016)

“…ensemble is a long-term relationship; a day-in, day-out collaboration in shared living, thinking and creating.” (Cohen, 2011)

Working as an ensemble can be challenging, long and confrontational, but sometimes that’s half the fun of it. Sometimes you will have your up’s and down’s as an ensemble but that’s usually because everyone is passionate about the work they are wanting to produce, but you work together through these ‘bumps’ because you are all part of a team; “…ensemble is simply the French word meaning ‘together'” (Cohen, 2011). Often it is when the ensemble is out of the work room that ideas flow better, for instance Duska (2013) states: “…ideas come to people sometimes, not when they are under pressure in the rehearsal room, but quite often it’s in the break that you go – ‘Well, I could try this?’ and ‘What about this?'”. Never force the work in a rehearsal room, once you are relaxed the ideas will come. We found that as soon as we did not have the stress of the space and we were conversing freely and more relaxed that our ideas became much better and more thought out, as we did not feel any pressure.

The evolution of the forest

After coming up with the idea of a twisted tale of Cinderella we decided we wanted to have a stage that was just one huge forest, we wanted a dark, horrible dingy looking forest with dirty needles and used condoms to make it look messy and dirty – symbolising Cinderella’s mind and all of her thoughts. After deliberating and deciding that this may not be possible with our £200 budget, we decided to look into different ways of making a forest. (Pictured below is our original idea) We had an idea of making two pieces of wood and slotting them together to make them stand freely and if a light was shone onto them, they would make an incredible, large, overwhelming shadow. As if it was a larger being looking over and scaring Cinderella. After discovering that these small slotted trees created amazing shadows and were reasonably easy to make (Winona may disagree with me there), we created two big versions of these wooden trees and placed them on stage.

(Twisted Ivy, 2016)

(Twisted Ivy, 2016)

Deciding on Surrealism

(Webneel, 2016) (Pinterest, 2016)

Salvador Dali was a well renowned flamboyant artist, sculptor, writer, advertiser and filmmaker. One of the quotes that Salvador Dali stated that made me grasp surrealism the most, was this:

“I would awake at sunrise, and without washing or dressing sit down before the easel which stood right beside my bed. Thus the first thing I saw on awakening was the painting I had begun, as it was the last I saw in the evening when I retired… I spent the whole day seated before my easel, my eyes staring fixedly, trying to ‘see’, like a medium (very much so indeed). The images that would spring up in my imagination. Often I saw these images exactly situated in the painting…” (Dali & M Chevalier, 1942).

This really made me think of the way in which I now saw surrealism. In our show, we decided on making a very surrealistic, dreamlike world for Cinderella. I took inspiration from this quote because Salvador Dali himself would wake up and paint whatever he dreamt about the night before, which is why his paintings were so weird but wonderful. I wanted the same impact in the performance, a weird and wonderful world which was all in Cinderella’s head, just like a dream. As Salvador had many different paintings of his dreams, which were usually completely random and the objects we saw in the paintings did not make sense, I felt that we needed this same essence for our final performance. We took inspiration from Salvador’s ideas and that helped us contribute towards the way in which the stage was going to look for the final performance, the weird wooden trees, the creepy hanging swing in the centre of the stage, the props left all over the floor to signify all the elements of Cinderella’s mind still sitting there, reminding her of what kind of person she had become.

If there are tickets sold – I made the right marketing decisions:

(Twisted Ivy, 2016)

(Pictured above is the leaflet/poster for our finalised show “Every Rose…”) Taking a break from the performance, I was also one half of marketing and of course I needed to start creating the leaflets and posters to market our show. Originally the photo above was not the idea that we had in our heads. At the beginning we got a friend of the group to take various different photographs of the cast in various ways to try and get the perfect picture for our poster.

(Instagram, 2016)

(Pictured above, our original photograph) We originally wanted to put this photo as our poster/leaflet photo but after discussing this with each other and getting some help from our lecturer we decided that it wasn’t the right image for us. It didn’t explain anything about the show or pose any questions to the audience, so we decided to change it. We really liked the idea of having a picture that was illustrated to make it more original to us, rather than just a photograph. We asked another friend and he kindly drew up a rough copy on what we wanted for the picture. Instantly we knew that this was the perfect portrayal of our piece in photo form. It portrayed perfectly the ‘peep’ into Cinderella’s mind and how wonderful and weird it was going to be, and it would keep the audience members guessing, so they wouldn’t know what to expect.

My final bow on the LPAC stage

Show day finally came and all the hard work seemed to pay off, as we received some lovely, positive feedback from the audience. I came out of the performance and asked myself a few questions, just in case we ever decided to carry on with Twisted Ivy at a more professional level.

What went right? – The whole show came together so well, every joke landed perfectly on the night and they were very well received. Each of the company’s characters were all played well, and you could tell who was who, the characterisation of each character just went massive on the night and made the characters really come to life on stage.
What went wrong? – Although many things on the night went right, it’s always good to process the negatives so that you can work on them in the future. In the final scene between the fairy godmother and Cinderella, the fairy godmother was meant to bring on a rose to give to Cinderella. Unfortunately on the night it was not picked up, so I had to collect the rose and shout to the fairy godmother to give it to her, but because of the nature of the play (an adult pantomime) it was in keeping with the play really well and many people said that they didn’t even notice that it wasn’t part of the play. In another scene of the play myself and another character had to wear moustaches as part of our costume for that specific scene, unfortunately whilst we were doing the scene the moustaches slowly started to fall off, we had to spit them off and make it look like it was part of the show, otherwise it would have been embarrassing for us. But once again, upon asking the audience afterwards they also said they did not notice this mistake and thought it was part of the scene.
What would you change if you had to do it next time round? – If I had to change anything if we were to perform this specific show again, I would change the amount of time we had to rehearse with the staging, lights and costume. It was difficult to rehearse in the space we were performing on as it was being used for various different shows as well as ours, so we could only rehearse with everything we had on the day of the show.

Although I would have changed a few things, and a few things went wrong, I couldn’t have pictured a better play and a better way to finish my time at university and the end of this theatre company process.

References:

Brothers, G., 2016. Snow White and Rose Red. [Online] Available at: http://www.authorama.com/grimms-fairy-tales-63.html [Accessed 25 May 2016].

Cohen, R., 2011. Working Together in theatre: Collaboration and leadership. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Dali, S. & M Chevalier, H., 1942. The Secret Life of Salvador Dali. New York: Dover Publications.

Giambattista, B., 2002. The Story of Stories. [Online] Available at: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/23twocakes1911.html [Accessed 25 May 2016].

Goodreads, 2016. Cinderella and Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm Book and Charm. [Online] Available at: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/251299.Cinderella_and_Other_Tales_by_the_Brothers_Grimm_Book_and_Charm [Accessed 25 May 2016].

Grimm, J. & Grimm, W., 2011. Cinderella. [Online] Available at: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm021.html [Accessed 25 May 2016].

Instagram (2016) Our first warmup (ft. our warm up) [Image]. Available from https://www.instagram.com/p/BB74i94LYOC/?taken-by=twistedivy16&hl=en [accessed 24 May 2016]

Pinterest, 2016. Salvador Dali Paintings. [Online] Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/explore/salvador-dali-paintings/ [Accessed 24 May 2016].

Radosavljevic, D., 2013. The Contemporary Ensemble: Interviews with Theatre-makers. Oxford: Routledge.

Twisted Ivy (2016) Sneak preview of our set [Image]. Available from https://www.instagram.com/p/BFZSI3pLYAb/?taken-by=twistedivy16 [accessed May 24 2016]

Twisted Ivy Theatre Company (2016) The newest logo [Facebook]. 3 March. Available from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1262198173809012&set=g.575261872642879&type=1&theater [accessed May 24 2016]

Twisted Ivy Theatre Company (2016) Testing out ideas for the performance [Facebook]. 1 March. Available from https://www.facebook.com/TwistedIvy16/photos/pb.688165994619701.-2207520000.1464190403./697989860303981/?type=3&theater [accessed May 24 2016]

Twisted Ivy (2016) Every Rose… Lincoln: Twisted Ivy.

Webneel, 2016. 25 Famous Salvador Dali Paintings – Surreal and Optical illusion Paintings. [Online] Available at: http://webneel.com/salvador-dali-famous-surreal-optical-illusion-paintings [Accessed 24 May 2016].

May 25, 2016 by Chloe Downie

Final Blog – Chloe Downie

The Beginning

As an all-female theatre company we wanted to enhance this factor, however we did not want to exclude males from future performances. As a theatre company we wanted to focus our productions on fairy tales, however we wanted to give them a modern or unusual twist. Once we had decided this to be our theme we had to figure out a name for the company. We chose the name “Twisted Ivy.” We decided this for a few reasons. As we wanted to put a different spin/twist onto well-known fairy tales we thought the word “twisted” was appropriate. We then decided on “ivy” as it is often used in fairy tales. As well as being common ivy that grows up walls there is also poison ivy. Therefore, there is more than one way to read our name. Our final decision was to call ourselves “Twisted Ivy Productions.”

Following this we had to write our manifesto. In this we wanted to include who we were, the ideas we wanted to convey in our performances and how we create our work, through devising or adapting. Below is our final mission statement:

We are Twisted Ivy Productions, a theatre company run by an all-female team. Although we are a female run company we are not exclusive to an all-female cast, we invite male actors into our performances. We have a bold approach to giving classic ideas a dark, alternative twist to evoke thought on important matters.

As a company of devising artists, our work progresses through discussion, improvisation and writing. By combining movement, fun, comedy and everyday objects, we give sensitive issues a new edge.

After we had written our manifesto we decided to pick our roles. We chose the roles we wanted ourselves, we thought this would be best because as it is our final performance at university we wanted everyone to enjoy themselves. Also, we thought picking out our own roles was a good idea as we can play to our strengths and interests. I chose to be a performer and half of the social media team, I was in charge of twitter and Facebook.

Our Genre

Once we decided that the fairy tale we would take inspiration from was Cinderella by Charles Perrault we had to decide how we would adapt it. Hope came up with the idea of opening the show with shadow puppets and explaining the beginning of Cinderella, how her father got remarried and Cinderella’s step-mother and step-sisters were horrible to her. This then goes onto Cinderella wishing she could seek revenge on her siblings. The actors on stage would represent Cinderella’s mind. Following this, when the Fairy God Mother shows up at the end, rather than Cinderella getting gifts to go to the ball, she would instead get gifts which will help her see that it is not her sister’s fault that they are mean and Cinderella should not try to seek revenge because it does not benefit her.

Since we had a basic structure we then needed to fill in the blanks. We had the idea of the performance being surrealist because it was a dream world. We started out with having the idea that Cinderella was getting ready for a ball and was then in control of her sisters. Her sisters could not move or do anything without her help or guidance. One example is, Cinderella had to push the sisters onto stage and when she wanted the sisters to talk she clapped. However, when we showed this during one of our lessons there was still not a clear genre. Although we wanted the performance to be surrealist, we did not think it was possible for us. Therefore we decided it would be more appropriate to have surreal elements.

After this discussion we chose to have different genres throughout the performance. We chose; film noir, western, horror and telenovela/melodrama. This can be seen as being slightly surreal because the genres are random and there is no need for them to change. However, because the performance was a dream, having different genres worked in our favour. Deciding on the genres also enabled us to think of a solid storyline for the performance. Once we had decided to use a variety of genres our performance began to take shape.

The Leaflet

Early on in our process we had a photo shoot so we could have pictures of the cast on our leaflets and posters. During the photoshoot we had a lot of fun, testing different ideas. We were happy with the final outcome of the photos. However, after thinking about the photos and looking at them for a bit longer, we realised the poster did not reflect our show. The photos were ambiguous, whereas we had a clear idea of surrealism and the performance being set in Cinderella’s mind. We had a look on google for some ideas and our producer, Emma, found this:

(Pinterest, 2016)

We thought this was extremely interesting and thought we could show our performance through a picture similar to this one. We decided to have a drawing instead of a photograph. In the drawing we included the forest, as that was a big part of our set. We also chose the leaflet to be brightly coloured as we felt this captured our performance because of the outlandish behaviour and strange world we created. This was our final image:

(Twisted Ivy, 2016)

When creating the leaflet we looked at an example marketing pack and poster. This example poster was of “A machine they’re secretly building” by proto-type theatre. We were fond of how they used their photo in the middle of the poster and had a white boarder around it, with black writing. We found this helped the image and the writing to be seen clearly. For our poster we felt a white background would contrast well with our brightly coloured image. Emily and I, did not like the idea of overlapping the writing onto the image, we wanted to keep them separate as they are giving different information. We cut the top of the image to allow it to fit onto the page and have enough room to write below the picture. We needed to include:

Our title
Date and time of performance
Location
Ticket price
LPAC logo
LPAC details
Age limit
Our logo

This was the final outcome:

I believe the colours stand out and draw in people’s attention. The writing is also clearly set out, therefore audience members know all the information they need to know quickly and clearly. I am pleased with the final outcome of the leaflet.

The development of the performance

After we had decided on the genres we needed to structure the performance. Using the different genres gave us a skeleton of the performance.

The first genre we used in the performance was Film Noir. Kay and Hope researched this before the scene was written. Therefore, the language used and blocking was similar to what would be seen in film noir. During this scene we saw the sisters entering and Cinderella telling them about a letter they had received. In this, we see the relationship between the sisters and how Gertrude is the evil sister, and how Belinda follows what her older sister says. There is also a turn at the end of the scene, when Cinderella decides to make a plan to stop the sisters from going to the ball.

The second genre was Western. We felt this worked well as the second genre because in this scene Cinderella tries to kill the sisters but they escape. The costumes also worked well, as the sisters had fake moustaches and bandannas and Cinderella had a cowboy hat. This scene was comedic as it was the first time the audience realised different genres were being brought into the performance.

The third genre used was Horror. In this scene the sisters are scared and lost in the woods and Cinderella finds them and tries to kill them. Although the beginning of the scene was serious and dark, with the sisters being worried about Cinderella. On the other hand the fight scene made it comedic. This was because of the language and light heartedness used by the step-sisters whilst they were fighting Cinderella.

The forth scene was Telenovela/Melodrama. During this scene the sisters have made up and Cinderella wanted them to be friends. However, they keep talking about the ball and Cinderella cannot take it anymore and poisons them. Belinda has a long dramatic death, whereas Gertrude’s was quick, as she fell straight to the floor.

In all of the scenes the sisters played their characters in a pantomime style. By this I mean, they were over the top, with grand gestures and larger than life personalities. I believe this added to the performance because the contrast with the difference genres heightened their characters. The amusement came from the characters being in situations they should not be.

During the scene changes there is a recorded dialogue between the fairy godmother and Cinderella. This was included in the performance because we wanted to portray the voices inside Cinderella’s head. How her conscious was talking to her, but she ignored it until the very end. We thought this concept was good because it showed the internal struggle Cinderella faced.

To help transition between scenes there were recorded monologues of Cinderella describing the scene changes and what she could see. This was used to allow the audience to understand what was going on in Cinderella’s mind and how she was coping with the way the sisters were treating her. Throughout the performance the tone of the monologues changed. The first was very descriptive, to show the change into the western scene. After that they became darker, for example in the second monologue Cinderella says she will eat the sister’s eyeballs. The monologue reflected how Cinderella was feeling. We believe this was effective as is showed her inner emotions and explained why she was behaving the way she was.

After thoughts

After the show, as a whole, I think the performance went exceptionally. The day before there was some hesitation as to whether the performance would work. This was because the feedback we received could have been worked on over a period of a few weeks, when we had 24 hours to change. Despite this, the company members tried their hardest to change as much as they could. The sisters had to be bigger characters, the costumes had to be uglier and the performing whilst the monologues was playing had to be more active.

On the day of the performance the staging, costume, lighting and performing worked amazingly together. I think the audience’s laughter really spurred the sisters on, as I believe that was their best performance. Their characters came alive when they went on stage and became the biggest I had seen. I also believe their costume and make up was part of this, as it was the stereotypical pantomime step-sisters outfits, this helped them get into character.

If we were to perform Every Rose… again I would take more time to focus on my movement during the monologues as I felt they went on for a bit too long and brought the atmosphere down slightly. I also think the horror scene could be changed as there could have been more of a reason for the sisters to go into the woods. I also did not feel comfortable in the fight scene, but I think with more rehearsal and practice I could have overcome my fear and to make it sharper.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I am happy with the outcome of Every Rose…. At times there was some difficulty working as a group, with some miscommunication and some bickering. However, this was expected as it was our first time working together and the first time any of us had created a forty five minute performance. I am proud at how far we have come as a theatre company, we had lots of ideas at the beginning but once we all knew what we wanted to do everything came together perfectly. I believe everyone helped with as much as they could and worked to their best abilities. Although there are some things I would change with the performance, I am happy with what was shown and I am very glad to have been given the opportunity to work with such a wonderful group of girls.

Pinterest (2016) Rafal Olbinski – Manon Lescaut [image]. Available from https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/350225308492923742/ [accessed 25 May 2016].

Twisted Ivy Theatre Company (2016) Final image for Every Rose… [Facebook]. 3 April. Available from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10209652642049863&set=g.575261872642879&type=1&theater [accessed 25 May 2016].

May 25, 2016 by Laura Cooke

Final Blog Submission – Laura Cooke

The beginning of the process:

From the start, our theatre company wanted to do something different, to create something that people hadn’t seen before. We had always wanted to base our ideas on a traditional fairy tale, however we wanted to twist it and again, make it something people hadn’t seen before. We went from Sleeping Beauty, to Snow White and then settled on Cinderella. Cinderella is such a well known fairy tale that people already hold an opinion and an expectation of it when they see it somewhere; so we wanted to take this expectation away and form something completely unexpected! As our theatre company is made up of 8 women, we decided to use this to our advantage and show that Cinderella doesn’t need to meet the prince to result in a happy ever after like in the original fairy tale, and that she can be a strong independent woman, this is also known as the Cinderella Complex. ‘The concept of women’s emotional, financial and other dependency on men from The Cinderella Complex can be interpreted in different ways in today’s society and culture.’ (Weaver,2016). We therefore decided to base the play on Cinderella’s relationship with her sisters instead of it all being about the Cinderella going to the ball and meeting the prince. Originally, we wanted to base the play solely on surrealism because of Cinderella’s dream world, however, we realised that it was too hard for us to portray on stage; therefore, we still kept the dream like world, but we just took out most of the surrealism so that it would be more simple for Kay Moseley to write the script, and so that our play would make sense to an audience, even if it didn’t make sense in Cinderella’s mind! The structure of the piece, we created by using different film genres such as: Film Noir, Western, Horror, Silent Movie and Telenovela. By using the different genres, it helped with creating a dream like world, because in a dream things keep changing and one minute you can be in one place and the next moment you’re in another place and you don’t know why. ‘Influenced by the writings of psychologist Sigmund Freud, the literary, intellectual, and the artistic movement called Surrealism sought a revolution against the constraints of the rational mind; and by extension the rules of a society they saw as oppressive. ‘(MoMa Learning,2016).

First Company Photo (2nd February 2016).

Photographed by Phil Crow. (Flickr,2016).

The role of Lighting Designer: The Process/Research

I have taken on the role of lighting and sound designer before at the university, when I took the Shakespeare module. I was therefore thrilled to be able to have the chance to take on the role again for our theatre company. When we got the general idea of the play, and had some context of the scenes, I then began to decide on what colours I wanted to use. For the opening of the show, we had our puppet show; therefore I only needed the back light to aid us in making the shadow puppets work against the screen.

Photographed by Phil Crow. (Flickr,2016).

A photo portraying the back light on the screen. Photographed By Laura Cooke at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. (Cooke, L. 2016).

The genre of the first scene was Film Noir. I then researched images of the film Noir nature, and also looked at videos to help me get an idea of how the era was represented. However, of course, Film Noir is presented for the screen, so I had to get creative and think of a way that I could portray this to an audience and to make it work on stage. During my research I came across two significant images that I have wrote about in my previous post, these images helped me to get into the mindset of how Film Noir was portrayed.

‘Wall Shadows’ (Hibbard, 2014).

Film Noir Photo. (Open Culture,2006-2016).

For our show, I used dim, blue wash lighting and used the haze machine to create the mist; I wanted to create an atmosphere for the actors and the audience. For scene two, the genre was Western. For the western, I used orange and yellow to create a warm feel; I wanted the light change to change when Cinderella said ‘I feel the heat warming me up…’ (Moseley, K.2016), in her recorded monologue, so that it could create the illusion of her thoughts being revealed to the audience so when she thought of the heat warming her up, I wanted to show the audience this too; and perhaps the audience felt a part of the western atmosphere, this is what I would have liked to have created- so that the audience felt part of the show. The third scene was that of the genre of horror. Consequently, I used white and red together so that the red wasn’t too overpowering, but it still created the scary eerie atmosphere, I also used a black light when hiding Cinderella’s character from the audience.

Photographed by Phil Crow. (Flickr,2016).

The strobe light was also a choice that I felt would be good for making the characters on stage look as though they are running in slow motion; this could increase comedic value and also gave Cinderella’s character time to walk behind the Ugly Stepsisters to make it creepy when she then went and touched one of the sisters shoulders. The fourth scene was the silent movie scene. I used a warm wash of lights, mainly light colours to try and create a sepia effect. The fifth scene was the Telenovela style; I used a pink and white light, as this scene then ran into the Fairy godmother and Cinderella scene where they first meet, but it is actually in fact the last scene of the play. I kept the same lighting state because I wanted to show the continuity of the scene. Over all, most of the lights in the show were LED’s I felt were the best choice because of how I could mix the colours and the variety of colours that they held.

Photographed by Phil Crow. (Flickr,2016).

The Role of Sound Designer: The Process/Research

Being the sound designer for Twisted Ivy Productions has been a brilliant time for me. I have always thoroughly enjoyed music and I am glad to have taken on the challenging role of sound designer so that I could broaden my research and learn new things during the creative process. Primarily, to begin the process I needed to make sure I was going to get the clarity and best sounds I could for our performance, therefore I used iTunes. By using iTunes, I knew that the sound would be the best quality for the speakers in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre auditorium. When I got into the process of searching for the sound effects, I began to really enjoy it- just by discovering the different versions of sound effects for example, it was an interesting process. However at times, the process was difficult, because I had to make sure I was finding the most suitable sounds and sometimes this was easier said than done; nevertheless I used my determined nature, and I kept searching.

The house music for the show was a fun process because I could choose any song I wanted, however I wanted the songs to relate to the themes of the performance to create the atmosphere for the audience and the actors. Each song I selected related to either the themes of the show or the show in general. The songs I chose where: Sia-California Dreamin’, Radio Head- Daydreaming (Radio Head, 2016), Fleetwood Mac- Dreams (Fleetwood Mac, 1977), Queen- I’m going slightly mad (Queen, 1991/2000-Remastered), Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are made of this) (Eurythmics, 1983) and Poison- Every Rose has it’s thorn (Poison, 1988). From looking at the songs I selected, it is clear to see that most of them relate to dreams, and the process of going mad and losing yourself (Queen-I’m going slightly mad). The song by Poison –Every Rose has its thorn, I chose because of the title of the show, Every Rose… The title is open to interpretation but I felt the song related.

The show opened with the Shadow Puppet theatre, for this I chose an old Victorian music box track to underlay the voice over; as the company wanted the puppet show to have a Victorian feel to it, to differentiate between Cinderella’s reality and what was going on in her mind.

The first scene of the play was that of Film Noir. I had previously been watching video’s of Film Noir sound tracks on YouTube, so that I got a general understanding of the style of music used. A video that I looked at which was of great help to me with understanding the style was this:

(Youtube,2012).

After researching the sound of Film Noir, I found a track on iTunes that I felt was fitting with the scene and with the genre. The song being: Film Noir by Pop Art. (Pop Art, 2008). The next scene was the Western genre, for this scene I felt an appropriate song would be The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Soundtrack. (Ennio Morricone, 1966). Other sound effects I used were a gunshot and a steam train. I researched guns that were used in Western’s, and I found that a common type of gun was called a Remington model ‘Nevertheless, the Remington cartridge guns carved a niche in western history’.(Adler,2014). In addition, I wanted to find a Remington sound effect for the scene, because if I used a modern pistol, it wouldn’t have the same effect and it wouldn’t be in the correct context; I wanted it to be justifiable. I did the same for the train sound effect, I wanted to use an old fashioned steam train so that it was appropriate for the Western. The third scene was the genre of Horror. For this scene, I found sound effects that I felt portrayed an eerie atmosphere for the horror, such as: Circling crows, a thunderstorm and an angry growling wolf. With the Circling crows and the Thunderstorm sound effects, I edited them using the Audacity software, creating a horror soundscape. At first, I found the editing a little difficult as I hadn’t used the particular type of software for a while, however I managed to get the gist of it and I enjoyed editing the tracks. The fourth scene was the Silent Movie scene. For the scene, I chose two contrasting songs, one was very up beat and the other was slow and ‘sad’ in nature; as I wanted to portray the two different parts of the scene; (The fast, up beat track for the sisters and the slow song for Cinderella). The fifth scene was a Telenovela style. For this scene I only used one sound effect, because I wanted to help create the comedic effect of when Belinda dies very dramatically, therefore I chose a dramatic Timpani Drum sound effect, (Serious about sound effects,2010). The last scene was the scene when the Fairy Godmother is introduced for the first time in person to the audience, (I also had the role of the Fairy Godmother which I loved portraying). For the scene, I again, used one sound effect of a magical chime, that sounded like the shake of a Fairy’s wand. I wanted to keep it simple because it would become to over-crowded with different sounds that the essence of the scene may have become lost.

The Final Performance

On the evening of Wednesday the 18th of May 2016, as Twisted Ivy Productions, we put on our first show. Overall, I feel that the final performance went brilliantly. We have received some very positive feedback which we are very happy about. Every member of the theatre company have worked really hard and I feel that it definitely showed on the night. I am happy with how my light and sound worked out, I gave it my all as a lighting and sound designer, so I hope that the audience liked the lighting and sound and that it fitted with the scenes correctly from their perspective. I of course enjoyed playing the role of the Fairy Godmother too! To conclude, it has been a tough yet very exciting process.

Photographed by Phil Crow. (Flickr, 2016).

Works Cited:

Adler, D. (2014) Top 12 Western Classics [online] Guns of the old west.com Available from:http://gunsoftheoldwest.com/2014/10/top-12-western-classics/ [Accessed 12 April 2016].

Crow, P. (2016) Every Rose Photo Album [Online]. Available from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/albums/72157668477406316/with/26490512614/ [Accessed 19 May 2016].

Digiffects Sound Effects Library (2016) Steam Train Start, Ride, And Slow Down with Horn and Whistle. [CD Track]. 2 minutes. 3 Seconds. Train Sounds.

Ennio Morricone (1966) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Titles). [CD Track]. 2 minutes. 42 seconds. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Original Motion Picture).

Eurythmics (1983) Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) [CD Track] 3 minutes. 37 seconds. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) [Remastered]. A. Lennox & David A. Stewart.

Fleetwood Mac (1977) Dreams [CD Track] 4 minutes. 18 Seconds. Rumours. Stevie Nicks.

Hibbard, M. (2014) Lighting Tips for Film Noir [online]. Available from: http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/lighting-for-film-noir/rella-complex [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Moma.learn.org (2016).Surrealism Available from: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/surrealism/tapping-the-subconscious-automatism-and-dreams [Accessed 10 May 2016].

Moseley, K. (2016) Every Rose… [Script]

Open Culture.com (2006-2016) 60 Free Film Noir Movies [online]. Available from: http://www.openculture.com/free_film_noir_movies [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Poison (2006) Every Rose Has Its Thorn [CD Track] 4 minutes. 20 seconds. The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock (Remastered). Poison.

Queen (2000) I’m Going Slightly Mad [CD Track] 4 minutes. 9 seconds. The Platinum Collection. Brian May, Freddie Mercury, John Deacon and Roger Taylor.

Radiohead (2016) Daydreaming [CD Track] 6 minutes. 24 seconds. A Moon Shaped Pool.Radiohead.

Rami Khalife & Franesco Tristano (2008) Film Noir [CD Track] 3 minutes. 41 seconds. Pop Art. Rhami Khalife.

Serious About Sound Effects (2010) Timpani Drums Bass Drum Drama Dramatic Horror Tension Circus Scary Timp Sound Effects Musical Instruments and Sounds Drums-Timpani. [CD Track]. 0:39 seconds. Serious About Sound Effects.

Sia (2015) California Dreamin’ [CD Track]. 3 minutes. 36 seconds. San Andreas (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). Andrew Lockington.

Sound Effects Library (2012) Hand Gun – Remington New Army 1858, .44 Black Powder Revolver: Single Shot, Close Perspective 1 Handgun, Pistol & Revolver Firing. [CD Track]. 0:07 seconds. Hand Gun sound effects. Hot ideas & inc.

Weaver, R. (2016) Psychology behind the Cinderella Complex [online]. Available from: http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/psychology-behind-cinde [Accessed 20 May 2016].

YouTube (2012) Jazz Music (Film Noir) [online video] Available from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwvVhXItl1w [Accessed 23 April 2016].

May 25, 2016 by Kay Maria Moseley

It’s All A Learning Process – Final Blog

On the 18th May 2016, our theatre company had our debut show. From the very beginning we all wanted to do something with traditional fairy tales and twist them in some way to give a different view or angle on a classic story that everyone knows. At first we thought of using different princess’s and each of them represent a different issue, however we quickly came to the conclusion that this wasn’t what we wanted to do and that it might be too messy. We therefore decided to just have one fairy tale and use that to represent an issue. We always wanted the stage to be a forest which represented the protagonists mind, and would be polluted and dark to show that they were not exactly stable or in a happy place. As the original story of Sleeping Beauty has rape and other issues involved we decided to use this as our focus. However after many meetings of trying to get the main story right we decided this again would be too messy for what we wanted to do and therefore we had to rethink what it was we were trying to achieve. Eventually after many meetings and discussions we decided to focus on Cinderella and her need to get revenge on her sisters for how they treat her.

Of course even though we were finally settled on an idea it didn’t mean that things ran smoothly from there. We kept our original idea of the forest and Hope (our director) thought it would be a good idea to use surrealistic elements to show that Cinderella is in a dream world and she is imaging everything that is happening. This then became our next challenge as we did not want to go completely surrealistic, but we didn’t know how to get our story going or how to get the to end where we knew Cinderella would come to the conclusion that her actions were not right. For weeks this was a problem and idea after idea came and went. This was really hard for me as a writer, as I felt the pressure of writing a complete play in a certain amount of time, but I couldn’t start without us having a solid idea of what we wanted to happen first. I wrote a few drafts but they never seemed right or good enough for what we wanted to present, and so it was a few stressful and frustrating weeks for all of us. Finally it was suggested that we have different genres for each scene to highlight certain moments and present the different kinds of revenge in different ways. We eventually settled on Film Noir, Western, Horror, Silent Movie, and Telanovela, with monologues in between to lead the audience into each scene. We also had a dialogue before the monologues between the Fairy Godmother and Cinderella, as though the Fairy Godmother was the voice of reason trying to get through to Cinderella and stop what she was doing.

As we only wanted to have the aesthetic setting of a surrealist play, this being the dream like world, I struggled with how to portray the rest of the scenes and how they would show this decline in Cinderella’s mind, which was Cinderella trying to kill the ugly sisters. We also researched the Cinderella Complex which is “When a woman (often submissive and needy) spends all her time searching for her “prince charming” to come rescue her; brainwashed by rosy romantic images and ideals” (Urban Dictionary, 2005). We wanted Cinderella to be able to take control of the situation herself and get revenge on her sisters because she feels she deserves it and not wait for the prince or anyone else to come and save her. This was also helped by the fact that we are an all female theatre company, and therefore we didn’t want any men to come in and save the day when our characters can save themselves. We were also struggling with how we were going to present our characters as we kept getting feedback that they were too pantomime, however this worked in our favor as the script turned into a pantomime for adults.

The play began with the original story of Cinderella told with shadow puppets, the research and inspiration for each scene is as seen below.

Film Noir

I didn’t really know a lot about Film Noir before this so I had to do a lot of research to understand the core aspects of this genre. One really helpful video was by the BBC on YouTube, and it was the basic rules of what a Film Noir is.

(ROCCO ACEE, 2013)

This video really helped me to understand the core rules of a Film Noir and what would have to be in the script for the audience to understand what genre it was. For example, Cinderella played the Femme Fatale, who would act nice and sweet, with crocodile tears and then when no one was looking would swiftly turn into the sly strong woman who knows how to get what she wants.

Photography by Phil Crow

(Flickr, 2016)

I also looked at scenes from different movies to observe the dialogue and the relationships between people. For example, The Limping Man, and The Big Sleep, to name a few. This scene showed the Ugly Sisters getting the invite to ball and Cinderella’s reaction to not being invited.

(excerpt of script)

Western

I was a bit more familiar with the western genre so I mainly looked at scenes with conflict. One scene I took inspiration from was a clip from A Fistful of Dollars. I liked it because the protagonist is asking for an apology because they upset his mule, and I thought this was a good idea to have in our play, to make Cinderella want an apology over something trivial, like the ugly sisters mocking her dress.

(Ross115, 2012)

Another scene I took inspiration from was the gun fight in My Name is Nobody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkCqSHwhKVg

(husshillivideo’s channel, 2012)

I really liked this scene as instead of an actual shoot out, he is just embarrassing the other man and showing him that he is better than him. I really wanted a scene like this in the script but it was decided to have a quick shoot out instead. However, if we were to continue with this play to develop it more I would definitely add a scene like this as I think it really fits with our adult panto theme. I didn’t find this scene too hard to write as I was really inspired and enthusiastic with the possibilities it held. The main challenge was making sure we had some American words instead of English, such as, restroom instead of toilets or bathroom.

I also decided to have the stereotypical damsel in distress tied to the train tracks, which was the ugly sisters, but instead of a hero coming to save them, they saved themselves in time before the train came. I chose to have this in the scene as it is something that everyone immediately identifies and it doesn’t need any explanation as they are already familiar with this idea. This meant that I was free to use the situation for comedic effect and know that we would have the audience’s attention straight away.

Horror

This was my least favorite scene as I don’t like this genre, but the rest of the Theatre Company liked the idea and so I collaborated with our director Hope, to write this as she is a big horror fan. Hope wanted the Horror scene to be like a psycho killer rather than an actual monster of any kind, however I wrote it so that Cinderella is just seen in the background to the audience with a few moments of interaction with the ugly sisters, and therefore the audience could interpret what kind of ‘monster’ or killer she was. This one also relied quite heavily on tech compared to others to show a wolf attacking and a strobe light of the sisters trying to find a way out. If I was to develop this script further I think I would change this scene to not rely on tech as much or to change it completely as I really didn’t like it to the others. However, this scene was the favorite of some of the other members of the Theatre Company, so I think it was my dislike of Horror’s in general that stopped me from liking it.

However, one thing I did like was the relationship between Gertrude and Belinda. I thought this was a good place to show the affection and reliance they have on each other, especially as at that moment they are fearing for their lives. In this part they are discussing what has happened to Cinderella to make her act like she is, they also reveal that their relationship with their mother is not the best, and therefore they are not that different to Cinderella after all.

Photography by Phil Crow

(Flickr, 2016)

Silent Movie

This was one of my favorite scenes because it was all physical and relied on our body language and actions to show the story, it was also very fun devising it. The biggest inspiration for this scene was of course from Charlie Chaplin.

This clip is from The Lion’s Cage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79i84xYelZI

(manufrakass, 2007)

For this scene I didn’t write a script but came up with a basic plot of the ugly sisters going to the ball and each kissing the Prince, and coming back to gloat to Cinderella. There was a nice juxtaposition between the ugly sisters at the ball having the time of their lives and mirroring each other without realising, to Cinderella who is at home and has given up trying to get revenge at this point and is crying with a box of tissues. We used huge gestures to show what we were doing and big facial expressions to show our emotions. We all devised this scene together and it is one that I don’t think I would change if we were to develop this show any further.

Telanovela

Our final themed scene was Telenovela. I had never heard of this genre and so I watched a few clips from YouTube and found it to be very similar to Melodrama, meaning it is over dramatic and everything has to be said and done the biggest it can be.

(Flicks And The City Plus, 2015)

This made the perfect genre for our last scene where we wanted Cinderella to pretend to make friends with the ugly sisters and then poison them. This scene was quite fun to make and I really enjoyed performing it too, especially the death scenes. To develop this scene more I would definitely make it a lot more dramatic from the very beginning and add a lot more moments of tension and drama.

(excerpt of script)

Photography by Phil Crow

(Flickr, 2016)

Linking The Scenes

We wanted to have a dialogue between the Fairy Godmother and Cinderella between scenes, as the Fairy Godmother represents the voice in your mind that tries to reason with you. This was then followed by a monologue and I really liked the idea of them being very descriptive as if Cinderella can see it appear around her and this way the audience can imagine it along with her. Also at the very end the Fairy Godmother appears and helps Cinderella to understand what she has done wrong and how she can become a stronger person. We wanted to end with this thought as it follows the similar fairy tale story of a resolution and happy ending. The play ended once again with the puppets.

One thing we struggled with the monologues was whether they were too long. This was a hard thing for me to grasp throughout the process, as through different scenes we didn’t know whether to cut lines or not. I found this hard as I try to put meaning into all the lines, as I always think why say something if there isn’t a point, even if that point isn’t immediately obvious at that point in the play. This was something I had to keep explaining to the rest of the Theatre Company, as they might not have always understood why some things were said at a certain point or in a certain way. Also because we only had a short amount of time before the show I felt a lot of pressure to write the play in time. However, the rest of the theatre company were very supportive and offered help when they felt they could be of assistance, which I was very grateful for.

I feel like my writing has come a long way since the beginning of this process, and I am proud that I wrote a full length play, as this was something I was adamant that would never happen when I was younger as I prefer descriptive writing like in books compared to the almost bare writing of a script. The one thing I have definitely learnt though is not to feel completely insecure about my writing, as there will always be people who won’t like it, and to be more confident with my ideas. But I am definitely proud of this play.

Works Cited

Flickr (2016) [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/26821606630/ [accessed 19 May 2016].

Flicks And The City Plus (2015) Telenovela Promo Clips 1-6 – Eva Longoria NBC Comedy Series

. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuqBljIKZzs [accessed 12 May 2016].

husshillivideo’s (2012) My Name Is Nobody Bar Fight Funny Scene

. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkCqSHwhKVg [accessed 12 May 2016].

ROCCO ACEE (2013) THE RULES OF FILM NOIR

. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2_wWc99g88 [accessed 12 May 2016].

Ross115 (2012) Most Badass Scene in Movie History

. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izyVEzlIBpk [accessed 12 May 2016].