Fixation: Dress Rehearsal and Final Performance

Dress Rehearsal

Final Performance

Attempting to Choreograph Transitions

In one session we attempted to choreograph the transitions to remove duets from the chairs, however soon discarded these ideas for we felt it detracted from the natural dynamic permeating throughout the rest of the performance.

Discussion; Reflection and Performance Possibilities PMD3/4

In the two above videos, we played back some clips of our earlier rehearsals and discussed what we thought worked and what we felt needed to be improved or perhaps changed in order to turn our explorations into a performance.


Here, whilst we are again discussing moments we likes or developments to be made, we are looking at a more recent session, in which we aimed to maintain our focus on a prop, which was a television, throughout the performance. We also discussed potential ideas for performance possibilities.


In this clip, we are still discussing the aforementioned points, but for our exploration of the ending with everyone left on stage.


This time we looked at the video of where only one person remains on stage. We considered the different angles from which the performance could be seen from and how they worked well in relation to the performance.

Here, we discuss our explorations of performing the movement in slow motion to follow the accompaniment, what went well and how it could be improved.




 In the above videos we discuss potential ideas for pre show possibilities in our performance. We began to structure and plan the final performance and noted down ideas for how it could pan out.
Below is an image also depicting our ideas regarding the subject.

Combining Material and Performance Possibilities- PMD3

Over the course of the past few sessions we have come together as a full company in order to start exploring possibilities for our performance.Using music used by Frantic Assembly themselves, we began with two chairs on stage, and one duo sat in them. This pair would loop their own chair motifs twice through, and then the next pair would come in and disrupt them, remove them from their seats and sit there themselves and perform their duet. The idea behind this was that should the duo not be removed, they would continue to loop their movement indefinitely.

In this video, we watched one another's motifs and aimed to highlight moments which presented opportunities to create unusual transitions to remove people from the chairs. 

In the following session, we continued to develop this idea, now taking it a step further with the remaining pairs travelling in pedestrian manner, mirroring the monotonous, somewhat exasperated dynamics our duets intended to invoke. At different moments, those walking around would transition into the position of the base from our trust exercises, also inspired by Frantic, signalling another to complete the exercise. This became more difficult with the hip lift, as we were unable to use verbal communication to signal to another our intentions of performing it, and who was to be lifted, nor could we simply stop still in the space and wait for someone.

[video]

In the following video we are much more confident and accustomed with the improvised nature of the task, for there is a significant increase in the amount of material we are performing from the last video where there was much more walking.



Now confident with the concept we were exploring, we began to incorporate the table and a single chair, so that we could begin to explore the idea using the other movement.

We then added in the idea mentioned in Frantic's book of Devising Theatre of placing a television at the front of the stage and all performers needing to maintain their focus on the television throughout the performance. On top of this we rotated our performance so that we were unable to look at ourselves in the mirrors whilst performing, which meant our sole focus was able to be on the television. This posed more of a challenge for contact work as we had to further implement means of non verbal communication.

Having fully consolidated the possibilities thus far, we began to look at how we could end the performance. In one session we explored several of these practically, and also mind mapped further ideas. We also turned the performance around in the space, so that we could not watch ourselves in the mirrors and had to rely more on eye contact and peripheral vision. We focussed on one of the ideas presented in Frantic Assembly's book of devising theatre, whereby performers maintain a sustained focus on the television

In first of these, we started from a point of climax, whereby we were running in the space, and gradually sensed coming to stillness as a group without verbal communication. In the second, we explored ending the piece with one person left on stage. We then explored what would happen if we followed the speed of the music, so that by the end, all was done in slow motion. Our fourth exploration was simply improvising in the moment.

One person left on stage

Slow motion to stop

Everyone left on stage

Improvised ending

Building speed and fluidity PMD4

Having now created duet material, and developed a muscle memory of the choreography, we sought to build speed and fluidity in our performance of the motif, in order to mimic the "mesmerising speed" of Frantic Assembly's own work. 

Recapping

In today's session we filled out our rehearsal check-list, before spending 10 minutes recapping the three motifs we had learnt and developed (the taught chair motif and our own chair and table motifs).

Following this, we read through an extract from "Frantic Assembly's Book of Devising Theatre" (pictured below).

For the remainder of the session we set our focus upon turning existing movement into muscle memory in order to work towards seamless transitions between movements, so that we could begin to introduce dynamics that will convey the intended story and explore the following possibilities:

a.       Performing with as much eye contact as possible
This proved to be difficult with our piece due to the obstruction of the table. 

b.      With one performer constantly looking forward as if watching TV
This idea works really well with our own chair motif. 

c.       Try performing the material in other places (stairs, floor, table)

d.      And a choice of their own bespoke performance possibility.

Rehearsal Checklist PMD3

We composed a check-list to be completed at the beginning of each rehearsal to evidence our commitment and contribution to the sessions. The process began by discussing points in pairs before collating these points as a company and categorising them. From here, we then wrote them up individually.The list breaks down the expectations for students of Pass, Merit and Distinction level.

This check-list is to be completed weekly, and evidence of this can be found here in the "Checklists" page.