Set: Originally Derek had brought up the idea of having a single door as the entrance to the cottage but with no walls. When this idea was brought up with JRS she liked the and took it to another level where the farce will be more apparent. She suggested that we can move the door side to side or spin it around so parts of the set would switch. In detail, if Mak and gill were at the door inside the cottage and on the other side were the Shepherds (outside), if the door was spun by Mak the inside would now be place outside and the Shepherds have not gotten anywhere. We really liked JRS's idea and stuck to it. Problems with the door available rose when we discovered the prop door was over sized and had to be nailed to the floor. We considered nailing the door and running around the door instead of flipping it. Personally, I was fine with this idea because the element of farce was still apparent but when brought up with the rest of the group they felt the farce was best achieved with a moving, spinning door. I go into detail of the door because Derek and I became in charge of finding one and it also became the premise of our stage so it was very important. Finally we obtained a clothing rack from Jocelyn and it allowed us to spin and move the door, also it was much wider and we were able to keep 3 shepherds on one side with out to much traffic when spinning.
With the door moving around now able to spin elements of the set had to be changed, both because we did not want a stationary cottage on one side of the room and because a lack of resources and time. This meant we could not have the thatched roof instead we reduced what would be in the cottage to just a table and hay on the ground. The wine, cups and chairs would be seen by the audience in the beginning when the Shepherds enter and may cause confusion because that was to represent outside. Instead the table was located far enough so the shepherds had empty room to make there journey to Maks cottage.
Costumes were also altered due to the lack of resources and time. There should be no excuses but our group was lacking a costume enthusiast. We did our best to use what we could find in the drama department and value village.
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| Photos from the final performance. Photos taken by Kelsey Sewell. |
Lighting was also changed because of the set changes. The idea of the thatched roof was dropped (sad, yes I know) and two main directions of light was also changed. The changes also occurred because of the light availability in HH 180, our new theater. The room consists of both stage lights and actual room lights. We adjusted to stage lights one spot light hitting the back of the door and another the front. We also added stage lights that were already adjusted to illuminate the center stage and surrounding area even more. The room lights were also used to illuminate the rest of the stage and it worked because the stage lights were much brighter so the table being so far back was still seen by the audience. Though many changes were made the lighting really worked. As you can see in the pictures the door had a large amount of light. It helped show the tension that existed between Mak and Gill with the three Shepherds. Whenever the Shepherds moved close to the door there was a sense of relief for Mak then when they left that area tension rose.
Acting: I was given the role of Mak once the original actor had dropped out of the course which was about 2 weeks into the project. The first thing I wanted to discover is what kind of character is Mak. After circulating the group we came up with certain characteristics for each character. The group agreed that Mak was a very nervous character. He tries his best to look innocent so he lies and comes up with these lies so fast that they are absurd. We thought of maybe giving him a nervous tick but rather I thought if he just overacted everything it would make it obvious he is a bad liar. When thinking to myself, I though if Mak was an animal he would be a Mole because he is stealing things and hiding them in his home but tries his best not to blow his cover. Thinking of animal really helps me develop the character. During rehearsals the group loved the idea of over-acting my lines and felt it also fit with the farce element of the play. During the performance I would occasionally look at the audience so they could see what expression was on my face because I would change it when not facing the Shepherds. This made sure the audience knew I was in fact lying with expressions of nervousness and happiness on my face. Body movements were also important as I would use a lot of hand movements to exaggerate things or kneel, crouch or stand tall to show the status differences when being confronted by the Shepherds.
During the performance I tried my best to stay true to my character by using the techniques I practiced with at rehearsal. Of course the laughs from the audience kept me going, Kailey was also feeding off the audience. In a situation where comedy is used, audience reaction can really help build your confidence and keep you going. Like any performance in the past I give it my all because there is no better feeling than performing to an audience, well for me at least. Everything in terms of set really worked, although I did notice due to some carelessness on the team certain props from other groups was left in the background of our set, more detail provided in the Reflection page. There were not any mishaps except for my scarf falling to my neck. This was not problem and in fact may have allowed the audience to see my face more clearly. All the blocking was followed as practiced and the audience saw both one rehearsal and the final presentation. After comparing the two people in the audience claimed we pulled it off along with other comments from the audience.
