Reconsidering stage space: Orpheus.

Now knowing which play I'll be focussing on for this theatre festival, myself and a few of the acting and other design students re-visited Farnham Maltings to look over the potential theatre spaces again. Taking panoramic photos allowed me to look at the rooms as a whole after leaving, as opposed to lots of little images. This also lets me see the composition of the room a lot better than serparate images would do.

1) Top image: This room was agreed to being too open and light for a burlesque club scene. There where also no rigs for lighting up, which would mean additional rigging for an entire room. However, use of a mirror would make the room appear more crowded and may be very useful if the audience are to be immersed in this?

2) Middle image: So far this is our first choice for the Orpheus production to take place. The layout of the room is suitable for the potential staging plans that the Performing Arts students had in mind, it isn't too bright, and it already has rigs in place. From spending time talking about lighting with the students, it's clear that lighting, specifically at least five spot lights will be needed, so this is also ideal for that aspect of the production. The depth and dimensions of the room are also suitable, as I think that a gigantic space would feel too impersonal for the immersive club experience they wish to create. This space is also suitable for the seating they've chosen to use.

3) Bottom image: The Great Hall was the biggest space of the three, with prebuilt seating and stage area. It was very dark in here when I took the photo, which is why the quality of the image is so low and had to be edited! There was mention of potentially lowering set down onto the stage, which would be difficult in this environment as the ceiling is so high. However, with a possible flight deck/ flying plan, this could be possible; that is something I will need to enquire into. Again, it is harder to make this space personal as it's so large and open, but perhaps with the corridor leading into it dressed as well as use of the walk way the students can be seen standing on in the image, this could be achieved?

Overall, either the environments in the middle or bottom images could work with 'Orpheus' but ideas will be discussed with both the Performing Arts students and the rest of the design team.

Performance Preview: Orpheus

Farnham UCA second visit, 13/04/2016.

Our second visit was to get updated with the Performing Arts students concerning the progress of their performances, as well as pitch and discuss design ideas. We also brought along examples of the most recent project we've completed at university in order to demonstrate the way we work and what we have the potential to create.

Passing around images of Joy's model, and actually having my spacesuit and Magda's crown and costume to hand, the students seemed suitably impressed on our previous project work, which provided motivation and moral for both them and ourselves. It was actually great to see them get excited about work I'd created, and encouraged me to bring the same motivation to this project.

After showing them our work, it was decided that they would perform a few minutes of the scenes from the play's they had been working on (Images left). This let us see how far they'd progressed with learning the scripts and choreography of their productions, which was really insightful as we were able to get a feel for the kind of performance they wanted to put on.

Altogether, this opportunity to sit down and spend a day with the actors was very valuable, as we were able to show one another the way we work separately and get an idea of the concepts, staging, lighting, genre and costumes in mind.

Stage specific photos: Bridewell Theatre

Photos taken specifically with audience views in mind.
Top image in from back row seating.
Above image is taken within actors space looking into the small undercut at the back. Photos not great quality due to taking them on my phone!

Bridewell Theatre location photos.

I put together a small mood board of the photos I took at the Bridewell theatre, showing the performance space from all angles as well as taking photos from certain tricky audience sight lines, e.g. the balcony is not visible from the back row seats. Details like this must be taken into account when designing for theatre, as not all the audience will be able to see the same view depending on seating.
These images also show the kind of aesthetic that the building already has in terms of architectural design and colour scheme. These potential details could also be used to the designers advantage when considering the visual narrative of the play, e.g. The stage had a lot of depth to it, which may be used to create physical or emotional distance with the audience within the narrative.

The details of the theatre space included a trap door, a long but narrow stage, little use of wings, Victorian styled architecture from where the space used to be a Victorian swimming pool.