Production

Tuesday 16^th October 

In the morning we visited The Rep. Theatre at St. George’s Court (SGC) to sit in on rehearsals for ‘The Wounded’, (a war story with a twist).

Ruth showed us around the rehearsal space, it was fascinating to see how this process works at the top level of the business and I appreciated how very organised everything was.
The stage area had been set out exactly to the size and shape of the space being used at the TA Centre in Kings Heath where the show will be performed. All the props and set were set out in an organised fashion and to as close a standard as will be used in the performance.

It was then that I was re-introduced to an old friend (and sometimes enemy) of mine: the LA85 assault rifle, (aka the SA80), the standard issue British Armed Forces rifle, albeit in air-soft replica form and therefore about a third of its real weight.

We also noticed that posted around the room on the walls were a series of diagrams, Ruth explained that these were character bios that the cast had drawn up during the first rehearsals, describing certain aspects of their characters that weren’t necessarily brought up during the actual show but helped to add to characterisation and make more realistic ‘3D’ people on stage.

We then moved on to the stage management office to speak to Ruth about course work and our jobs on Snow Queen, whilst the Alex’s took turns sitting in on The Wounded rehearsal session.
Ruth explained how I should go about the SQ paperwork, how ‘The Book’ should be set out, how rehearsal notes should look etc. She then provided me with copies of examples from previous Rep Shows. That will be a great help to me to get it all set out straight.
By the time midday rolled around I hadn’t had an opportunity to sit in on The Wounded but Alex N. and I had to leave to get over to MB campus for the SQ rehearsal that afternoon.

Ref. - The Wounded at The Rep. :
http://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/event/wounded/

Production

Friday 12^th October

Production session was concentrating on Personal protective equipment (PPE). So I wore my steel toe capped safety boots for the day. It turned out to be quite a big mistake on my part as even though they are lighter than some of the safety boots on the market they are still rather heavy and drag on my bad leg and after walking around in them all day, when I got home in the evening, my knee had swollen up and was extremely painful. So I have now stored them in the control booth at Matthew Boulton so I only need to wear them when necessary.
We spoke for a while on Health and Safety issues in our job and what we should look out for. In my opinion it’s mainly about keeping your wits about you and always using common sense. I realise that in my case I will have to do a lot of self-assessment for certain jobs due to my disability i.e. I cannot climb ladders, and must be careful when lifting heavy items as I cannot squat/lift with my knees.

Afterwards Anthony showed us all QLab a great piece of software specifically designed for creating multimedia set-ups for live performance and installations.
It enables you to design, edit and control audio and video playback with MIDI integration and also live playback options.
Unfortunately it is only available for Apple Mac. Computers so for the moment is unobtainable to me, otherwise I would have already downloaded the free version and would be having a good play with it, as that is always the best way to learn with this kind of software. But any way it was good to get to see how it works and how it can be a very useful tool to us in the future. (We will probably be using it on Snow Queen).
 

Afterwards we went down to the hall to have a look around and get a feel for the space where Snow Queen will be performed. Whilst we were debating the size and placement of the platform/cave structure that will be an integral part of the set Ruth told us our assigned production team roles for the show: Alex N. is Stage Manager (SM) and Props/Costume master; I am Deputy Stage Manager (DSM) and Sound Operator and Alex W. is Lighting Operator.
It turns out that the role of DSM is quite a big one as I have to attend all rehearsals, take notes, keep the ‘Book’ (the bible so to speak of the show containing all, script changes, adjustments, and guides of all lighting and sound cues.)
As the threat of ‘paper-work’ has always had an adverse effect on me, ranging from ‘mild nausea’ to ‘abject terror’ it was with some trepidation that I accepted my role. But then again, I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge and will always try to do my best no matter what, but isn’t that the point of entering Higher Education? To be challenged and taken out of my comfort zone and to expand my work capabilities?

Ref. QLab by Figure 53 :  http://figure53.com/qlab/