Author Archives: Sian Emily Bateman

Self Evaluation – The Performance and Process

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Why self-evaluate?

Self-evaluation is the opportunity to find ways to improve your organisation’s performance and so to achieve more. It is a holistic process during which you reflect on and consider all elements of your activities and operations; collect information and evidence; and identify your organisation’s strengths on which to build and limitations to be addressed” (ACE, 2013, online).

The Arts Council England state that a companies “ongoing success will depend on their willingness and ability to develop, improve continuously and adapt to the ever-changing environment” (ACE, 2013, online). This produces a critical importance to the stage of self-evaluation in order to prolong and continue a companies success. The Arts Council England’s framework continues to assert that;

“For arts organisations to produce the best work that they can and have the greatest possible impact, they need to be clear and confident about their mission, engage effectively with the world around them and be objective about their development needs” (ACE, 2013, online).

I believe that STAMP Theatre, as a company, were vigilant and aware of set goals and objectives throughout the project, with all members providing a clear understanding and contribution to our manifesto and mission statement.

However, it is important for me to evaluate my own individual role within the company as a whole. To be able to measure my success, I will refer to the goals and objectives I set back at the beginning of the project, of which the whole post can be viewed here. I will take each objective individually and evaluate the extent to which I coincided with these goals.

 

  • Learning lines in the first weeks of April – I was able to recite my lines off script by the second and third week of April. I found this process challenging in light of organising my time around other projects within my university life and struggled at first to grasp Berkoff’s words. However, when our Director insisted we be off-book I was able to meet these needs and had my lines learnt at this crucial stage. I believe I met this objective, portraying that I can organise my time well to meet my requirements as an actor.

 

  • Attending rehearsals promptly – When rehearsals had been organised I made full effort to be prompt, so not to waste any precious rehearsal time with my director. However, due to some prior commitments and illness, I missed a couple of rehearsal sessions which I would aim to attend at all costs in the future. Furthermore, if I had not attended a rehearsal, I was vigilant to contact members of the company so I was aware of what had gone on in the rehearsal. I was consistent in being prompt and I believe that although I was not present at 100% of rehearsals I was a reliable member of the company.

 

  • Producing a developed individual character, using practitioners and various acting techniques – This was definitely a goal I believe to have achieved. With the character of The Laundress and The Chorus, I was determined and enthusiastic about producing a character that could tell the story of ‘The Trial’ in the best possible way. My blog post which can be viewed here, gives my detailed account of how I used various techniques to, hopefully, produce successful and entertaining characters.

 

  • Being clear of the companies intentions every step of the way – With a clear manifesto and company mission statement, this was easy to achieve. The company worked in harmony, with all members understanding our goals. Personally, I enjoyed this collaborative effort as I believe being aware of company intentions produced a stronger bond between members, yet also a strong, clear performance.

 

  • Going above and beyond my role to ensure our company is successful – My roles within the company were Financial Manager and Actor. As well as fulfilling these roles, I was not adverse to helping out other departments of the company. I aided the marketing team in producing the programme and also helped in the distribution of flyers. I also played a small part in assisting the costume department in the sewing of the women’s skirts as time became more crucial in our process. In addition to this, I supported the company in general, for example, the collection of hatstands and props. I believe this displayed that I am a hardworking member of the group, who is willing to help other departments to create an efficient and successful company.

 

  • Producing a performance that audience members enjoy – This objective can be measured by the comments and opinions of audience members. Here is an example of a few:

Andy Jordan (Senior Lecturer) – “I enjoyed the performance enormously. It was really tremendous. Congratulations to you all. And what an appreciative and large house!” (by email)

Diane Dubois (Senior Lecturer)- “Well done, STAMP! You all worked hard on this process, and had a very well-received piece of work to show for it at the end.” (by email)

Emily Addison (Student) – “Congrats STAMP Theatre on your performance, so funny and brilliant well done!” (on twitter)

These comments prove that to some extent, our performance of Berkoff’s ‘The Trial’ was enjoyable and successful to at least a part of our audience. A success in my eyes, as this is what I hoped for when setting out to create STAMP Theatre.

Works Cited

Arts Council England (2013) The Self-Evaluation Framework, online: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/selfevaluation/ (accessed: 20 May 2012)

Self-Evaluation as Financial Manager

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When given the role of Financial Manager within STAMP Theatre Company, I was aware that the role required trust and a large responsibility to handle and distribute the funds we had available. Although, not a registered theatre company, I still found it useful and applicable to invest in readings that investigated the function of finance within professional realms. Production Management: Making Shows Happen by Peter Dean was particularly useful in giving a detailed overview of not just finance but its position within a whole production, theatre or company. Dean emphasises the importance of business within theatre;

“All theatre is a dictatorship – though hopefully a benevolent one- but it is also a business. Everyone working in a theatre [or company] should be supporting the vision of the artistic director- but at the same time they should also be aware of their financial responsibilities or budgets. It is vitally important therefore that the vision and budgets are clearly expressed and understood by the whole team – for theatre is very much a team sport!” (2002, p. 15)

At the commencement of our Theatre Company, funds were discussed as a group and rough estimates were given to create a rough, initial budget. This was then developed along the way, once exact costing had been established and was passed on to me to create a more specific budget. Dean describes the self-evaluation process that theatres and companies use to remain efficient and successful;

“[Companies] will look back on the successes and failures of the previous year, and it may well contain a SWOT analysis of all the different areas of the organisation” (2002, p. 16).

I wanted to include this professional analysis in terms of my own self-evaluation and therefore I have created a SWOT analysis based on my role as financial manager and the general way in which the company handled its finance. A SWOT analysis is “a structured approach to evaluating the strategic position of a business by identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats” (Jobber, 2010, p. 60)

My SWOT analysis is as follows:

Strengths:

  • Creating a budget early on within our process
  • Professionalism – Creating a professional as well as actual budget
  • Organisation – Keeping receipts in order.
  • Being aware of expenditure
  • Reliability and Responsibility – Handling funds
  • Trust – Between members when funds were collected.
  • Organising Reinbursement

 Weaknesses:

  • Communication – Could be improved, regular meetings so everyone was clear about how much budget was available for each department.
  • Contingency – Would have been useful for a larger contingency
  • Deficit – After last minute materials were required, a small deficit occurred. This could be combatted in the future with a larger contingency, or a more planned route of expenditure.

Opportunities:

  • Fundraising- With more time available more funds could be accumulated to add to the production.
  • Selling of Programmes
  • Selling of Merchandise
  • Profiting from ticket sales – – If we were to  be a registered company in the future
  • Training in Financial Management and Administration
  • Arts Council Funding – If we were to  be a registered company in the future

Threats:

  • Cuts to the Arts – Governmental cutbacks
  • Other developing companies
  • Less availability to budget

 

Works Cited

Dean, Peter (2002) Production Management: Making Shows Happen, Wiltshire: The Crowood Press Ltd.

Jobber, David (2010) Principles and Practice of Marketing, Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education.

 

Character Development: The Laundress and The Chorus

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“Definition of good acting: acting that is believable while telling the best possible story that serves the script” (Miller, 2010, p. 1).

Using the Theatre of the Grotesque and Commedia Dell’arte as major influences for our characterisations, a clear portrayal of storyline can easily be lost underneath the absurdity and exaggeration of these genres. To overcome this, a clear set of character objectives must be employed to give reason to the abnormal physicalisation and vocalisation of these non-naturalistic characters.

The Chorus

The chorus, displaying non-naturalistic tendency, are difficult to create realistic objectives for. As Thomas comments these “stage characters are essentially “action-figures”, that is, artificial objects designed to carry out certain actions, not real human beings. In realistic and classic plays characters perform actions based on plausible human behaviour, but in non-realistic plays they perform actions based primarily on an idea” (2009, p. 191). These actions are in aid of creating the world in which Joseph K resides, for instance, the creation of a telephone and a bed by means of prop, physicality and voice. These actions must be clear in the mind of all members of the chorus to avoid confusion in the absurdity of our chosen genres. However as Thomas also comments; “plausible human behaviour is not neglected or ignored, of course; otherwise the play would be arbitrary and incomprehensible” (2009, p. 191). Huld’s assistants, for example, hold the grotesque facial expressions and exaggerated physicality, but keep human characteristics. As this character, my objective was to follow and record Huld’s movements whilst simultaneously creating a visual spectacle through an invisible network of choreography. The purpose of the chorus is to primarily create the people and objects in the world surrounding Joseph K. Underlying this is the aim to produce a clever and innovative manifestation of theatre reflecting STAMP Theatre’s mission statement. These chorus characters may not be fully developed, however bring together elements of the Theatre of the Grotesque and Commedia dell’arte to provide entertainment;

“Characters in non-realistic plays are each unique in the way they embody the main idea. They may explain themselves or not, and even if they attempt to do so the conclusion may be elusive and ambiguous. Moreover, the characters are not “fully developed” as in realistic and classic plays. Character and idea are a single entity, a mutual embodiment of the play’s special world” (Thomas, 2009, p. 193).

The Laundress

When undertaking the process from the written word to the stage, Chubbuck asserts that it can be useful to create an inner monologue; “an “actual dialogue” (2004, p. 172) creating “a linear and comprehensive inner story” (2004, p.172). With Berkoff’s work, however, especially with the character of the Laundress, the inner dialogue is presented with the written word itself. With the non-naturalistic characters, unlike naturalistic human tendencies, the Laundress purposefully asserts her objectives and states her intentions. This provides a very simple process in discovering the character’s wants and needs. Within ‘The Trial’, characters other than Joseph K, are not supplied with detailed given circumstances, due to their non-naturalistic and absurd personalities. However, our characters must still have objectives to follow. I created a super-objective for The Laundress, providing reason for her actions on the stage; “this is an overarching ‘want’ which drives the character’s overall behaviour at this point in his [/her] life” (Elsam, 2006, p. 149).

The super-objective for my scene was as follows;

“I want to use Joseph K to free me from my current circumstances within the Law Courts by any means possible.”

This allowed me to produce a performance that primarily focused on storytelling for the Laundress’ scene, aiding in the chaos and absurdity that Joseph K finds himself enveloped in.

In addition, my vocalisation and physicalisation needed to reflect the chosen genres of our theatre company; Theatre of the Absurd, Grotesque and Commedia dell’arte to a certain extent. My director wanted my character to be rough and earthy, and we believed a cockney accent portrayed this well. As we developed my physicalisation, using large hip movements and a slumped, rugged posture, I found that my vocalisation and emotion changed and developed simultaneously. This reinforced Bruder’s idea that “every physical action will give rise to an emotional condition” (Bruder et al, 1986, p. 72). I was happy to develop my character in this way, using physicalisation to tell the story of ‘The Trial’ whilst reflecting our chosen genres. Elsam reiterates; “If you build a performance from predetermined emotions, your acting will become generalised, predictable, and unresponsive to the other actors” (Elsam, 2006, p. 120). This was an effective way of creating something unpredictable and innovative to reflect our company manifesto and hopefully a successful piece of theatre.

 

Works Cited

Bruder, Melissa et al (1986) A Practical Handbook for the Actor, New York: Random House.

Chubbuck, Ivana (2004) The Power of the Actor, London; Penguin Group.

Elsam, Paul (2006) Acting Characters, London: A&C Black.

Miller, Bruce (2010) The Scene Study Book, Milwaukee: Limelight Editions.

Thomas, James (2009) Script Analysis, Oxford: Elsevier.

 

 

The Value of Budgeting

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The harsh reality of the current economic climate reveals the significance that finance now takes in the establishment of theatre companies and performance itself. This focus upon money within the industry has lead some to believe that artistic creation is being risked at the expense of sustainability and profit. As Glinowski explains; “My argument is that within mainstream public arts funding and policy making during the last decade, after a promising beginning, artists have been marginalised and their activity has been instramentalised” (2008, p. 12). However, we must not be naive to the importance of financial planning in this current economic struggle. These recent cuts to the arts, although upsetting, emphasise the need for strategic budgeting in order to keep costs to a minimum and avoid substantial loss for developing companies.

In any theatre company (professional, amateur, large or small) production and performance depend on budgeting to create a successful evaluation for income and expenditure. It is vital for companies to try and stay within budget in order to avoid financial loss and maintain company efficiency. When creating STAMP Theatre’s budget, it soon became clear that our £250.00 funding from The Lincoln School of Performing Arts would not fully cover the wants and needs for our theatrical vision. In response to this, the company found sponsorship from Decon Designs to aid in keeping our expenditure low. This resulted in a £30.00 saving and complimentary printing of our advertisement flyers. Furthermore, company members each agreed to donate an additional amount of money towards the production. This provided us with a larger budget to operate with, keeping our financial standings on track and maintaining our efficiency.  However, as STAMP Theatre have discovered, sometimes unanticipated expenditure can occur. With the inclusion of contingency within our budget we were able to combat this by using any extra funds to cover this unforeseen expenditure.

Below is an actual budget for STAMP Theatre’s production of ‘The Trial’ by Stephen Berkoff displaying our accurate income and expenditure:

Actual STAMP Theatre Budget

As an amateur company, working as students within the University of Lincoln we were not able to apply for Grants for the Arts funding from the Arts Council England under their subsequent guidline:

“The following individuals or organisations cannot apply to Grants for the arts. If you fall into one of these categories, your application will not be eligible to be assessed:

  • Students, for activities related to their course of study or their tuition fees. (By ‘student’ we mean a person following a course of study in a school, a college or a university.)” (Arts Council England, 2010)

However, if STAMP Theatre became eligible for subsidy from the Arts Council England, it is interesting to create a relevant budget in light of a larger income producing new opportunities and a chance to increase expenditure. Here is the following budget, created in the circumstances that STAMP Theatre are a registered company, with all company members based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire:

Hypothetical STAMP Theatre Budget

In evaluation of my financial management thus far, I feel that the company and I have overcome any obstacles by utilising our budgeting and creating a larger income when required. This has given us more scope to explore our theatrical vision as a company and source the correct materials, desired set and chosen costume to produce a clear envisioned version of Stephen Berkoff’s The Trial.

 

Works Cited

Arts Council of England (2010) Grants for the Arts: How to Apply, London: Arts Council of England.

Glinkowski, Paul (2008) The Art of Giving: The Artist in Public and Private Funding, London: Research at Wimbledon.

Initial Responses – Creating Personal Objectives

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The ambiguous script of Stephen Berkoff’s ‘The Trial’ produces a lot of freedom artistically for both the director and the cast. My first reading of the script left me feeling confused and nervous about the possibilities of bringing such an absurd and illogical storyline to life. However, upon reading the script a few more times with the cast, the prospect became a lot less daunting and produced a lot more possibility than most productions I had been involved in.

The importance of our mission statement and manifesto at this stage were crucial in creating a starting point for our interpretation of ‘The Trial’. Our mission statement is as follows: We aim to create an intelligent and thought-provoking performance simply and clearly through multiple theatrical styles. In addition to this, the company was eager to involve influences from Peter Brook. We aim to avoid the Deadly Theatre he describes: “The Deadly Theatre can at first sight be taken for granted, because it means bad theatre. As this is the form of theatre we see most often and as it is most closely linked to the despised, much-attacked commercial theatre it might seem a waste of time to criticize it further. But it is only if  we see that deadliness is deceptive and can appear anywhere, that we will become aware of the size of the problem” (Brook, 1968, p. 12). We aim to be aware of this and produce theatre that, instead, takes inspiration from Brook’s simple outlook upon theatre, compiling multiple genres of performance to produce a successful production.

These starting points now create a research path in which, if we are all clear of our companies intentions, can be followed and developed to manifest into the style of theatre we’d like to commit to.

Subsequently, I could then create a set of personal objectives of which I would aim to follow to allow myself to be a successful company member:

  • Learning lines in the first weeks of April
  • Attending rehearsals promptly
  • Producing a developed individual character, using practitioners and various acting techniques
  • Being clear of the companies intentions every step of the way
  • Going above and beyond my role to ensure our company is successful
  • Producing a performance that audience members enjoy

Aiming to carry out these aims will ensure that I am an efficient, vigilant and a hardworking member of STAMP Theatre. These clear objectives will also help me to evaluate my role as a company member when I begin to reflect on our process after our final performance has concluded.

Works Cited

Brook, Peter (1968) The Empty Space, London: Penguin Books.