‘Before the door stands the doorkeeper. Before the doorkeeper stands the figure of Joseph K, waiting to gain admittance to the Law’  (Berkoff 1988, P. 11.)

The presence of the door is incredibly significant in The Trial as it represents Joesph K’s internal struggle to understand what is happening around him. With this in mind it was important we create the correct look for the door frame.

Today Larissa – Stage Manager, Lucy -Director, Alex Watson -Producer and myself organized a meeting with one of the LPAC technicians, Martin, to start building the door frame for the performance. From a previous meeting we had discovered that LPAC already had a door frame which they were happy for us to use. This made our lives easier as it meant we did not need to source it from somewhere else.

However, we soon found that the frame was slightly too short. We asked the technician helping us if he could extend the top of the frame. The next thing to do was to attach wheels onto the bottom of the frame. There were some castor wheels in the workshop, but they were not the right size to fit onto the bottom of the frame. So Larissa and I went to B&Q , where I bought four new Castor wheels. While Alex and Lucy began to paint the frame black. The frame needs to be able to move easily as several of the actors move the frame throughout the performance to indicate scene changes. The wheels Martin used allows for the frame to be moved fluidly which will allow for quick and smooth scene changes.

Darren, the Stage Manager of LPAC,  told us that that no other company or future show will be needing the frame and so informed us that we could take it away from LPAC to rehearse with. This was great news for us as we had already found rehearsing without an actual frame difficult. Including the door frame in rehearsals will allow actors, as well as Lucy the director, to clearly see where the frame stands on stage in relation to the other props and actors. Using props early in the rehearsal process is vital as it gives more time for actors to become accustomed to them and know how they impact on the actual performance. With this in mind Larissa, and myself have agreed to meet up very soon and discuss sourcing the rest of the props that we will need.

Thank you for reading,  Alex.

Works Cited

Berkoff, Steven (1988) The Trial, Metamorphosis and In The Penal Colony, Amber Lane Press.