Tag Archives: Reflecting

Performance Day Reflection

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On reflection of the performance day, I would say we had a smooth running and organised day. The technical team (Larissa, Alex HS and I) along with the director were in the performance space for 9am ready to start. Luckily we had been in the theatre with some of the LPAC technicians the night before to hang the frames ready for performance day. This meant that we were already ahead in terms of our performance day schedule.

Here are some of the photos from throughout the night before and the day of the performance:

DSC05252 Centre stage

 

Here we are marking centre stage to get an idea of where the frames will hang ^

Preparing the bungee   Alex (the technician) and I are preparing the bungee chord and rope for the frames here.

Rigging the lights Discussing the lights Discussing the lights in relation the the frames (We rigged the above head spotlights at the same time as rigging the frames).

 

The Performance Day DSC05305 These are taken of the first walk through with the frames – taken on the night before the performance.

 

After rigging and focusing the lights, Larissa Oates, Alex Watson (who was cueing the show) and myself went up to the lighting box to start the cueing process. In total we had 92 LX cues in the script that needed to be programmed in chronological order, ready for a cue to cue, a full dress run through  and the actual performance.

After finishing programming the lights we broke for lunch ready to come back for a cue to cue. The cue to cue lighting did not go as well as planned as the blue wash didn’t programme on all the cues as intended. In saying this it was sorted out through liaison with the technical team ready for the full dress run through.

As a performer I felt the dress rehearsal went great, a few stumbles happened with lighting cues but apart from that all was well. The actual performance also went amazingly well, and we’ve had a great response from the audience both in person, and on our social media sites.

If I could do it all again to change anything, it would be the strength of some of the frames. One did snap mid performance, but I think I handled it well enough for the audience to notice but not know if it was on purpose or not. Little glitches to happen in performances that sometimes can’t be helped but overall I think we put on an entertaining show that matched what our manifesto said it would, and hopefully you’ll hear from STAMP Theatre again some time.

Thank you for reading,

Emma Huggins

 

Joseph K – The dog of the law.

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This is a reflection of my experience playing Joseph K. My idea of this man has changed drastically since February (see previous post). Joseph K is the Everyman, he is a business man whose life is stuck in a monotonous rut. The course of the play is about his journey to defend his name. However, post-show, it feels like there is more. There is a depth to Joseph K that I could have never touched on at the start of the process.  Now, The Trial is more about the degradation of Joseph K and his sanity; as opposed to him finding out his crime.

Now, at the close of the show, I see him as an empty shell. A man used to inhabit his body but that man has become so beaten and destroyed by the journey he has taken that he is defeated. I felt the final speech by K in the play summed up the transition that occurs; from man, to dog of the law.

‘There must be some arguments in my favour that have been overlooked. Wait! Where is my judge? Whom I have never seen. Where is the highest court, which I have never entered? Will someone help me? I hold out my hands. Like…a…dog.’

(Berkoff 1988, p. 69)

By the end of the play, K has become this dog of the law. Berkoff implements the transition in those final lines; K starts arguing against his accusers until succumbing to the system. He deteriorates to the point of helplessness. For me I had little pity for K at the start of this process, but over the course of the three months, I began to grow this sense of sympathy for him.  This pity changed the delivery of those last few lines for me. It was no longer a man crying for help. This man needed help or he would reach his destruction.

The loneliness K feels at the close of the play was accentuated by the lack of chorus. For the first time they left the space and left K pleading to the audience. The lines above aren’t the lines I actually spoke, for me what I was saying was what I felt Joseph K would be saying, only on writing this post have I realised that I was incorrect. The holding out of K’s hands was to the audience and only them, for they were the only ones remaining to witness this end. The end of what is implied to be this man’s life.

Work Cited.

Berkoff, S. (1988) The Trial, Metamorphosis, In The Penal Colony, London: Gurnsey Press co. Ltd.