Set Design

In todays lesson we discussed our performance space. Our piece is set in a sixth form library, we don't change location at all so we knew that we could have a lot more permanent set that would stay throughout the whole performance. Our original plan was to have two to three tables set around, two of the tables would have chairs around them so all the students could study and then another table would just be at the back next to some bookcases. 

It wasn't until today when we got into the hall, which is wear we will be performing Punk Rock that we changed our mind on the staging and set, we still have three tables and bookcases but I had the idea of incorporating the stage with our set, I wanted to have one of the tables up on the stage with some chairs around it to create different levels in the library, I feel this creates a bigger performance space but also gives the atmosphere that this library or school is posh and has a lot of money. An advantage to using the stage as well as the ground space is we have a lot more entrance and exists. Before we had the idea of having a few entrances and exits through gaps in the audience but now I prefer the idea of not going through the audience as well, it keeps the audience separate from our piece as I don't feel the audience needs to feel part of the piece for Punk Rock. I also wanted to use the grand piano we have in the hall as part of the set, the grand piano would give the library a more impressive and rich feel as these students go to a private school. 

This is a rough plan I drew to show where our set will be placed and where our entrances and exits are, Unfortunately I didn't have room to include the piano in this sketch. The audience would be facing the stage and we are yet to decide what style seating we want. 

   

Punk Rock

Today we started from the beginning again and worked our way through the script adding in all the corrections we made last lesson, today we also got to some new scenes we hadn't done before, we tried our best and just dove into the scene following the stage directions and trying to block the scene whilst going on, we then got to scene four, this scene required way more work so we stopped and got the feel for the scene and then went back and set it. This scene is about a wasp and how everyone kinda freaks out, we wanted it to be really funny and over dramatic and this worked well because it just starts with Tanya reacting to a wasp, we have rewritten Tanya to be a boy and we now call him Tristen, we wanted this part to be comical so we kept a lot of the feminine lines and decided to make the character overly camp, in the scene Tristen starts off by shrieking and falling to the floor very dramatically, we feel this was appropriate as it fits his character yet the situation isn't really that serious which is what makes it funny.                   

Punk Rock

After reading through the script a couple times as a class today was the first time we properly set the first scenes. we know we are in sixth form and we in a library, we have set tables and chairs out to make it seem likes its a learning environment but we don't want to make it look like a sixth form common room. Today we weren't just focusing on what we were saying we really focused on how each character was moving, how they were speaking and how everyone was reacting to other characters, Lilly is being almost harassed by William in the opening scene and we wanted to make it clear that she was only speaking to him to be polite, we did this by having her tone of voice very monotone and uninterested and we tried to make sure she didn't make eye contact at all so it was clear she was more focused on her work than William. Later on when Bennett and Cissy come in Lilly quickly moves over to our table to get away from William, this is to show that Williams character is perhaps left out by everyone and isn't really liked.

So far I feel we are all really enjoying working on Punk Rock and we have all chipped in ideas on how we are performing each section and what is good about this is we don't really have a director, we wanted to make sure everyone had an equal say so by everyone putting ideas in we can create something a lot more interesting and entertaining compared to just one persons opinion.