Ticketing and acting and blogging; oh my! (part 2)

Bonjourno interweb!

Here comes the second part of my huge reflection on the production season of 'Cloud 9'. Tonight I'll be shedding some light on promotions; both during & post-production...

So, you may be asking:

Chloe, what did you have to do as promotions manager?

The answer to that is not a short one. Each day leading up to and during our performance season, I was continuously finding things that I needed to do, to ensure that I was pulling my own weight within the class. The basic idea of the job, however, was:

- Designing, printing and putting-up promotional posters.

- Organizing ticketing;

setting up the trybooking website, booking 'box-office' tickets for those who preferred to pay cash, marking off sold tickets on the hard-copy seating plan for each performance, ensuring the front of house people were briefed each night and managing the finances for the show (both for online ticket sales and cash payments).

- Contacting various teachers and faculties within the school (especially IB english, as they are studying 'Cloud 9' as a text) to generate interest.

Essentially that was the gig, but as I said before, there were heaps of little tasks that all amounted to a large amount of work leading up to the shows!

During the shows, the main thing was selling tickets for the next night, and writing up a summary sheet for the front of house team each night. On the summary sheet I would write general information about ticket prices etc, but also if there were any people who had reserved tickets that were to be paid for, etc. Initially I was also supposed to throw together a program for the performances, however I called in a favour from our resident Director, Greg, as I didn't have enough time/headspace to give it a proper go. Snaps for Greg!

Post-production, the only real task for me was to hand the money from the online ticket sales over to the school. The trybooking website ended up being linked to my bank account, as the school account wouldn't work properly. This actually worked out to be quite handy in the end, as the week after the shows I simply waltzed into the bank and got a bank cheque for the full amount. As we made a decent profit from the show, we decided that it was only fair to split the money between the nine of us...

Nooooo, only kidding!

The profits from the show have gone back into fixing the TCW - in particular, we've asked for it to go towards real seat numbers. Hooray!

The experience of managing a box-office and booking tickets for customers was, in my opinion, a very valuable experience. I feel like I was able to get a taste of professional box-office work, and now feel quite capable to do something like that for a job. On the other hand, I hope that I never have to manage something like that completely on my own again, as it did drive me slightly insane!

I think that's about all I have to say regarding promotions... So I'll finish this blog with a couple more photos!

Until next time...

"We go home, and you have tea, and you have a bath, and you go to bed"

"I don't want to go to bed"

"It's my Brother"

"It's just her sense of humour, you'll get used to it"

"Shut-up Vicky, it's my Brother... Isn't it? Bill?"

Ticketing and acting and blogging; oh my! (part 1)

Hello once again,

I would now like to begin my series of short reflections on the mammoth adventure that was Cloud 9. I realise that my absence of blogging over the final few weeks was not great, but I'd like to make up for it now... If that's ok.

:)

So, this reflection will be dedicated to acting during and after the production season. In my previous posts I focused a lot on acting and character work prior to the production season, so this is a continuation of that.

First of all, let's re-cap on my characters.

ACT 1:

Ellen

Ellen is governess to the children, and has journeyed to Africa with the family. She is madly in love with Betty (Mother to the children), however is unable to deal with these feelings. When she tells Betty of her love, she is patronised and made to feel insignificant. At the end of Act 1 she agrees to marry Harry Bagley, simply to escape her feelings of rejection from Betty.

ACT 2:

Lin

Lin is the complete opposite to Ellen. About the only thing they have in common is that they are both lesbians. Lin is a single Mother to Cathy, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks of her or her situation. She has a lot of anger towards the world, especially when she hears that her Brother has been killed in Belfast and her Father does not wish for her to attend the funeral. Lin falls in love with Victoria, who is trying to come to terms with her own sexuality, and unhappiness in her marriage.

During the production season, I feel like I came the closest I could to understanding my characters. Being on-stage and having an audience react to certain things, I could feel myself gaining a deeper understanding of what Caryl Churchill was thinking when she wrote the play. In rehearsing the first act, I often forgot how funny the idea of throwing Victoria around was, yet when the audience reacted so well to it, I was reminded of the fantastic comedy in Caryl Churchill's writing. In the second act I felt like the audience were asked to sit up and think about their own beliefs and values, and could feel this happening as I delivered each of Lin's angst-filled asides.

I also feel like as a group, we began to react more dynamically when we were faced with an audience. The action/reaction in the delivery of our lines quickened, and our focus improved out of site. As a whole, I think we've learned a lot from this experience about being in an ensemble; not only in the acting sense, but in the cooperation of actually getting the show together. It seemed that in those final days we were all there to help each other out, which was a great feeling!

All in all, I think it's safe to say that the acting in Cloud 9 was a huge hit. We all extended ourselves as actors and learned many things about acting. The journey from day 1 to closing night was epic, to say the least, and will be something that I remember for a long time. The only thing left now, is to apply these new skills I've learned to my monologue... Which we will be beginning very soon!

Thanks to all who came and watched us on the night - without the audience we wouldn't have learned nearly as much.

To end this post, here's a lovely photo of a few of us from the end of act 1.

"May you live in Peace, and Joy, and Bliss..."

Blackout.

Poster Design...

Take a gander at our promotional poster!
I began drafting this poster during the March/April holidays, but only got it to print one week before the performances of Cloud 9. The illustration of the two women is Queen Victoria suffocating another woman with her skirt. This image was originally a photo of graffiti on a wall in London, but I took it from the internet and traced it using 'live trace' on adobe illustrator, to give it the cartoon-like appearance. I then merged it with the image of the union jack, and added the text.

Stay tuned for more reflections on Cloud 9...

The time you've all been waiting for...

THESPIANS OF THE INTERNET:

The time has finally come to purchase your CLOUD 9 tickets!

Simply book online at: www.trybooking.com.au/3083

Get in quick to avoid disappointment!

Blog entry coming in the next few days... But for now, I'll let you know that all our costuming is FINISHED, and our set is coming together in bits and pieces! Lines, however... Well... They're getting there...

Not long to go now! Don't forget to book those tickets!

Until next time.

A LONG TIME COMING~~

I am so incredibly sorry for the lateness of this video... the obligations and obstructions of year 12 have been in full force the last 3 weeks. But the wait is finally over and the next instalment of the video blog has arrived!

A montage of images, quotes and clips from our run through of Act 1 on our final performance stage, The TCW Theatre.

On behalf of the whole cast of Cloud 9, please enjoy this glimpse of our world:

Comic Relief...

Have a good LOL...

Get your Cloud 9 fix...

Aloha, bonjour, guten tag and all the rest...

firstly:

i am sincerely apologetic for the lack of blogging over the past few weeks! My posts will improve, I swear!

secondly:

It's now the school holidays - wooo! But this also means it's time for us inhabitants of Cloud 9 to buckle down and get this show ready for performance.

But before I get started with some rambling, here is the photo of our whiteboard sketches that I promised last time:

use your i m a g i n a t i o n.

Pretty much we envision it to have a verandah across the back wall, with a bench/chair on the stage in front of it. On the left stage extension we have a gramophone (which Greg has purchased for us off eBay!), and the British flag. On the right stage extension we have a picture of Queen Victoria herself. These stage extensions will be altered for the second act, to be more contemporary (i.e the picture of Queen Victoria will be changed to a picture of the Sex Pistols album cover for 'God Save the Queen').

Alright SO, rehearsals have been going swimmingly! In the time since I've posted a blog we have finished blocking the entire play!! *pause for victory dance*

Our next step towards world domination/being performance ready is to begin to work off script, so as to physicalize everything more fluently.

We will be rehearsing on Wednesday of this week from 10-3 at school, and hope that in this time we can run through majority of the play and do some character building. I suggested the idea of character building last week, as I feel like I want to create a stronger relationship between myself and Ellen/Lin. Some character building exercises may include interview questions as our characters, improvised scenes between characters and group conversations in character.

Now before I sign off, be sure to confirm that the 6th and 7th of May are marked as "MUST SEE CLOUD 9 AT ST. LEONARD'S" in your diary. To quote the show; "You'd enjoy it..."

Ta ta for now, stay tuned for some video goodness and more rehearsal updates...