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...

Tardiness should not be accepted in the blog world...

Hello thespians of the Internet,
I apologise for my tardiness in posting an entry, it’s been a crazy two weeks for the nine of us! So, where to begin?

Last week we had our first rehearsal in our performance space… Hooray! Everything seemed to make perfect sense when we blocked with the stage in mind. Because of the long weekend we missed a double rehearsal on Monday the 8th, so we (being the incredibly committed bunch we are) scheduled a make-up rehearsal on the Wednesday afternoon (when most of us have free periods – thank god for not having to play school sport…). After our rehearsal on the Tuesday, we had a short class discussion about our progress so far. This is what we agreed on:

- Maud is turning out to be (surprisingly), many of our favourite character! During the reading of the play most of us dismissed Maud as an old bag with no real addition to the story… She still is an old bag, but we love her! Kudos to Meg for the fantastic character interpretation!
- Our scenes between Harry Bagley (Rhys) and Betty (Greg) have been fantastically awkward. Setting their steamy lust scenes was a challenge for everyone, but the outcome has been fantastic! Awesome chemistry between Greg and Rhys… Could that mean something more than great acting…?
- Accents. We’re diving in at the deep end and beginning to experiment. Our posh British heritage will be tested in the first act, and our attempt at grungy 80’s London in the second.

We also managed to create our first drawings of what we think the set should look like. Henry (as our stage design extraordinaire) has been working hard on reflecting both the time settings of the two acts, and the symbolism that Churchill brings out through the text. I'll post a photo of our sketches on the whiteboard as soon as I can find my iPhone cable...


Whilst all this has been going on, we’ve also had our costume team (Meg and Tally) delving through books, patterns and websites to research what we’ll all be dressed in. They’ve come up with a handy colour scheme that works in collaboration with the colours of the union jack. Creams and whites are mainly used in the first act for those characters that we labeled as “traditional”, whilst those who encompass more contemporary ideas will have flecks of red and white. I’ll get some video footage of the two of them discussing their ideas as soon as possible!

Aaaaand that’s about it for now! Greg has the footage for another video on his computer, so that will hopefully be up by the end of the week. For now, keep following the blog, and keep spreading the word!

Until next time…

SECOND VIDEO...

I apologise for the bellow average video quality... from now on all videos will be shot on Chloe's phone!

~But~

...for now enjoy the latest instalment of our video blog...

Updates, updates, updates...

Hello, people of the internet!

The response to the blog has been fantastic so far, but we still want some more followers happening! If you love us, love what we're doing or just love following blogs (?), then create a gmail account and follow Life on Cloud 9. 

Aside from that, I have some updates on rehearsals, characters etc.

First of all:

The countdown has begun to opening night. I haven't yet mentioned that Cloud 9 will be playing in the

 St Leonard's College TCW Theatre, on the 6th and 7th of May. 

Put it in your diary, link it to your iphone, write it on your wall planner. It's going to be a show that you won't want to miss. 

61 days to go! 

Secondly:

The opening tableaus were set yesterday... Wow. Greg is currently putting together the next video blog, which will feature footage of the wonderful work we did yesterday, but for now you should take my word for it. 

The main premise that we have kept throughout the opening sequence is that we (as the family; Betty, Edward, Maud, Joshua, Ellen) are only what Clive wants us to be. Although we seem to be as perfect as Clive's imagination hopes, the subtext of the opening sequence says otherwise. For example, the final image of the sequence has Betty touching Clive's shoulder, as she yearns for his approval and love. Clive has subtly turned his back to Betty, so that he does not see the longing in her face. He has also turned his back on the rest of the picture, meaning he can not see Edward's disappointment in himself, Ellen's secret desire for Betty and Maud's... Well, he can't see Maud. 

Also, this week as homework Greg asked everyone to go home and do some research on their characters, and to think about what kind of animal each character was most like. Wikipedia had this to say about my characters:

Ellen, Edward's governess (Ellen is a lesbian in love with Betty, who does not realize that Ellen loves her)

Lin (a lesbian single mother having an affair with Victoria)

Hmmm... Not quite as extensive as I would have liked. 

I see Ellen as someone who doesn't have any faith in herself, or self-respect. She thinks that because she has feelings for Betty, she must be an evil person. Her devotion to Betty is so strong that she says she would 'rather die than leave you, Betty'. If Ellen were an animal, I think she would be something like a Mouse. 

Lin is the complete opposite of Ellen. She's come to terms with her sexuality and is ready to knock down anyone who hasn't. She's strong willed, fiery and knows what she wants. In the very first scenes of act two, she tells Victoria straight up; 'I really fancy you'. She loves her daughter (Cathy), and has strong opinions on how to raise her. If Lin were an animal, she'd be a Tiger or a Lion.

So they're my characters in a few sentences. Cloud 9 cast members who are following the blog, post a comment with a brief analysis of your characters and I'll add them to the blog (alternatively, log on and just make another post).

So that's all I have time to write this morning... 

Have a lovely long weekend everyone!

Until Next time... 

We is on the Internet...

First Video Blog:





Watch it, comment it, love it.

Excuse our sexual references, the videos will become deeper as we continue delve into the production process...

But for now, enjoy its face value.


Until next time...

UPDATED HEADER:

Thoughts People?...

Greetings, Cyberspace...

Hi.

Well, I suppose I should tell you who we are...

We are the St. Leonard's College 2010 Year 12 Theatre Studies Class, and our aim for this year is to put on a successful production of Caryl Churchill's challenging play; Cloud 9.

I'm Chloe, and as well as playing Ellen/Lin, I have the job of promoting the show. This blog will become the main place that we document our rehearsal process - from Day 1 to opening night. Everyone in the class will be able to upload posts/comments/photos for your reading/viewing pleasure - so stay tuned.  

But who else is in the class, you might ask?

Greg - He's our resident VCE director, and also plays Betty/Edward.

Carolyn - Our I.B Director (for those of you who don't know what I.B is... you shouldn't... haha I'm only kidding; it's a high school diploma program much like VCE, however it is 'internationally recognized'... so they tell us). Carolyn also plays Mrs. Saunders in the first act.

Rhys - Rhys has the sought-after role of being the class dramaturge. Is that even a real job? Who knows. He's also working with me (Chloe) on Props and playing Harry Bagley/Martin.

Cal W - Cal thought of the clever title for our blog, and is playing the Soldier in act 2. He will become our stage manager throughout performances. He does I.B.

Meg - She's in charge of costumes, along with Tally. Meg plays Maud in the first act, and Victoria in the second.

Tally - As mentioned above, Tally is working with Meg on costumes. As well as that, she's co-ordinating make-up. She also plays Edward/Betty, respectively. 

Henry - Henry plays Clive (the man of the house) in act one, and Cathy (Lin's 5 year old daughter) in act two. He's in charge of set-design.

Bas - Bas does I.B too... He sometimes falls asleep in class, but is happy to stay awake in order to work on lighting and sound. He's playing the black slave; Joshua, in the first act and Edward's lover; Gerry, in the second.

AND

Mr Tudor - Our brilliant teacher and friendly neighbourhood Buddhist. He will be the one guiding us through the year, with ice-packs, inspiration and invaluable support at the ready. 

P  H  E  W.

That took a while! 

So, What is the play about?

To help you understand the beautiful mess that is act one, we drew this handy mind map on the whiteboard...

M = married, L = love, F= ...duh

Got that?

Yeah, I thought so.

Alright pretty much it goes like this:

Act 1 is set in Colonial Africa, and revolves around the story of Clive and his family. Clive is married to Betty, and has two children; Edward and Victoria. Betty is played by a man, as she is 'everything a man wants her to be'. Victoria is played by a dummy and Edward is played by a girl. Ellen is the children's governess, but she is also secretly a lesbian (and in love with Betty). Joshua is the family's black slave, but is played by a white man as he is 'everything a white man wants him to be'. Maud is Betty's mother... She's quite senile. Mrs. Saunders is a neighbouring widow, and Harry Bagley is Clive's famous explorer friend who comes to stay. Within the house, crazy love triangles begin to emerge (as shown on our love map), and life is revealed to be not as perfect as Clive believes. Will Clive uphold his household? Is Harry Bagley really as brave as he appears? Is Betty really the loving, perfect wife? Will Edward save his Father in a time of need? All will be revealed by interval at Cloud 9.

Act 2 is set in London, in 1979. Betty, Edward and Victoria return from the first act, but despite the obvious large jump in the setting, they have only aged by 25 years. They are all now played by their correct sex. Lin is a lesbian who falls in love with Victoria, and has a 5-year old daughter named Cathy. Victoria is, however, married to a man named Martin, and has a son of her own; Tommy. Tommy is played by a dummy in the same way that Victoria was played by a dummy in act 1. Edward has obviously now grown to be a man, and is in a relationship with Gerry, who is also a homosexual male. The characters grow closer and become even more interconnected, as they each try to find themselves. The act closes with each of the characters acknowledging their former selves, and thus finding closure.

Making more sense now?

Good :)

So... That's us in a nutshell. Small group tackling big subject matter. Can we pull it off? I suppose you'll have to wait to find out.

Keep checking back for more updates, rehearsal reflections, pictures, videos etc. 

But in the mean time, let us know you care by sending us a comment beginning with the phrase 'I'm on Cloud 9 when...'. Best answer will win... A virtual hug...

Tempting, I know.

Until next time!