Aspiration and Inspiration
The National Theatre's design for the same show, designed by Lizzie Clachan, which played an influential role in our early ideas (Photo by Jane Hobson, from Conversative, 2016).
Aspiration
The idea of a catwalk style stage was inspired by a visit to Storyhouse theatre in Chester: we liked how a catwalk made the space more dynamic, and the fact that our performance venue had their own staging meant this came at no additional cost.
Inspiration
One of my infamously bad pencil drawings - a dedicated designer is often missing in Fringe Maker work. The pencil lines represented an early idea of realising Orlando's letters in the forest, something later replaced by ideas for projection.
Design
Once we knew we had projectors, we planned to incorporate some projection mapping, by designing two model cities (to reflect the Office location of Act 1) which, when turned on their side, would have the topography of trees (for the Forest).
Planning
In the event, having non-specialists attempting to bring the vision to reality with little time and no dedicated space (this was somebody's kitchen) meant that the vision became difficult to realise.
Execution
The final design certainly didn't look bad (at least from a distance!) but it is a far cry from what we originally envisaged. For the audience though, this is the design - they will know nothing of its material consequence.
Compromise
The joy of
diary pressures. The calendar of one of my co-directors during our final month of rehearsals. The Fringe-Maker is often juggling multiple, competing priorities at the same time.
This side-by-side comparison shows the usual progression you would expect to see from first rehearsal to final performance, but is the more instructive for the different spaces these key moments took place in. The Pilgrim Pub - as discussed in the video above - was always difficult for scenes such as this. You can hear how reluctant the actors are to 'go for it.'
In contrast, we booked the much more professional (and costly) Arts Bar studios for the final run, specifically because the actors would (finally) be working to the correct stage size and layout. Due to our budget, this was their one and only opportunity to do so.
This Rehearsal Life
'Here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tiring-house.'
A Midsummer Night's Dream, 3.1, 2
Part of our post-show discussion exploring the rehearsal journey and, in particular, the material consequences of each space upon the actor's process and rehearsal experience.
A extract from my rehearsal diary relating to the issues of rehearsal space, 22nd August 2024.
The Good,
the Bad and
the Ugly of
Fringe Maker Rehearsal Experiences
Better a bad rehearsal space than no rehearsal space. In the time since As You Like It ended, two more of the spaces we used have closed down, including the Caledonia which, while not brilliant for a lot of reasons, was free. The only hireable space currently remaining in Liverpool is the much more upmarket and expensive Arts Bar.
The Site of Performance
'I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theatre is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.'
Laurence Olivier, 1971
The factors that determine the choice of performance venue include: cost, availability, adaptability, stage space, capacity, natural light, stage lighting, acoustics, wing space, dressing rooms, access, visibility, cast size, location, box office facilities, load-in space and more. The selection of photos below highlight the range of performance spaces we have worked in in the past, in contrast to the 'professional leaning' nature of the venue we ultimately chose for As You Like It. As mentioned in Chapter 4, this venue brought with it risks about the number of tickets to be sold, and the potential of the cast to project their voices to the size of the auditorium.
We had significant obstacles in bringing on board the venue for As You Like It with our ambition to make the show fully accessible. Although the venue operate a for-hire model, they had some discretion to lower the price in support of 'community activity.' This was, in fact, the only way we could afford to perform here.
One of our aims for the production was to explore how to make the theatre-going experience more inclusive, as a result of ideas co-produced with the cast. However, the venue had different requirements to fulfil, which caused ongoing tension. For instance, they were insistent that we delineate only one of our performance nights as our 'community' show, and to market it as such, and subsequently to remove those accessibility features from other performances. More than once these other performances were described by the venue as being for 'normal' patrons.
The venue wanted to clearly label and segment the 'community' leaning aspects. This made it easier for them to highlight their discretion in lowering the price for us, and to evidence why they had done so to their board and funders. However, this clashed with our own values about what genuine accessibility should mean. For us, the accessibility initiatives were about generally making the theatre-going experience more comfortable for all patrons. The venue were upfront about stating that they wanted to protect as much as possible for full-paying audience members. A dedicated 'community' performance made it easier for them to offer subsidised tickets on that one night, to those specific patrons, whilst maintaining the ability to charge full price elsewhere.
This caused significant friction and consternation amongst the cast, and spoke to the difficulty of trying to address the complex systemic challenges between venues and makers, when each are working under their own set of values, funding requirements and business models.
Time
'It took two days to get the set up, so we shan't have time for a dress rehearsal. Don't worry. Think of the first night as a dress rehearsal.'
Noises Off, Frayn, 1982
The business of scheduling As You Like It, as with all of our plays, goes something like this:
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At audition, cast share as much of their availability as they know.
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This is mapped onto a calendar.
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Scenes are listed by character and groupings are found.
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Rehearsals are scheduled according to availability, trying where possible to be chronological. In reality, this rarely holds up for long.
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Dependent on rehearsal time, the template is usually:
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Work through each scene once.
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A 'mid-way' rehearsal
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Work through each scene a second time
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Time permitting, a final work through of each act or,
at minimum, of each half. -
A run-through.
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The two diary extracts here highlight how scheduling is not a mechanical or logistic process, but something that underpins a deeply interconnected link with the artistry of the product created. How rehearsals are approached, shaped and scaffolded, particularly when working with non-professionals, has a direct relationship to the aesthetic work, and the experience of the performers beyond simple preparedness.
To the right is an example of one of our rehearsal plans, which details how rehearsals were approached, embedding skills development, dividing time and responsibility, and attempting to support the cast towards being ready for performance in ways that they were hopefully not fully aware of.
Scheduling is a gentle manipulation, a form of playing god, although as I have already expanded upon at length, this is made a mockery of when it meets the actual messy reality of working in the Fringe Making space.
MATERIAL limitation
Click images to see more and read descriptions.
People
'The truth is, I thought it mattered - I thought that music mattered. But does it bollocks? Not compared to how people matter.'
Brassed Off, 1996
Some of the cast of As You Like It before their radio interview to talk about the show.
The people of As You Like It - in their own words.
Building an Aesthetic
'Aesthetic operations are a kind of means to the experience, but the experience itself is hard to describe with our usual words.'
Dissanayake in Reason 2022, 57
The power and throw-distance of the projectors necessitated an expensive late-change to how our digital set-design was to function.
The examples below highlight how we constructed an aesthetic reality for As You Like It in ways that worked within the material limitations of the available time and budget. The essence of this is in leaning towards a shared concept of professionalism, and in effect not drawing attention to the constraints that may define the production as non-professional. The sense of material ambition is evident here, and is drawn into sharp focus in those moments when this falls down, such as in the example of our projectors and the design of our model city prop.
The projectors were, by far, our greatest expense, and a whole series of digital sets were designed to be projected onto the gauze, which we also hired in at cost. In actuality, they were not powerful enough or able to be hung far enough from the gauze to work how we intended. More tech time in the venue could have resolved this, but this was never going to be possible with half a day to get-in, tech and open the show. The idea of relying on the digital sets to enhance the bare physical stage was thus rendered obsolete, and we instead used the opportunity to give more prominence to the show captioning.
But they serve as a reminder of how artistic vision is under constant and unexpected pressure - months of careful planning come undone in fifteen minutes of a technical rehearsal.
One of 43 digitally designed set extensions. Cut from the final show, these were produced at a significant time and budget cost, and ultimately scrapped.
