During the past week, we have run the show in its entirety. This allowed myself as Stage Manager/Assistant Director to both take technical notes to add to the book and give notes to the cast about the show so far. With some scenes still being devised and developed we are happy with the show’s progress.
For me the work and work ethic of Frantic Assembly has impacted on our piece. In rehearsal we have used script and sound as “the launch pad and inspiration for most of the devising process” (Graham and Hoggett, 2009, 5). Like Frantic Assembly, a lot of the fragments we have now developed started with the “kernel of the idea” and were then tested “to see if it [wa]s interesting enough to us and if ‘it ha[d] got legs’” (Graham and Hoggett, 2009, 6; 6). The product also somewhat resembles that of Frantic Assembly. Whilst we do not use heavy beats or movement that is as physically demanding as Frantic Assembly, much of our show is movement based and could be branded physical theatre in the same way that Scott Graham and Stephen Hoggett’s company are. Although some of our work is more dance based than Frantic, choreography has the same meaning to us: “any formalised movements that become set and can be repeated” (Graham and Hoggett, 2009, 123). This has definitely had a stylistic impact on the direction in which the show has moved.
Works Cited:
Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2009) The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre. Oxon: Routledge.