...have been able to undertake roles in the setting up and running of a community arts project

We planned and undertook many a roles helping and being in a arts project involving the community.

An example of this is when I performed at the beginning of Dr Faustus with Sophie and Saxona.

We began with a meeting to discuss what to do for the introduction, ideas arose such as symbolic approaches with no dialogue, a strictly educational talk then we sparked the idea of making a short introduction with a comedic act.

We designed a set of script examples (linked on Sazona's blog) which gave each of us an equal amount of dialogue.

One main contributed I supplied through marketing was in creation of the poster to promote/inform potential audiences of the showing.

The process was tough as to keep legal I had to avoid taking images off the web which were copyrighted, so I took pictures of a dragons head and a pair of shoes to use for the poster.

We arranged a meeting at the start of May to discuss our production roles and influence of The Wiz, mine being the poster.

Below are the initial designs, with feedback given from the members of the group, why were were or were not effective:

 This design would cost far too much to produce, through red printer ink

 This design didn't reflect the colourfulness of the Wiz in all its glory

 Although it fitted the colour sheme the balance didn't see jusr right

This was the final poster design taken from the third example

Our participation evaluation is below:

We wanted to tell the story of Dr Faustus to help the audience initially understand the brief plot before the shakespearian version runs, the comedic aspect was added as a relief for audiences and to create a bigger impact when the darker main performance started, this I am sure was effective and successful.

''Sophie, Saxona and I had the task of devising a introduction entertainment segment before the Dr Faustus show. This however wasn't too challenging as we were well familiar with the happening and types of entertainment around the time Dr Faustus would have originally been performed.

Monologue's - Shoreham

...understand the roles and responsibilites

There are a wide range of arts in the community projects, but each one entitles a different group of people to operate them.

With reference to the interview taken from here, it is clear that even somewhere like WMCS need members of front of house, a venue and possibly a catering service when putting on shows, whereas somewhere like Eton Place Music need bands which openly come to them seeking opportunities, a representative which in this case is Dave himself as he feels the client feels more involved and can put more trust in the project if Dave sees them himself; other projects such as St. Pauls have a very unique set of required staff, a team of 16-17 people, one for marketing and promoting events, another group to manage the kitchen when they use the space as a café, and another group of people to manage the different types of events, whether that be front of house staff and a bouncer for parties, a photographer for bands, weddings or exhibitions or a representative at open meeting parties.

Company/Charity	People needed	Skills	Influence on project
WMCS	Teachers	Be able to teach effectively and be able to control children	Teaching actors to put on a show
	Actors (Children)	Youth actors, volunteers	Be involved in the show
	Front of house	Able to sell tickets and work our calculations under pressure	Selling tickets for events, collecting and handing money
	Catering	Selling refreshments with a profit	Refreshments for audience
	Administration	Able to keep in control of everything and arranging opportunities	Keeping everything calm and ordered
	Marketing	Looking into their target demographic	Understanding the audience
	Finance	Keep a good eye on income and outcome	Calculating profits and income
	Designers (Costume, props)	Design suitable clothing in different sizes	Creating costumes and props for the production
	Make up/hair artists	Able to style hair and work with make up	Contribute to the hair and make up on the actors involved
	Social Media	Knowledge of social websites and able to promote effectively through them	Made aware the event on social sites
Eton Place Music	Bands/Artists	Able to entertain and perform to a professional standard	Entertaining audiences
	Administration	Able to keep in control of everything and arranging opportunities	Keeping everything calm and ordered
	Marketing	Looking into their target demographic	Understanding the audience
	Social Media	Knowledge of social websites and able to promote effectively through them	Made aware the event on social sites
	Representative	Able to represent the company confidently and good under pressure	Bringing in potential clients
St. Paul's	Café team (Chefs, kitchen assistants)	Able to cook, clean and deal with customers	Supply food to customers
	Front of house/Bouncer	Able to sell tickets and work our calculations under pressure/can deal with drunk/disturbing customers	Selling tickets for events, collecting and handing money/escorting people on the venue
	Musicians	Able to entertain and perform to a professional standard	Entertaining audiences
	Photographer	Can take professional pictures of the main happenings of the event	Providing professional looking images
	Finance	Keep a good eye on income and outcome	Calculating profits and income
	Marketing	Looking into their target demographic	Understanding the audience
	Promotion	Efficiently promote the event, mentioning all areas of importance (time, date, venue)	Ensure everyone knows of the event
	Social Media	Knowledge of social websites and able to promote effectively through them	Made aware the event on social sites

Examples of these companies roles are apparent in their productions:

• WMCS - 'Oliver!' was a production they produced in 2014, the production roles all were a important feature in the final showing, other responsibilities such as catering was a strong impact on the audience and the success of the interval they used
• Eton Place Music - Performing at a wedding and working alongside outside companies for roles such as catering were effective in creating a synergetic system for Eton Place Music, also promotion and finance were important in keeping the event organised
• St. Paul's - Their music events draw in a wide range of audiences which can benefit other aspects of the roles such as the refreshments and other smaller companies who can advertise in and around the event. St. Paul's drawing a wide range of people in from different locations and local companies promoting themselves.

Examples

Other events would also need a different management team:

• A choir concert would need a conductor, musicians, singers, administration, marketing and possibly a speaker, driver and catering staff
• A workshop at a school or college would need volunteers of workers in the company to participate, and designers such as costume, prop and make up/hair.
• An open air theatres crew would include a safety manager, a marketing, budgeting and finance group, actors or a school/college to promote/use the space and a set of designers.

...understand the skills and processes needed to run a community arts project

Research taught us that you have to be a certain type of person to work on an arts project in the community.

They'd need educational skills and have a set of personal skills such as:

Educational Skills:

• Being trained in health and safety (incase someone injurers themselves)
• Experience in leadership roles (to common and lead a team)
• Experience with groups of people with different and difficult backgrounds (ensure everyone can be respected and treated equally
• Have learnt how to negotiate a point (in the case of potential clients this is crucial)
• A keen understanding of business (knows the in and out of business so they have experience in the field)

Personal Skills:

• A strong direction with a positive outlook (positive look on bad situations can be vital)
• A friendly persona (be able to leave clients and people with a good lasting impression)
• Able to communicate with all types of people (children can be difficult but knowing how to talk to them can be important)
• Confident (able to talk to anyone and everyone)
• Independent and able to hold great responsibility (act in a mature and professional manner could give people a better persona of you) For example of Dave from Eton Place Music he talks to everyone of his clients face to face to ensure they feel the most engaged and involved in the process, this also leaves them with a good lasting impression.

We began to interview 3 leaders of different businesses/charities to see their contrasting or similarities when it comes with community arts.

The three different people we interviewed were:

Wendy from the WMCS (Worthing Musical Comedy Society) founded in 1999 the company has since become very popular, filled with creative minds they aspire to involve people of all ages above 15 and hold many productions to showcase their work. Due to the nature of this company there is plenty of money to pay such as insurance, workshop leaders but sometimes they are gifted with donations. Wendy, the chairmen, first founded the company because her son was into drama and since has aimed to make every member of the group part of the WMCS family.

The publicise through flyers, word of mouth, Facebook (which is now closed) and the adult company website. Due to running a charity instead of a company Wendy says that the balance of costs is tricky as their not allowed to make profits, instead they balance their books £5-6k from donations which should be just over enough that they'd need to fund and work a production.

Wendy believes that ''...theatre is important for the youth, as they develop confidence, are part of a team and create life long friends.''

Ways in which they try to save money is Wendy's husband tries to make additional props, instead of purchasing them.

Dave from Eton Place Music started the company 5 years ago to help our musicians. Starting as a teacher Dave believed the key to success in the music industry is to 'connect people' something his company does, connoting aspiring musicians with potential clients; visiting the clients in person as he feels face to face contact is a vital aspect of how his business is run.

Word of mouth is used over handing our psychical flyers or cards as it acts as the most personal and friendliest way of promoting and marketing his business/clients.

They're online presence is large as they try to keep as up to date as possible, the Natasha, head of social media at Eton Place Music controls their Facebook account.

Dave has hosted a wide range of charity events which give him a great moral for the non-profit work. Allowing his musicians to be open to what they want to play 'you do you' he pays them a 60% mark up on the earnings which is higher than most other competitors.

Eton Place Music also works alongside other companies to become mutually beneficial (synergy) such as working with the catering company 'Rhubarb' they can both be involved in an event.

Ed Kilroy from St Paul's has been open for 6 years and has had a hard time keeping up with the refurbishments of the church building as it's 201 years old. His vision for St. Paul's is seen as a café during the day and a hall for music or events for people wanting to put on arts for the community in the evenings.

Expenses have been tough as they had to spend £2 million, 20 years ago due to roof issues. They're funded by the national lottery and the national heritage as St. Pauls is a popular community location with a positive ethic.

St. Pauls has been used for numerous events such as weddings, live music, book launches and exhibitions, with a capacity of 500 not many things can't be held here.

A team of 16-17 run the café (two chefs, kitchen assistant, supervisor, general manager, porter, front of house team and casual staff. Also they've had 6 proms held there so far, with hundreds of birthday parties).

They have no target audience as they welcome and accept all ages; there's something for everyone.

Promote further comes from social media, on Instagram, publicising the events as well as the venue, although they are still searching for a market manager. They setup a yearly art exhibition at Northbrook college which they also promote themselves at.

With contrasting and similar aspects the members of the company and charities we interviewed created an overall similar moral, to benefit the community, WMCS wanted children and adults to explore they creative sides and benefit through performance, developing further confidence and create a life long group of friends; Eton Place Music wanted to assist in aspiring musicians to achieve their dreams, which would have otherwise been limiting from other profit aimed organisations; and St. Paul's wanted to influence as many people as possible, holding events for all ages and types of people, allowing contrasting events from live music to art exhibitions and a café during the day for the people who just want to enjoy the space. They may be different and promote, act, organise in different ways but their overall focus is to develop further their communities by offering opportunities.


These three representatives, Dave, Wendy and Ed Kilroy all showed the educational and personal aspects needed of a community arts worker. Especially in certain fields.

• Wendy showed especially a clear professional experience in the fields of the community arts and allowed us to research further from her first hand experience
• Dave was confident and showed us the importance of a friendly approach when involving themselves with customers and employees.
• Ed Kilroy was totally aware of the benefit of the community and helped us understand a clear purpose for arts in the community and the consequences of events of the public/local community.

They all demonstrated a friendly persona, with a confident and positive direction and understanding of their business. We were able to enhance our initial understanding of arts in the community and each representative was able to give examples and thorough understanding in individual details specific to their businesses/charities.

Dr Faustus Devised Introduction Evaluation

Sophie, Saxona and I had the task of devising a introduction entertainment segment before the Dr Faustus show. This however wasn't too challenging as we were well familiar with the happening and types of entertainment around the time Dr Faustus would have originally been performed.

Sophie and Saxona took it upon themselves to create a structure of the act, with a small introduction lead by myself followed by a comedic element; telling the story of Dr Faustus through costume changes and dialogue led by myself.

The opening was classic, a welcome ladies and gentlemen, but with a twist. You see we wanted to open the act as if it was the 1600s. Sophie and Saxona were dressed as men so we could address and educate the audience a little whilst also entertaining them that women were forbidden to perform/be on stage in that era. They also wrote the script to include the mentions of bear baiting a common opening act before, during and/or afterwards a performance in classical times.

My segment included quick changes and devising small scenes to portray the story that the girls were reading. An example is 'There once was a man named Dr Faustus' and I would proceed to dress in a jacket and stumble onto stage as a Dr Faustus were I said 'Dr Faustus', introducing the audience into the happenings of the next few minutes, I was going to act out the story! A few quick changes later I had to portray the 7 deadly sins:

1. Lust
2. Gluttony
3. Greed
4. Sloth
5. Wrath
6. Envy
7. Pride

I did this by visually and vocally presenting these sings as a situation, for example Gluttony I ate a cake, Wrath I became angry that an audience member wouldn't give me his coat.

I wanted this to mainly be improvised as it would add to the comedic aspects of the act, although I did have a brief idea of movement and dialogue beforehand as a guideline to stick by.

Eventually ending with a character from the Dr Faustus cast running onto the stage and shouting at us to get off.

Overall our intentions of the act was more successful than we hoped, we managed to obtain many a laughter and we were all convinced that the audience learnt something or another from what we were trying to say or at the very least understood the brief story of Dr Faustus.


A few alternative ideas I suggested which would have been used but due to lack of time and money we were not able to implicate it into the final performance.


We wanted to add music into the piece, a cheerful tune to introduce the comedic aspects of the performance, although we didn't acquire the time to search for free music to use and set up for the final performance.


Using a small musical song section to add to the comedic aspects was also thought about but we were unable to search or learn a song in the time we were left with.


This musical aspects would have been suitable for the performance to add to the overall atmosphere and helping engage the audience into the piece as well as forming an enigmatic start.


With more money we would have liked to add more over the top props and costumes, such as more realistic clothing or food in our case also which would have been effective in the piece looking more professional.


Another professional feature we thought about was adding a sketch at the end of the performance, we then decided against this due to time.

Remaining Questions and Answers

What would you say were the best things about working with the particular classical script you performed?

The script adaptation by David Feldshuh which is hours shorter than the original because it only contains the bare necessities and the main plot points enabled us as actors to understand the core script and made it easier for us to create our own adaptations of the characters/plot.

Particularly, the main story involved traditional conventions which would still apply to current situations in the 20th century such as father/mother and son relationships, women's rights and being accepted in society/a social group.

Performing the adapted copy of the Antigone script also allowed each main actor a balance of lines/stage time. The chorus also was adapted to allow for shorter breaks between episodes but long enough for a relief before the post episode.

I think performing through an adapted copy of the traditional script made the movement sequences of the description in the script easier to visually understand.

What were the themes in your script and how did you practically explore them?

The themes, conventions and issues addressed in Antigone are the core moral foundations of the story, here are the themes:

• Free will and Fate
• Civil Disobedience
• Rules and order
• Women's rights
• Morality

We first explored how we could visually portray this themes through the use of the chorus breaks, through the use of movement, sound and proximity, positing and spacing. One way we used this effectively was during the chorus interactions with Creon we bowed down to him, representing the lack of free will and status between the poor and rich, issues which even today can be addressed as problems as well as the rules and order theme. Other interactions such as with Antigone were effective too to show her status amongst the situations she had faced, the use of creating the tomb Creon locks her in out of masked chorus symbolism the restriction women have in the women, with the masks of different personalities showing the many different types of people in the world and how they would feel over the lack of women equality.

Describe the importance of a few characters in the piece and how your production interpreted them for a contemporary audience?

The royals were interpreted for a contemporary modern audience by fitting them with a consistent colour scheme, blue and a flag icon of a Peacock. The colour blue was picked to correspond with the steam punk atmosphere we wanted to create, engaging this with the contrasting dull colours of the chorus this established a clear difference between the groups, a clear difference in the higher and lower status and an enhanced visual impact when both groups are on the stage at once.

The chorus group wore similar clothing to represent a wide range of the population instead of unique characters who would stand out, this was important to ensure the attention was on seeing the chorus as the audiences gateway into the story, the chorus's interruption of the story, hopefully ending with the audience feeling more involved and engaged with the scenes.

What did you contribute to the process? Provide clear examples and reasons for your choices? How were they different or influenced by the originals?

My production role involved me to create the programme, as part of the publicity team, something I aspired to be involved in before the production electing process began. I used the title box over the eyes of Antigone to create enigma and a foreshadowing of the messages and values addressed in the story.

Each in groups we had an episode to devise a structure of movements to portray the lines whilst they're being read, we had to work on Exodus, where Jessica, Olivia and I had to round by through Eurydice in response to the words by Creon. We did this by keeping the movements very literal to words being said.

For example 'They twist my joy to pain' we moved Kim (Eurydice) into a twisted position. Another example is 'But I have learnt to suffer' we moved her arm to her heart, symbolising the lines.

Historical Context Presentation

An attached copy of the PowerPoint Presentation

Questions explored and answered:

• Provide an introduction to the era/s in which your performances were written?
• Which playwright wrote the script?
• Is your play a translation? Discuss the translator and the purpose of the translation
• Was there more than one version of your play? Discuss
• What were the staging conventions of the time in which your play was written? How was your production different?
• What were the most popular styles of performances when your play was originally performed?
• What was the style of the piece? How did this compare with the original?