dinnertime!

After Dinner:
So dudes, i luuuuuuuuuuurveee this play and am very happy we chose to do it! as soon as i read the brief synopsis on it in the handout from scotty, i knew i liked it. After more and more research, my love only grew, deepened and strengthened hehe.
So here are some questions i decided to answer regarding our play, feel free to go ahead and answer them too (i’d love to see other opinions)
What do i like about this play?
The most appealing parts to are the characters and setting. The characters, with being humourous are all deep and challenging roles to play. They’re all very realistic and have their own individual, intriguing stories behind them. i love how these stories intertwein (prob. spelt wrong) as the play goes on. For example, Monika expresses her interest to go home with a man for a one-night stand and then wake up and leave him while he’ still sleeping. And Stephen, expresses an interest to take a woman home with hope that they have a future together and an ambition to build a relationship with this woman. The two, with their conflicting interests go home together at the end of the evening. I believe our class was ready for more challenging roles and this play provides that, i also believe that we excell with humour and this play also provides that. The characters are all single, lonely and each have their own serious problems, they’re looking for a good night out and an escape from their regular 9-5 routines. While we’re a lot younger than these characters, i think we can relate to a lot of what happens and the emotions that they’re feeling which helps very much with a believable performance. Moving on to the setting, i loved the idea of having the play set in a suburban pub bistro, i think its a simple, yet fantastic set that can set a great atmosphere and focus audience attention on the performance while impressing them with a different, and shweeet set.
2) What do you think will be challenging? why?
Scotty has been speaking to us about ensuring that we don’t play these roles as caricatures. I think this will be a challenge, as i think a lot of us are used to this kind of acting, this is what we mostly did in the past in order to make our plays humerous, i think it’ll be tough for us to keep our play more on the serious side(which i believe we should do) while incorporating humour rather than the other way around. This will be hard as we may slip into old routine of aiming to get as many laughs as possible, rather than aiming to be deep and thought provoking.
3) How do you propose to meet/solve this problem?
I think we need to establish our vision of how funny and how serious we want this play to be. We then, with the help of our director and dramaturg need to stick to this vision and maintain the level of seriousness, humour in the play that we aimed for. Also, i think ( as Scotty has suggested) that it is a great idea for each actor to establish a backround story of their character in order to stay in touch with the emotions and serious life aspects of the character. We need to understand the reasons behind their actions (e.g monika getting drugged and drunk) rather than focussing on these scenes as “funny parts” and playing them up but at the same time we need to maintain the comic aspect. I think this will be a challenge, but one that we can face head on and that with some hard work we are all ready for.
In the cold read today - i personally realised that i need to stay more in touch with my character, her emotions and the reasons behind her actions and maintain her serious element rather than acting out certain scenes too comically and thus losing the story behind it.
4) Audience/actor relationship…
I think audience/actor relationship is a key element in our play as the audience are part of the set, they’re in the restaraunt with us and therefore we must acknowledge their existance and in a sence include them in the performance. this can also add to the comic element of the play. Plus, audience members love it when you talk to them (hehe, i know i do when i’m on that side of the bench, or stage, either way, you know)
O.k this blog is done now, peace out friends and i hope everyone else is as happy with this play as i am MWA

In todays production meeting, we discussed a lot of important elements. To refresh your memories, the production meeting consisted of:
Discussion about live band.
Discussion about b.y.o or not.
Further discussion regarding food.
Jono’s suggestions, instead of a live band is to incorporate a “fake” band into the set and have lighting focussed on the “band” at times in the script when they’re meant to be performing. Personally, i prefer this idea to having a live band. Apart from it being easier to organise and manage both in rehersals and on the night, i believe that a live band will take focus away from the play itself. Given that we are already considering having food and a shweeeeet set, i think incorporating a live band may cause our play to have too many elements drawing focus away from the performance. i think that the play and performances should be the highlight, rather than people forgetting about it as a result of focussing on yummy nibblies, alcohol and a live band. Also, when reading the script and envisaging the play, i never imagined a live band - i think the focus should be on the acting and actors should have the task of reacting to a live band that isn’t in fact there. i think that the play wasn’t written with the intention to perform it with a band and as much as we want to make it our own, there is such a thing as looking too far out and too far out in the wrong direction (as proven in blueprints for those vce eng students among us).
moving along to the BYO idea. i see pro’s and con’s with this idea. My initial reaction was no way, i felt that the presence of alcohol at a year 12 theatre production at a fairly conservative school was highly inappropriate. i also though that it was unnecessary and is likely to be frowned upon by some staff members at the school. However, after further considering the idea, i realised that alcohol is very much incorporated in the script, in fact its almost a key element with the boys heading off to get drinks numerous times and one girl returning from an adventure rather drunk. I think if, as year 12’s we can have this in our performance then that may counteract the notion of alcohol being inappropriate in this setting. Also, i recognise the financial difficulties in providing grape juice (for atmosphere sake) and understand how alcohol could enhance the atmosphere ( a key element in a succesful play) Therefore, my dear friends, if majority of people are for the idea, i would not go against it. However, i urge everybody when considering the idea, the school environment that we’re in and the appropriateness of having alcohol at a year 12 production which is also directly affiliated with out school. after all, we don’t want to cause too much contreversy (and we are the minority) hehe!
Lastly, and i know this blogs is going on forever, so i’m sorry - but we also discussed food. and i’ll make this reactio short - i think nibblies is a good idea, i don’t think its a waste of money if it is going to enhance our atmosphere and performance. But we do have to make sure that its not too distracting and that its yummy! also, Yaniv brought up a valid point today that often actors are on stage, with not much to do so having snacks on the table for them to eat could be a good way to fill in the blanks.
On a final note - we tried on the costumes (so far) today for the first time and everything fit so i am thrilled! please put up a comment or blog or just write me a little note, or let me know exactly what u are/can bring for your/or others costumes! Thanx guys, peace be da journey

hey guys, gave you all a hard copy of this but thought it might be handy to have on the blog. Please let me know if there is ANYTHING on the list you can get! inclusing little things like bracelets and stockings, even if you’re not acting. also, i need to know asap so i can organize to get hold of stuff in necessary, so help me out and check from the list what you guys can get thankyou!
And, waiters - you guys need to organise black pants n white shirt, im sure you all have this at home - let me know if you don’t and i’ll sort it out for you (boys, i have bowties for you!)
here it is:
Dympie (Melinda):
 “Mannish” Jacket, big shoulder pads.
 Gold blouse with blue pattern.
 Few chunky, tacky bracelets.
 Long pencil skirt (red).
 Bone – color tights.
 White stilettos.
 Handbag.

Monica (Naomi):
 Sparkly, beaded top.
 Plain cardigan
 Gold pencil skirt
 Stockings
 Handbag
 Shoes.
 Gold belt.

Paula (Elise):
 Scarf hood.
 Black boob-tube
 Tight, short, colorful (bright pink) dress.
 Studded black belt.
 Long white gloves
 Big, colorful, tacky bangles.
 Black stockings.
 Colorful leg-warmers.
 Handbag.
 Shoes.
OR
 80’s pink and orange dress.
 Hood.
 Bangles.
 Gloves.
 Handbag.
 Shoes.

Gordon (Yaniv):
 Pink or white shirt.
 Skinny, black tie.
 Checked, bluish-grey button-up jacket and pants.
 Black shoes.
 Mullet (wig).

Stephen (Daniel):
 Tight, skinny jeans.
 Tight, bright-color jacket, one button.
 “Groovy 80’s” shirt.
 Boots.
 Studded belt
 Long hair (wig)
 Big sunglasses.

Waiters/maitrede (Scott, Kimmi and Jono):
 Black pants
 White shirt
 Bowtie (for boys)

Blue highlight = already got! 
:

This was a more direct, simple process.
We had a brief discussion regarding who we though fit what role. those who read the play put in their opinion and we heard from Scotty. That night Scott, our trusty director, read the play and thought further about who should be who! he told us who would be who and everyone was pleased and accepted this decision! we then knew who would be who!
Nai - Monika
Elise - Paula
Mel - Dympie
Yaniv - Gordon
Goofy - Stephen
Jono - waiter.
The same day, we decided that every class member should be included on stage through adding roles like maitredee and an extra waiter. this was an easy decision as everybody was happy to agree.
I also think that this will add to the atmosphere of the play and enhance our performance. :)

My first few weeks as costume designer:
Process: when i found out i was costume designer, i decided to research 80’s costumes as the play was originally set in the 80’s.
I printed information and pictures of my costume ideas for my folio.
i sketched my first costume ideas.
i then presented my ideas and sketches to my class and everyone was happy with what i’d thought of, so we made the decision to set the play in the 80’s! woooo
i then made a concept map of costumes, sticking up all my information, pictures and ideas for costumes, and an individual concept and costume list for each character. i presented this to my class, put it in our production room and left plenty of space for things to be added.
With my concepts and ideas in mind, i decided to go opp-shop shopping! as reseach had showed me that these were a good place to look for 80’s clothes. i researched opp-shops and found a few in my area.
i then went to the opp shops with my sketches in hand, in search of perfect costumes! i wrote down the product, size and price of everything that i though appropriate and took photos of them.
As i was unaware of the budget situation and couldn’t put the clothes on hold, as soon as i got home i contacted my teacher to find out how to go about purchasing these costumes.
the next day i returned to the opp shops and bought all the costumes that fit my designs (with slight adjustment to the designs)
Then, i took photos of all the costumes at home and developed them for my folio.
I went back to my sketches and made some changes where needed.
I then made a costume list to hand out to my class and highlighted all the poducts that i had so far.

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