Category: Visuals and aesthestics

After gathering our materials, it was time to piece everything together. To bring to life our theme of immersive theatre, we started by building the cube within our space using our strips of material. We managed to create a three sided shape with a cinema screen as the forth wall. On the remaining walls we used lighting to manipulate the mood and create different atmospheres for each section of the piece. Originally, we wanted to create a four sided cube rather than three walls and a cinema screen, however this was not able to be done because of the technical requirements needed to create this. We would have needed a lot more material than we could afford, and it would have required extensive technical management as we wanted to project on all four walls. However if we were to do this again we would use this idea instead, and cover the walls with our videos of stop motion, descriptions of our dreams and sleep surveillance to really immerse the audience in our space.  Manipulation of the grid using sheets to project onto and clouds hanging from it represented the ‘roof’ of the cube, and two of our members of the group laid onto the grid and under the sheet so the audience could see them from the ground. We had cloud footage projected onto the sheet to begin the piece, to create a soothing atmosphere for the audience to relax and get comfortable in. (See Figure 1) We took inspiration from practitioners such as Robert Lepage and Blast Theory’s Desert Rain. 

Figure 1 – walls of the cube and clouds from the grid.

At this point, we filled the cube itself with bean bags, pillows and cushions to provide a relaxing experience for the audience to arrive and get comfortable in. A park bench was situated in the corner as the setting for the dream took place in a park and the bench played a key role in where the characters were. The walls were kept blank as in a dream it is not always one hundred per cent clear where you are, but you are more likely to recognize people and faces, so we wanted to focus more on the action rather than the setting.  The audience were invited to lay down and join us in the space and to relax, thus bringing forward the idea of sleeping and dreaming, to then be blurred when a realistic story is occurring in the space.

When we broke out of the dream-like beginning into the burst of reality, we did this through a series of instructions provided by a mobile phone call and letters filled with instructions for key audience members. It was their job to uncover the dream and investigate what had happened and who was responsible. We put this for the audience to do as within a dream you are always trying to piece the dream together, as dreams are fragments of our day to day lives but pieced together in an abstract way to make up the dream. (See Figures 2 and 3) As actors we only had our own stories, so they became the fragments of the dream.

Figure 2 – Audience participation in asking questions to the actors to piece together the dream.

Figure 3 – Interrogation in the space.

We had a laptop set up with a Twitter account especially for the performance within the space so the audience could document what they were experiencing. This was because in a modern day world life is constantly being documented on the internet, even through mobile phones. People can tap into the internet and access information instantly, so we wanted to have this as a supporting theme throughout. We also placed a camera within the space so the audience could take photos and videos of the situation unfolding in front of them, we wanted to bring forward the initial action of people within an eventful situation. For example, a person could have an intimate conversation in a public place through a mobile phone. We then decided to make our situation a disaster,  and initially we chose the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However we decided to stir away from this and choose terrorism as a concept, but the main focus was the mobile phone in the middle of the space, on a specific bean bag unlike the others so it was clear where the place the phone when not in use.

We feel we could have made the cube more immersive if we could, but because of limitations we managed to create what we could with the resources we could use. Overall it achieved what we wanted to achieve, and visually it was innovative and very effective.

By Francesca Brooks

For the rehearsal process of our piece, we decided to experiment with mobile phones as a way to give instructions to the participants. During this experimentation process, we discovered that by giving instructions by using mobile phones alone, the piece became too hesitant. This was due to the fact that the instructions heard by the participant were misunderstood, or the phone was too quiet.

One member of our group called the number to the specific phone being used and asked the participant to repeat everything that was being said to them. The members of the dream reality group realized that this way of giving instructions to the participants became too complicated. From this idea, we then decided to keep the concept of using mobile phones, but to make it easier to give instructions to the participant who answered the phone.

the instructions which the participants read out loud were written down on cards and numbered 1-5, then the participant read out these instructions when told to do so. this was to maintain control of our piece as it was scripted. we could not have had the participant who answered the phone say anything they liked as it would have required a high level of improvisation. this would have slowed the piece down greatly.

This idea then gave us the thought that we could write out the instructions so the participant could read them out when the member of our group instructed them too after they answered the phone. The process of trial and error with using mobile phones meant that we came up with an idea to make the piece flow more and gave us more control over what the participants would say. whilst we still used  the mobile phone to give instructions, we realized that even when the phone was put on loud speaker, it was far too quiet for the other participants\audience members to hear. to resolve this, we decided to use a microphone for the instructor to use so everyone would be able to hear what was being said.

Our influence for this idea came from Blast Theory’s use of mobile phones within their own performances such as A Machine to see with and Ulrike and Eamon compliance in which they too use mobile phones to instruct their participants at different intervals throughout the process. The difference between our group and Blast theory is that, they used these instructions to guide their participants to a different location. With dream reality, we instructed our participants to ask the ‘suspects’ a series of questions in order to find the person responsible for the attack.

In Blast theory’s a machine to see with, they tell their participant through the mobile phone that they are the lead in a heist movie. similarly in dream reality, the instructor tells the participant that they are now the hero. “A Machine To See With is a film where you play the lead. There are screenings every 15 minutes. You sign up online and hand over your mobile phone number. On the day, you receive an automated call giving you the address you need to go to. Once you arrive on your allotted street corner your phone rings. From there a series of instructions lead you through the city. You are the lead in a heist movie; it’s all about you.” (Blast theory (2013), Blast theory online: http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/bt/work_amachinetoseewith.html (Accessed: May 2013)

Our influence to use technology in our piece, mainly mobile phones, largely came from Blast theory. However, we felt as a group, that as mobile phones are usually the first point of call during any disaster or any event, it would be a very useful concept to explore.

The instructions that we used can be seen below, simply click on the PDF files:

1 2 3 4 5

After going away and writing our own monologues we grouped together and read what each of us had written. Coincidentally we each created events that occurred in a park. Already we had subconsciously created a thread that bound each of the texts together. We decided to develop this and create more links between the characters and the situations they find themselves in. The aim of doing this was to keep the audience guessing and keep them interested as the plot twists and turns as each person is accused.

We took this a step further by making the audience member the protagonist of the piece; they would lead the investigation and ultimately find out who is guilty. For this we took influence from Blast Theory and Gobs Squad as they both use the public within their performances to lead and very much be a part of their performance.

An awareness and worry was raised at just how much we were going to rely on the audience. We felt that creating a script was the ideal way to regain some control as this way we would at least know what they were going to ask and we could have set responses.

Improvised sections are also written in the script in which tasks are set for the audience to complete such as the searching of the contents of bags and the searching of finding items in the space.

Below a link can be found to a PDF of the script. This includes each of the characters and ‘Mobile’. ‘Mobile’ stands for the member of the audience who will answer the phone and then lead the investigation.

Click to open script – Dream_Reality_Script

By Nina Woods

The previous reflection of work on the grid can be seen here

When we decided to work on the grid we did not have a finished idea of what we wanted to do in our performance but dream/reality was still the main theme. We were really keen to bring the grids in to the performance as it has never been done before at the University and we could predict that it would look really good. The reason as to why we came across it is because Lee showed us a video of a multimedia performance where people could see their own reflection on a floor which you would not usually be able to do so. This made us think about what the grid would look like to an audience. Some of us decided to try it out, we went up to the grid and lay down while the rest of the group lay down on the floor underneath and watched us. It looked really effective and gave off the impression of a mirror image.

I was asked to go on the grid for the performance which was very daunting as it is something I have never experienced before. It was difficult to rehearse as the space was not always available and I had to be attended by one of the tech team due to health and safety reasons so I was only able to practice a couple of times before the final performance.

The grid was lined with sheets so we could project on to it. Our intention was the make the audience enter the space below and lay down so they immediately saw Luke and I above them on the grid, we wanted to make it look as if we were their reflection. We were lying underneath the sheets while there was a projection of a sky. We wanted to create a dream-like atmosphere and portray that we were sleeping up above. From the feedback I received from certain audience members, I think the concept of the grid worked really well. The feedback was all positive and they said it was very effective.

On the grid we had a routine which we had previously choreographed. This represented us sleeping which we hoped would encourage the audience to get in to a slight slumber. After the projection of the sky we showed one of our stop motion projections which showed a frantic movement, this triggered our movements to get faster. We did this as we wanted to show that the mood was becoming more uneasy, this was so we could build up to the bomb.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200970305761871&set=o.208941709245960&type=2&theater

Getting on and off the grid was a struggle as the sheet used for projection which we were lying underneath was pinned on to the grid which only left us with a certain amount of room left. It was a matter of rolling off and crawling out.

I feel the grid was one of our most successful ideas and it worked well. If we were able to do the performance again with more experience and more tech I think we would expand the use of the grid and incorporated it in the performance more.

By Olivia Clephane