Blog – No Added Sugar

Performing Love.

Jozey Wade / June 2, 2014June 2, 2014 / Love, Music, performance, Reflection

So, we did it. ‘Three Words’ made it to the stage… and it’s honestly taken me almost an entire week to come down from the incredible high that evening gave me, and truly take in how it went.

As Gabby said in her blog, the response from the audience was truly astounding. I had spent so much time meticulously over analysing tiny flaws and mistakes in recent weeks, wanting the show to be the best it could be, that I think I had forgotten to truly take in and appreciate what we did have and how an audience might take it. However, as the show opened that night and the audience began laughing in the very first song, I finally started to realise – oh, we have something here. We have a very decent show. And performing it was really like no other experience I had had before.

Again, leading up until the performance I was thinking and worrying constantly about the musical side of my performance, especially playing instruments, as it’s not something I had a great deal of experience with before this show, and, as such, I wasn’t overly confident. However, being out there, I honestly was having so much fun, I almost completely let go of my nerves, for the first time in any performance I’ve done.

Being on the stage for 100% of the show was a huge part of what made this such a different experience for me, performance wise. Being fully immersed in the show throughout, there was no time to come off stage, come out of character and let the nerves take over again about the next scene. In my head, it all just flowed. And it really added to the feeling of team work and camaraderie between the company. We were all on stage, together, supporting each other, working together, throughout the show, and that really added to just how enjoyable and engaging performing it was. Of course, it being the debut performance, there were hitches; technical glitches and a few little performance mistakes. But nothing massive, and I do think we covered any mistakes from the audience well. Of course, those mistakes and glitches are also things we can learn from for any future performances… as quite a few people have mentioned in their blogs, we certainly don’t want this to be the end for No Added Sugar, or ‘Three Words’ itself, and it doesn’t look like it will be. Watch this space!

I always love the shows I am part of, but I have honestly never loved every minute of a performance as much as I loved being part of ‘Three Words’ that night. Furthermore, I am not exaggerating when I say that the process of creating this show has been the most inspiring, rewarding, professional and educational devising process I have ever taken part in. I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone, including performing as myself (something I have previously been reluctant about) as opposed to a character, trying out new performance disciplines (like different kinds of puppetry) and going from being able to play about three chords on guitar very slowly to playing a full song or two in front of an audience. I could not be more glad of every decision we made that pushed me. Even if, by some awfully unfortunate circumstances, No Added Sugar does have to end here, I am taking away so much from this process and from this performance; so many memories, connections with wise, talented people, lessons in performing, lessons in music, and lessons in life… and love.

Endings

Tom Briggs / June 2, 2014June 2, 2014 / performance, Reflection

The above still is taken from about halfway through Three Words it is an ending but it is not the end. I can’t help but feel that this is where we are, showing an arbitrary ‘The end’ sign with every intention of carrying on and taking Three Words out beyond Lincoln. There is a lot of work between now and then to make the show lean enough to be profitable in today’s market but I have no doubt that the company will adapt as it has done until now.

The show started as an idea, the perfect final degree show and the phrase ‘A love letter to Lincoln’ was used frequently, it was to be a play about a place that we knew intimately and of our three years here, based partially on the model of shows like Still House’s Ours Was the Fen Country. Still House’s show is about the way people in the fens live, it is verbatim mixed with physical theatre and it attempted to transplant its audience to a place the majority of us had never seen. Dan Canham, the director, afterwards spoke about the difficulties of touring theatre with such strong affinities to a small community and the limited audiences they have come across (Canham, 2014).

We decided to be more ambitious and with much prodding from outside and in we left the idea of Lincoln behind and the show became less a tribute and more of a re-evaluation of love. Different people, performances and perspectives have shaped Three Words into what it has become. There are many other influences that are well documented but Still House was the first company to really make us re-evaluate exactly what we wanted the show to be and there have been many new developments ad cahnges in direction since, in short our greatest assets have been flexibility and ambition.

As for what happens next we will continue to take influence from other companies in how they operate on and off the stage. We will look to our current friends and support in Lincoln and also to other new and emerging companies and the models they are using to survive and gain notoriety for their work. Having spoken to companies like Unexpected Places, Karkinos Theatre and The Flanagan Collective we are beginning to understand the challenges and the opportunities facing No Added Sugar. So while this is the end of this blog, I’m very happy to say there’s still a long time until the curtain falls on us and Three Words.

Works Cited

Canham, D. (2014) Ours Was the Fen Country. [post-show discussion] Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 5 February.

No Added Sugar… Are we ready to take the next step?

Gabrielle Ruth Evans / June 2, 2014June 2, 2014 / performance, Reflection

Three Words has been performed. The audience laughed, cried and the overwhelming response from them was astounding, something we had only dreamed of. The performance created a buzz not only on the 27^th May but for the weeks leading up to and the days after. It has been the best pleasure working within the company. We tried to be as professional as we could be and I think we pretty much did just that. On the night as the audience filtered through, and pre-set began. I could not help but think of how the company have bonded and created a piece full of amazement. It lead me to think, what’s next? Where can we go from here? Like in any relationship, it’s the point of which you have put your all into something; it would be a shame if we broke up. Therefore is it time to take the next step and develop our company and performance more. There is much more we can do and add to develop the performance. It is by a long shot not end.

Over the weeks, I have seen each one of us grow support each other and perform to our strengths and work on our weaknesses. On a personal level, although I have found it tough sometimes to take control, by the end I feel I have accomplished my own goals and I am proud of every single one of us. Although on the night some of the harmonies went a little out of tune and some of the piano music went a little off, that is just the pressure of live performance and I do not think it let anyone down it merely added something to the piece.

On a small note, from the beginning on of our aims was for someone to completely learn a new instrument, and Becky did just that. But not only did Becky learn the Glockenspiel, she earned the title of Master of the Glock! Yay!

After this exciting and learning process, I don’t think I am ready to let go of No Added Sugar… therefore all I am going to say is… see you soon!

Photo taken by Linford Butler — Photo by Linford Butler

Its all out of my hands…

Shellie-Ann Barrowcliffe / June 1, 2014June 2, 2014 / Reflection

Being the stage manager for Three Words was a crazy experience, especially for a first time Stage Manager. It was fun, mad and exciting all at the same time. Watching the company grow over the past few months and seeing how everyone began to work together so quickly was lovely. At the beginning of the process I became the person who pushed everyone to focus as I had a sense of the amount of hard work that would need to be put into the process an thankfully all of our hard work paid off. There were still some aspects that could be adapted with our performance and some scenes could be developed and altered even further but then a performance can never be perfect

On our debut performance night there were some technical aspects that did not go to plan, however this was out of my hands. There was one scene in which the actors were meant to be talking through the microphones but this didn’t happen. When I got in contact with our sound technician Martin, he said that the mics were on and were turned up but I think it as partly to do with the position of the mic in relation to the performer. Thankfully it did not alter the atmosphere of the scene too much. I guess the problem with using all of this technology is that it may have its hitches and not work as it should, that’s the risk you have take when using it. It could either work to help your piece or fail which could hinder your final outcome. Three Words was partly constructed so that if it did have a technological problem then it could still work. Due to most of our performance being live it would have still been a successful (but different) performance if there was a major technical hitch.

BooaHUPIMAAi2Bl — Here’s Becky learning how to use the lighting desk!

Throughout the construction of our production there were several rehearsals in which the equipment we required was not available to us, we were still successful in being able to run through these scenes and rehearse the lines and actions, which were the important parts, the technology just helped to bring another layer to the performance. You could tell where the technology was missing but it was not always possible to have it with us. I regularly set up the equipment for rehearsals, which when in different rooms/buildings provided a challenge but it was always a case of problem solving and utilising what equipment was available to make our equipment beneficial. Such as connecting the camera to a DVD player in order to make it come through the projector. It has been a fun process, building upon skills that I already had.

Throughout this process I have managed to gain the respect of everyone else in the group, allowing me to keep pushing and keeping everyone focused and on task. This was something I was a little bit worried about at the beginning of the process, being quiet and generally shy I was not sure how this whole process would pan out, but it went better than I could have hoped for. I managed to gain the trust of individuals so they would then believe the advice that I was giving them. This was also the case with not only aspect of the rehearsal but also to do with the technical aspect to the production. Having a varied knowledge on technical allowed me to input my suggestions and offer advice as to whether something would not only work but if it would work would it look good, the answer was not always yes… Correct that most things could be produced but it would not have always suited our performance. This was not always the answer people wanted to hear, but providing reasons as to why it would not work helped to back up my point.

I feel this process and No Added Sugar is just the beginning for me, and hopefully everyone else in the company. It has provided me with an insight into an area that I had not yet explored. I feel that Three Words will not (hopefully) be just a one performance thing. There is so much more left that it has to give. It still has plenty of room to grow and develop just like any other show, and I do not think it has a time limit, it is not held down to a certain date as it explores so many different aspects.

We made it onto the LPAC green rooms wall!

We have left our mark here at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. Our poster made it onto the Green Rooms wall! How exciting… This is the end of our time at this venue but is there a chance we, No Added Sugar, could return one day…

Between Setting and Action

Tom Briggs / June 1, 2014June 2, 2014 / Development, Writing

Image from Mark Ravenhill's 'Product' available at http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2013/08/mark-ravenhill-arts-sector-needs-a-plan-b/ — Image from Mark Ravenhill’s ‘Product’ available at http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2013/08/mark-ravenhill-arts-sector-needs-a-plan-b/

I have always loved the work of Mark Ravenhill, his plays create unique worlds and impossible situations that somehow have more to say about the way we live than simple mimetic drama. His play Product (2005) is a good example, it would seem to be a very clever and thoroughly human story of love, loss and ultimately extremism and revenge. Ravenhill chooses to tell this story to his audience as though it is a pitch to a movie studio, the inherent contradiction between the pure monetarism of the pitch format and the extremely sad story adds a comparison to the drama and asks the audience, perhaps for the first time, whether the religious extremism of the protagonist is in fact a direct reaction to the to the equally extreme capitalism of western society. It is able to at once be deeply human and extremely political.

This might seem like very strange example and certainly there is world of difference between Ravenhill’s play and Three Words. But Product is my favourite example of a technique in writing that I have used frequently when creating Three Words in order to create a dialogue between different elements of each scene. This is what David Edgar has called action and setting in is excellent book How Plays work, the action is the main narrative of the scene and the setting is all the surroundings, the location, company or situation (Edgar, 2009). In Product the setting is the movie pitch and the action is the story of love, tragedy and revenge.

The contrast between the two can be very fruitful to create drama and to build in new layers of subtext. Some scenes will obviously match setting and action together, the scene in Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking in which the character Mark is briefly re-united with his flatmates happens, as you would expect, in their flat. In the same play however, when Lulu finds out that that Robbie has given away all the ecstasy she was tasked with selling, she rages at him and eventually assaults him the whole scene is made all the more absurd by their being in a hospital waiting room.

I have attempted in several scenes to play with a contradiction in setting and action, in one scene (picture above) we plan a wedding for two audience members but we do it as if it were a a bank heist, complete with codenames, specialists, and even floor plan of the venue. Here the action of planning the wedding in contrast with the setting of heist planning served firstly to enforce the absurdity of the whole situation. It also reflected exactly how some people felt about weddings that the planning very quickly gets out of their hands and they are forced to please everyone other than themselves, represented here by the extremely pushy cast of calligraphy, catering and fashion specialists and the wedding obsessed psycho.

Here the style of writing is commenting on the content just as it does in Ravenhill’s Product, scenes are structured differently because they represent different things, so that scenes about the chaos and confusion of early relationships are contrasted with the scenes that are told from an older perspective and are about how couples grow together and build their own joint story. Each scene is structured to reflect the stage of the relationship it is to create a dialogue between setting and action, Ravenhill used this technique to draw parallels and ask the audience question. We use the same technique to summon sensations from the audience’s memories and imagination and bring them into the stores we created.

Works Cited

Edgar, D. (2009) How Plays Work. London: How Plays Work.

Ravenhill, M (2008) Plays: 2. London: Methuen Drama.