the HAMLETMACHINE

On the whole, show week was a success. Yes, a few people flubbed over lines, yes, we had a few technical difficulties, and yes, we had a fire alarm go off in the middle of our closing night performance, but what theatre show is always perfect?

We muddled through and came out the other side rather victorious. As we had expected, the audience had next to no clue what the show was a bout, but for the most part, they enjoyed it.

From an actor’s perspective, there were of course some improvements I could have made, like rehearsing the “to be or not to be speech” more, with a distraction in the background, because when it came to performing it, I found myself teetering fairly close to being distracted and forgetting my lines.

From a technical perspective on the sound department, we could have somehow attempted to polish up the microphones and how they picked up outside sounds, right from the beginning. As it turned out, our technical supervisor had to solve that problem without us, and so that aspect may reflect badly on us as a department. However, I think we completed most, if not all, of the other tasks we set ourselves out to do, with a great end result.

I enjoyed my time working on this production, and I also hope the rest of my department did as well.

It was bump in day today, so busy busy busy. It went well. I am tired. The end.

Stay tuned, and may the force be with you. Always.

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I jest. It was a tiring day but a highly productive one. Whilst we, the sound department, couldn’t really do much until most of set was done with their tasks, we did some odd jobs and puttered along until we could set up our sound equipment and start hooking everything up. Yet again, the microphones proved to be troublesome, but after many deep sighs and drawn out groans, it seems we are back to being on track again. And now we sleep, for tomorrow we have plotting to do.

And so we have our third script; this one complete with all of the sound department’s cue for the show. Today was a very hectic day starting off with a spark’s notes version of a production meeting; not lingering with any department’s report for too long so that we could hurry through and start a full run at 9:30 (which didn’t end up starting until closer to 10 am). Our microphones continue to cause us hassle when setting up. They either work well clean but not with the Vader alteration, or vice versa, and therefore we get very angry at technology and slow everyone down. And each time we think we have it fixed, come next run it is stuffing us up again.

After the run, we began our paper plot, which is marking in onto the script all of the cues for our show. That went smoothly, albeit a little slow, and therefore we went a bit overtime, but thankfully that was the last thing on our list to do, so we could afford a little more time on it.

And so we have our third script to date. Now, we are to make sure everything is ready for bump-in and plotting this Friday and Saturday.

To-day was a combination of rehearsal and production as it was our first major rehearsal with a run through that incorporated most of the technical production elements, like sound and audio. Our sound department did a fine job today, and so the rest of the cast were able to hear the music cues, atmospheric music, etc.

We did some tweaking and fiddling around in the first half of class to set up our technical elements, and after our run through we were able to adjust and fix up any problems that occurred during the run. On the whole though, it went very well. I’m very proud of the rest of my sound team as we have a done a great job incorporating Bowie and Star Wars without overdoing it.

Above is a basic promo video of one of our “Vaders” promoting the show using the voice alteration effect through the microphone that is to emulate James Earl Jones’ classic Vader voice.

It is officially 2 weeks until our opening night, and things for the sound department are really coming together. All of our cues are plotted in QLAB and our Darth Vader voice alterations are all completed, and we will begin to use them in rehearsal come this Friday, and should any changes need to be made  we will be able to do so over the weekend before next week’s rehearsals.

Only one of our Vaders was present today in our production class, and so we had  to improvise and grab some stray members of our  class to step up and become Vader for a while so that we could play with all the microphones and all the voice alterations (as seen above). Our alterations work best, we have discovered, when the actors stage whisper rather than talk or try to project the voices. This way when their voice is filtered through with the effects, it has a more menacing touch to it, so it may not sound like the true voice of Vader but it is still a terrifying voice to hear nonetheless.

It feels good to be ahead of schedule, for it gives us time to not stress but also be free to enhance and perhaps develop upon what we already have.

When it came to the movement piece, we are following through with than rather well; it just needs to be more in-sync in some places. The final scene has been compressed together a little more, as our director noted that it was quite boring, and I think we all agreed, and so we’ve cut some lines and allocated some to others who perhaps hadn’t been given enough lines in earlier scenes. This will obviously shorten the show more than it already had been, but hopefully some external videos and the inclusion of audio will help to flesh it all out more and give us a well-rounded show.

I performed mine hanging from a tree branch, much like a sloth, and although proud of my effort, I am paying the price for my craft to-day with sore forearms and scratched legs.

I began my own down-time, by making sure I knew all my lines for the classic “To be or not to be” soliloquy. I had learnt them all over the weekend, but had not been presented with the “outside noise” that one encounters when performing next to someone and they are also talking. It can be quite distracting, and thus I forgot my lines half way through. Now, hopefully, after going over them quite a few times, I shall be able to perform them come next rehearsal.

We also worked more on our mid-show movement piece, polishing up movements here and there, as well as developing a more fluid transition from group to group. I am almost certain the audience will have next to no clue what is going on, but as long as they have fun, I am happy.

In total, the show is only an hour long, and so there is no need for an interval. It was one of the topics discussed during rehearsal, and one that I was curious about. It’s a fairly short show, so it would seem pointless, and it also allows our show to flow a lot better.