Bakkhai Production Meeting 3

Bakkhai Production Meeting Minutes



Date: Wednesday, 20.02.2008

In attendance: Julian Deering, Charlotte Atkinson, Emily Dell, Roberta Edwards, Jenny Glithero, Samara Harrison-Moore, Naomi Wagner, Zoë Walker, Charlene Webster, Laura Marston

Absentees: Tanushka Marah, Simeon Lewis, Shabanah Rehman

Sound/Music: On Monday and Wednesday Tanushka did not come in due to illness. Emma lead the group and gave each department new tasks. Zoe, Shabs and I were to work on new melody for the opening birth scene. At first we looked at the movement created by Charlie, and then we started creating sounds to go with the movement. Unfortunately Shabs was ill as well and could not take part in the process as much as she would have liked to. We then booked TMG 82 and started working with the CD given by Jules. Zoe, Shabs and I listened into all the different songs and chose one appealing melody that we found matched the opening birth scene well. We learned the melody, added ancient Greek text to it, and Zoe created harmonies and a drone to the melody. On the weekend I found another two old Turkish melodies ('Kilim' by Fatih Kisaparmak and 'Gulumse' by Sezen Aksu) which I changed into ancient Greek. As soon as Shabs is feeling well enough I hope that we will be working together on the two songs and record our new ideas. Shabs has also been working on a new songs at home while she was ill, which she will be presenting to the group next week.

Lighting: In our production meeting Samara told us that she has not been working on lighting yet as there is still no fully set performance. However, Tanushka expressed that she likes the idea of working with silhouettes, back light, ultra violet in combination with back lights and that she would like to use green, musty colours (resembling nature, forest, mud, woods etc.).

Costume: As our production meeting was scheduled a day earlier than we had planned Emily and Roberta did not bring their sketches along on Wednesday. Emily described that they have designed a band which is going to be tied around the neck and will be long and floating.
They have also calculated the amount of body paint needed for 5 performances, including dress rehearsal. Roberta said that we will be needing 16 oz of body paint per person. In total we will be using 12 bottles, which cost £168 at performerzone.co.uk. If we are going to use only white body paint and add dust or dirt to create other variations of colours, we will pay less (white - £8.97 per bottle, grey - £11.97 per bottle). Jules suggested to look at charlesfox and stagemakeup.co.uk to compare prices.
The two also looked at fabric prices. 1m length and 100 cm width of muslin costs £1.99. Organza fabric is more expensive. Please find out how much organza would cost and keep comparing prices. Charlie suggested to look at the DPS of London Met university as they must have white fabrics in long sheets from an earlier performance, The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Please ask the responsible person whether we can use those sheets or not.
Also, please send Tanushka and me the costume sketches via email as soon as possible.

Set-Props: Shabs was not able to attend this week's production meeting due to illness. Charlie did not bring in any new sketches as she did not know that the production meeting was scheducled a day earlier this week. Shabs and Charlie are still discussing whether they want to use gloss or matt paper for the backdrop. They are also not sure how to make the idea of a 3-D moon/orb come true. What they do know for sure is that they would like the orb to be clean and shiny. Jules said that the effect could also be created through lighting. The colours that will be used are white, grey, red and black.
Charlie and Shabs have also not concretely decided which material they will be using for the tree. The choices are: plastic coated wire, pipes filled with wire, robe lights or, as Roberta suggested, painted twigs. Jules proposed to go to Tesco, as they have red Valentine's lights on sale, reduced from £10 to £5, with heart shaped covers which could be taken off. Inside they consist of little red wire lights that are very delicate and could have the effect we are looking for. The idea of the tree is to create a stylised image of a tree and to make it look delicate.
The two have also decided to use Tanushka's grey dance floor for the set.
Another suggestion Jules made was that we could also use the balconies at the theatre from which we could hang the muslin fabrics as part of the set.

Marketing/Publicity: Jenny and Charlene brought the pictures in this week for all of us to decide which picture will be used for the flyers and posters. The group had two photo shoots, one non-professional taken by Charlene, and one professional taken by Zoe's boyfriend.
The theme of both photo shoots was 'brutality and ecstasy'.
Jules proposed to choose 2 to 3 pictures out of the lot and put those on the blog. Many of the pictures are very good and could also be put on display at university.
The idea is to include the colours of the set into the picture, which means that they will have to be slightly changed and edited with photoshop. Jules has taken some of the non-professional pictures to scan and edit on his PC.
Charlie had the idea to create and installation with bottles for the foyer at university, so that her initial idea for the set does not get lost.

Any other business: On Monday the 25th of February we are going to have a 3 hour session in which we will put all the collected material together.
On following days 26./27./28.03.2008 we will have rehearsals with Tanushka at university to make up for the lost rehearsal time last week. However, we will still be rehearsing independently in our various groups. So, please make sure you book rooms in advance.
One last thing: as there seems to be an influenza virus going around at the moment, everyone please make sure you keep healthy. It is of most importance that all of us attend classes. So, please eat healthily and take your daily vitamin Cs, my lovely ones. You are all very much needed. :-)

Next meeting date/time: Thursday, 28.02.2008