We began workshopping how we'd like to represent the boat which I had prepared an idea for prior to the lesson. I thought that when we scarper during the prologue, some of us would go to the stage block staircase and take it apart it to create the boat. The two large blocks would be turned on their sides so that the tops are facing the audience, this would happen to the smaller block also and then the final two-step block would stand at the end to create the peak of the boat. Tom and Rob would stand behind these blocks as if it were the side of the boat. We also wanted to have the sails as well so we placed the blocks closer to the stage and had James sit with a pole on the stage. Attached to the pole was a sheet of material which Ollie and I both wave either side by holding an end and standing behind the sheet. This is what this version of the ship looked like:
However, we thought this looked very basic and that it could also be mistaken for a train (this was Rob's initial thought when seeing the block layout). We also thought that we could be a lot more creative with this task so we put our heads together and thought of something else.
We next, tried to think of a way that is more fluid in terms of transitioning from the prologue. We wanted to create a way of making it possible for Rob to stay where he is for the entire of the transition so his coffin is almost transformed into the ship. We replicated our idea of using material and used a large sheet of black material to portray the ship. We attached a pole to the centre and had James sit at the foot of the coffin holding it upright, then Ollie and I would grab either end and stand behind the coffin and to the side. When trying this, we felt that Tom and Rob were tiny inside the ship and you could only see them from the collar bone upwards. This is the blocks used for the coffin were too small. We resolved this by using the bigger blocks and having a smaller one at the front for James to sit on during the prologue and the ship scene. This elevated Tom and Rob much more so you can their bodies more but not too much of them. Below is how this looked:
We wanted this ship to look as impressive as possible so having as much of the chorus hidden as possible would be essential in achieving this effect. We hid Ollie and I by having us sit at the head of the coffin/the back of the ship and still holding up the sheet. Lorna, at this point is holding the sail pole up so that Alice, Taylor and Dan can stand behind it and wave the sail. Below is a photo of the final boat:
For the section where Sweeney steps off of the ship with Anthony and they part ways, we wanted to cleverly dismantle the boat as opposed to just taking it offstage. When Rob starts walking down, Ollie and I stand in line with James who also stands and we arrange our sheet as if Rob and Tom are walking down a staired plank to the pier/dock; Ollie would raise his side up higher, I would lower my side down and James would find the midpoint and keep it as one straight line. Once Rob and Tom are down on the docks, Ollie and I let go of the sheet and go under the stage and James follows carrying the sheet. We wanted to have it so that we can use the trapdoor behind the curtain so that we can travel from underneath the stage straight to behind the curtain. However, this involves having a stepladder underneath the trapdoor which may cause health and safety issues. We will have this worked out by next lesson.
We finished the lesson by Lorna and Rob working on Mrs Lovett's Meat Pies with James helping and Ollie and I went off to read through some of the Turpin and Beadle's dialogue to get ourselves more familiar with the characters and their scenarios. Next lesson, we will work on the dialogue before Ladies And Their Sensitivities and the song itself while Lorna and Rob work on their scene.
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