In this lesson we didn't have a warm up, but we worked on the final scene, Act 2 Scene 4, The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, in which we discussed various ways in which we could set up the table, my original idea, as script writer, was to have one long table, spanning the width of the stage, with the Hatter in the middle, and the two queens on either side, next to The Red Queen would be all the evil characters, squashed in together along one side, and the same with the good characters next to The White Queen, the squashed in look would be funny because all of them would be cramped, too cramped to fit in at that table, whilst trying to eat.
However, as this was not discussed beforehand, most people did not understand how the table had been originally mapped out, meaning lots of people had different ideas, some wanted the table to go down the length of the stage, getting bigger as it got closer to the audience, so at the edge of the stage, it would be large, but at the back of the stage it would be smaller, giving the appearance that the table was very long, however, this would mean it would be hard to see all characters, and some audience members would be able to see some characters, but not others, not just this, but the illusion would only work for those sitting next to the isle, for everyone else the angle wouldn't be right and the purpose would be lost, not to mention the excess material and wood used to craft the table. In terms of practicallity, this idea would just not work, and so was cut.
The other idea that was discussed was the idea of having two tables diagonally at either side of the stage, one side for evil, and one for good, but this would look too much as though it were broken and in bits, which in some aspects may work, seeing as the Hatter is 'Mad' but in the end it was dropped. This idea has a better chance of working, however, in terms of stage space, it may be problematic. So this idea was cut also.
The third idea mentioned was the idea of completely removing tables, and having it laid out as a picnic, however, this was also impactical in terms of stage space, as the fight scene at the front of the stage could not happen, because there would be a picnic blanket with cultery, plastic food and crockery, and so fighting over it would be too dangerous to continue. So we got rid of that idea too.
We later, went back to my original idea, of having a long table, covered in table cloth, that will seperate during the fight scene between the two queens. Because this idea works out of practicallity, which i mentioned at the start, but due to many people having ideas, we had to try all options, just in case we found something better, but as it came down to it, we didn't.
The idea of having the table in a line works in terms of being practical, because it leaves pleanty of space at the front, however, the Queens thrones are moved from next to the Hatter to the ends of the table, simply because the bases that they are on (mounted on wheels for movement) are too large, and would not allow the rest of the characters to be at the table. So the queens were moved to the end, and benches were put along the tables for the other characters, allowing maxium squashing to occur. The reason this works is because the space left at the front works for the fight scene, and the queens being at the edge means that they can get out of their seats easily, without an awkward fuss or knocking the tables over (although this was an original idea that was scrapped due to lack of interest) As the fight scene commences, the tables have to be seperated so that they can allow the evil and good character to rush to the aid of thier queens. The tables would be moved away, to the back, diagonally towards the back of the stage, towards the book, because there was not enough room offstage to fold the tables away, plus it would leave the stage bare.
No comments:
Post a Comment