The Consul Rehearsals

This terms opera is called The Consul. It was written by Gian Carlo Menotti and will be directed by Stephen Medcalf, lighting and set designed by Simon Corder, with costume design by Susannah Henry. The conductor is Tim Redmond.

The design is in two parts, the home of the main characters and the consul office. In rehearsals, this means doing a set and props turnaround for the company to rehearse in the correct setting.

This mosaic goes from the consul office (top left) round to the kitchen side.

The student Production Manager for the production said:

“It takes about 8 people to do the turnaround. This is made part by the stage management team and the production management team. In the final photo you can see a preview of the 300+ chairs we have sourced and put into the room”.

Interested to see the finished production, whose first performance is on Monday 30th October.

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Props Acquisition Class

Today the first year Stage Management students have been in their Props Acquisition class. This introduces loads of prop information – things to think about when you’re buying, making or sourcing for a show.

The big question: Where do the props come from?

We chatted about research you need to do, what types of props there are for shows, how and where you might find the props and any specific facts you might need to know – for example currency decimalisation happened in April 1968, which you would have to take into consideration if propping.

We also had a look through some specific props and resources, newspapers, labels, fake blood and the Robert Opie scrapbooks to name a few. We’re visiting the Brand Museum later in the term to look at some other Robert Opie packaging.

We finished the session by making blood bags and bursting them.

As you can see in the photographs, some of the cling film was a bit tricky

Intro to Stage Management 2017

It’s the start of a new year for students at Guildhall.

On Tuesday, we had an introduction to Stage Management session with all first year Technical Theatre students. We had some great group discussions on the roles within Stage Management teams and their responsibilities, as well as learning where everyone’s most interesting place to visit was – one student said their most interesting place to visit was bed!

Then we played some games based on communication and teamwork. You can see the results of one of the games in the photos – being shown some props for 15 seconds and then having to draw the tray from memory.

Happy new year to all students!