Artistic Influences
(Kimberley, 2024)
Frantic Assembly
As a group, we were fascinated by the company of Frantic Assembly. Neil Gaiman particularly focuses on balancing realism with fantasy and the matter of making things real. That said, I was heavily influenced by their exploration of movement and as an ensemble, I thought we could embody the story through our movements generating a visual sequence in Act One Scene Three, Soliloquy – The Great Frost 1607’ (2022, p.19). Scott Graham noted that making a language that is honest in the creative process will help the performers understand how their bodies tell stories through movement (2019). In rehearsals, we used expressive movement to display this fantastical world described by Orlando and created the illusion of birds. For Chekhov, the actor must become an active participant in the process of creativity, and ‘bring the world of the imagination on the stage and give it life’ (2010, p.75), therefore, we used our books as puppetry to illustrate the birds flying around the space. Furthermore, Geordie Brookman and Scott Graham’s Things I Know to be True had a recurring motif of music and dance sequences to convey the character’s emotion throughout the story, this dramatic effect created artistic detail on the dimly lit stage. Therefore, in our rehearsal for Act One Scene Five, ‘Chorus-What Happens When Ice Finally Thaws’ (2022, p.28) we explored movement to heighten this idea of imagery through Bartlett’s descriptive language of ‘Raging’ and ‘Roaring’ (2022, p.28) by using fabric and moving statically to illustrate this image of a ferocious sea and portray the severity of Orlando’s emotions.
Photo Available at: https://acetheatre636263792.wordpress.com/2020/07/12/frantic-assembly-holiday-research/
Photo Available at: https://www.franticassembly.co.uk/the-frantic-method
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Toward the beginning of our rehearsal process, I decided to research expressionist theatre as I was intrigued by the idea of reversed gender roles through the work of Katie Mitchell. Her work largely surrounds themes of political and social issues whilst addressing class inequality and social justice like in Orlando. Hornby suggests Mitchell is doing some of the most interesting work today creating ‘difficult plays under challenging circumstances’ through a contemporary lens (1996, p.643) whilst also using expressionism, I thought this would be interesting to explore in our adaptation of Orlando. I was particularly interested in one of her productions of Ernst Toller’s 1922 expressionist drama The Machine Wreckers, using her ‘directional hand blended imagination and craft’ (1996, p.645), and ‘juxtapositions that were appropriate to the nightmarish Expressionist style’ (1996, p.645) Hornby insinuates. I was further inspired by her unorthodox casting with a man playing a female prostitute in a dress and wig (1996, p.645), therefore, I expressed ideas of having Queen Elizabeth being played by a man in Orlando wearing an outrageous-looking wig to heighten her royalty and richness. Furthermore, this idea of social issues and showcasing the impact of political systems affecting individuals and communities in Orlando is conveyed by the sex workers’ clothing in Act Two Scene Ten – Leicester Square, The Gerard Street (2022, p.56), which is also inspired by how the ‘workers were dressed rough, early nineteenth-century clothing’ (1996, p.645) in The Machine Wreckers. Lastly, I was heavily inspired to write my compositions throughout our production of Orlando, as Mitchell uses music and sound effects, particularly in the machine-wrecking scene as she used ‘strobe lighting, sounds of factory whistles and machinery, and jets to live steam’ (1996, p.645) throughout her show, enhancing the storytelling and created immersive theatrical experiences.
Photo Available at: https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/katie-mitchell
Katie Mitchell
Gomersall, 2024
Gomersall, 2024