Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy by Shakespeare that explores the themes of love, mistaken identity, and the cious that some relationships cause. The play is set in fictional Illyria, where twins Viola and Sebastian are separated in a shipwreck. Viola disguises herself as a boy and works for the Duke Orsino, who loves the countess Olivia, who loves Viola, who loves Orsino. This lovers circle results in a lot of confusion causing a very comedic show.
The year 12 acting students at Boa were preforming in this play with a modern Ma Ma Mia twist.
My role was DSM (Deputy Stage Manager). the DSM is often “on the book” – that is, they are in charge of calling all of the technical and actor cues during the show, using a headset and a prompt copy. A prompt copy is a large book which holds all the cues for the show alongside the script so the DSM can follow it. The DSM is also attends all rehearsals, working with the director to prepare the prompt copy. The DSM is seen as the main connection between the technical team and the actors / director.
Tech Days
Tech Days
Before the shows we had a couple of tech days to plot the lights, sound, flys, and then do a cue to cue. Our First tech day we just plotted the lights around the set without the actors as they were still in rehearsals. This made the process a little harder for the lighting team but we worked around it by occasionally sending someone to stand on stage when plotting spotlights. During this I would be writing the cues in my prompt copy next to the line that spoken. I would also add a very brief description of the lighting cue e.g. graden or night beach. Then on Our next tech day when we had the actors in I added brief plotting notes next cues so if I needed to I could do a visual cue I could see what the actors should be doing.
Once we had all the cues in the prompt copy we did a cue to cue to check they were all working before the dress run. During the dress run we went through all the cues while the actor went through the script. It went well.
Twelfth Night Show
Twelfth Night Show
Twelfth night was a great show which lasted one night at the old rep. On show night I was up in the lighting box instead of the prompt desk as the show had a lot of visual cue which were easier to see from the lighting box. All the tech team had coms on so we could communicate and here the cues which included lights, sound, mics, flys, and UVs (which had to be turned on by someone back stage. Overall there were 66 lighting cues, 48 sound cues, and 8 fly cues throughout the show.
The show itself went very well. I had never done any stage management until this and I loved the whole process from the rehearsals to calling the actual show I loved every bit. Though there were a few cues that went a bit early like in the elephant scene I accidently cued the sound and lighting at the same time instead of separate, the show still looked really good and as a whole went really well.
