Following on from the success of phase 1, the company we’re joined by Lighting Designer Anna Sbokou, Sound Designer Keri Chesser and Set/Costume Designer Faye Bradley for the technical brainstorming phase. Our aim was to explore the different production challenges, coming up with different solutions to each one. What would our lighthouse look like? How could we create the iceberg, sleigh and boat? Magic sack anyone?
The group split into 3 mini teams to brainstorm different elements before returning as a whole to share ideas. Producer, Adam Hemming said ‘the key for me was to make sure we were open to all suggestions regardless of budget. I didn’t want anyone to hold back what they thought might have been a stupid idea in case it sparked something off in someone else. It made for quite a long and lively discussion but it definitely helped us to get a firm grasp on what we did and didn’t want everything to look and sound like and how we might achieve it all.’
The rest of the time was spent with the designers working up the ideas whilst the cast, Alex Crampton, our director and playwright Rachael Claye did some follow-up work tying up phase 1. Anna Sbokou reflected afterwards, ‘it was a rare opportunity to submerge, for an extended period of time, into designing a production. With everyone in the room together you had your questions answered immediately, no time was lost.’
Another key question we had was whether it would be possible to produce this play at the Space or whether a potential future production would work better in a larger/different venue? All agreed that it could be achieved with a reasonable budget, an exciting decision, the challenge now is to raise the funds!
The second phase also gave us the opportunity to bring in a photographer to take some rehearsal photos. A huge thank you to Ben Carpenter for his wonderful shots, we hope you enjoy them.
Our final phase will see us realise a twenty minute section of the play (scenes 1 and 3 were selected) in February. Our public showcase will be held on Saturday 7th at 4pm, we’d love to get some feedback, free tickets can be booked here:- Lighthouse showcase