Torchlight Evaluation Essay

Street Theatre is unique in its engagement with audience and performer: from your experience of creating characters for Torchlight, what have you encountered and what you learnt about yourself as a performer in the collaborative process. 

For our first Unit as second years we were able to perform in the well renowned Carnival Torchlight. In this essay I am going to be discussing about my experience of torchlight outlining what I have learnt, the problems I faced and I how I solved these parameters. Torchlight is ran over two days, on the Friday night we performed in the procession, and on the Saturday day we completed two sessions of performing comical characters on the streets of Kendal Town Centre (Street Theatre). My first character which I obtained was a Pixie, this was for the procession. Secondly I was a 70s DJ for the street party on Saturday.

At the start of this process the thought of performing on the streets as a “Cartoon like character” (Gary Gifford) really did worry me. It was something I have never done before. This was my first problem, it took me a while to let go and push through this worry. We then were told once we picked our characters and created a little routine (this was while we were in a workshop with Street Theatre professional Gary Gifford)  we were then to go out into the centre of town and trial our performances. After completing this I was now more confident. It showed me how fun Street Theatre can be. When getting back to college I felt like I had solved this problem. I was now ready to let go of this “worry” I had. I was more confident to perform this on the real performance. I believe this was one of the main things I learnt as myself as a performer, I completed something which if I had a choice of doing I wouldn’t do. Not only did I have to complete this unit I wanted to do it for Gary. During Gary’s workshops he was always very positive and cheerful. The thought backing out or failing to produce really did hit me hard. I wanted to make him proud and not disappointed, so pushing through this worry was crucial.

Henry and I were quite lucky as if we got stuck with improvisation we had music to fall back on, due to having music as well we were able to create a dance routine. As our performance didn’t include a lot of speech we relied on music and dance put across out characters to the audience. The others relied on dialogue and speech to communicate their characters, we created a dance to do the same thing. This was very effective and successful as we were able to apply certain dance moves. Dance moves which the typical “DJ” would do.

A positive about both performances was that the weather was terrific as it managed to stop raining the minute we headed out for both performances. There would’ve been a major problem if it did rain as the statue that Emily and I were carrying for the procession was made out of a material were if it got wet it could start to get mushy meaning the audience towards the end of the route wouldn’t of seen it at its fullest. Furthermore, the DJ booth wouldn’t of been able to go out with us. As said above music was a big contributor to our characters and performance. If it was raining this could have put a difficult jaunt on our characters, but luckily we were able to perform without any worries on both days.

The main skill needed for this Unit, especially for Street Theatre was the amount of energy you need. I have personally discovered that you need a lot of high energy to make a performance successful. I discovered this when performing both performances (procession and street)  but mainly in our second performance as DJs. I think what made our energy as high as possible was when we weren’t speaking or interacting with the audience. This was because we were constantly dancing. Even though we had different routines, there was a nice contrast between the dance routine and just playing a song and constantly moving. This was effective because we were always drawing the audience in even when we were catching our breath. There was a nice balance, but there was always high energy.

Performing in Torchlight made me learn how to deal with difficult audience members. Both performances included a lot of audience interaction. Not everyone will be your ideal audience so knowing how to interact with them was key. Gary Gifford said to us “If you find someone you isn’t up for it, move along.” He also made us aware of how to spot these type of people. He said that if you find someone who doesn’t look like they’re having fun is to leave them alone and move on to someone who is. What I have learnt about myself in this process was that I am good at not letting these people get me down. We all had to understand that not everyone will enjoy our acts but we need to forget the negative and always focus on the positive.

On the one hand having the DJ booth was great, it allowed us to have music but it was quite difficult to manoeuvre. Firstly the space was always changing. From wide pavements to very slim spaces, secondly the surface wasn’t always flat. There was kerbs to watch out for and as the street was very busy there was always people stopping to look at something meaning they were getting in our way. This was very difficult for us when performing. As said above constantly moving was key for us so stopping and starting was tough. The surfacing wasn’t always flat. Having to sharply move this heavy booth when hitting an obstacle was tiring. To help ourselves along the way we decided to always have at least one of us on the booth at one time. This meant that the DJ booth wouldn’t roll off if we hit an incline or an complication. If we were going to complete this performance again we would outline how we would usher people out of our way in character. We could’ve practiced this with our classmates, also getting feedback and their opinion on what to say. On the second performance on the Saturday it got easier but ideally we would want to be fully prepared for this as we didn’t thing this would be a problem.

The procession was two miles long, we knew it would be a long way so keeping smiles on our face was important. As being a pixie we were carrying the hands of the “Goddess of The Fells,” (a green statue). These hands were exceedingly heavy. When first meeting the sculpture and her hands we suggested in wrapping tape around her arms so we don’t get splinters. The next time we had time with the sculpture Kate (costume designer) added two bamboo poles so we wouldn’t hold the arms. This ultimately made it even more heavier. When practicing a couple of days before, Emily and I did a walk about the campus, this allowed us to develop different ways of holding the hands. Meaning when we got tired of one position we could alternate to others. When researching the topic of Carnivals the main aspect I found out was how extravagant and colourful they were. The main factor of them being so extravagant was the audience interaction. So alternating from these positions allowed us to keep interacting and not getting so tired as we had to keep our energy up throughout the whole of the two miles.

Finally performing in Torchlight has allowed me to learn features of myself as a performer which I will be able to use in upcoming Units. Stamina is definitely something I am going to take forward in the projects we will be completing as second years, being able to keep high energy through long periods of time is definitely going to come into use throughout this year. This unit gave us the opportunity to work in the real world of this industry giving us experience in this subject area. Overall this Unit has been extremely action packed (allowing me to learn multiple new skills) and beneficial for me as a performer.

 

Research: Street Theatre

Street theatre is a form performance which is presented in outdoor areas without a specific audience. These spaces can be absolutely anywhere: College and University campus’, car parks, shopping centres, the streets, carnivals and festivals.

There are four key attributes to make Street Theatre successful and effective. Firstly you need to know how to interact. Inviting the audience in and making them experience a funny Monet is key when performing. When trying to approach the public street theatre performers normally go to the people who look happy, who are laughing and look like they are having a good time. This is usually when your performance will be successful. Secondly keeping your focus is extremely important. The public like to ask a lot of questions, so keeping your focus will allow you to improvise, ultimately making you stay in your character. Even though the performer is looking out for people to perform to you also need to make the audience notice you. It is very important that street theatre is very visual. You need to be seen from afar. If there isn’t a specific occasion and its a normal day, the public are normally shopping or just going about there business so you need to let them notice you. As the performance is so visual your costume has to match that. Street theatre characters can be very cartoon like so colour is used a lot. Bright colour attract the public to you. So you need to look the part.

Reading back into history Street theatre is very much like Commedia Dell’arte. Modern street theatre has the same aim, street theatre performers most of the time approach their audience, just like in Commedia Dell’arte.

 

Keswick Street Theatre

This organisation is particularly local but I really did find it interesting. During six summer weeks in July and August this organisation sets out on the streets of Keswick to educate the tourists about Keswick’s history. All profits are donated to charity.

Overall Street theatre is very extravagant and cartoon like, and is all about improvisation.

Research: Kendal Torchlight

This Carnival was first founded in 1970 and from then on each year they have been performing on the streets of Kendal. Kendal Torchlight is a great example of a brilliant journey over the years. It started off with just 30 entries to perform (30 floats on the parade) to now having 130 each year. In the parade local bands, dance troupes and the processionists enter each year and walk the parade.

Torchlights main aim is to promote the town and the surrounding areas. This is to benefit local residents, tourists ad businesses. The second main aim is to allow all members of the community to partake in the carnival. And they make sure that they make every event accessible to all members of the community “without exception.”

Such a big scale production doesn’t run cheap. Kendal torchlight is lucky enough have many sponsors which help with the funds. Not only do they help with the funds but they with the promotion of the Carnival.

Torchlight runs over two days. On each day there is a different event. This carnival is performed on Friday and Saturday each year in September. On the Friday night is the parade (procession) and on the Saturday is the street party is on the Saturday day. This is what makes torchlight uniques is that there is two different events spread over two days.

We as a class are walking the parade as well as performing in the street party as different characters. Torchlight really does bring everyone out, reaching up to 26,000 people on the Friday night.

 

 

Research: Carnival

The main meaning of the word “Carnival” is an annual festival which is typically before Lent. It can involve dane, music, singing, and the use of masquerade. However people have modernised it over the years for it to become something which has nothing to do with a specific faith or religion. It has become more normal. In the modern day people refer to it and know it as it to be part of the the circus. “A travelling funfair or circus.”

The word “Carnival” originates from latin and in the 16th century the word “Carnival was created.” Below is a picture which shows the journey and solution of the word:

When an indivudial thinks of the word “Carnival” they automatically think of colour, extravagance, big sculptures. This is exactly what this type of festival represents.

There are many Carnivals around the world, one of the best things about these festivals is that they can have a theme. They can also represent different faiths, religions and many more. For example in the modern days LGBTQ pride took this on board and made it their own. Major cities around the world host pride parades to celebrate how far The LGBTQ community has come over the years. This is a day where the community can let loose and be themselves without judgement.

Gay pride parade is a carnival parade which goes through the centre of these cities. Many different companies and organisations have different floats. I have seen day to day vehicles which have been transformed for the parade. Making them colourful and flamboyant. Adding stuff to the vehicles (lights etc) making them stand out. This is exactly what we are going to do when we walk Kendal Torchlight. We are adding different lights and equipment to make ourselves stand out.

The biggest Carnival in the world is in Rio De Janeiro. as said above there is a classic meaning and more of a modernised meaning. This carnival incorporates both.

As you can see this carnival is very extravagant and colourful, but it is placed at a very religious part of the year. Lent. Back in the 1640s this festival was created to gather feasts to give honour to the greek gods.

Personally to me on elf the biggest factors which a carnival brings to a community is Unity. In Rio loads of different schools contribute to this carnival each year. Our college is contributing to Kendal Torchlight (see blog post “Research: Kendal Torchlight) this year and we as performers are performing in the parade as well as some street theatre. I have learnt that Carnival is about pulling a community together just like Gay Pride and this carnival in rio together and to have a good time.