HowlRound: Is media another design element to be incorporated into production during tech week, or should it be present in the rehearsal hall? Like most answers, it depends on what you are doing. Not all types of media need be in the rehearsal hall. To help clarify, I suggest dividing media into two broad categories: atmospheric and interactive. How do we decide which category our media belongs?
5 comments:
I would have never thought about media in the rehearsal hall this way. IN the past, such things have been seen as a bonus (in the best case) or a cumbersome extra (in the worst case). Why would anyone want to take the time to set up and take down media equipment as needed throughout a rehearsal process? It seems tedious and unnecessary at a first glance. But in the end, if interacting with the media early on ensures content delivered with enough time to alter it to the director’s liking and to affect the way that the actors interact with the space, it becomes almost imperative to have in the rehearsal hall. If a media designer would have difficulties altering the content of the media due to time constraints of the technical process, then it should definitely be presented to the director earlier at the very least. Non-traditional rehearsal room environments are becoming more popular because it leads to a more cohesive show, and it is because the director can see the parts moving together and contemplate them with enough time to make different bold choices and not ruffle feathers.
I thought this article was really interesting, and something I’d never really thought of before. I usually think of the performance rehearsal and technical creation processes to be separate until tech week. And I think for a lot of companies, there just isn’t time to do it any other way. It can be a lot of work to try and haul set pieces/ set piece substitutes into a space, and I imagine for media design it could be even more complex, especially if media is still in the process of being designed. However, the comparison of media design to the prop sword is intriguing to me. I think that there are instances in which media design is more connected to scenery/ atmosphere, and then other instances in which it is crucial that it be experimented with before tech week. In the case of professional theater, I just recently saw The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and I think this is a clear example of when media does much more than just provide atmosphere (not that atmosphere isn’t important, but I don’t think it’s as important that it be included in the rehearsal process; I think that is more something that is the responsibility of the director to confirm matches well between the performance choices and the design choices). I think that this idea of including technical elements in the rehearsal process will become more prevalent as media is used in more productions.
I think of course for media, as they mentioned in the article, especially interactive media, to be presented in rehearsal hall as part of rehearsal process. I can tell from being involved in shows which are media-heavy before. When we did Bliss last year, which 2nd act is all about media. It's very crucial for all of us production team, casts, and director to be able to rehearse and mess around with the media element during rehearsal. Yes, like what the article said, it is frustrating to have to setup and strike media equipment every night but to be honest it's not that much of a deal. And by having a chance to rehearse at least with something in rehearsals before coming to tech, our most fear of spending too much time working on media wasn't the situation ended up being a major issues at all. That's because at least we know what we expect to see from the media. Same as Stubenville, media is a key driven element of the show which is why they have everything setup every single rehearsals and went through so much experiments before we came up with the final product. Which is great because people can see what happened in rehearsals and was able to give feedback and detect problems and fix them before coming to tech, which also helped eliminate the time spent since the show had only a few days of tech with millions elements to work with. Media is a new technology, which will become more and more important. People loves to try something new and I think it will become more and more involves in the process from the beginning just like costume and props.
I've never heard about media being broken up in atmospheric and interactive, and I like that distinction quite a bit. As this design area evolves and grows, theater companies are increasingly needing to figure out how it fits within their scope and process, and in which ways it should be implemented. That distinction of purpose can absolutely help the director and designers work out how the media fits into the rehearsal process.
I was also very interested in the second part of the piece, in which Fine points out the somewhat absurd way that the artistic process is broken up in a production, with the director as the central connection of it all. It seems necessary to us to separate the designers and the rehearsal room, but it strikes me as one of those ways of doing theater that we don't ever question the validity of. Involving designers in the rehearsal process is often a key characteristic of ensemble-based, "weird", new wave theater because the emphasis is placed on creating the piece together long before anyone gets into the theater.
This article really hits the nail on the head. When media is being used in a way that requires an actor’s interaction, or if an actor’s movements or lines carefully trigger cues (either systematically or as sight cues), incorporating this media well before tech-week is very important. As the article explains, the primary benefit is having the carefully constructed “moments” play out as planned; all of the work that has been put into that media (whatever it may be) actually pays off when the moment unfolds on stage. A key component to this is the actor’s comfort level with the design element. Just like with physical props, an actor needs some time in rehearsal to work with interactive media. If possible, this rehearsal time can also allow the designer, director, and actor to work together to tweak and adjust as necessary, rather than using precious time during tech. Not only does this work out the “kinks” ahead of time, but it provides an opportunity for conversation. The creative team and cast can discuss why/what/how rather than rushing through what might be a critical decision later on.
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