The Making Of:
An Inspector Presents: Santa's Winter Meltdown
Performance Project
My First Thoughts
My first thoughts are both excitement and nervousness; which i think is every actors response to getting a new role. This will be the first performance I've done where it isn't hosted inside a school or college. Where the invitation won't go out to parent and friends, but to everyone nation wide. Anyone from across the country could come and see this performance and that is a little nerve racking to me. However this will be a great experience and a new role for me to get stuck into so I am very much looking forward to it.
The role is a murder mystery where we'll have to walk around the room and be asked questions. And we don't know what the audience might do or say to us meaning we'll have to learn to stay in character at all times no matter what. I think this is going to be the most difficult part as I know that our drama group is known for laughing and breaking character when mistakes are made; this is evident during our filmed pieces of Black Adder and Once Upon A Time. However unlike film where you can simple stop the camera, laugh it off, and start again, this is theatre where you don't get that luxury and must stay in character at all times. Although we are pretty well trained actors so we should be able to not break character so perhaps this is me over thinking. But just to be cautious i think we should have a lesson dedicated to others trying to get us to break character to see how well we all can do. it might be a good training exercise.
Trying to put on an actual performance event with such a limited crew is going to require a lot of work and multirole responsibility. Many of us are going to have to be take on roles more than just actor such as prop making, costume designer, set design and directing if we are to be able to evenly balance out the work load. We will have to keep good communication with each other to keep everyone up to date on the different roles and departments we will each have to handle as well as making sure our time management is handled professionally as we don't have lots of time to create this play from scratch. But when working on a performance like this team work is key and with so little information to go off at this moment we should be flexible not knowing what may change later during development.
Overall I excited to see the outcome and considering last year we only had until November to but on a show and this time we have until December, I sure with the extra four weeks we'll be able to make something fantastic in no time.
Our Meeting With The Producer's Gloucester Refugees
The location is going to be the forest of dean campus.
It was decided that the 8th of December is the ideal date for the event.
The timing is preferred to be early evening from 6:30pm to around 10pm
The amount of courses is undecided as we need to wait to see how much catering costs will be and whether there is enough budget to have 3 courses.
The table arrangement is also unknown as of yet but a small trestle like table was brought up.
The maximum amount of people is 60 and there will be around 10 tables so each table will have 6-8 people present.
we can change the layout of the venue if we need to adjust it to our performance or if there are any limitations.
We should be able to record our performance as long as the audience are aware so consent forms are needed and also the possibility of people not wanting to be on camera wearing a lanyard as an easy identifier??
Groups will be mixed at the tables if they are in smaller parties.
We need to organize and bring all lighting and equipment ourselves and figure out its positioning as well as the limitations that there are (plug socket positioning etc).
Ticket cost is still undecided as of yet but is not wanting to be more than £25 a ticket but we need to wait till we hear back from the catering department to see how much they anticipate a three course meal will cost to provide.
The menu is undecided but we are hoping for a festive theme to relate to the Christmas aspect of the performance and vegan and vegetarian options are to be provided as well. We will also be informed what the menu is before the performance in case we want to incorporate it into the story.
Might not be a three course meal if costs are too high.
The idea of audience participation by coming in a costume was enjoyed, but not mandatory for those who do not wish. So we talked about whether a Christmas jumper would be more available to the general public rather than a 1920s theme or a different level of period style.
We can sell the tickets on Eventbrite as well as student services if we wish to. It's more beneficial to just be put on Eventbrite as its more easily accessible for people. The page will be set up once details and prices are sorted.
We can do multiple performances and even more performances in future if it goes well.
There are rooms available on the premises for changing and storage.
We decided it would be best to use an outline for the body rather than use an actor as it would be a waste of our limited cast.
On the poster we need to include the Gloucester welcomes refugees logo of the two hands, and can also include the Gloucester College one. There is no particular design preferred so its free reign to design what we think will fit. Also include the Eventbrite link for people to follow.
Create a 20 second trailer to help advertise on social media.
We need to decide on a prize for the winners that is able to be divided amongst the winning table and that is suitable for the people by taking in account their age/ any restrictions of possible diet etc.
Not needed to be present in the room for the whole evening o can probably have a break while he audience dine?
In other murder mysteries they say their clue once for everyone to hear instead of at each individual table.
Need to find out the lighting situation when we visit the location to see what's already there and what we will need to provide.
Follow the social media for Gloucester helps refugees for information that’s put out.
Any questions email the Gloucester helps refugees account for a faster response.
The term “open bar” was used so that cost can be saved instead of having to buy the drink for each individual table when some people might not be able to have it due to allergies or driving etc.
Pitching Our Ideas
Jonathan's production meeting
Visiting Location
So after our meeting with the producers, we decided that it would be in our best interest to go and visit the Forest of Dean Gloucester College campus where it had been discussed that we would be performing to see they layout of the venue and get a feel for what our performance space would look like. However, once we arrived it appeared that there was a bit of miscommunication between departments. So the Producers were talking about using the restaurant section that they have open to the public on Friday's however the heads of the cooking department had no knowledge that we were going to be performing nor had they been asked if their space could be rented out; and they seemed very reluctant to share. For some reason they got very defensive about us using their space despite the fact that we did not plan on using it on the day we came. We were allowed to take pictures of it of course but they didn't appear to want to let anyone use the restaurant space for anything.
So alternatively, we starting looking at the cafeteria space right next door to the restaurant instead; we figured that perhaps we'd gotten it wrong and we were performing in this space instead or that the Forest of Dean campus hadn't been told yet about our performance. There were a lot of seating for plenty of guests to sit. We estimated about 8 tables of 4 (32) in the restaurant if we were indeed performing there and about 9 tables of 6 (54) in the cafeteria; which suits the discussion we had with the producers better. There were plenty of plug sockets around for us to plug in portable lighting equipment which was good. The light were basic square white lighting; we were unsure if the whole room were connected by one single switch or if separate segments could be turned off as we weren't allowed access to the light switches. Although it was clear that the bar in the restaurant section had different lights to the rest of the room and therefore would have a separate switch. There were two exits to outside in the room, one which was a automatic door that could be opened and the other a fire exit. However there was not a lot of room or spaces to easily go in and out of, to disappear and reappear. This could cause issues as we don't want to be standing around for 2 - 3 hours straight watching them eat their food.
The location is smaller than i expected and definitely not what i imagined. I'm not even sure if we would be performing here now or if it will be changed to the Cheltenham Venue. We did discuss worst case scenario is doing it at the Gloucester Campus with the only downfall being we don't have a proper kitchen for the kitchen staff. But that is something for the producers to discuss and update us on. For now we need to focus on creating the murder mystery itself and the character the audience will have to interview.
Release Date Update
So the Producer, Jonathan Burns, has just heard word back from the company that's hired us to put on our murder mystery performance and they have adjusted the release date from December to January. Now this does put a spanner in the works as we were just starting to confirm role, character and thinking about costumes we were going to have for our performance. However the Producer is concerned that a Christmas themed murder mystery will no longer work as it's past the Christmas date.
Now we had plans to get characters photos done on Monday so I could start making the poster design ready to add in all the necessary information when I had access to it. But if we are not doing the Christmas themed murder mystery then our costumes might need to change and therefore photography date will be postponed. Meaning it'll be even longer before I can start making a finalised version of our posters.
As for our murder mystery play itself, i think all the Christmas theming within the performance could easily be removed, it's just now the character names won't have the funny Christmas related puns and Santa won't be killed. But we could easily borrow names from other murder mystery packs like 'Rick Foreshore' and 'Ionna Gunn' yet still use the character sheets for our existing one. We just need to make some adaptions.
The good news if that now we have even more time to fully develop this performance and make it the best we possibly can so we will have plenty of rehearsal to make this a fully fleshed out performance.
Testing Murder Mysteries
This murder mystery play takes place at a cooking award show where they are awarding the best chef with a prize. All the suspects are attendees of the event, all with character sheets describing their motives and reasons for being there. What I did enjoy was each character had done something to make them suspicious. Each characters backstory is revealed in more details as the play goes on. I did like how each character sheet shows you what you're guilty off as well as questions to asks different character to get information out of them. Most character haven't met before which is great for interacting as the only person everyone knows of is the victim. Each characters name is some sort of pun which was really fun; like Rick Foresore or Iowna Gunn. The entire play takes place at this event with all the characters sitting at a round table.
This theme would work really well for a dinner like we have planned, having the centre table be for the actors or have each actor sit at a different table and they have to walk around to interact with each other. However there are a few complications with this murder mystery. We wanted to get the audience to ask the questions however the way it is the actors themselves would be asking the questions and therefore it would feel like the audience is listening in to a conversation rather than being involved in it. Additionally, each character is important for the plot of this script to the point that we had to double up on some of the roles. We don't have a big enough cast to pull this script off, or we will have to make major re-writes in order to remove characters. Furthermore, there is no leading authority, there is no butler or Inspector to guide the audience through each segment. That means not only do we need to remove characters but add more too. And all the evidence are in the form of private conversation between characters, so how are we supposed to portray a private conversation towards everyone so each person gets the same evidence.
I did like the idea of this script. I loved the names, we may have to keep that. A award show has great potential for this style of event, it's just trying to get the evidence and characters to work. I think with a big enough cast this one could be possible with some rewrites and actioning.
Mr Gifts Christmas Murder Mystery Test Run
This murder mystery script is very much in the style of a house party. The host is the butler who walks the guests through the house to solve the crime. In this run through I was given the role of the Butler due to how good I am at being the Narrator. Being type cast is better than not being cast at all. In this script, Nick Gifts has been killed in the duck pond. The butler takes each character to a location where something surprising happens; Nick's dead body, the murder weapon, the body being moved. Each character then says a short paragraph of exposition about themselves and Nick, they then ask the rest of the group which of the two subjects they brought up would they like to hear about. When they all agree they then say their paragraph relating to it. If they are the murderer there are highlighted sections on the paragraphs that they need to say which adds more sinister information to allude to them being the killer.
This script is quite good as it gets the characters interacting with each other and there's a lead role to guide the characters and the audience through the event. There are many characters however the instructions tells us that if with a small party there are only five important characters that are needed for the performance to work which means the show works within our casting limits. Much like the other script this one also has ever characters name a pun like; Candy Stocking or Crystal Bauble. However the script as it is does require multiple locations in order for it to work. So we would either need to try and pre-record us going into these rooms and show it at the event or re-work the script to remove all the walking around. If we pre-recorded it would require us to learn a script, film it, edit it and then hope no technical issues occur on the day of the event. It would also require us to transport a TV screen to the venue. But the biggest downfall of pre-recording would be that you lose the interactivity of the performance which is really the hook of these style of murder mystery plays. We're going to have to re-write the script anyway in order to turn it into a stage play rather than a house party game so we might as well re-write the moving about too to make things simpler. The script also has many clues already written out for us and descriptions to how each character are linked to each piece of evidence which does most of the creative work for us which is beneficial with limited time. However the way the characters talk and interact is very unnatural, there's no conversations or flow from one person to the next which will have to be changed for the characters to feel more naturalistic.
I think this is the script we are going to use as a guide line for our performance. It is really good starting point and there are many ways you can adapt this script. I could see this be turned into a short film or stage play or like ours an interactive dinner event. There is the trouble that we would need an additional actor to play the role of Nick Gifts the murder victim however one extra actor is better than needing several. This script really needs an exaggerated melodramatic performance to elevate our show and make it entertaining for our audience, and a script like this with names like theirs has great potential. I would like to play on of the characters other than the butler as I enjoyed playing the role of a suspect in the last murder mystery game we played.
Picking Characters
We were commissioned to make a murder mystery and to make a murder mystery we needed a Detective or an Inspector. Someone who would walk the audience through what they had to do and give them all the clues. They would have the main role and would interact constantly with the audience and be the centre piece of the entire show. And no one else had the courage to do it and they knew I could interact with an audience throughout an entire show from my role as Luther Fragure from Cirque La Fragure so I was cast as the Detective. I wanted to give someone else the challenge and I also wanted to be one of the suspects but I knew I would be comfortable in my role where no one else would be so I was cast.
All other cast was auditioned for. The Producer picked out what he thought were the best character for our production and each cast member got to pick two they wanted to do. We had an audition where they introduced themselves as the two characters they they chose and the Producer and I picked who we thought would be best as each character. Jay was picked to be Gilda Bell as he was the best actor at being feminine. He was also the only actor who could look the part so as default he was cast as Gilda Bell. Jessy was chosen to play the fortune teller due to her experience playing the fortune teller Esmeralda from Cirque La Fragure. We gave Matt the role of Candy Stocking because we felt that the role required a bubbly and exaggerated performance leaning more towards a childish behaviour and we knew Matt would give the most extra performance to this character so it was a perfect fit. The role of Pierce Filmlid the cooking show host required someone who could be confident and egocentric as well as someone who could have a temper. Due to his role as Mr A in That's Your Trouble, from Harold Pinter's Nine Revenue Sketches, we knew that Jonathan was good at yelling and portraying an angry man. And his role as Mr Sprizzer from Hairspray a show host type figure was something he was familiar with, so combining the two was surly something he could do. I don't think anyone else could've captured both sides of the coin as well as Jonathan. Connor really wanted to play the role of the radio host Chris Jingle and since he wants to be a voice actor we felt like it would be a good fit for him, he needed some work on his radio voice but with a role he enjoyed we knew he would be more eager to perform his best. Riley was given the role of Joe Woodsmith because it was one of the roles he picked and auditioned for and we knew he was comfortable trying new characters. He's been able to fit into previous roles he's not been familar with we knew he could handle this one. However, much like everyone but Riley expecially, was nervious about interacting with the audience which is something we wouldn't know how to react until the day of the show. So until then it was just nerves.
Now the characters had been picked it was time to choose our murderer. Now most people to pick their murderer would go for the character with the best motives, character who was closest to the victim, the one with the biggests clues to give away. But nope, not with our show. We all collectively agreed that we would choose the character with the most rediculous and stupidiest motive to be our murderer. So we read out all the confessions from the character sheets to see which one was the funniests and we decided that (SPOLIER ALERT) Chris Jingle would be our murderer because he killed Nick gifts over a Golf Course.
It became apparent pretty early on that we didn't have enough actors to fill out the cast of our show. We needed an Inspector, a murderer, suspects, a victim and waiters to help assist the audience and get them seated. But there was only seven of us. We had enough for a Inspector, a murderer and our suspects but we needed more actors. At first we considered not showing the victim at all and just hearing a scream or shout off stage and someone running in to tell us that they died but we wanted the audience to know and witness the death to add more to our show. We wondered about double casting; having the victim die and change into a suspect off stage. We did do that for me, being a waiter then changing into the Inspector when Nick Gifts dies, however we felt like it could throw off suspicion from the actual killer to have a suspect turn up late just after the victum died. So Jay asked some of the level three students who were interested in joining the HNC course next year if they'd like to help out and join our production. So we were able to have more actors to be our Victum and our waiters. Crisis avoided.
Devising A Script
So all of our characters had been selected from a Christmas murder mystery house party game, where each character has a booklet of questions they could be asked and answers too them. They also had character desperations and motives to read only if you're the murderer. However, again, they were written to be a house party not a stage play. The evidence was formatted like "would you like me to talk about subject A or should I instead talk about subject B?" and then people we pick which evidence they wanted. We wanted both pieces of evidence for our show.
So, we started off which each act and writing down each characters key evidences for each act as well as the two pieces of evidence for each act. Then we read each of them out to find links between each one to try and create a somewhat flowing conversation to make it seem more natural. And the links were very thin as we didn't have much to go off. For example, Chris Jingle says he used to be a Car mechanic and Joe Woodsmith is a Carpenter; that was our link. Sometimes we would add in extra things to create a link if there wasn't one to be found. For example, Gilda talks about pain killers and then we add in that Chris Jingle is allergic to pain killers so we can get him to talk about him being allergic to anti-freeze. But sometimes the links just perfectly flew into each other seamlessly, they were rare occasions but it did happen. For example, Pierce Filmlid is talking about his cooking show and then Chris Jingle interrupts to talk about his radio show. We tried our best to make sure that each character talked once for each evidence however sometimes that just wasn't the case. Some characters had both their paragraphs connect to the same piece of evidence and sometimes we couldn't find a link to another character so ended up having to combine two paragraphs into one monologue. Candy Stocking suffered this the most. Finding the links between each paragraph of information was a little tedious to say the least however it got us a starting point on a plan for the script. We started off with act 1, then act 3 then finally act 2.
Once we had our links we could then start writing up the script. Jessy started with Act 1 writing the opening sequence of Mr Gift's welcoming speech up until his death. This was done quickly so that Bethany, the level three who had agreed to help us by playing the role of Nick Gifts, could have her lines so she could rehearse them. I typed up the script over a weekend so that we could have the script on the Monday. I took home everyone's character sheets so I had all the information to be able to write it up. Having to try and make everything flow somewhat naturally was rather difficult, and I wanted to add in conversations between the other characters too so it wasn't just The Inspector questioning and the suspects answering, otherwise that would get repetitive and get boring for the audience. We created rivalries between some of the characters, like Pierce and Gilda and Chris and Candy to create some more tension. Also trying to remember all the important information the Inspector had to announce to the audience so they could interact and follow along was a hassle. But the script was done. I printed them early the next morning and when we did a read through we discovered that I really shouldn't have stayed up late to write the script because of all the grammar mistakes that there were. So the Producer read through the script and gave me a list of all the mistakes. I then went back and re-wrote the script, printed it off again so we could have it done for the Friday. The script wasn't perfect but it was more as a guideline for the information required at which times and for music and lighting ques. At the very least now we could start learning lines and blocking the different Acts.
Now Jessy, who plays the role of Crystal Bauble, has broken her knee and fallen behind on her lines due to other priorities. Neither are directly her fault however we were presented with the unfortunate decision by our teacher to either re-cast Crystal Bauble or cut her out of the show. Now the entire cast discussed this for some while, even the possibility of keeping her in the show, however it was getting really cloes to the deadline so we knew her leg would heal in time for the show. And part of the show was the actors walking around the audience interacting with them. If Jessy wasn't confident with her lines by now then re-casting wasn't an option as, not only would we need to find another actor to willingly participate and take on the role, but they would also not have enough time to learn their actioning and lines. So the best decision we could make was to cut Crystal Bauble from the show. Her part wasn't that significant that it dreadfully impacted the show as she was one of the suspects but not one with majeure information about Nick Gifts. We reworked some of her lines to be said by other characters but mostly her lines were just cut from the script entirely. I've never had to cut someone from a show before and it was really a shame to have to do as they done so much to get this far, to not go all the way was upsetting. However the show must go on unfortunately. We had a strict time to get this done in and people were paying money for this so we had to go on without Crystal Bauble.
Writing The Script
Part 1
Writing The Script
Part 2
Act 1 Script Read Through And Actioning
Act 2 Script Read Through
Part 1
Act 2 Script Read Through
Part 2
Act 3 Script Read Through
Costumes
So as the head of Marketing I was given a time schedule for how quickly I needed to make the promotional material. Meaning we quickly needed to get costumes sorted and organised for a trailer at the end of the week and photography the next week. So once we knew the dates I instantly got to work with Jessy and went through one by one with each character in search for rough costumes we could use for the promotional material.
Candy stocking was the easiest to search for. We had the idea to dress him up like a cake and sweets, with a little bit of Willy Wonker thrown in there too for inspiration. We found this colour stripped vest which looked like rainbow sweets or the stipes of a candy cane. We then found this dark purplish brown jacket with hidden swirls in it that could be seen when light reflected off it. It reminded me of like the chocolate river of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. We really liked the idea of Candy wearing a beret as a cherry on top of a cake. We looked through a whole box of berets and they had every single colour other than red. I was mildly annoyed at that. However the stripes on the jacket vest we found were blue so we used the light blue beret to match that. Now Matt was hooked on the idea of Candy Stocking having a cane, So we got the cane we used for Luther Fargure from Cirque La Fragure and I glued on some red and green ribbons onto it to make it look more like a candy cane.
Chris Jingle wore bright colours and large headphones. Connor had ordered a colourful suit for a Halloween party that he insisted on wearing for the show which we agreed on. However his costume wouldn't arrive in time for the photoshoot or the trailer so we had to pick some items of clothing for the promotional material. We knew Chris Jingle wore colourful clothing so when we saw the bright blue jacket we instantly knew that would be something he would wear. He also seemed like the type of character to wear a bow tie so the next day i brought in all my bow ties and had him pick which one he liked best. He picked the light blue bow tie that matched the jacket which was a good choice.
Pierce Filmlid the cooking show TV host. We found this white jacket which we instantly knew would be used for Pierce. Jonathan had a red bandanna that he wanted to wear which added a needed slash of colour to his costume. He also found blue and white chequered trousers that was just perfect for his character. The last thing we wanted as an apron. We looed through so many boxes looking for aprons and found a few but they were more barista aprons which didn't fit that character. We were considering just using this apron however in a bag we found a waste apron in black which was exactly what we wanted. We also gave Pierce the knife used in my short horror film LIMPY to add a little extra.
Gilda Bell I didn't really know what to do with so Jessy mostly helped Jay with his costume. We did find a leopard pint fur coat. I helped find a bag Jay could use, a small pink bag. And Jay looked through a bag of wigs until he found one he liked. But I didn't do much with Jay costume, I just trusted Jessy and Jay to do it. Likewise, Jessy said she had her costume for her character at home so I just trusted her to bring it on the day of the photoshoot. However she didn't have it for the day of filming the trailer so Sonia found a golden and purple cloth that we wrapped around Jessy's waist as a sort of dress for thr trailers. It was later repurposed as the table cloth for the main actor's table.
We knew we needed one key piece of clothing for Joe Woodsmith and that was overalls. The character description told us that he wore overals and we didn't know what else a carpenter would wear. So we looked and we looked and we looked through so many boxes so clothes trying to find some overals. So many bags of trousers but we didn't find any. We were about to give up and but the box away when I saw something that looked like denim. I reached to the bottom of the box and pulled out the only pair of overalls the college owned. Hazzar! However it did have flowers sewn on that we planned to remove but later on Riley asked to keep them as it added some colour to his costume and a little something to his character. We found a brown jacket that looked like a workers jacket and we originally had him wear a hard helmet but we thought it clashed too much so we removed it. We also were allowed to borrow a tool belt and filled
it was ravious tools for props. Although this made the belt very heavy and it kept falling down so we had to tie the belt up as it wasn't adjustiable.
My costume was fairly simple to construct. I wanted an appearance reminicent of Inspector Goole from An Inspector Calls. So I looked through various fadoras to see which one worked best before settling on the small grey one. I found a grey and red tie which matched the fadora and a police badge that would go around my neck. I was worried that it was going to break as the chain was cutting into the fabric holding the badge. Luckily we have a spare in case the badge does break. I liked the idea of having a trench coat like off Inspector Gadget and we found a nice light brown one which i instantly knew was for my charcater. I wanted the charcater to look slightly scruffy so i made sure that my buttons wouldn't be done up on my shirt, shirt not tucked in, tie not done up properly little touches to make it look a little less proffessional to add into his more comedic side. But the cherry on top if you will for my charcater was the moustache. Now originally I was going to grow out the moustache myself, however I struggle to grow facial hair and even when I do because it's blonde it's difficult to even notice. So we found a whole pallet of fake stick on moustaches. We didn't know which one would be best to us so we came up with a funny little joke that my moustache would be constantly changing throughout the show. It was a fun idea that i was very keen on doing.
Inspector Detective
Inspector Detective is serious man trapped in melodramatic world. Most of his comedic elements come from his interactions from the suspects. Where the Inspector is trying to take and do his job seriously the suspects doing everything in their power to annoy him. He's a lonely man who spends too much time working, the reason he was able to answer the call to the murder is because he stayed behind at the station encase their was a call. Much like Scrooge, he doesn't take days off and sees Christmas as another working day rather than a holiday. But he can take a joke, his sense of hummer is very flat and he takes a while to realise what was said was a joke so often his laughs are delayed. Although he seems like he wouldn't be a people person, who does care for people however he struggles to show his sympathy. He feels the only way to show people he cares is his relentless pursuit to find whoever is responsible for a crime, which is how he was able to be promoted to Inspector so quickly.
Skillet Village town meeting: Improv Character Development
Inspector Detective and Candy Stocking planning a holiday: Improv Character Development
Creating My Character
Inspector Detective
We couldn't figure out if we wanted a Detective or Inspector for our show so we made him both (Inspector Detective) for a joke to add to the silliness of the play. It fit considering all the other names were play on words so making his legal surname Detective made it feel like he was born to be a police officer. When creating the character of the Inspector I used a Theatre Complicite technique and see which part of the body he would lead with. I though he would lead with his hat first, sort of nose to the case when walking. I also kept straight legs that swing outwards when walking to give the appearance that his knees had stopped working and how he was getting old. Also to make him look older we gave him a moustache, and to add up the comedic element of the performance we changed the moustache each time the character went off stage. Because of the fake moustache I could move my lips much otherwise the moustache would lose it's stickiness and fall off so my expressiveness came mostly from his eyes. The squinting and the wide eyes to give off anger, suspicion and surprise. Something I picked up from my roles in mime and background characters. We looked at different appearances of various Detectives and Inspectors from fiction. I was inspired by the seriousness and look of Inspector Goole from An Inspector Calls and the goofiness and scruffiness of Inspector Gadget. I believe I leaned more into the serious side more but I made sure to add in some comedic elements too. Of course I had to be melodramatic in this comedy play so I gave my character a temper with him slowly losing his patients with his suspects having them interrupt him with useless information that don't help him with the case or stealing his evidence right out of his hands. To play up the extreme of it I threw my hat down to the floor in one of the rehearsals and I scared one of the cast members which was funny so we kept it in.
The Inspector was the main character of the play, he was the one walking the audience through it all to make sure they came out with the right suspect at the end of it all and therefore he had the most audience interactions having to talk directly to them. Although I didn't get to chat to the audience more just instruct them. And the suspects were carrying most of the comedy too so I although my role was crucial to the performance I would've liked to have been a suspect and given someone else the challenge and opportunity to be a character they were unfamiliar with, because I found this not to be a challenge.
Devising Our Show
Staging Act 1
Part 1
We skipped the intros and went to evidence 2 of Act 1, the list of events for the dinner party. Jessy stepped in as Director and started actioning the script that I wrote. There was stage directions at the beginning and end of each act but I left it ambiguous to allow us to do what we felt was best for our characters during the scenes.
Jessy had the idea about having each character storm off stage after finishing their lines instead of them staying sat down at the table while other people sit. This would give more suspicion on characters and give questions for the audience to ask the actors. It would be more dynamic than having everyone walk off one by one after the Inspector leaves. However everyone is needed on stage at the end of each act for Audience questioning so the idea was scrapped.
Staging Act 1
Part 2
After I read the Act 1 evidence 2 about the list of events at the dinner party, Jessy wanted Jonathan to come down and join me to look at the evidence to add some more movement into Act 1 as there hadn't been much of it. So far all they had done was stand up and sit down so this broke it up. After Jonathans lines it was Connor who rushed down to the other side of me to talk about his show. We thought it would be a funny idea to have the two show hosts reminiscing about their shows together with the Inspector caught in the middle. Jessy suggested that when I say my line of "No" I say it as unenthusiastically as possible as the juxtaposition between Connor's heightened performance talking about his show combined with my uncharismatic response would be comical. And it was, I really liked the idea. However the only concern we had was line of sight from the audience. We needed to make sure that the tables off to the sides would still be able to see our faces and with Jonathan standing next to me he could block peoples views. We would just need to work on the positioning of people to make sure that everyone can be seen, not stepping to far out and blocking the other actors.
Riley was next to speak with his outburst of Mechanic to which everyone turns to face him. Jessy wanted Jonathan, Connor and I to all slowly pivot on the spot to turn to face Riley after his outburst. It is very comical if we can all do it at the same speed at the same time, which will come with practice. The idea of Riley's line was that he accidently spoke out loud and is now feeling embarrassed about it, so starts talking to get himself out of the situation. A bit of awkward comedy so to speak. To get Jonathan and Connor back to their seats naturally we thought that I could be making notes and they're looking over my shoulder to see what I'm writing down. After realising this, I get angry and usher them back up to their seats. This happens once Riley starts saying his lines.
Once Riley say his line it starts a back and forth monologues between all of the suspects. I didn't like just standing at the front the entire time portending to be making notes so I saw this as an opportunity to interact with the audience. Yes, I am constantly speaking directly to them but I'm not engaging them in conversation at all throughout this play. So I thought this would be a good chance for me to go round each table and strike up a conversation with them about the suspects. I could also give them potential questions to ask the characters during the questioning section at the end of the Act. The only rule was I had to start with the table on stage right and make my way round to stage left so I could be standing next to Jessy in time for her to say her line about foretelling Nick's death. I really liked the idea and it gave me just a little more actioning to do. It was much better than being static for five minutes anyway.
Another idea Jessy had was to give everyone name badges or stickers. The "Hello My Name Is" stickers and then everyone writes their names on them. That would be funny and would allow the audience to remember each of the characters names. Although they do have notepads and each character has an introduction to say their name so they should know them. Also in the evidence packs their will be pictures of all the suspects with their names on them and we would need enough stickers for each of the audience members to amerce them into the performance so it seems like a waste in budget.
We were concerned about time and how long it would take for us to do the questioning segment and then have all the actors walk off naturally so it doesn't seem staged just to have them walk back on for Act 2 and start interacting with the audience. It seemed unnecessarily complicated and it would waste a lot of time. Time that could be spent doing something else during the performance. We wanted to keep the play down to roughly an hour because it's long enough to create a full story but short enough that we didn't need to add in a break in the middle. So we decided to cut out the questioning segments for Act 1 and 2 and have them blend into each other. So instead of asking the audience for questions and having them asked one at a time, I go off stage while the rest of the actors stay on stage and interact with the audience and that is when the audience can ask their questions to the suspects. It adds more audience interaction into the performance as well as making it more intimate and personal having the characters walk right up to you and talking directly to you face to face. It would mean that the suspect actors won't get a break until the end of Act 2 whereas I get one between each act however everyone was on board with the idea. We would just need to figure out timings and how long it would take to get the evidence ready, small costume change and how long to give the audience to question the characters before I come back on so it's not so short they get one question from one character and not too long to the point that people are just hanging around awkwardly. This is something that will have to be discovered just by rehearsing and timing.
Staging Act 1
part 3
So Jay, our head of communications, contacted the Level 3's and asked if any of them would be interested in helping us out with roles of Nick Gifts and waiters. And we got a few responses which was great to her. Today was the first time we got our extra actors in to help us rehearse. They had been told their parts but not what to do so I was stepping in as Director to action them and keep the rehearsal flowing best I could. I'm going the Directing unit so this was good practice for me to learn how to manage a big cast. Although I'm not going theatre Directing I do have experience in it so I was willing to manage today's rehearsal.
So we set up some staging and a table, put some seat around so we would have an idea of how the set could look. So to start off the event all the actors will be walking around the space interacting with the audience as they're taking their seats, introducing themselves. The waiters, me included, and Nick Gifts, Beth, will be welcoming the audience to the event and showing them to their tables. I told Beth that I would let her know when it's time to go upstairs to the Technician window to make her big speech. When she starts talking that is the que for the actors to go up onto the stage and sit down at the table. Beth was very nervous about her monologue welcoming speech but she did an amazing job, I told her to just keep learning the lines and have more dramatic pauses and and to really exaggerate the importance of the information to make it funnier. But she did a great job, especially considering they were helping us during their free time. One thing we do need is bigger reactions to both Nick real and fake out death as the audience won't know which is real. It also adds to the dramatic nature of the play to have everyone have big melodramatic reactions to everything, it makes it more enjoyable. I can't see what I look like from the audience perspective when up in the technicians box so seeing me drop down onto Nick's body really looked like I was elbowing him in the stomach. It really does look believable when in reality I'm landing on one knee one foot and my elbows aren't touching the ground. The technician did order elbow and knee pads and asked if i wanted to use them for when I'm checking if Nick is still alive, however i need to change from a butler uniform into a Inspector outfit so having that additional item to take off would be too much of a hassle so I declined the offer. It is beneficial for health and safety however I am going it safely and not harming my body while doing it so I will be okay.
During the first act when I'm introducing myself I realised that I never at one point say my own name to the audience which is something they ought to know. So I'll have to make sure to introduce myself at the beginning. Additionally when I'm talking to the audience I think I should interact with them some more. Like accuse some of them for being the killer. Something small like picking on an individual will make the experience more personal and interactive. When everyone is introducing themselves I really don't like how static everyone is. We have a big stage and a whole floor space to work with and the suspects just stay at the table and stand up and sit down in their seats. This needs to be worked on in the future to make it more dynamic. Maybe one character walks around the floor introducing themselves, one character walks on the stage, one stands on the table. Something to add just a little more diversity between the characters and make it visually interesting.
While we were rehearsing the lighting technician was working on some basic lighting for the stage for when I point at the suspects. The lighting looked good however the table really didn't. Having the table width ways facing the audience really closes off the actors and hides their faces and bodies from the audience. If we turn the table to be length ways then we can spead out the actors some more and ut leaves the table more open for the audience to see them. The chairs should also be replaced with wooden ones to match the table but also so the actors don't have to worry about flipping their seats.
Staging Act 2
So Act 2 starts with everyone interacting with the audience when my character the Inspector comes in and tells everyone to gather around him. So originally we had everyone stand in a circle facing inward while I walk around them. However that meant everyone had their backs to the audience. So Jessy changed it so that everyone huddles in the middle like penguins while I walk around them talking the audience about evidence pack 2. This works much better as the audience gets to see their faces as they're pivoting on the spot to watch me and it adds some physical comedy to an otherwise boring exposition scene. Then when I'm asking people to identify the stamps Jay speaks up and at that point everyone scatters into a line at the front to look at him. This draws everyone's attention to Jay and centralises the character to allow the audience to know what he's about to say is noteworthy. The line does feel a bit forced and unnatural and I feel it would be better to spread out across the room however then comes the possibility of blocking tables lines of sight. Although the same problem appears with the line however it's more controllable. We'll need to make sure people don't walk past a certain point to allow the edge tables to see everyone in the line and in centre stage.
Jessy was rather agitated at the script on the premise that most of the dialogue was monologue after monologue of information rather than conversations. Because this meant it was more difficult to action everyone to be doing stuff and therefore people not speaking are just left standing around reacting. If we had more time to work on the script I'm sure I could've re-written it to be more conversation based with the suspects accusing each other to get information out of everyone rather than just the Inspector asking the questions. But as it is it's fine. A little unnatural in some parts but considering the dialogue that the script was based off I think it's an improvement.
After Jay's lines it more or less people walking into centre stage, monologing and then walking back into line. So Jessy, to change things up a bit, decided to change the set up half way through. While Riley is saying his line he wonders over to the other side of the stage. Then Matt and Connor join him during their lines which gives us two lines on either side of the stage for the Inspector to walk through ready for evidence 2 of Act 2. Additionally, Matt has a line where he says that his Uncle threw his other Uncle through a closed door; i Thought it would be funny if he demonstrated it using the cane he has with his costume. Portending to pick up a person and throw them but keeping hold of the end of the cane so it doesn't hit someone. It would give the scene a bit more action to it and provide a visual demonstration of what he's talking about. During Connor's line he mixes Egypt with Spain, however the sentence he says describes Egypt so it doesn't make sense for him to mix the two countries when he's talking about Pyramids. The premise is that he's lying about going on holiday to give himself an alibi. So, to make it less confusing for the audience, we switch it so he says Spain at the start of this sentence and then starts describing Egypt, that way people may realise that he's lying and hit to him being the murderer.
The rehearsal went well. We did at least half of Act 2 before we ran out of time so I think it was a success. One thing we all need to improve on is our reactions. We are doing a comedy melodrama so our reactions to every piece of new information needs to be heightened to a 10 on the Lequoc scale. It will provide more entertainment for the audience if we're more dramatic but I think that will come with confidence of the scripts.
Staging Act 3 Nick's Body Is Moved
Part 1
Staging Act 3 Nick's Body Is Moved
Part 2
Staging Act 3 Lighting
Staging Act 3
Part 1
Staging Act 3
Part 2
Act 1: 1st Run Through
Act 1: 2nd Run Through
Act 2: 1st Run Through
Act 2: 2nd Run Through
Act 3: 1st Run Through
1st Full Run Through
Marketing
Evolution Of The Poster Design
So after the meeting I made a note of all the important details we would need to include on the poster. Details such as: location, price per person, date, time, synopsis of the murder mystery, the charity it was going to, link to purchase tickets as well as company's involved in it. So I drew up a basic poster design and showed it to the producer, he had some ideas of his own and we discussed different thing we could do. After i took basic pictures and made concept posters of the designs we drew up to see which ones we liked best. Of course I couldn't include the information onto the posters as i didn't have the information available. During the Production meeting with the Producer Jonathan I printed out all the prototype posters and got people to vote on which one they preferred to use moving forward. Poster 1 was the original design I drew up. Poster 2 was the design the Producer suggested and design 3 was an idea I had while making the first two to make it look like a desk table top. Everyone seemed to like poster design 3 the best. They liked the idea of having the poster look like a detective's desk with all the information for the event being pieces of evidence scattered across the table top. They suggested adding a few things like a pen or notepad to solidify the feeling that it was a table and not just a wooden floor. I made note of the feedback and got to work.
I knew for my poster I would need pictures of everyone for the line-up. And I could've done that using my phone as I've done with previous posters and used regular college lighting. However this was a charity commissioned event and I wanted better quality pictures. So we got in contact with the photography students up at the Cheltenham Gloucester College Campus to see if they would be interested in photographing us. Gracefully they accepted. A date was set and a photography day was scheduled. We then had to pick costumes that we would wear for our characters because we hadn't even done that yet. I mentioned this process earlier above. The day arrived and all actors, costumes and props were successfully delivered to the Cheltenham campus. We get in and, being the head of marketing, was but in charge to see if the photos were good enough for the posters. So picked the order of who went first, and considering I was leading this cooperation I made myself go last. When I got into the photography studio I realised that the two photographers that were taking our photos were two old friends of mine. So it was really nice to catch up and see them again, it was an unexpected surprise. And they were really good, they took pictures of our line up. Character pictures, even took some actors headshots for us. When it came to Jonathan they realised that he was wearing a white costume against a white background and asked if this would be problematic for editing. Which it definitely would've, but they changed the lighting and background to be darker to make it easier for me when editing the background out which was super considerate of them. After the photos I requested were over, they asked if they could take black and white spotlight pictures of us in character and they showed me some examples and they looked really cool. So I said yes, the actors were a little annoyed when I told them we were taking more photos since they wanted to go home but I do not regret making that decision. They looked amazing. After the day was done, I got contact information from the photographers and asked of they would be willing to take more photos for us in future to which they were thrilled about the idea. Overal, it was a very successful day, I was thrilled about the results and I look forward to hopefully working with them again.
When the photos got back to us I was thrilled with the results. And I was surprised with how many there were. I renamed all the photos to separate all the characters out. Then I had to shift through each character's photos to pick out the best one for the line up. Once I'd done that for all seven characters I then went and perfectly cut out the actors from the background. Then, I messaged all the actors to tell me their heights so the line up would be accurate on the picture to how tall we were in real life. Scaled the pictures up to the lines on the background. Added in some shadows to make it look like they were actually being photographed. And the line up picture was complete. Now we just needed the rest of the poster.
I wanted it to look like a Detective's desk, more so than in the concept design. So I found a better image that reminisced a wooden table and set that as the background. I got the producer to tell me all the information I needed to know and I made a list of it. Now it was trying to put the information onto the poster. I wanted each piece of information to look like a different clue. I downloaded different styles of paper to put the information on. Ripped paper, a ticket, detective's notebook, an invitation to the manor. I also decided to throw on the picture of santa's outline that we took for the trailer so people would know what the line up is for and who the victim was. After that it was deciding where to put the logos and the title of the show which was best blaced at the top. Now it was about decorating it. I wanted a magnifine glass to make it obvious that this was a detective's desk and I but it over the ticket so that the pices would be bigger and more eye catchy. I also added a pen as it's the most famous desk item. And just to add a little character to the poster I found a picture of a glass of scotch from a birds eye perspective and added that to the top corner of the poster. It had to be top down view as the rest of the poster is from the bird's eye perspective and it's a stereotype drink everyone associates with Detective's so it was a perfect match. I sent the poster to the producer who corrected me on spelling mistakes and suggestion to add like an additional evidence paper with information about the charity on there which was a good idea. I made the changes, sent it back and he sent it off to the commissioners.
Only thing I think could've been better was if I had been provided with the link to the tickets website before we printed the posters as they were up yet. I could've added a QR code to the picture that could've taken people to the tickets website, however we printed out the web address on separate paper and cut and stuck them to the posters instead.
We then printed them off with Despite the amount of extra work I had put in to making this poster I am pleased with the final results. I probably could've done better but the photography was perfect and the final result looked good so overal I think it was a great poster design and like nothing I've done previously.
Creating A Trailer
The day after we had picked prototype costumes for each of the characters for the upcoming photoshoot, it was announced to me that we had to create a trailer for our show to be used on their website promote the show. I was given about an hour to film a trailer because of our very busy schedule that we had pre-planned in advance. So i quickly came up with a basic idea in order to not spoil the contents of the show.
The only thing we had that we knew for certain were the characters so I decided to focus the entire trailer around the characters and them looking suspicious. So we got the lighting Technician to dim all the lights and give us a spot light. The plan was to have them doing something suspicious in the dark and then when the light comes on the looking into the camera and try to act natural. They would awkwardly smile at the camera, avoid eye contact with the camera, hide something behind their backs, act surprised. They were the suspects and I needed to convey to the audience watching the trailer that they were all acting suspicious. I also made them look into the camera, breaking the forth wall, as our show would have the characters breaking the forth wall and talking directly to the audience throughout. So it made sense to give a teaser of this interaction in the trailer. We got our teacher, Sonia, to lie on the floor in our Santa costume and we drew an outline around her using white tape. I took footage of her in the outline and with just the outline too. For my character, The Inspector, I had him looking and inspecting the outline while writing notes down in his book, making it obvious that he was going to be the one helping the audience solve this crime. I also had me point at the camera, like in posters for soldier recruitment in the world wars, to signify to the audience that he was appointing you directly to come and help solve this crime. The final shot I knew I wanted all the suspects lined up around the outline of the body. I had them all stare down at the outline as the camera looked at the floor then panned up towards them, I then told them to all look at each other suspiciously as if they were accusing each other and then, right at the end, I made them all look into the camera in shock. Now it took a few attempts to get all the shots I wanted right but considering the request was sprung upon us and we had very little time to film I think I did rather well with what we had.
Now that the filming was done, now came the issue of editing the trailer together. I had to sift through the footage and label each video. I then had to pick the best takes of each shot and upload them into the video editor. I trim down the videos and removed the audio from each of them so there wouldn't be any background noise. All the characters were silent in the trailer so removing the audio benefited. After that I added in some basic transittions and text. Originally I wanted a voice over narration in the form of Santa to be saying rhymes that I had come up with for each character, however I couldn't do the voice, nor could anyone else. So I tried a voice changer and a AI text to speach santa genorater and nothing worked. In the end the Producer said he like the video without the narration so I added in the text with the nessorsarry information to explain the characters and what had ahppened. Now I was tasked with finding some Copyright Free music to use. I found some with some nice Jingly bells and an ending that sounded like it was made for a christmas trailer. I put it into the video however the music was just slightly too short for the video. So I looped and repeated some parts of the song to make the duration last longer to make it fit. And in a few hours of editing the trailer was done.
I sent it to the producer to get feedback. He gave me a few tweaks that I changed and then he sent it off to the commitioners who liked it very much. I was not expecting to have to make a trailer for a college show nor was I expected to film it in an hour but I did it and I'm really proud of the results.
An Inspector Presents: Santa's Winter Meltdown
360 video Part1
An Inspector Presents: Santa's Winter Meltdown
360 Video Part 2
An Inspector Presents: Santa's Winter Meltdown
360 Video Part 3
Review Of Our Show
This show was a lot more work than I was anticipating considering we had more time to create this show than we had the Halloween show Cirque La Fragure. And I also didn't ask or expect for me to be suddenly thrusted into the role of manager for the entire production considering the only roles I signed up for was The Inspector and Marketing. Now of course in any sort of production with so little members it's natural to take on extra roles to get the job done but I felt like I was doing almost everything and there did come a point where I was feeling really stressed about it. I had to: make the poster, make the logo, film and direct the trailer, edit the trailer, write the script and make the evidence packs, while having to learn my lines. Also I was the main character with the most important lines as I presented key information about the clues and guided the audience through the show. Allthewhile, I'm constanly being asked about staging, Directing bits of the performance, what lighting I want and answering and Directing the Level three's who had kindly agreed to work with us on the project. It's not too much to say that my plate was very full during this show. I did all of this because I knew I had the ability to do them and do them well, and no one else wanted to. I did feel like I was being pulled all over the place, stretching myself out a bit thin sometimes. There were moments where I would have to talk to the Level 3's and direct them, then I get called over by the technician and asked about lighting for a particular scene , then I'm called to be asked about making certain props, then I have to give feedback on the level three's performance, then I'm called to se how we should act out a certain scene. I was just all over the place and although in the end it all came together well, I really don't want to be doing that again. I don't want to be responsible for everything all at once. When I was the lead and marketing then I was good, maybe the evidence packs too yes but more people should've taken on more roles. In future perhaps assining roles to different people straight away rather than piling it all onto one person would make it clear who's responsible for what and distripute the stress more manigably. However many people struggled with their lines, expecially considering the script was changed fairly close to the end due to having to cut out Crystal Bauble. And Jonathan was contacting the commissioners alot to get schedual dates and ticket prices. Jay was very helpful and contacting the level three's, letting them know when they were comming in. Connor was in charge of lighting and Matt, Riley and Jessy did most of the actioning for the performace. So people did contripute alot to this performance and they did have other things to do. I just wish they perhaps other people did a few extra tasks so that I wasn't in charge of the whole production.
Show night went really well. There were no mistakes or misshaps as far as I'm aware. We got plenty enough audience interaction which is what we were relying on. And the audience didn't throw too many curve balls at us to make us loose consentration or character. I remember going round each table asking them for their notes and one table asked for my notes and I simply showed them drawing I had made in the notepad of simples representing each character: Candycane for Candy Stocking, Microwave for Pirece Filmlid, Excetra. They found it funny and tried not to laugh over the actors. During the questioning nobody had any questions so there was just an awkward slience for a while which was quite funny. Poeple did eventually start asking questions, one of them being when did people arrive in the mannor. It was a question no one was really expecting so they said they all came at around the same time, so Icaught the level three's off guard and asked them if what the actors were saying was true. They were not prepared to be asked this question as we didn't rehearse it, also I hadn't told them I would be asking them anything. But after a breif moment of being taken back they comfirmied that they all got in at the same time. It was a little cruel of me to spring a unscripted improve question on the Level three's like that but they hadnled it greatly. Also in the performing arts industry you should expect to be caught off guard during a show so it was some experience for them. When the audience had to pick who the felt the murderer was one table didn't know who to pick and accussed me of being suspicious for constantly changing my moustache throughout the show thinking I had something to hide. This of course was not planned for. I jokingly said that I had no idea what they were talking about and that my moustache had stayed the same throughout the entire show. Which it hadden't. But I'm glad people noticed the joke and liked it. Even the Level three's and Riley who wer very nervious at the start of the performance with talking to strangers got out their comfort zones and interacted with the audience which was great to see. We got a lot of possitive feedback from the show and I'm glad about how it turned out. I wish we would've recorded the real show with the audience interactions so that people who weren't there could've seen all this because the real show was better than any rehearsal we did.
I still wish I could've played a different role, like I wanted to be Pierce Filmlid or Chris Jingle when reading the character descriptions (before we decided who would be the killer) I just think that my role was too familiar. Although the Inspector talks directly to the audience the most he doesn't do much back and forth conversations with the audience. He instructs them on what to do but doesn't get a chance to talk with them. I would've liked to have done that, to have acted slightly shady and answer some questions from the audience. I think it could've pushed me a little with my Improvisation skills. And soemone else could've pushed themselves to have been the Inspector, to be the main role and talk to the audience., to see if they could push themselves to be a main role. However considering a lot of the cast were struggling with their scripts and the changes to their scripts, and I'm fast at leaning my lines, I think the casting it worked out for the best.
Overall, I would say this was one of our better shows. It was funny and I had a lot of fun performing it. Maybe not too much fun making it as it was a little stressful with all the job roles I had to take on, but in future we'll make sure to even out the work load. Inspector Detective was fun to play and i did enjoy being this character. Perhaps someday we could get a return of Inspector Detective in another An Inspector Presents performace. But only time will tell.