In thinking back on the senior IB performances, I've come to realize how much work and effort goes into any type of performance big or small. Even for a small 15 minute performance, I did not realize how much thought goes into actually planning the production and then into its execution. Although I was casted as an actor and not part of the planning/backstage work, I was exposed to the stress and anxiety that our director and crew felt in the weeks proceeding the performance. The costumes that our performance required were not necessarily the easiest to find because it required finding different animal parts in order to associate each actor with its respective animal. Karina had just so happened to find donkey and elephant tails and masks that we could both wear. These were definitely lucky finds because without these components, the audience would have had a difficult time distinguishing our characters. I realized that Karina made a good portion of our costumes in terms of animal ears and animal patterns on shirts.
In addition to costuming, I understood the extensive planning and creating of props. For example, Anna made the hens' flying contraption and to create the banner for the festival. In addition to making props, she had to find decorative props such as trees and food which she was able to find in storage boxes in our theatre classroom. For the actual performance, I realized that everything had to be planned up until the last minute of the production. For example, during dress rehearsal we realized that we wound up with more props than people to carry the props on stage. And so we found that we had to plan on having someone not involved in our production carry in the trees. There was precision to everything, from assigning Iris and Kaitlyn to bring in the table, Irene to bring in the tree on stage left, Karina to bring in the tree on stage right, etc. I've come to see that theatre isn't merely actors on stage and have come to appreciate the complexity that goes into each production and hope to experience this once I help with costuming for our school's upcoming spring musical.
In addition to costuming, I understood the extensive planning and creating of props. For example, Anna made the hens' flying contraption and to create the banner for the festival. In addition to making props, she had to find decorative props such as trees and food which she was able to find in storage boxes in our theatre classroom. For the actual performance, I realized that everything had to be planned up until the last minute of the production. For example, during dress rehearsal we realized that we wound up with more props than people to carry the props on stage. And so we found that we had to plan on having someone not involved in our production carry in the trees. There was precision to everything, from assigning Iris and Kaitlyn to bring in the table, Irene to bring in the tree on stage left, Karina to bring in the tree on stage right, etc. I've come to see that theatre isn't merely actors on stage and have come to appreciate the complexity that goes into each production and hope to experience this once I help with costuming for our school's upcoming spring musical.
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