That Hideous Strength
The spring play is fianlly coming to an end!
Don’t ask me why I publish my blog now, many days after I finished the drama
The Show
This year’s play is That Hideous Strength, and it is big both literally and in terms fo me and BTA.
We just had a super big cast (and crew as well), imagine we can not even take a cast and crew photo on the stage. There are so many people that the play is actually consisting of four smaller plays (Belbury, St Anne’s, Bracton College, Bragdon Wood). Actually I didn’t really figure out the difference of Bragdon and Bracton until like 4 days before the dry tech.
The show is also super long! We started from 6 hours, and we gradually made it to 3 hours and a half without intermission. It is a big show for the cast. Micah and I did a word count of the script, and it was 53,287 words before we cut anything. To give some context, that is almost the twice the number of words in Hamlet. For opening night, we cut it to 42,917 words.
It is also a big show for cast. I’ll not mention how complicated the set is, and how confusing the entrance is. Stage managers have to call 4 different rooms and there are so many scene changes. By the way, we have a total of 79 scenes. Isn’t that crazy?
I have also counted, we have 40 lights in total. Some are at the back of auditorium, some are at the ceiling, some are on the floor. We only used 20 lights for Pinocchio, and we spent a lot of nights setting up the lights and also troubleshooting. We still have a broken cord from first dress rehearsal to the closing night. It is so facinating that both the LEDs on the top of Belbury are not working, but the ones on St Anne’s are fine. I also know how stressful sound is. I can image how difficult props and makeup and hair are, even if I can’t see the back stage. Overall, it is such. a big play.
Some random thoughts
The big guy that used to occupy our winter for almost half of our school is now over, and suddenly there was a strange feeling. When we were in it, we were looking forward to the show; and now we are reviewing that memory over and over again. It is good that it is over, that we can always make the best and the most beautiful image in our memory, and we will all preserve it for the rest of the life, for seniors, for new drama joiners, for everyone. We will not forget how we struggle, how we help each other, and how we perform this impossible show.
I will not go too much because it seems like Hugh wants his Symposium having something to do with drama, and one can always listen to Hugh talking.
I likt lights, and I like its meaning too. I will repeat myself: it’s so incredible and fascinating that we can run such a beautiful show out of the broken cord.
This is the craziest business that I’ve ever heard of! –Macphee
Drama: That Hideous Strength
The spring play is fianlly coming to an end!
Don’t ask me why I publish my blog now, many days after I finished the drama
The Show
This year’s play is That Hideous Strength, and it is big both literally and in terms fo me and BTA.
We just had a super big cast (and crew as well), imagine we can not even take a cast and crew photo on the stage. There are so many people that the play is actually consisting of four smaller plays (Belbury, St Anne’s, Bracton College, Bragdon Wood). Actually I didn’t really figure out the difference of Bragdon and Bracton until like 4 days before the dry tech.
The show is also super long! We started from 6 hours, and we gradually made it to 3 hours and a half without intermission. It is a big show for the cast. Micah and I did a word count of the script, and it was 53,287 words before we cut anything. To give some context, that is almost the twice the number of words in Hamlet. For opening night, we cut it to 42,917 words.
It is also a big show for cast. I’ll not mention how complicated the set is, and how confusing the entrance is. Stage managers have to call 4 different rooms and there are so many scene changes. By the way, we have a total of 79 scenes. Isn’t that crazy?
I have also counted, we have 40 lights in total. Some are at the back of auditorium, some are at the ceiling, some are on the floor. We only used 20 lights for Pinocchio, and we spent a lot of nights setting up the lights and also troubleshooting. We still have a broken cord from first dress rehearsal to the closing night. It is so facinating that both the LEDs on the top of Belbury are not working, but the ones on St Anne’s are fine. I also know how stressful sound is. I can image how difficult props and makeup and hair are, even if I can’t see the back stage. Overall, it is such. a big play.
Some random thoughts
The big guy that used to occupy our winter for almost half of our school is now over, and suddenly there was a strange feeling. When we were in it, we were looking forward to the show; and now we are reviewing that memory over and over again. It is good that it is over, that we can always make the best and the most beautiful image in our memory, and we will all preserve it for the rest of the life, for seniors, for new drama joiners, for everyone. We will not forget how we struggle, how we help each other, and how we perform this impossible show.
I will not go too much because it seems like Hugh wants his Symposium having something to do with drama, and one can always listen to Hugh talking.
I likt lights, and I like its meaning too. I will repeat myself: it’s so incredible and fascinating that we can run such a beautiful show out of the broken cord.
This is the craziest business that I’ve ever heard of! –Macphee
