Stagecraft

Session 7: “Stagecraft”

This session will ask you to think about the ways that play texts are transformed into staged productions – how a written play becomes a physical performance. We will:

Consider different elements of STAGECRAFT including setting, props, costumes, casting and stage directions
Consider the relationship between the playwright and the director
Read a scene from a play and then think about how you would stage it

TEXT

The session will focus on an extract from Rory Mullarkey’s (2012) play The Grandfathers, which is a visceral, physical and fast-paced play about training young people to fight through compusory national service. You can download the extract from the bar on the right.

FILM

A video of the extract from Bristol Old Vic Young Company’s production of The Grandfathers will be available to watch later in October 2012. You can also watch this session’s interview montage, where the playwrights talk about why and how metaphor can be used successfully in dramatic writing, and discuss some of the theatrical metaphors by other writers they’ve found most successful.

LINKS
The Grandfathers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS2SC18Bik0&feature=youtu.be
Written by Rory Mullarkey. Directed by Jesse Jones.
Performed by the Bristol Old Vic Young Company in association with St Brendan’s Sixth Form College.
Produced by Rachael Crosbie, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College and John Retallack, Bristol Old Vic.

More info on Rory Mullarkey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h_g9oicEZ0