Unit 1 - Principles of Performance Task 4

Task 4:

A - Immersive theatre is when the audience participates in the storyline of the piece and allows them to immerse themselves into the action of the performance itself. It also means removing a traditional stage where actors would normally perform on differentiating it from other types of theatre. Our Stockton Globe Halloween tour can be viewed as an immersive production since we acted as others whilst touring the Globe and getting the audience involved with it all at once. Promenade theatre is when the audience follow or stand with the actors throughout their performance whilst watching them. What differs immersive with promenade is that immersive involves the audience and the actors can speak to them, whereas promenade isn't connecting with the audience as much and isn't breaking the fourth wall, the actors are simply acting and trying to pretend the audience aren't following along with them. 

B - Our Stockton Globe Halloween Tour is hugely based on the history of the place; this involves the 2021 restoration, the 1st 3D film shown here, the famous bands that have performed, the spooky happenings in the theatre and so much more. A lot of our research came from our visit on the 3/10/2022 which we were so fortunate to go on since it influenced our upcoming tour more than we all realized. On our tour, thanks to Josh, we were also able to speak to four of the men who worked hugely on the Globe's remodeling and found lots of old tickets and letters during it, to talk to us and tell us stories of what they found and have heard and know about the Globe's supernatural history. They introduced us to stories like The Beatles trip, where a young girl ruptured her stomach due to screaming so hard and was unable to see the rest of their performance at Stockton Globe. We were all taken aback by this story, as it's not something that happens now, so we all thought it should be included in our tour, in which I was fortunate enough to play the role of the Nurse, who tends to the girl's pains. Another story they told us about was the 1st 3D film ever shown at the Globe called The House of Wax. They had mentioned how at the time, it felt very real for those who watched it and the character's felt life like. When we all heard this, we again felt like it needed to be in our tour as it was a huge part of the Globe's history and making sure we educated the audience at the same time as scaring them was what we wanted to do. This small piece of information became our end scene, which consisted of the Wax characters coming to life, much like what the volunteers had said it felt like. The talking of the House of Wax led onto the men going into detail of the usherette's roles at the Globe back in the 50's. They were said to be strict, rude and scary if you ever got on the wrong side of them, which allowed for us to have a few usherettes who could use their acting skills and be as horrible as they could. We were so grateful for the volunteers taking time out of their day to tell us about their findings, and what they knew about the Globe that could possibly help us out, in which they certainly did, and they influenced our tour's storyline massively. 

The tour itself was amazing as research for us all, since we were given the chance to venture into rooms and find out from Josh the importance of them. For example, we were shown the bar which is actually underground, and has many pictures and photos hung around on the walls, which we later found out were taken by a 17-year-old boy who was famous for having interviews with all the acts at the globe and taking pictures of them. I thought that was so interesting as he was near the same age of me at the time and was already meeting such influential people just by helping out the Globe. I found the tour super vital in our Globe Tour, as it showed us all of the rooms like The Dressing Room, which for me held lots of ideas, like perhaps there are old pictures on one of the mirrors of people like the Lewis brothers, and even have silent film actress Ivy Close perhaps sat doing her hair and makeup without speaking. Josh showed us from the stage, what the projection room looked like from the outside and told us about a young boy who died in there from a fire and the overdose of smoke inside, since he had been locked in there by accident from a fellow runner at the time. We weren't able to go inside since it's too many steps to go up there, but even just looking at it was eerie after knowing it's dark past. A talented young boy played the boy from the fire at the end of our piece, and makeup painted a huge burn on the side of his face and head which took a few audience members by surprise and spooked them out. 

I used the internet a lot when it came to my character's outfits. I took more than enough inspiration from people in the 50's/60's when it came to my Stage Door Keeper outfit since there was plenty of pictures online that influenced how I looked. My Nurse was quite simple, but I searched what my hair would look like, and I found that a slick, yet simple bun was the answer.