In preparation for their Third-year Main Stage plays, York Vision chatted to the Theatre students behind both productions, for all the inside insights into putting on these two shows. Both plays explore protest and revolution, in very differing ways.
The first play to be put on will be Image of An Unknown Young Woman by Elinor Cook, and the second is James Fritz’s Parliament Square, both plays entirely put on by teams of students.
What is your name and your position in this production?
Image of an Unknown Young Woman
ALICE THORLEY: I’m Alice [Thorley], and I am one of the co-producers of Image of an Unknown Young Woman. My role is to oversee the entire production and process from start to finish to ensure it runs smoothly and is well organised, with strong communication between all departments.
IMMY MEARS: My name is Immy [Mears] and I am one of the co-directors for Image of an Unknown Young Woman by Elinor Cook. My work for this show is mainly focussed inside the rehearsal room with our fantastic actors; but alongside my co-director Rilla, we also
oversee elements of design from set to lighting to sound!
Parliament Square
CAITLIN SYDNEY: Hi, I’m Caitlin and I am directing Parliament Square, which means alongside my co-director Harry, I am responsible for the overall creative vision and development of the production in terms of performance style, design elements, storytelling, and generally putting the show onstage.
KIRA THOMASSON: Myself and Francesca [Di Giorno] as co-designers work together to gather ideas from the text, directors, and other designers to put into our developing set design. We do scale drawings and models before moving onto the build, where we put together our set in the workshop and then move it into the Scenic Stage during our Get In.
Describe what your play is about in as few words as possible!
Image of an Unknown Young Woman
IM: Relationships, revolution, power, humanity.
AT: After a video of a woman getting shot goes viral, a revolution begins, throwing the world into chaos.
Parliament Square
CS: Social responsibility, family, and enacting change. Without giving too much away, Parliament Square explores one woman’s story as she carries out an extreme act of protest.
What have you found most challenging about putting on this production in particular?
Image of an Unknown Young Woman
AT: Image of an Unknown Young Woman is being put on by half of our cohort which means there’s a lot of people to oversee at all times. It’s so important that all departments are in constant communication with one another so that all aspects of the play are cohesive and run smoothly alongside one another.
Ensuring this has been an exciting challenge for myself and my lovely co-producer Ben. We have been so grateful for our wonderful Deputy Stage Manager Kirsty and Production Manager Matthew who have both been fundamental in helping us keep tabs on everything that is happening both inside and out of the rehearsal room.
IM: The most challenging part of putting on this production has honestly been figuring
out how some of the characters function/exist. There are three figures called ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ who disorientate the already complex storyline and mould themselves into a multitude of different roles and situations. Three principal narrative strands […] drive this play; ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ somehow manage to make their way into each one, often setting lots of details off-kilter. Developing these enigmatic (by name and behaviour) figures has definitely been a marathon and not a sprint.
Whilst these figures have tied us in knots at times, they have been so intriguing to grasp and evolve. We have three fantastically compelling actors portraying ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ and working with them collaboratively to develop these roles has been so rewarding. Furthermore, observing how all eight of the actors have thrown themselves into transforming these roles and seeing how each of them have refined the nuances within them has been fascinating.
Parliament Square
CS: The play is structured in three acts, all of which unfold in quite starkly different styles, the first taking place over the course of one day and following our protagonist, Kat’s, every move; the second involves several months of story, told in shorter scenes, and the third spans fifteen years, and has a montage-style structure of 74 mini-scenes.
It has been challenging but exciting to approach each individual act by acknowledging their uniqueness within the play’s structure, but also ensuring that we have a cohesive style across all three. Additionally, the text offers several very complex and seemingly unstageable stage directions which have been interesting to explore from both an acting and design perspective.
KT: I think the most challenging thing about putting on this production in particular has been figuring out how to represent Kat and her story onstage through the design. There are an overwhelming amount of possibilities when it comes to what details we want to draw attention to during the show, so honing in on what best speaks to Parliament Square has been hard.
What has been most intriguing?
Image of an Unknown Young Woman
AT: I have really enjoyed working with our brilliant Marketing and Educational Outreach lead Karina in coming up with creative ways to help build an engaging social media presence and boost ticket sales- our latest has been giving anyone who shows us confirmation of their ticket purchase a personalised yellow balloon with their name and face drawn on it (so buy your tickets now so you don’t miss out!).
Parliament Square
CS: In our initial stages we explored the idea of generational shifts in the play, especially in relation to the four principal women: Kat, her mum, her daughter, and Catherine. As the years pass, each character seems to take the place of the character who was their age fifteen years previously, and we have enjoyed unpicking the idea of how attitudes change from generation to generation, looking at waves of feminism and how protest is viewed from each generation’s perspective. Constructing the relationship between Kat and her mother has definitely been one of the most intriguing parts of the process.
KT: The most intriguing thing has been exploring our design brief and pulling apart what it means to see the world through Kat’s eyes. We’ve discovered so much more about the character and found a way to make the shifting of her thoughts and feelings apparent through our choices which has been very interesting.
What has the process of rehearsals been like?
Image of an Unknown Young Woman
IM: Rilla and I became the directors for this show almost nine weeks ago and so we knew that we had a large amount of time to dedicate to R&D (Research and Development) before actually staging the show. Towards the end of September, we had around four weeks of R&D with the actors to explore the text through the eyes of different theatre practitioners, such as Rudolph von Laban and Sanford Meisner, and by employing theatrical techniques from active analysis to animal work. This period was crucial for the actors as they began to understand how the play text could function in different ways and critically, how their characterisation adhered to or challenged these interpretations of the text. After these four weeks, we moved towards staging the play!
This, for me, has been the most exciting part of the process. Inside the rehearsal room, our design/production team have joined us frequently to offer us drafts of lighting and sound as well as bringing along some very exciting props to test out (live fire, balloons, and ropes just to name a few!).
Parliament Square
CS: It’s been a really detailed and collaborative process of development and rehearsal, which has involved a lot of character work, incorporating dramaturgical research, exploration of the space, and bringing in elements of set, costume, and props to work towards our final show. I’ve particularly liked developing each character in terms of backstory and their role in Kat’s journey, as well as playing with portraying time passing very quickly and shifting from space to space as the drama unfolds. We’ve really challenged ourselves throughout, always asking ‘why’ of every creative decision made in rehearsals, and making sure we can justify each one. Harry and I have enjoyed collaborating with such a hardworking team in the rehearsal room and we can’t wait to see it all come together very soon!
What have the designing stages been like?
Image of an Unknown Young Woman
IM: Incredible! In the same way that it has been rewarding to see the actors bring their roles to life, I have been so astonished by how far the designs have come over the last nine weeks. Whilst each role has its own demands, all of the designers have worked collaboratively to ensure that there has been cohesion across the board.
AT: The Scenic Stage Theatre is a challenging space to design for due to the ¾ in the round stage configuration, but our designers have not only risen to the challenge but have really delivered. Our incredible stage designer Daniel has been working hard with our fantastic lighting and projection designers Jonathan and Lisa to incorporate multi-media projections into the set which has been really exciting to watch.
Parliament Square
KT: The designing stages have been a lot of hard work. It’s been a long process with a lot of changes happening along the way with some pretty tight turnaround. But even then, there’s been so much to learn from and it’s just a really good opportunity to work on such a scale with everything we have at our disposal.
CS: One of the key design challenges in this play is conveying each change in location, particularly in Act One. We see Kat in bed, in a taxi, on the tube, and, of course, in Parliament Square, alongside many more spaces, and we’ve had lots of fun exploring how set, light, and sound can help clarify these locations for an audience. Additionally, with the passing of fifteen years in Act Three, we have worked with the costume team on conveying the ages of characters changing over the years, in a very short space of stage time, and plotting exactly when these changes can take place within the quick-paced flow of Act Three.
Why should we see your play?
Image of an Unknown Young Woman
IM: What Cooke presents in this play really endures in the current climate of today’s politics and society. What I have been struck by most is how the play holds a mirror up to humanity and reflects what we can be capable of, but in amongst this, there are genuine moments of lightness and comedy.
AT: Image of an Unknown Young Woman blends all possible theatrical elements into one show so it really does have something for everyone! We have multi-media, multi-rolling, live fire on stage, and light up yellow balloons to name a few! What more could you want?
Image of an Unknown Young Woman is running at the Scenic Stage Theatre on Campus East on the 5th and 7th of December at 19:30, and follow their Instagram @uoy_imageofanunknown for more information.
Parliament Square
CS: Parliament Square is hugely resonant with today’s society, despite the fact it was written nearly a decade ago. The play encapsulates what it feels like to live in a world which feels increasingly difficult to live in, and questions what can be done to change it. While it deals with very heavy themes and events, there are some moments of real sweetness and beauty which are reminders of the good in humanity and the silver linings of strength, love, and family. Everyone who sees the show will come away with a different perspective on what the play means, and I think that’s the most exciting kind of play to come and watch.
You can join the students putting on Parliament Square on the 6th of December at 19:30, and the 7th of December at 14:30 at the Scenic Stage. Their Instagram is @parliamentsquareplay for further information.