From tech to talker
Post written by: Sophie Amos
Techie 101 - If the audience knows you’re there, something has gone terribly wrong.
Forget what you heard, that is not entirely true. In the journey of You, Me and My Voice the technician role has been an artistic take on the traditional role.
The traditional role is filled with artistic wonders: creating a life on stage through lights and multimedia, having the stage come to life with props and scenery, to build a world an actor performs in and an audience loses themselves within. A technician’s role is traditionally to be the magician of the show:ta-da lights but you never saw the switch get turned on, smoke but no fire.
Traditionally,you never see how the trick is performed. Traditionally, you never see the technician, as they sit backstage in a camouflage of blacks and a headset. I am painting you a picture of the technician as being some magical ninja individual who pulls the shows scenography together. That’s because they are.
Now the role that exists within You, Me and My Voice is all that and more, taking the traditional role and giving it a twist. You are no longer in camouflage you’re part of the show. In 2018, the original production, the technician was seen and heard in a comedic fashion breaking down the fourth wall and allowing the audiences notion of ‘performance’ to be tampered with. The magician’s trick was revealed...or so you thought.
If you have ever done the job of a technician you know there’s so much more that what happens on the stage, yet technicians code forbids me to tell you all the secrets of the trade. You will all just have to get involved with theatre tech to discover the trick. Let’s just say I was still in the safety of my techie box.
This year things have taken a turn, I am the shows technician and now I am the talker. A role that would be most technician’s nightmare ‘just let me sit herewith my blacks and out the back, I don’t want to be seen.’ However, I am not like most technicians, I also perform.
This role was first performed by Dan Armstrong and has now become something I have had to think about and become. In the first R&D sessions I was excited to be given this role and challenge thinking how this would be an excellent opportunity. It has added another layer to the show which makes it unique and makes my role complex.
However I didn’t think about how my emotions as a human would interject with the performance. Let me explain. The technician role last time, I was predominately the technician, I know the script, I know the story, I know the cues. Not really a lot of emotional involvement. As the technician you never really are given the opportunity to allow yourself to get emotionally invested with the performance that is happening in front of you…if you do you are liable to miss a cue, cry on the script or even worse get noticed for bad tech. Not on my watch.
https://youtu.be/mh682Cpb_-0
Not cool Soph, not cool - moment from YMMV 2018 at South Devon College where we first hear the machine and the technicians voice
This time around I am working with the content of the script and the character I am playing has an emotional involvement. In the last session at Eyeview with the gang, Steve and some lovely Doorstep Arts Work Experience students recorded some content for the show that was used in the rehearsal session. The recordings are undertaking the role of Jade and Dan as disruptive audience members, a clever tech trick (ta-dah).
Image of Eyeview hired space in Winner Street, Paignton
Retired furniture shop front, this space in Winner Street has been a hub of creativity since Eyeview moved in
As I sat there listening to Hugh talk about his voice and I could hear the disruptive voices in play, I found myself getting frustrated. I wanted to hear Hugh’s voice and I couldn’t because of these voices, it took me to a place of anger where Steve and his speakers almost caught my wrath, until I realised…that’s the point.
My talker persona is a helpful and considerate person, its just misplaced. I found that concept hard to grasp in the beginning process yet within this moment of the rehearsal I had my eureka moment. I was going to use the frustration to propel my character into action.
Creative team: Sophie Amos, Erin Walcon (Outside Eye) and Hugh Malyon deep in creative conversation
The ideas are flowing now for the next rehearsal, does the character use that anger as a smoke screen to not listen and carry on with what they think is right?Regardless of what is actually right? Does the character only hear the negative yet isn’t listening to what is wanted?
These are all questions that are woolly at the moment and require some stuffing to fill them out and make them fully realised. So standby and allow the magic of the technician to be somewhat revealed soon!