{"id":3648,"date":"2016-10-04T08:20:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T22:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/qut-exchange-students\/?p=3648"},"modified":"2016-10-04T14:00:11","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T04:00:11","slug":"new-plays-festival-at-bishops-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/gone-global\/2016\/10\/04\/new-plays-festival-at-bishops-university\/","title":{"rendered":"New Plays Festival at Bishop’s University"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"turner<\/a>Last night marked the end of this year’s New Plays Festival<\/strong> at Bishop\u2019s University!\u00a0It\u2019s been a busy few weeks from the auditions<\/strong> in Frosh Week to closing night<\/strong>, and all the daily rehearsals<\/strong> in-between, but boy has it been fun. I\u2019m going to start out by saying, since\u00a0drama class in school, I\u2019ve had zero experience in theatre before my involvement with New Plays. However, as an Entertainment Industries student at QUT, theatre<\/strong> is an interest of mine, typically in the sense that I enjoy seeing productions whenever possible. I\u2019ve seen productions in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney<\/strong>, as well as New York\u2019s Broadway<\/strong> and London\u2019s West End<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, theatre is an entertainment form I enjoy. Because of this, when I heard Bishop\u2019s was holding a student theatre festival<\/strong>, I was interested<\/strong> in getting involved<\/strong>. I was hoping to get a position working backstage<\/strong>. However, I didn\u2019t know enough about the different positions and assumed that without experience<\/strong>, I would have no chance. So I decided to sleep in<\/strong> the morning of the auditions instead.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eventually that day I headed down to lunch where I met my friend Alice who had just returned from auditions. After hearing that I had originally<\/strong> been interested in getting involved, she convinced<\/strong> me to just go and talk to the coordinators about potential<\/strong> positons backstage. So I thought \u2018why not?\u2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I showed up at Turner Studio asking if there were any positions backstage\u00a0for a student with no experience<\/strong> but willing to learn<\/strong>. The first thing I was asked was \u2018if I had considered auditioning<\/strong> for an onstage role<\/strong> because my accent<\/strong> could make for an interesting character<\/strong> addition\u2019. After considering this for a few moments, I said I would be happy to, but I would prefer<\/strong> to gain experience backstage rather than onstage. And with that I was taken off to meet one of the directors, who soon became my director<\/strong>, as I landed a role as a stage manager<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"cast<\/a>It all happened so fast and I was excited<\/strong> but admittedly also a little freaked out<\/strong> once I heard there was practice every day<\/strong> (since this was only my first week and I had planned not to get too tied down to anything as an exchange student) and that the play (titled \u2018Dealing With It\u2019<\/strong> and based\u00a0on real-life experiences) dealt with some heavy issues<\/strong> involving anxiety and depression. I was worried that combining the daily rehearsals (10pm-12am Monday-Thursday and 3 hours during the day Friday-Sunday) with the themes of the play, would potentially take a toll and make me not enjoy the experience. However, as it turns out I had nothing to worry about. There were certainly emotional rehearsals involved, I mean you can\u2019t be involved in a play like that without feeling<\/strong> something!<\/strong> But the people I got to work with were so happy<\/strong> and friendly<\/strong> and we made sure we ended each rehearsal on a high note<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For those of you who\u00a0have no clue what the role of stage manager entails (this was me early on), I\u2019ll give you a quick rundown. Basically, during rehearsals I was there with a script<\/strong>, prompting the cast with their lines<\/strong>, and during the shows, I was the one in the headset<\/strong> running the show through lighting and sound cues<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The cue-to-cue rehearsal which took place in the final week of rehearsals (during homecoming weekend!)<\/strong> where I first worked cueing the lighting and sound, was a little messy<\/strong>, leaving me worried for the show. But I found by the next rehearsal, I\u2019d got the hang of it. So by the time the shows rolled round, while I was a little nervous<\/strong> about something going wrong<\/strong> (I had ‘jokingly’ been told that if I messed up, I messed up<\/strong> the whole show <\/strong>–\u00a0<\/strong>which was actually a fair assessment of the situation), I felt confident<\/strong> and found myself enjoying<\/strong> the stage manager role immensely.<\/p>\n

To me, the fact that \u2018Dealing With It\u2019<\/strong> was part of a whole festival of shows was just the best. This meant that over the period of a week, I, along with crowds full of other audience members, got to watch 9 different student plays<\/strong> (including Alice\u2019s, who ended up getting cast in a comedy that had me laughing from start to finish), leaving me astounded with the level of talent<\/strong> this university has to offer in its theatre department. From scriptwriters, directors and actors, to lighting, set and costume designers; the list goes on.<\/p>\n

The highlights<\/strong> of the whole experience for me were:<\/p>\n