Anatomy of a Suicide - Part 6

Lesson: 16th October 2017

During this lesson we did prop work around Anatomy of a Suicide. In the play, props are brought on by other actors within the scene and have to be brought on from separate sides of the stage. This creates a chaos onstage that isn't actually chaos but well rehearsed movements that allow props to be brought onstage effectively. It also adds a sense that the people carrying the props - the other actors, excluding Carol, Anna, and Bonnie - are more in control of the story and to some extent themselves. This can be shown because both Carol and Anna eventually lose themselves after the birth of their respective daughters. In our lesson, we made three simple freeze frames showing a day at school with three actors whilst the other people moved props around the stage and in some cases moved the actor themselves.

Before we made the freeze frames we were told to use as many props as possible which would help us when the time came to actually move the props on and off stage as there was more things for the people with the props to do. Our initial freeze frames showed a teacher teaching a class (with another actor being the inanimate whiteboard); a person being attacked/bullied by multiple people (with another actor being the inanimate bus shelter roof); and students taking an exam (with another actor as the inanimate clock). We chose to do these because they resembled a school life easily with exams being the 'be all and end all' for students with bullying being thrown into the mix.

After this, we had to reduce the actors in the scene to three. This relates to Anatomy of a Suicide because there are three main actresses who would be handed props and have them taken away much like how this scene played out. It was also said that the actors can't move the props themselves and would have to have them taken away, taken off stage and brought back on stage by a different stage hand. Additionally, the props couldn't be taken off one actor and given to another in one action, they had to be brought offstage and given to the actor by a different stage hand. Moreover, the props couldn't be brought on twice from the same side, for example left left. This made the scene even more difficult because bringing on and taking off each prop had to be removed/brought on in a specific order and often we found that we ended up on the wrong side of the stage to bring the prop on. At one point in the video below, all four stage hands ended up on the same side of the stage which slowed the pace of the piece exponentially.



During the first part of the piece, it is clear that all stage hands knew what they were doing, even if the table did fall over at one point which was quickly sorted out by Marlon (even though he was an actor). In addition, the removal/bringing on of the white screen was done well each time we used it, even to the point of where Joel didn't have to move for the white screen to be collected. However, as the piece progressed, it became evidentially clear that we didn't know which stage hand was supposed to collect/drop off each prop. This became clear towards the end when I was left onstage with the risers that no one helped me to remove from the stage. In order for this to be solved communication between each other as to who would bring the props on should be greater. Additionally, we should have written down the order of the props as to how they were taken off and brought on and who was doing so, so that the pace would improve and we would feel more confident in our actions.

When we finally perform the play, we will have rehearsed each part fully so will know who brings which prop on when which would improve the pace and make the performance more effective. To do this, we should write down our cues to bring each prop on so that stage hands know what props should be where, and make sure they're on the correct side of the stage.