Hammerpuzzle & The Tempest

Let the Magic Begin

2011-08-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we performed the Tempest for Ian, a man who provided our director with a certain amount of inspiration for the direction of the play in the early stages of our work. He pointed out to us that the play needs to centre around magic - the audience need to be immersed in the magic of the island, and the characters need to be under a certain amount of enchantment to make the story work. This provoked a discussion regarding the opening of our play - we had originally started with an upbeat song about being lost, but this now seemed to jarr with the overall context of the play. We also discussed the world of white magic, and the power Prospero emulates by being able to control the elements and heavenly bodies (such as Ariel).

What came out of this was the decision to completely change our opening unit, cutting our lost song and changing it for a mroe magical, dark and haunting melody. It still resonates loss and the unknown, but fits much more smoothly with the rest of our storytelling. Hopefully this will help the audience to believe in the magic from the outset...

Our dramaturg, Suze, has also researched white magic, and the power that Renaissance magicians held. The question regarding Prospero is thus: how far is his magic good? Although he practices white magic, his manipulation of the spirit world and nature has certain dark undertones. Perhaps because he believes what he does is for a selfish greater good, he does not see his actions as dangerous. This puts a really interesting take on our portrayal of Prospero, making us question where he has harnessed these powers from, and just how far he would be willing to go to control destiny.

We'd llike to thank Ian for his invaluable input! We've got a jam-packed day today making sure we can immerse our tale in magic and intrigue, layering white magic with a hint of darkness...

Tomorrow is our last rehearsal before Edinburgh, where our magical adventure begins!

HP x

We are such stuff as dreams are made on

2011-08-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

It's been another hectic few days in the world of Hammerpuzzle, and we're going at full pelt to be ready for our first performance on Monday.

Firstly, we've finished the play! All scenes have been set, all characters formed, all songs sung. Our schedule was a little bit manic, but with the help of berocca, caffine and caramel shortcake squares we managed to plough through the three acts in four days, and now it means we have a few days to perfect it all before you see it at the Fringe. Having watched a few rough italian runs, it's safe to say this is a funny, heartwarming play, and the melodies often leave goosebumps. It's interjected all the way through with Hammerpuzzle's unique poetry, wit and playfulness, and we've really heightened the sense of ensemble to help us tell the story in the way it's meant to be told...

And now, we continue to work at full pelt. Costumes need finishing touches, movement needs polishing and some props need fixing, but we're well on course to be Fringe-ready by Sunday... and, as ever, we're SO excited to share our work with you!

HP x

Lost, Lost, We Are All Lost...

2011-08-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

So far, we've created all of our characters, and started to build the character relationships in conjunction with our script, wonerfully written by our own Tamsin Kennard.

However, there is another important aspect of our version of the Tempest: The Storytellers.
In our adaptation, the storytellers are the "narrators" of the story (although, they are more than just narrators in the traditional sense); they create the characters and involve themselves in the action from the point of view of the lost. They are lost souls, desperately seeking to find their way.

So, we workshopped each of our actors to find their own personal Storyteller identity. We wanted to know reasons why they were lost, and find a child-like charicature of this in order to reign these in to become our Storytellers. One was lost in a Supermarket, one because she didn't listen to her mother, another was lost because she wanted to kick her mother, and another calls himself a "liability". Each of these characters were then introduced to the text, and we played with the delivery and charicature identity.

We also created a Storyteller song that will be the opening of the Tempest, serving the purpose of bringing these lost souls together to tell the story.

One week until Edinburgh - we're very excited! But there is a lot to do in the next seven days to get the Tempest Fringe ready... Stay tuned!

HP

Skydive Success!

2011-08-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

You might remember a few posts ago we mentions that Vicci and Suze were going to be jumping out of a plane to raise some money towards our Edinburgh fund. Well, this jump took place on Friday, and we're thrilled to say it was successful (with no broken legs!) and we've raised £450 so far with online donations!

Vicci and Suze reckon it was one of the best things they've done; freefalling through the sky was exhilerating and awe-inspiring. Suze was also talking to her tandem buddy about the tempest on the parachute drop down, so Hammerpuzzle was definitely present throughout the dive!

Although the dive has now happened, we're still taking donations (because lets face it, it was a reeaally brave thing to do...!), so, if you're feeling charitable, go to justgiving.com/vicci-akers and support our Edinburgh adventure!

HP

The Foolish Trio

2011-08-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a hectic few days of rehearsal, with loads of new and exciting things to blog! We finished our character exploration with Trinculo and Sebastian. Sebastian is always going somewhere, seems to be unsure of his sexual orientation, and admits that he can be a little shady- he will do anything to get his own way, and hints that there are big things in the pipeline. Trinculo makes up the third part of the foolish trio, and looks up to Stephano unconditionally, doing anything for him. Trinculo's hand puppet, Billy Bob Grunter, makes him feel safe when he is scared, but he still doesn't really understand much about his job as a court jester.

Once these characters had been formed, we started to introduce them to each other, as they had all been devised individually. The foolish trio; Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo, were the first to meet, and they improvised and played to determine their group dynamics. It seems that Stephano is the leader, with Caliban and Trinculo undermiming one another to try to win his favour. When we then approached our text with these characters and relationships, the results were genuinely hilarious - these three endearing vagabonds are able to cause chaos even on a deserted island!

We've also looked at Prospero and Ariel's scenes, to determine the reasons why Ariel has to do Prospero's bidding, and how Prospero is able to control her. Ariel is also constantly creating havoc amongst the foolish trio, which brings to light the essence of mischief we discovered during the character building workshops.

In the next rehearsals we will be looking at the shipwrecked royal contingency, who have not yet been introduced to each other. With such a range of odd and shady personalities, it will be interesting to see how they interact with each other, and how this comes through our text.

More soon! HP

Character Workshops Continued...

2011-08-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

After yesterdays exciting character discoveries, we were really eager to see what other cast members would bring to their prespective characters, and, of course, we were not disappointed!

First was the turn of Prospero - a highly skilled and powerful man, whose power only falls over the few inhabitants of the island. He dotes on his daughter, Miranda, and fears that if he loses her respect, he has nothing else. We worked with Vicci on lowering her voice to become more masculine, and on the physical stance of Prospero - playing a strong male character character means that there is a huge leap for Vicci to make in terms of characterization.

Ariel was up next, and it came to light that she is just a lonely, mischievious child, who uses her superpower of being able to disappear in the hope that people will like her. She relinquishes her boredom by playing tricks on Caliban and Prospero, but is essentially lost in the realms of Prospero's power.

Finally, we worked with Ben on his two characters; Caliban and Adrian. Caliban is a festering pot of anger and excitement, and easily led and misguided. All he wants is to control the island, and would definitely choose to have power over having friends, because it would mean he could hit people with his stick.
Adrian seems to be lost within a group who do not listen to him, or acknowledge his existence. He takes great pride in his ability to read maps and compasses, and in the fact that he has never, not once in his life, been lost.

It's been another really fruitful day in our rehearsal process, and soon we can dive into scene work. We're a little bit excited to introduce all of these new and wonderful characters to each other - just to see how they interact, and how they cope with being lost together.

On another note, our own Vicci was on the radio today talking everything Hammerpuzzle, skydives and Shakespeare... if you'd like to listen, here's the link!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001jvrn

it's about 1 hour 38 minutes in, and under the 3rd August.
Vicci and Suze are going to be falling out of a plane tomorrow morning, and we'd all really appreciate your support!

Stay tuned for more things HP as our rehearsal week continues!

Character Workshops

2011-08-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

It's begun! Our countdown to the Edinburgh Festival is well underway, and rehearsals are a-go-go.

This is a week of character exploration, delving into the unknown to find truly unique and dynamic characters, and finding out just where they fit in the world we have created. Towards the end of the week we'll look at this world through the eyes of our Storytellers; "the lost."

Today we worked with Tamsin, Jay and Barney: each have two characters to explore, and we wanted to make sure that they contrasted significantly, maintaining the feeling of being lost and trying to find their own way in their world.

Sam, our director, led a character workshop that asked pertinent questions of our actors; what they see themselves as, secrets they hold close to their chest, something that they are longing for - amongst others - all contributing to the discovery of why this character is lost, and where they fit in the world. We continued this exercise by making each character participate in a "hot seat", with the questions fired at them aiming to really dig into the dark and murky depths of their psyche.

Some surprises came out, with each character seemingly lifted and made whole by answering questions they had not yet thought about; Miranda is the best woman in the world, because the island is her world and she is the only woman on the island...but she would quite like some coffee and to talk about quilts with other women in a place where there are walls. Alonso just wants to eat something sweet, or maybe some pork, and muses that he did used to be much better looking. Posh totty Ferdinand is reminiscant of a public school boy on a "gap yah", but is effectively bored of his unchallenging life. Gonzalo, ever the optimist, regards knowledge above all else, and is never short of something intellectually stimulating to propose to the group. Butler Stephano has some (large) problems with drink, but it's okay, because when he was born his first word was "destiny", so he's definitely intended for greatness. Finally, dark, brooding Antonio - the Duke of Milan - wishes only for respect and power, but can't quite come to terms with his status as 'second brother', wishing that Prospero had never existed.

Lots of exciting things came out of this workshop (particularly Stephano's favourite dance routine, and Miranda's dislike of the word "granule"), and we can't wait to work with the rest of the cast over the next few days. The world of the Tempest looks set to be a myriad of unpredictible, fascinating and vibrant lost souls, each trying to work their way to the top, all searching for something better.

We also looked at a scene between Miranda and Ferdinand, in which they are finally alone together on the island: Miranda and Ferdinand stumble across one another, and feel as if fate has destined them to be together. Tender movement intertwines with the poetry of the Storytellers; these are two of the lost who have finally found the thing they have been looking for.

We shall be blogging for the rest of the week as we continue with our character workshops - with so many characters to explore and infinite possibilities around the corner, we are buzzing with the excitement of intrigue...who knows what's in store tomorrow?!

HP

Skydive for Shakespeare

2011-07-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

So, a few weeks ago we had a Hammerpuzzle meeting, and decided that we needed to do a bit of fundraising to raise some money for our Edinburgh trip. Producing shows takes a lot of money, and because of the recent arts funding cuts there isn't much help available for theatre companies like us.

This is where two of our team decided to take matters into their own hands...

On the 5th August, Vicci and Suze will be doing a sponsored skydive! The plane will reach 15,000 feet before they jump out of it (eek!), and it promises to be the "highest fastest freefall" in the UK! As they say, if something's worth doing...

Anyway, if you're reading our blog, we would really, really appreciate your support! We have a justgiving page, and would love any amount, little or large, to help us on our way to our target!
Here's the link:

http://www.justgiving.com/Vicci-Akers

Vicci and Suze are really excited, and a little bit scared- taking stage fright to a whole new level, and proving that actors will actually do anything for that Shakespeare fellow.
Their mothers, on the other hand, took a bit more convincing!

Script and Castings

2011-07-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a little while since we last updated, but lots of little bits and pieces have been put into place before we start our intensive rehearsal weeks on Monday!

Firstly, we have our finished script! It has been wonderfully adapted from the original text by our own Hammerpuzzle-Tamsin, mixing the Bard's words with poetry infused dialogues and some hilarious character relationships. We can't wait to get started!

We've also cast the play, which is very exciting indeed! Here's our list of characters, and the Hammerpuzzler's that will be playing them:

Caliban & Adrian : Ben Britton
Trinculo & Sebastian : Rebecca Jade Hammond
Ariel: Elizabeth Cummins
Ferdinand & Antonio: Barnaby Hatch
Stephano & Alonso : Jay Oliver Yip
Miranda & Gonzalo: Tamsin Joanna Kennard
Prospero: Victoria Akers

So, as scripts are being learned and characters studied, we have one last thing to share with you before we begin our rehearsal updates in a few days time....

See the next post for more details!

The Gryphon

2011-05-19T03:07:00.000-07:00

Look, it's us! -- Tempest at the Gryphon

You can find lots more information about the venue and our production by following the link above!

We'll be performing The Tempest at the Gryphon Theatre in Edinburgh from the
15th - 27th August

Music Makers

2011-05-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

We dedicated a session to creating songs and harmonies for different characters, moods or plot changes - and made a list of all the places that we would like to use music, thinking about which characters this would represent. Breaking off into groups and playing with harmonies and beats, we quickly got different musical scores and dialogues that could be placed in various places, including elements such as loss, magic or fear to create atmosphere with our voices. Upon coming back together, we realised that what we had separately created were quite similar; a good thing, as it means that our musicality will flow together well, and aid an overall atmosphere to the narration.

Our R&D Week has been packed full of play, contextual research, questions, character study, location immersion, playing with the space, and generating creative ideas for the next phase of rehearsals. The foundations of The Tempest have been laid; watch this space for more about our rehearsal process before our Edinburgh Adventures!

Sticks and Stones, Continued...

2011-05-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

Prospero's Abode

A Forest or Woodland

Playing with Sticks & Material

Ariel & The Spirits

Caliban's Lair

Ferdinand, Lost & Alone

Ferdinand Sees Double...

Ferdinand, Alone

Shipwrecked Characters Discussion in Woods (using sticks as trees)

R&D - Sticks and Stones

2011-05-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

So, as we mentioned a post or so ago, we have been using pictures and our own imagination in order to create the world that our characters are lost in. To create this world in a simple yet dynamic way, we are working with sticks and other natural materials, referring back to the pictures from contextual research, and the unit descriptions to work out the necessary detail of the locations.

We played the ball game, and a new game we invented called ‘Chuck Norris’ (chuck the stick, hold ‘Norris’) in which we passed a stick to the person next to us in a rhythm, whilst receiving a stick at the same time, creating larger distances as the game progressed. This helped to get us into the rhythm of throwing and passing them to each other, therefore using them to merge different units and pictures. Pictures could be formed for a moment before being broken again, so we had to make sure we were flexible and comfortable with our props. Firstly, we worked on creating the ship that is engulfed in the tempest at the beginning of our story, finding interesting ways of forming the boat and breaking generic ideas and patterns.

We then looked at other locations in the story, and made different pictures with the sticks and fabric, trying to make sure that we did not get stuck in one set image, and trying lots of different ideas. Prospero’s abode was something that we wanted to look very regal and powerful, so we looked at creating this image symbolically with the sticks. In contrast to this, Caliban’s cave was something that we thought should be disjointed and uneven, and something that he could enter the space from, which gave the sticks an extra purpose and dynamic. Below are pictures of our different attempts at creating images and locations with sticks and fabric, working through playing with various materials and using our bodies to generate images that were simplistic and clear. See the next post for pictures of our imaginings!

The Kindom & Getting Lost

2011-05-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

We love a good rehearsal game, especially if it benefits our process as creators of theatre. Whilst researching the context of the Tempest, we realised that the place that the characters come from (Tunis/Milan/Naples) is very different to the place that they end up (the island.) This generated a lot of questions, and our inquisitive minds wanted to understand how the characters must have felt going between such contrasting places. Naples is a hive of activity, with twists and turns and sun drenched piazzas, dark alleyways hiding secret meetings, secluded courtyards, pillars, dusty streets and busting market squares, and, most importantly, everyone wanting to become that bit more powerful, but not quite knowing how to do so. In opposition with this, we see the small island as a craggy, desolate place, with dense pine forests in the middle, leading to mountainous sea faces and rocky sand-dunes, with shrubbery and cave dwellings scattered across the terrain. To really get to grips with these places and to help them settle within us, we became embroiled in two quite different games. The first:

Game One:
The Kingdom

17^th Century Naples. We are all citizens living under the rule of the King, with secret ambitions to gain his level of power, or to meet someone who could help us on our quest to power. Two citizens, however, work for the King, and these people’s positions are unknown to the others. The whole of the building was our playing space, and the main objective of the game was to form allegiances, working together to create power that could overthrow the King. However, if the King’s workers discovered any plans of revolt, they could inform the King of this and the King could take them out of the game. What followed was a series of chance meetings in corridors, doors closing just as you turn a corner, whispered conversations, unsteady gazes and uneasy exchanges. There was a heightened sense of distrust amongst everyone; the two who sought to defend the King had to wait for their chance to pounce, forming counterfeit alliances in order to find out information. The others felt that they could not trust anyone, in case they said something that could get them into trouble. The environment was toxic and heated, and the whole experience heightened the sense of being in an enclosed space, distrust in everyone you come into contact with, or just missing something important.

Game Two: Getting Lost

After our experience of The Kingdom, we wanted to experience the complete opposite to this, just as our characters do. They end up on an island, lost, with no idea which direction to go in or if they will ever see another inhabitant. So, we got into three teams, and each created a list of fifteen instructions/directions to be given to another team. These could be anything, some examples being:

- Walk backwards until you bump into something. Turn right.

- Walk for one minute, turn left, walk until you reach a tree.

- Crawl until you reach an obstacle. Climb over it.

- Walk in a northern direction, until you see another person.

- Wait for a bird to pass overhead. Follow its direction for two minutes.

- Go up at the next opportunity.

- Jump off the next edge you find.

And so on.

We were lead into the woodland area near our rehearsal space, swapped our directions, and then set off on our separate adventures. My team found ourselves climbing through a dense, leafy bush, before climbing up a muddy slope, finding an interesting landmark, climbing over barbed wire fences, tiptoeing through streams and walking until we could find an edge to jump off. We saw another group a great distance away, who had to walk until they saw another human being, and it felt like they were unreachable.

Our sense of being lost in a space that we were quite unfamiliar with was heightened, and we were faced with new challenges due to the tasks given in the directions. This meant that we could end up anywhere, and could not pre-empt our end point. This helped us to understand the characters on the island, as they walk for days and cannot find another human, feeling that they are wandering endlessly with no end-point in sight. It made us listen to our surroundings, and take in everything around us that we may otherwise have missed; we also had to work together to find our way to the end of the list (something the characters have to do when they reach the island and look for Ferdinand.)

Both of these games created the realisation in our minds of the two opposite worlds that the characters in The Tempest are forced to inhabit, concluding that the sense of unease and feeling of being lost could be heightened when the life that they have experienced (the city landscape) is taken away from them....and the games were a bit fun too!

R&D: Units and Context

2011-05-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

An important part of our research and development process has been to break the play down into sizeable units, and to understand each unit alone in order to then bring them all together.

Shakespeare plays often have multiple bouts of action running in tandem with each other, and often a lot of characters too. In order to re-imagine these units, we must find the core in each that is relevant to our story. We developed fifteen units of action, referring back to the text at all times to understand character motivations and plot structures.

To see if these units worked structurally as a story, we played out the units in order, with anyone adopting any role at any time. There were lots of bits that needed ironing out the first time, but the more that we played with this and questioned our wording of the unit descriptions, the clearer our story became. We then were only allowed to look at each unit description to act out the play in under 15 minutes, to make sure that we really had got the core of the action that we needed.

As we are a relatively small cast, (especially for Shakespeare, who likes lots of characters!) we had to be ready to adopt any necessary character at any moment- quite an improvisation workout! We made sure that each character had a specific item of clothing to define them, which made this a bit less confusing, and by the end of the day we were sure that we had our story the way we wanted it to be.

We have also tried to immerse ourselves in contextual research of the era we want to set the Tempest in, finding pictures that help us to determine location and fashion. Location is particularly important to us because the island that our characters find themselves on must be between Milan and Tunis (where the boat is sailing to/from), yet we also needed to determine the place that our characters had come from, in order to place the island terrain in opposition to this.

The pictures have helped us to create the island with different props (more on that later!), and have always been something to refer to if we get a bit stuck. A rehearsal convention that is really useful to us is having images, writing and anything else of use up on the walls. That way, we are surrounded by the world we are creating, and can make sure we don’t miss anything out. Poems and photographs can also be very inspiring to improvisational work, and the units are a constant reminder of the story we want to tell.

R&D: Games

2011-05-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

The Game of All Games

As I mentioned before, Hammerpuzzle’s creative juices really start to flow when there is a playful energy in the room, which means that our rehearsals always start with a few games (to loosen us all up and get our minds active, focussed and ready to work, of course!) Our favourite is one that has evolved over the years has gained the indisputable title of ‘The Game of All Games’. And that it is, quite literally. For those of you aware of the game ‘Zip, Zap, Boing’, the foundations are very similar, although we replace the Zip, Zap and Boing with cast members’ names. For those of you not aware of this game, basically, the rules are thus:

A Zip travels around the circle, you may zap across the circle when it reaches you and the person who receives the ‘zap’ may then zap another person or continue the zip around the circle. A boing may be used to deflect a zip, changing the direction around the circle. Confusing? Yes!

But the Game of All Games does not stop there. Extra rules have been added, with such favourites as ‘Benji Bowl’ (everyone must swap places), ‘Street’ (aimed at someone across the circle, you must swap places with them in a gangster-like fashion.) and ‘Can I get a rewind?’ (taking the action back two spaces, with DJ actions, of course!) And when you lose a life? You are forced to continue the game only speaking in gobbledygook! There are dozens of other rules, and more than likely a new one will be added each rehearsal. This keeps us Hammerpuzzler’s on our toes at least!

Another favoured warm-up game, and one that has transcended into a rehearsal tool, (using our sticks- more on that later!) is the ball game. A ball is passed around in a specific order, with each ball representing a certain theme, and each person having a name that matches this theme. So, for example, if the ball is an ‘80s Superhero Ball’, I might decide that I am Chuck Norris. This means that when the ball is passed to me, ‘Chuck Norris’ must be shouted to me so I know it is my turn to receive the ball. We then add in further balls, such as ‘90s Popstar Ball’ (with people such as Craig David and Spice Girls), and ‘Shakespeare Plays Ball’. This really is a game of group focus, because you must listen for your various names, and know who each of your recipients are.We have played this game with our sticks too, so that we can get used to throwing them around the space.

Research and Development Rehearsals

2011-05-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

Research and Development

Over the past few days the Hammerpuzzle team have been working hard to bring together the basic themes, concepts and units of The Tempest.

This process has been a playful and creative one, in which all ideas could come together and grow organically. We wanted to get right into the heart of the play, to feel its rhythms and distinguish character and location, placing that within our own world and experiences. We broke the play down into small units of action to understand the movement of the piece as a whole, maintaining the Hammerrpuzzle motto of breaking everything appart to piece it back together again!

What resonated with all of us right from the start was the overwhelming feeling of loss, or being lost. Each character has lost their way in life, or physically lost on the island, and there was a sense of unease regarding the future. To begin with, we all tried to place that feeling within ourselves, in order to find the crux of our storytelling.

Let us introduce ourselves...

2011-05-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

We are Hammerpuzzle!

Hammerpuzzle Theatre Company was established in 2007 by graduates from Bath Spa University’s Performing Arts: Acting degree course under the tutelage and guidance of Gunduz Kalic. Hammerpuzzle continue to have a solid relationship with the university and their in-house theatre company Full Tilt. A collection of graduates decided that they wanted to continue to work with one another in the same fashion to which they had been trained; with play, with verve, and with generosity. The graduates wished to create an outlet for fellow and future students to persist in this rich vein of theatre training. So, Hammerpuzzle was created.

What is Hammerpuzzle?

Hammerpuzzle is a single word that was fashioned from an amalgamation of ideas, which best describe and embody the work produced. A stimulus is taken, most often a classic or renowned piece of literature, and then, through an intense exploration process, the company dive in and immerse themselves in that particular world. Together, they hunt for the essence of the piece. What speaks to the performer as an individual and as an ensemble? What absolutely compels the actor to tell this particular story? Once this gut reaction to the text at hand has been captured, work begins on placing it all back together again in a completely new, rehashed, re-invented, and relevant form. It is as if the text is literally smashed apart (with a hammer!) and pieced back together again like a jigsaw. This completes the picture that the company believes it should be.

SO, what's this blog about then?

Hammerpuzzle are currently rehearsing our latest show; William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, which we are taking to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August. This reinvention is directed by Sam Grogan, with founding Hammerpuzzle members as the cast. This blog will relay the core parts of our rehearsal process; how we generate ideas, how we devise based around the original text and contexts, and how we work with each other to create a production. We are excited to share our rehearsal experiences with you, and hope that you can catch us at the Fringe!