The production of snow White and the seven dwarfs
Performance day: 14th of December 2023 2pm and 6pm performances.
Risk assessed on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the least amount and 5 being the most amount of risk.
I spoke to the health and safety team to ensure that they were carrying out risk assessments and following procedures.
Myself and another cast member also worked with the sound crew to record a health and safety announcement that was played before each of the performances, this audio recording included instructions of what to do in the event of a fire and that there would be flashing lights for anyone who may be sensitive to these kinds of sensitivities.
| Hazard | Who is at risk? | Actions to be taken | likelihood (1-5) | Risk Rating (1-5) |
| Tripping/ falling due to a costume | any actor required to wear a costume for example a long dress | for the actor/ actress to be mindful of their costume when dancing/ moving around the stage. | 2/5 | 1/5 |
| Curtains falling down | Any person performing on stage, members of the audience. | To ensure that curtains are installed correctly by the tech support team. | 1/5 | 4/5 |
| Tripping or falling over props/ personal belongings behind the stage. | Any members of the cast | To ensure that props are stored correctly in such a manor that cast members can retrieve props when needed but that are not a hazard. To ensure all personal belongings I.e coats, bags and shoes are stored away in the prop room. | 3/5 | 1/5 |
Below are the minutes for both of our production meetings that minutes were taken for.
Costumes
To research my costume i looked up things such as evil queen costumes or villains costumes. Although I did not entirely go the authentic route with my costume I tried to keep it pretty close to what the evil queen wears in disneys snow White animation film. I wore a ankle length purple dress with what I would describe as old fashioned embroidery that gave me the feeling of perhaps the late 1800’s early 1900’s.
Below are some of the references photos that I used when creating my costume for the show.
I also wore a long black cloak that had green on its reverse in comparison to the red and black cloak the evil queen in disneys snow White wears. I did originally purchase a red and black reversable cloak to be as authentic as possible however I found that the cloak did my costume no justice and was not the look I was going for as the cloak itself was much to short ( shorter than my dress) and looked more like a cheap Halloween costume rather than a eccentric pantomime costume.
I also wore a gold foam crown instead of the metal golden cðrown I was originally going to wear.
I wore my black dance shoes because they are the appropriate type of shoes that should be worn in a performance to avoid injury to my self and others also because you should wear the correct type of footwear for the dance floor in order to protect the floor and sustain it. It is also important to wear these as if I was to wear a colourful pair of socks for example it would distract the audience from what they should actually be paying attention too.
Marketing
In this production I had the role of stage manager however I made myself useful where I could and helped a few of the production teams and I also went round to make sure that groups new what they were doing or if they needed any help.
Posters were made by members of the marketing team. It was discussed where we should advertise our show as it was only a small scale production with a maximum audience of 66 seats in total per performance ( we did not quite have that many attend either of the performances) so we decided we would place a few posters around the college for other students to see and attend if they wanted too as the majority of the audience was friends and family of the cast.
Marketing also created programs for the show and these were placed on the seats of the audiences before each performance. The programs included the name of the show, cast names and characters etc. It was decided that we wouldn’t be creating tickets as our show would be having a friends and family based audience and wouldn’t charge as it was invite based. We did however ask for a donation on our menu sheets that I created for the front of house and marketing teams.
We created menues to display in the cafeteria so that our audience new our prices. Members of our cast also served and sold the snacks and refreshments during the interval and a few of us also got the cafeteria area ready for the show by creating bags of popcorn and sweets and presenting the cakes ect. Some of the cast made food to sell during the intervals such as cakes and Mince pies. We also purchased sweets and Popcorn to sell along with the baked items during the intervals. We also sold refreshments such as tea, coffee, hotchocolate and juice. We sold these refreshments and snacks at a small price to raise funds for our next performance.
Script
I think that i managed to learn my lines/script quite effectively and productively, I used a script app towards the end of our rehearsal period as I did not knowabout the app before this however it is a good app that is very helpful and I will be using this app for our next performance from the begining when I first recieve the script. Regardless without the app I just kept going over my script again and again until it stuck in my head and I was confident enough to go through it without reading the script. Below I will include pictures of my script annotated with my notes and how I planned to perform each scene.
By annotating my script in the way that I did it really helped me to develop my character and shape it to fit my skills and abilities.1
Rehearsal clips and images
The following are from numerous rehearsals and dress rehearsals
Set and Design
We Created our own sets using wood cut outs that the set and design team painted to create certain background and sets and we also used projections and lighting. The set and design team created sets such as the mirror, castle doors, bushes, flowers and trees. Below I will include example pictures of the sets made.
Lighting and Props
For the lighting we worked with one of the Students from level 3 extended who helped us to run the lights fo the performances and also to set them up and get them just right. I learned that lighting is a big part of the show and adds to the performance the magic of theatre especially pantomimes as they are seasonal shows. For example we had to go through each part of the show scene by scene and brake the lights down for each character, where they would be standing, how bright the light needs to be and what colour the lights should be ect.
For props we chose things that fit our characters or that were clearly spoke about in the script for example the poisoned apples, a heart, a box, flowers, a ring and baking utensils however we also used props that wernt in the script but however could be suggested by the script such as a basket to hold the apples in, a pillow that I put up my back when I was the old lady, a hammer that the huntsman carried, and also certain suggestive items that the dwarfs had such as a blanket that snoozy carried. We also used a blanket and pillow to represents the dwarfs bed snow white sleeps in and also handmade cardboard Stick puppets .We used props to add to our performances and add to them but also to enhance our performances visually for our audience’s. Using props also helped me personally to step more into my vole as Evil queen.
The above images are some of the props that were used during the show.