Performing Arts Blog: Staging - An Amphitheatre in Action

Welcome Message

As you may know, this blog started life as a resource aimed at the members and Alumni of Birmingham University's Guild Musical Theatre Group.

Since then, I have realised that a great many artists I know could use a serious resource for discussion and debate of the major issues.

So, I open this network to any and all arts professionals who would like to use it. Over the years, I have seen some awe inspiring performances and productions by a great many talented and high ranking individuals, whose knowledge would be an asset to the artistic community. I invite these individuals and others to come forward, so that their achievements may be celebrated.

If you would like to write articles or make comments on this blog, please let me know. My contact email is on the link. Membership is free, and there are no obligations. Existing members are free to write as and when they want.

Its is also easy to forget, that we don't often have a chance to discuss or to think about the most serious issues affecting the arts. Despite all the progress made by online networks like Facebook and Twitter, there still needs to be a place where opinions can be viewed, and I hope that this will be such a place: a neutral ground, where all are welcome, and where knowledge can be shared.

Artists of all disciplines, I hope that this will assist your development and further networking. May this resource serve you well.

Best Regards,

James Megarry

Founder

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Staging - An Amphitheatre in Action

Staging is an integral part of any show, and a very good example is Wings of Desire. Based on the film of the same name (which also inspired City of Angels, the Nicholas Cage movie), it tells the story of how an angel falls to earth. What impressed me about this show, was not only the great performances, and superb technical effects, but most importantly: the use of the surrounding facades to tell the story. Angels float from the roofs of real buildings, and the sheer scale of the event (through use of both the Town Hall and Council Building) makes Victoria Square into a kind of Greek amphitheatre. The fact that dancers and actors invovled all make use of the facades, (thanks to a clever system of pulleys of course)! this makes the event far more dramatic than an onstage perfromance would have been. (Although to be fair, there were some pretty spectacular moves onstage as well.) As the grand finale of International Dance Festival 2012, it was the dramatic and authentic staging that made the show.