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Twenty Something - Interview with Mishap Theatre
9 Plays2 years ago
Amy on the Air interviews the TLC company in residence co-director Hannah Peacock. Hannah shares her company ethos, life as a university student, how to juggle creating and working, and some great tips on employability too.
Find out more on Instagram: @mishaptheatre
As always, ArtsPod is an @thelincolncompany production
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Transcript
Comedic Mishaps and Introductions
00:00:00
Speaker
I didn't know what to do with this hot chocolate. I had my microphone on. I literally just put my head in the chocolate, ate it, spilled it everywhere. The people were everywhere, like they were coming closer. The ticket elf had already gone by this point. My finger's still bleeding and I was like, I don't know what to do. It was manic.
00:00:50
Speaker
Hello and welcome to TLC ArtsPod. You're about to listen to an interview with Hannah from Miss Hap Theatre hosted by Amy on the Air. Talk a little bit about your show. What does it include? What can people expect from it?
00:01:05
Speaker
Oh, that is a good question and I like it. We're very on form today. So, mishap.
Exploring Show Themes and Creative Techniques
00:01:12
Speaker
Yeah, we break down the stereotypical subjects that you sort of find in your 20s. So you guys might know what that's a bit like. But we've been looking at 21st century dating and drinking culture, sort of career and life expectations, like I say earlier, loads of people getting married and getting houses and things.
00:01:38
Speaker
we've found have actually been so funny and we've actually had a really good time sort of delving into those and actually they're not actually that mundane, but we push them down and they're mundane. Things like falling down the stairs, spilling your tea, Tupperware falling on you, things like that. I always spill on my tea, walk into a table and it just spills everywhere. I feel like carpets should be made differently, shouldn't it? Yeah, they should be the colour of tea. As bad as that sounds, they should be the colour of tea. They should, because yeah, you can't seem to get a good off-tea colour at the moment.
00:01:50
Speaker
And then Mundane Incidents as well.
00:02:07
Speaker
Anyway, we will start a business. But yeah, sorry, back to the show. So in our show, we outline the falseness of online dating through clowning and digital theatre, and we aim to expose the obsession around image
00:02:25
Speaker
So in that section we use a lot of household objects like a mop that we use in our house. So it's very, you know, it's a good prop use of props here. And then through physical movement, we're going to explore the similarities and mistakes, like I say, that we each exhibit or we each do, but sort of push down. And we also look at the influence of alcohol, using personal experience and testimonies from a range of demographics that we've sort of collected
00:02:55
Speaker
from polls on Instagram and conversations that we've had with people from a range of different ages. So yeah, really interested. But the main focus is that we're drawing on the societal expectations of life in early adulthood.
00:03:10
Speaker
and the competitive nature that we all share through a sequence of ensemble, physical movement, choreography and silliness and clowning. Some of our main influences are sort of Jack LeCocque and Mr Bean, Buffon. We're not drawing too much into Buffon, but we are definitely looking into it a little bit. And absolutely looking at Rashdash, that's one of our main influences.
00:03:40
Speaker
It's really interesting. It's actually very socio-political theatre, but we're sort of drawing away from that and looking more at the personal side. Listening to what this is about, it sounds like it's going to be very goofy and very funny. So what else can we expect?
Show Highlights and Future Plans
00:03:55
Speaker
Oh, good question. OK, so we have got a lot of props. That is something that we've got a lot of. But you can expect lots of colourful things, I'm going to say.
00:04:07
Speaker
you might experience some interaction as well. Um, maybe, uh, I'm going to say there's some bim bags in there. We might not sound exciting yet, but just waiting to see where it is. You can expect a duck and a phone call and that's what I'm going to sort of leave it there. I am. You have showed us a very interesting video and
00:04:38
Speaker
It's very colourful, so you're very correct in that. But you've made a cake, haven't you, Hannah? Oh, I have, yeah, I have. So would you like to tell us a little bit about this cake? Yeah, so this cake will appear at the beginning of the show. Oh, I'm giving a bit away, but yeah, this is a little teaser.
00:04:57
Speaker
It's cakes we use, we celebrate birthdays with cakes, we celebrate anything with cake, which is really like cake is so good. This unfortunately is not a real cake, but this week I've been making a lot of the props. I'm sorry, I couldn't bring any with me today.
00:05:12
Speaker
But it's a cardboard cake that I've painted and I've used, I love a glue gun, they're the best aren't they? I've created the icing with the glue gun, there we go, and some candles as well. And this cake, like I say, will appear at the beginning of the show and it will also appear at the end of the show and that might show you something or present something.
00:05:34
Speaker
I'm going to let the audience decide what they think about that. A little teaser. It's a little cliffhanger. I must say when I was making it, it did look like one of the donuts from Homer Simpson, The Colour Scheme. Yeah, if you got that vibe. Yeah, definitely, definitely. But that's obviously, get that out of your mind when you watch it because it's not like that.
00:05:55
Speaker
Okay, we've got to bear that in mind. So what are your current aims as a company for this performance? What goals do you have? Do you have dates set? Do you have kind of messages in mind for audience members? What is sort of your goal?
00:06:15
Speaker
We'll continue to develop the show over the summer, a little bit more. And within that, we're going to also be applying for local theatre festivals. We'll see how it fits within the timeline for it. We've got an amazing, we've got Lydia Wardingham, she's just graduated, just finished her.
00:06:33
Speaker
to her degree. Alicia Pierce who's also on the project is she's just finishing her master's and finished sort of since September time so at the moment it's sort of like we're shaping how it's going to look and how it's going to fit for them as well but ideally we'll be presenting the show and hoping to yeah just apply to loads and loads of different festivals events and just see where the show goes but hopefully that all start in September because I know a lot of venues have sort of set up their autumn programs now so it's
00:07:02
Speaker
it will just it'll be a yearly thing but we're definitely got big things in mind for the show yeah that's and as a company um in terms of what we want the audience to experience we'd really like them to just laugh and from that realize perhaps that they're they're very much like the other people in the room and that we all exhibit certain characteristics that mean that
00:07:27
Speaker
we don't need to live a certain way or do a certain thing or we're not expected to do anything. So that's perhaps what we want people to take from the show. But we'll just have to wait and see what, yeah, the feedback is and see if people do really laugh because we laugh so much. We think we're hilarious, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm sure it's going to be hilarious because knowing you and Callie, it's going to be a barrel of laughs.
00:07:54
Speaker
So yeah, I'm really excited to come and see it actually as well. So obviously you've got this current project that you're working on, which is 20 something, is the show called? 20 something. So are there any big, bigger plans for you as a company? Where do you see this theatre company going? I mean, the dream, we've spoken about it, but we're a bit like, it's scary, isn't it? When you sort of start thinking, you're like, oh, we're a university, we've finished university, we've started our own theatre company. We know we want to be like,
00:08:23
Speaker
Edinburgh, like we'd love to go to Edinburgh. That's like the big next step. We sort of we applied a bit too naively and a bit too early. We sort of made our own application this year and without thinking about the fact that it's going to cost money, we need a budget, we need funding, we need this and the other and we were like, but we can do it. So that's going to be the thing that we really focus on, I think, for the following year.
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah, just apply to loads of different theatre festivals, see what's next. I think the main thing, we would love to just tour and I think that would be amazing, but at the moment we're going to take it step by step and see what opportunities are available.
00:09:06
Speaker
if people like the show as well. Sort of how it goes. It's nice to know that you have big, big goals and I do hope that one day I get to see you guys in Edinburgh because I would love that. But it's nice to know that you gave it a go and I think that's nice as an artist so I'm happy to hear that. So obviously this is a co-director company.
00:09:28
Speaker
I know that you guys have been friends for a really long time, but I
Balancing Work and Creative Projects
00:09:33
Speaker
know that one question that always comes up within groups is how do you deal with creative conflict? Well, actually, Callie and I speak a different language, as in
00:09:45
Speaker
we, as in we speak the same language to each other, sorry, we start that again and rephrase that. We've got a really, we've not actually had any conflict yet and hopefully when this podcast comes out that we still wouldn't have had any. But we've got a really good way of working at home so because obviously we live together as well at the moment and so people might be like oh you know you're working together and you're living together, how does that work? But we actually schedule in meetings and we try and have them out of the house so
00:10:14
Speaker
initially when we started the project sort of in January fully making and devising and we'd meet every Wednesday morning and Friday morning that would be those specific times because otherwise we'd speak about the project all the time or we'd get distracted by other things in our lives so that was sort of something we put in from the beginning. We also, all the work we do
00:10:36
Speaker
in terms of like admin and practical things and we've sort of done like a bit of a action log so we sort of know what we're doing and we have a Google Drive that's full currently so we need to look at how we sort it out but that's in very neat folders so in terms of like us not knowing what's going on and what each other has done we've sort of got a set of
00:10:57
Speaker
So we're kind of okay. So hopefully there's no conflict there. But if there isn't any conversations that are a bit like, oh, I said this, you said this, we'll just chat through and yeah, just sort of make sure we're on the same page. And fortunately, we're both so excited by any idea that arises, we're just ready to try anything.
00:11:19
Speaker
So that's sort of actually an ethos that we try and use with the girls that are supporting us at the moment, Alicia and Lydia. We sort of took it from our studying at uni. It was a massive thing we learned that you just try and you just try everything and never say no to ideas because that's how a lot of our ideas have come about where we're just practicing and trying things.
00:11:40
Speaker
it's like when you joined us for the workshop, Amy, we were so silly, weren't we? We did, what was it? We had, we brought different ideas, sort of little slips from the Instagram in that what people had written, like their silly stories and things. And each of us, one of the things, yeah, so we both, it's a really nice way we like to work, but we each take those and we each direct a section and then instantly you've got four sections of
00:12:05
Speaker
of theatre that are silly and fun and but each person divides that and you've been so excited to try and that's just a good exercise or a good workshop to try and be open to trying different ideas and respecting each other's because everybody in the group is so talented it's really yeah it's good to respect each other's creative ability and
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah, it was a really good workshop as well. I was glad I went because just seeing how you guys as a company work and how you guys support everyone around you and you set an environment that's very safe and I think that's essential when you're creating stuff. How do you guys find spaces to work as you're creating your content almost? So where do you guys rehearse? How do you go about finding spaces? Anything to do with that.
00:12:58
Speaker
Fortunately, my internship that I do at the moment is at Switzerland's church in Lincoln and they've got a beautiful space there and a sound system and on a Friday nobody works so that was great for us because that's the day that we were rehearsing. We just had Richard, the lovely Richard, the caretaker, we sometimes come across mopping the floor but we
00:13:20
Speaker
we'd be like, hi Richard, we're just rolling around on the floor being birds or something, silly. So it was very funny. And then in the other room next door, there'd be like a, there's a guitar community guitar group in the corner and all these blokes are coming through and we're like, oh, moving around. But it's fun. But because I've been working there, I've been really fortunate to have a good relationship with the church. And because I work there, I do the kids work there. They allowed me to use this space on a Friday.
00:13:48
Speaker
which was great when our hot water went as well because we could shower there and we got home and the electrician and the plumber was actually there but anyway that's a different story back to the point in hand so we were able to use that for the first sort of couple of months really and we still can actually if we ask them really nicely
00:14:06
Speaker
They've got a really nice ops manager there that's really supportive of theatre and everything so that's been great. So whilst we're on the topic of work, so you guys work full time as well alongside working on this project which is a lot of what artists do now. So how do you guys manage that? How do you manage it?
00:14:29
Speaker
So that's been one of our, particularly sort of this term, this side of Easter, it's been a really big challenge. I sort of went in at Christmas, we wanted to start the project initially in October but Callie was doing two theatre jobs so she was working with Eggbox Theatre, doing a children's piece there and she was also working at
00:14:51
Speaker
Alton Towers as well as a performer so she was doing that and working it next so she was blessed she was working so hard so and then we were like okay we'll do it start in December time and then I was working I was being silly I was working for a job to try and sort of pay the rent and then we sort of had to stop our meetings sort of in December and then
00:15:11
Speaker
pick up again in January. So it's been a really big challenge actually sort of trying to find the balance and then our Wednesday and Friday rehearsals sort of go and we have to sort of fit them into the evenings. Easter again, I was working at a local theatre venue on the bar and also as venue staff and I was performing at Rand Farms and Easter Bunny as part of their bunny and rabbit experience and I was also working at the church
00:15:37
Speaker
So it was that was and I also have my own painting business so it was really like every day was like a slog and but then you'd get home in the evening from any of those roles and Kelly and I would have a meeting and you know what it was the best thing because it was like a great like take your mind of it let's do something creative that I actually I love all my job I loved all the jobs I was doing but it was something that I wanted to do and what we wanted to do
00:16:03
Speaker
So that worked, she worked really well but it was a challenge I learnt from that experience. Sort of came down to now having just the two jobs, one with the church and then as venue staff and Callie was working quite a lot as well but we've managed to sort of move them into like a Monday evening and
00:16:25
Speaker
now we've since sort of when our rehearsals really started with Alicia and Lydia joining us we've had to work around sort of their schedules as well so it's been a lot of time management and a lot of we have this I sort of started this in uni at uni I was obsessed with like creating a timeline of activity and I'd like I sort of a log um each all of the activity which we use during spinal projects as well um
00:16:49
Speaker
and it's been a great way to sort of track the work that we're doing, the hours we're going to do it in, the dates, the room bookings and everything and that's been really resourceful in terms of our personal lives as well and also keeping track of the project and what we need to work on each session but we've sort of been meeting sort of twice a week for two hours so we'll meet on a
00:17:11
Speaker
it all depends on the day each week but mostly we'll be meeting on a Wednesday and a Monday and that's like a two hour session each of those sessions and then Callie and I will have a meeting on a Tuesday evening just to prepare for the next one or the week or yeah but it all depends on the week and where people are or if we're away or whatever but it's actually worked really well which we didn't
00:17:33
Speaker
If you looked at it in December about all the work we were doing, you would be like, that's just not possible. But we've done it, so it's good. Well done to you guys. It sounds very, very organized. We've been obsessed actually.
00:17:50
Speaker
That's what we've learnt from uni, I think. I think uni's
The Impact of Education and COVID on Theatre
00:17:53
Speaker
helped with that. Well, let's talk a little bit about uni then because you guys are Lincoln Company graduates and you're also BA Drama and Theatre graduates. So let's talk a little bit about that. How was doing drama at the University of Lincoln for you?
00:18:10
Speaker
So, I absolutely, I loved the degree so much. Like, I worked my art, like, I worked so hard. Oh, this is fine. Oh, dear. I worked so hard, but not because I wanted to, but just because I was in love with the course. So, sort of first year, I like threw myself into everything. I had technique classes with TAO on the first week. I was the only first year in my class, well, in the class,
00:18:39
Speaker
Luckily, everyone else joined in semester P, so it was fine, but it meant that I got to meet some wonderful third-years and people that I've now worked with since graduating, which has been amazing. So, Saf and Phyllis and Jake have sort of been able to actually work with them, which is great, but that has only come about because I did those extra classes at the beginning, so that's great that they had those opportunities.
00:19:02
Speaker
I was also part of the Lincoln Company. In first year, I got to go to Edinburgh in my first year. I helped with, when I was in UGA, I was the one with the box on the head, which was brilliant with Madara and the Sophie. And that was an amazing experience, but again, that was an opportunity with the Lincoln Company.
00:19:20
Speaker
We also did other workshops and things. And then the degree itself, my year group was just lovely. Everyone got on really well. Everyone was so excited to learn. And then we got to second year. I took on the role of choreographer for the Musical Theatre Society.
00:19:38
Speaker
And I love choreography so much, so I was just having a great time, but it was a lot on top of all the other things that I was doing. I didn't stop doing the linking company, I didn't stop doing the technique classes, did the musical theatre showcases. We went a bit overboard, we had a massive society at that point. We had like 82 people. It was mad.
00:19:58
Speaker
Maybe not. Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. Probably a regular attendance was about 60. And then I choreographed Made in Dagenham. That was like the big show. It took a lot out of me and I definitely overworked myself and was doing a lot with the degree as well. So yeah, we were doing loads with extra things with the Lincoln Company and then Covid hit two weeks before the show.
00:20:21
Speaker
So all of my work just went like this but I learnt that don't go crazy with the work that you're doing and actually focus on the uni stuff instead of the extracurricular things that I was doing. And then it meant that I really focused and got interested in cenography and design which I absolutely adore. We got to make our own little model boxes and actually it made the pandemic easier because I was making my model box
00:20:50
Speaker
I was learning how to use the lighting systems and I was like I'm never going to be able to use SketchUp and Mike Coyle took loads and loads of time teaching. Actually Kelly and I, we spent hours and hours, we both went a bit mad on the amount of work we did for it because we just loved it and it was a great way to distract us from the pandemic and things.
00:21:11
Speaker
And then come third year, we're back and yeah, it was, we started sort of with our Mars son, the physical theatre workshops with Mars son was just not, not the one. And as you guys remember, it was all the social distancing, wasn't it? There was like, we were in and then one girl in our directing class had COVID, bless her.
00:21:32
Speaker
And then we were off, we were sort of isolating or, because at that point we had to all isolate if you were in contact, didn't you? Which is mad, you wouldn't do that now, which is mad. Yeah, it was the university I felt from my end, we were really supported as a year group. And yeah, we managed to do our shows in December, we actually got to do, I think.
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, we did. We did all of our shows. Yeah, actually some of them were online, so directing was online, but it all worked really like, I'm probably, not everyone might say the same as me, but because I was just, it was, I just loved being back at uni. It was like, great, we're back. We're doing something creative. We actually did do some of our, oh my goodness, it actually was a struggle. I just remember now, it sort of comes back to you. But we did TYA, we had, our show got brought forward.
00:22:24
Speaker
by two weeks and it wasn't finished, but only so that we could actually do them in person, because the university was sort of sending people home for Christmas, and we were like, no, we're not ready. TYA is the theatre for young audiences. Oh, sorry. Yes, it is, sorry. Theatre for young audiences. But then Simon still sent those out to the schools. So it meant that we could, although the show definitely needed work, it was still, we still got to experience the full module, which was great. And then we did,
00:22:54
Speaker
So that's sort of semester day of third year and then we also did directing which went online which a lot of people in my year group I think really were challenged but that was a challenge but fortunately I had a wonderful group and we're all being really creative with our screens and you'd like on the zoom move around and I did by the Bog of Cats by Marina Carr
00:23:14
Speaker
and it's the sort of play that I don't think I'd be that interested in. I'm more interested in like comedy and children's theatre, but actually I loved it and got really into it and I made a swan out of a bin bag. Oh wow. Yeah, there you go. So I'm rambling on. And then yeah, come to sort of semester B, we were able to go out a bit more and do more things and that's when the physical theatre, we got to do that. We started off
00:23:42
Speaker
in online and then we were able to do a lot of things practically in person and obviously our final degrees show as well which happened which was yeah throughout the year and yeah I was trying to think of all the things we've done it's been amazing actually that we've done it
00:24:02
Speaker
Let's actually just focus on the final degree show for a little bit. Let's dive in with a bigger land. So explain a little bit about to maybe our listeners at home who don't really actually know what this final degree show is because they don't do the drama course or anything. So to you, what is the final degree show? So the final degree show is it's an opportunity to put into practice everything you've learned from your degree.
00:24:29
Speaker
You get into groups of, within your year group, and we had a group of, I wanted to say eight, but there was actually seven of us, I think, yeah, of hallucinate, is what we named ourselves. You come up with a name, you then sort of mark it yourselves, it's completely sort of self
00:24:50
Speaker
self-organized, self-directed almost. You get given a supervisor, so we had the lovely Teo Gill as our supervisor, which we felt awful because we got so carried away with our work that we didn't use him as much as we should have, because it's Teo, we should have used him more. And he was going, guys, you can use me. We were like, oh yeah, sorry, we will, we will, we promise. But because there was so much uncertainty about COVID,
00:25:14
Speaker
we actually decided to choose at the time, we were able to do a film if we wanted to. So we actually decided that's what we were going to do. So at the start of semester A, you sort of submit a proposal, a pro form, or isn't it, that's what it's called, a performer of what the show is going to be about. And we threw in like loads of different influences. We were interested in like Wes Anderson films, surrealist films,
00:25:41
Speaker
loads and loads of things like German expressionism and really like bizarre types of avant-garde like really interesting theatre and we got sort of the results back for that performer and we didn't get what we expected we'd get and we were like oh this is you know they don't believe we can do this this sat in the other but obviously they can they're really supportive they do believe you can do it and
00:26:05
Speaker
And then we sort of came out of that in our, when we actually produced the work and we showed that we'd use all of these influences, we sort of proved to ourselves, not proving to them, but proved to ourselves that we had and we had used all of that and the whole process for us was really positive. We all got on really well. We had like one wobble and instead of like talking about it, we played the bow and it was, it was fine.
00:26:29
Speaker
It was so good, it was such a positive experience. But yeah, the show itself was about how important the arts were and what a world without arts would look like. So we were really passionate because at that point it was like, Rishi Sun. He'd made a comment about the arts. There was a very political...
00:26:50
Speaker
We were like, no, theatre's really, really important. We need to show how arts is so important for education and the salary there. So we just threw into it. But yeah, we saw the shows. You can actually watch it. It's on YouTube.
00:27:05
Speaker
um hallucinate the art of conscious sleeping there's a blooper reel on there as well which is hilarious and you can see the like the truth that that is our project like it's just so silly and fun so i really recommend watching that if you're um if you're a student as well looking at doing a final project um just look if you don't want to see the show which i do recommend obviously see
Creative Processes and Adaptations in Theatre
00:27:25
Speaker
um but the bloopers is an example of like
00:27:28
Speaker
what you can have lots of fun with it and you're not just trying to fit an assessment brief like have fun and the main thing in our show you can see as you watch it how much we learn like throughout the show so the show itself is a journey but also it's a journey because
00:27:43
Speaker
We're learning how to use the cameras, how to edit properly, how to film things in different angles, in different places. And there was a lot of filming that was done in my house because of Covid, we couldn't really do a lot or go to each other's houses. So my housemates kindly helped. Other people's housemates were filming bits for them. And eventually we did a lot of filming outside because you could go outside
00:28:07
Speaker
And then, yeah, we were fortunate enough for our show to go to the Digital Edinburgh Festival in, yeah, August, July, August. I think it was around August, yeah. August time. And Callie was in part of that as well, so we were enemies, as in the characters. Not that there were characters, we were performers, but yeah, it was really...
00:28:32
Speaker
really good time, really good project to be a part of and I learned a lot from that about like organization and how to how to manage different things um because we you don't just take on the performative role you also um you're like we had people doing different things like writing directing producing um it's costume design um and everybody just really did so well at bringing it all together so yeah
00:28:57
Speaker
I wish we were still doing it now because I miss them all very much. So we did say, like I said to you guys before, we did say, oh, we want to do something later on, but we sort of all spread out around the country. So hopefully there'll be an opportunity for us all to come together. But they're all doing amazing things now. So, yeah. Well, that's that's really nice to hear. And I know that you mentioned the bow. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I better explain what that is. Yeah. So for those of you who are not
00:29:24
Speaker
drama inclined. But Bau is a theatre game and I don't know if it was created by Togil but he's definitely made it almost a routine in drama sessions and essentially you play a metronome and you have
00:29:43
Speaker
the babao walk around essentially to the beat of the metronome and try it's basically musical chairs with a metronome so for those at the end but it's very fun isn't it Hannah? It is really fun. We did it in one of the workshops. It's just so funny and then we added a variation on it actually where we had to do funny walks.
00:30:06
Speaker
It just happened in the moment. We were just prancing around the room. If anyone saw us, they'd be like, drama students. But it's fine. It's all good fun. Yeah. So anyway, back to the degree show. Was it different trying to get something that you were so used to working in performance and on stage and everything and then transforming that into a film? Was it a big difference? Was it really hard? Was that transformation difficult?
00:30:34
Speaker
Oh, that's a good question. So actually, we started the whole show as a film anyway because we were so certain that we wouldn't be able to perform. We were like, Kobe's gonna get worse though, we're just gonna... So we were from the beginning of the project, they said, you can make it a film.
00:30:51
Speaker
so that sort of started in October because we were fortunate enough to actually be like we planned for it all to be a film anyway but then obviously we're not film students so from going from rehearsing and preparing and developing research and development to actually like creating some work and then filming it straight away it was a very different working style we were like this isn't
00:31:15
Speaker
We were like, this isn't how we've learned to devise, so why are we doing it like this? But we managed to, like, it worked and we did really engage with the content that we'd learned on our degree. Jen and Marin, who directed, were the directors, they were amazing and they absolutely loved surrealism and avant-garde and things like that and they'd spend
00:31:37
Speaker
hours and hours watching surrealist films. Me and Callie were like, we've not really looked at surrealism before. We've done loads of physical theatre, comedy, a lot of other things within the degree that were used in the project but not surrealism. That wasn't one of the modules we took.
00:31:58
Speaker
So when they were directing it, we were like, oh, wow, this is so cool. Then we did a lot of research into it. But yeah, Marin and Jen would spend hours looking at how to film and how things would work. So yeah, that was a really different process because there was not so much a rehearsal or structured rehearsal process that we're used to. It was more like rehearse, rehearse in the film. But then we were presenting work that was
00:32:22
Speaker
yeah supposedly what we'd learned in the degree which we had but yeah it was interesting yeah it was a good experience but um yeah different different to what we would have wanted it would have been very different if it was a show i think yeah i'm very interested in by this and i don't mean to delve away a little bit from it but that's okay it's kind of was it how was it going from having kind of feedback from audience members then in there to then
00:32:48
Speaker
this element of live, like this element of liveness. So then everything be it on a like kind of a YouTube comment. How was that? It actually meant that we didn't experience a lot of feedback, I think. And we did a scratch event as part of the module. And that was a really good opportunity for us to show a section of our film and we got to see other people's work as well.
00:33:14
Speaker
and people, lecturers and students could offer their feedback. And some of it was quite like, okay, we've got to take this angle, take a different step here, and we learnt a lot from that. Perhaps it would have been good to have feedback forms actually because we actually did watch it, we watched the showing of it because we could see it, we could all go into the theatre and watch it, but we just watched it on the screen.
00:33:35
Speaker
But in terms of like the constant feedback, our supervisor Teo did do a lot of like response in terms of like we'd show him some of the footage or he'd come into a rehearsal and see what we were doing and offer us lots of his wisdom. But yeah, it was very different to actually being like experiencing feedback like you would on a normal rehearsals and devising process, yeah.
00:34:04
Speaker
So kind of bringing it back to mishap because now you're experiencing almost creating a theatre company in the way that it's originally supposed to have been done. It's not film anymore but back on the stage. So how has your degree helped with that?
00:34:22
Speaker
We follow sort of like a research and development way of creating. So what we do in our rehearsals in particular is we come with stimuli or opportunities so we don't come with a set like we're having a script, this is what we're going to do.
00:34:43
Speaker
We actually have a stimulus which might be we're going to do an exercise on like we're going to throw a ball and we're going to speak and we're going to say words spontaneously and see what people say and that's one of the things we did quite a lot in our workshops at the beginning.
00:35:06
Speaker
Or what we're going to do is we're going to bring in an object and we're just going to play. So a lot of the time in terms of the planning and the research and development and everything that we actually learnt from the degree that you don't have to have a script in front of you that you can play and use things.
00:35:25
Speaker
that's something that we really focus on. And then in terms of like the actual content and our influences, specifically the physical theatre module was a massive shift for us. So actually our first workshop in person after Covid back with physical theatre was like clowning and physical comedy. So that's been like a really, really crucial influence for us.
00:35:49
Speaker
And yeah, I think within that, again, loads of different artists. I can't recite them all over my head now. I wish I could say them all, but we were influenced by them. And then the directing module, that was really, really useful. So we did a lot of research into different directors and their styles and their techniques and things.
00:36:11
Speaker
And a lot of it, for me, is again the creating through play, like everything is like an experience for you as a performer as it is for your audience. So like you need to, yeah, so that's sort of one of the things that we're really looking at. So yeah, that's been really crucial. And also like the sceneography and design and the way that we
00:36:38
Speaker
we plan our sessions are very much like with that in mind and both Callie and I got to experience like the Lightroom we use, I can't remember which one it was now, I haven't used that for a while, but Callie did a module in media in, I can't remember the full name of the module, sorry. Was it the New Technologies? New Technologies module, so she learned how to create some amazing like soundscapes which we're using within our show and watching her do it I'm like okay,
00:37:07
Speaker
I can't do that. And putting footage together as well, that's been like really good that she's taken from there. But I think, yeah, the main thing has been the way that we creatively explore things from the degree. So if you could pick like a few skills, for example, like say like three main skills that you've learned from this degree, which ones would you pick?
00:37:29
Speaker
Because we're all about the employability and the soft skills and the hard skills. Which ones would you say are key? I think organization and time management is a massive one, particularly for me personally.
00:37:45
Speaker
And for Callie, because Callie did loads and loads of extracurricular stuff as well. I feel like she needs to be here and say all the things that she's done. But both of us, I think that's been a massive, we've learnt a lot from doing the extracurricular things and the degree.
00:38:00
Speaker
also your like social life as well, how do you fit that all around things so doing mishap around our jobs and other projects has been like yeah really we wouldn't have been able to do that without the skills that we've developed from that so that's probably one of them. Creativity is a massive one and I feel like yeah that's
00:38:23
Speaker
I feel like creativity is something that we all have but I think we were able to really develop it and find pockets in our imagination that we could express. So yeah creativity and then what else? The degree has helped us sort of develop as performers and really get rid of any embarrassment or anything like we can come into a space and just be vulnerable and just practice and play around each other so I think
00:38:50
Speaker
performance is one too, so yeah, performance, creativity and time management and organization, yeah. And those are really good ones to have because the ones that even outside of the arts industry we all need. We do, absolutely.
Insights and Networking in the Arts
00:39:06
Speaker
So we're all about the weird and embarrassing stories as artists because boy are there many. What is a weird and embarrassing story that you might like to share with us Hannah?
00:39:17
Speaker
okay so it all happened when I was an elf at Christmas for Santa okay so I was really thinking about this when you said oh I might ask you later about this and there are probably many many more stories but it's sort of
00:39:32
Speaker
from my first, not my first, it's sort of a professional role as an elf, or being paid for performance at Rand Farm. It was like sort of the last week before Christmas and I was playing an elf called Posty. So the Rand Farm experience is all created and devised by Saf Bailey, who's also a recent, well, graduated a couple of years before
00:39:58
Speaker
me and she's so talented and puts together all of the set and everything and works with, they've got a team there, they all do it. And it was an immersive experience for children and families to go around. So there was ELF Academy, which is like a 15 minute, 20 minute show, which, yeah, was great fun. And then there's also a separate section where they get to go and visit loads of different elves before they go and see Santa.
00:40:21
Speaker
So it was really cute, and it was an amazing team of people. Anyway, I've diverted from the point of the story. No, we love to hear it, we love to hear it. So you get the opportunity to work as the different elves. So a lot of the time I was in Elf Academy, but I also was posty, which was one of my favourite costumes that Safford made because
00:40:47
Speaker
it was just so lovely and you had like big puffy sleeves and it was really cold you had gloves on anyway um the tech kept going wrong okay um we'll find out later but i'm gonna tell you why actually i'm gonna tell you why the tech was going wrong the tech was going wrong because a reindeer was chewing through the tech like you wouldn't you wouldn't imagine that anywhere else i was going oh dear like how do you okay anyway so that was one thing that was happening
00:41:16
Speaker
so my microphone wasn't working very well at all and by this point we'd been doing the shows for like four weeks and we were just exhausted and maybe that's an exaggeration but it felt like four weeks and my mic wasn't working very well my voice was really really sore and I'd just done a show that kids had just come around they were sort of sending people through quite quickly each show is meant to be five minutes but
00:41:38
Speaker
it was happening in like two minutes and then we were sending them through and I actually cut my finger on a nail that was like so there was these two tubes to go through and I was putting presents down and you press the button it would go whoo and then the kids would be like oh my goodness it's going to well of course it's going to
00:42:00
Speaker
Santa. Yes. And I was about to say, Netherland. I'm sorry, that's Peter Pan. Oh my goodness me. The North Pole. Sorry, Santa would not be pleased for me to say that. He might not invite me back next year, but we'll see. Fingers crossed. I'm diverting again, just from the point. So I cut my finger and it was bleeding a lot and I had another show, like, literally two seconds away.
00:42:23
Speaker
And I was like, I don't know what to do, my radio wasn't working, my sound wasn't working, and these kids were coming in, and my gloves, I didn't know where they'd gone, so I couldn't hide the fact my finger was bleeding, and not to be traumatic, but it was bleeding all the way down my hand, it was bad.
00:42:40
Speaker
So I was hiding it behind me, bearing in mind I'm wearing a white shirt, sorry if anyone doesn't like blood. I was going, oh no, what are we gonna do? And then I did the performance, I did the next piece, I sent them through, sort of hiding a bloody finger from these children. And then the other guy, one of the managers came in to check out how we were getting on.
00:43:08
Speaker
I was like, my finger's bleeding. And he came and gave me a wipe to wipe my finger. Just a wipe. Just a wipe, yeah, bless him. And then one of the other elves, help us, ticket elf, great guy. He wasn't an actor. He was one of the people that worked at the farm. But he's brilliant. He was also wearing, we had big ears that we were wearing. And he was like, oh, you know, can I get you a drink of anything? And oh, I'll get you a hot chocolate. And I was like, oh, great. Bear in mind, my finger's still a bit bleeding.
00:43:36
Speaker
And then, oh, I didn't ask for a plaster or anything. I was just like, yeah, yeah, okay. And he came in and this hot chocolate, guys, I kid you not, was like, it was that much whipped cream because they were doing like proper elves Christmassy chocolate. And so proper cartoon ice cream sundae vibes. And next thing you know, there was more people coming. I didn't know what to do with this hot chocolate. I had my microphone on. I literally just put my head in the chocolate
00:44:06
Speaker
ate it, spilled it everywhere. The people were everywhere, like they were coming closer. The ticket elf had already gone by this point. My finger's still bleeding. And I was like, I don't know what to do. It was manic. So I had to sort of like mop it up with, mop up the whipped cream. This is awful. I'm so sorry if you've got this image in your head. Mop up this whipped cream with the anti-back tissue thing that I'd used to like clean my finger. And then sort of took it in the corner.
00:44:35
Speaker
And then it was fine for the rest of the day. I should have just left the hot chocolate, but I couldn't. I just, you know... So, if in doubt, if you cut your finger, don't have hot chocolate right afterwards. Yeah, don't do that. Yeah, it was not a nice sight. I did explain to Saf, I think, afterwards about what had happened, but it was very dramatic. Yeah. It was a very manic mishap. Yeah, it was a mishap, yeah. Well, okay. So, we like our little young budding artists.
00:45:04
Speaker
So for any young budding artists out there, do you have any advice for them who might be starting their artistic careers?
00:45:16
Speaker
I think one of them is like know the value of your work is a really important thing. This is something that fortunately when I finished uni, the lecturers were really pushed hard on it, like know the value of your work, like your work is worth something.
00:45:35
Speaker
So don't sell yourself short is a big thing. Because although you might be being offered like money for a project, make sure you know that it's the right amount, work out how you're getting paid per hour. That's a really important one that I learned. I think be open to trying like new roles and new things. So for example with the Rand Farm role,
00:46:00
Speaker
it was Safford approached me and I was like I absolutely love kids theatre but I'm scared and I just did it and since then I've worked with them twice and so I've really really enjoyed that network and speak to be like don't be afraid to speak to other artists and local people because it is scary because you finish uni and I'm not qualified like they like they've done all these things I'm not qualified to go to this mash-up event and talk about the things that I've done because
00:46:30
Speaker
I haven't done anything but actually people are just so interested in you. Like if you're interested in other people they'll be interested in what you have to say as well. So yeah that's really interesting because then you can build up like build up your network and that's so important.
00:46:46
Speaker
and try and do experiences that you'll enjoy as well, it's really important. And also, I think, particularly in terms of mishap theatre, find opportunities and don't be afraid to use all your creative skills, just put them into practice. So we've sort of learned that we can do, we are so organised and we can say to people, we are organised.
00:47:11
Speaker
and we have got a plan and we don't have to hide like that like be be happy to be like this is what we're doing and it's really exciting and we'd like to share it not we need to still learn we're still learning but we need to not apologize for the fact that we're doing work I think that's a really important thing so
00:47:28
Speaker
Well thank you for sharing your wisdom with us Hannah and thank you for coming along and we'd like to give artists the opportunity here on TLCpod to plug their social medias so if you've got any socials that you would like to give the listeners at home.
00:47:46
Speaker
Absolutely. So I'd love to promote mishaps, Twitter and Instagram. So we're at mishap theater on both Twitter and Instagram. If you'd like to contact us or you have any questions about our work, please email us at mishaptheatre at gmail.com. Keep an eye on the page for any updates about our show. Hopefully we'll be able to give you more of an idea of when it will all be coming out and what will be happening.
00:48:14
Speaker
and then also if you follow hannah.peacock is my portfolio account on instagram and callie starbuck just yeah callie starbuck underscore i think is callie's professional account as well and you can sort of find out more about what we're both doing our experiences and yeah and how we sort of come together as a company so
00:48:36
Speaker
oh yes um and if you have a dog or cat um paintings by peacock um is on facebook and on instagram um it's a hyperrealist um painting so um do have a look and if you have got um a lovely pair or you know someone's birthday or um christmas particularly coming up um then you do come you know send a message and
00:49:02
Speaker
I will get back to you and see if we can do a commission for you. Yes, I highly recommend that as well because I have seen them myself and they are phenomenal. So yes, get your orders in quick. But yeah, thank you so much for coming Hannah and it's been a pleasure to talk to you as always and I wish mishap the best.
00:49:23
Speaker
and I hope that we can have you back soon as well. Oh, we'd love it. We'd love to, yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks for listening at home and enjoy the rest of your night.