Planning and Production

  Planning and Production for The Bronx Story 

Process log  

I spent a lot of my time planning the production at home as I felt because I was doing a one man play I had full creative input and could get things done in my own pace. This will be evident in my diary log where Ill be logging the process on how I plan my production leading up to the performance. 

Week 1

I started reading through the play online to achieve familiarity with the narrative and the lines .

This was important in order to try and  have a good  understanding of the basis material, I also wanted to see how it was theatrically performed because I've never heard of a one man play, so  I watched snippets of Chazz performing the one act play on Youtube. 

Week 2

I chose areas of research that I will use to help me with my portrayal on contextual historical accuracy to immerse myself in the world of my character , perfecting my performance.

Calegero is influenced by the local Mafia so I watched the Godfather and Good Fellas to have a understanding on the culture and genre  representation by looking at  Hollywood depictions on the Italian Mafia. 

Week 3

After watching the movie adaptation of The Bronx Tale which was directed by Robert Dinero I started to depict in my head on how it would look on stage. The importance of watching the movie adaptation was to familiarise myself visually with the story and gain theatrical ideas from the cinematic adaptation to incorporate into my set design , costume , lights and sounds. 

The movie adaptation helped me pick out the key themes in the story and what I should gain a further understand in by undergoing research in these particular areas surrounding the:

• Racial issues 1960s 
• Itallian Mafia
• 1960's New York, Bronx 
• Interracial relationships 

Week 4

I needed to keep reading through the script and get a printed version so I can write annotations , incorporating all the ideas I gathered  from watching the movie adaptation  to my version of the script.  

I also need to find out how much of the script ill be using as I told my teacher I want my play to be a maximum 30 minute long production.

I read through the play and gave myself  a week to cut down the play  and time it so I can   inform my teacher of how long it is ,  so that a time slot for me  could be allocated.

Week 5

I started highlighting all narrative dialogue from the main protagonist Calagero who ill be playing . 

I started writing the numbers of the pages on a separate piece of paper in order to organise myself on which segments of the script I'm using specifically .

To get my performance down to a reasonable time  I had to cut out certain characters which I regarded as irrelevant to the overall direction of the story helping the narrative move forward.  Some of the characters were referenced in the dialogue so for in order for my portrayal of the story to make sense I cut portions of the text out . Without doing this it solve been impossible to  reduced the  time to be under 30 minuets.

Week 6

Continued progress on The Bronx Tale 

Week 7

Performed the foundation of the piece to my classmates and received feedback as well as watch their performances and give feedback to them

I watched all the performances and had given constructive criticism and feedback  to all the groups and members. 

Week 8

As I continued  working on The Bronx Tale my teacher wanted my performance cut to 15 minutes which I had no issues with, so I  drew out a story board to focus on the crucial story elements which have the most relevance to the overall direction and resolution of the story.

After watching the movie and seeing snippets of the play on Youtube I  cut the play down to 15 minutes mainly focusing on the father, son relationship between Sonny and Calegero the gravity of the racial tensions during the time period .

Throughout the process of cutting down the running time, my lines were being learnt sub consciously .

Easter Half Term (2 weeks) 

Spent Half Term researching into the historical context to help aid in my creative input which ill apply towards technical theatre elements such as lighting and sound affects .

I made set design annotations on the script regrading the lights and sounds and the specific scenes I thought were crucial to have them in. 

After I finished the rough version of the annotated script, I  started the process of re writing all the narrative bits and scenes I highlighted in the original script , creating my own version of the  script on my note pad with a summarised  crystal clear, straight forward beginning , middle and end.  I did this in order to fit it in the 15 minute time frame and be organised by focusing on the key themes a scenes in story which are important in driving the narrative forward. I now had my  final script  with annotation of lighting and sound effects .

Now I have 3 weeks to memorise lines off book before my performance date as well as do a tech run  .

Back drop - Bronx Tale movie setting , Bronx Sky line , Catholic Church

Lighting - Red blue , Red white , Red , Cold blue white 

Sound Efx - Car Crash , Gunshot , heart beat , deaf sound , Confessions audio , church bell ,car explosion 

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The back drop elements were influenced by specific scenes to aid in the setting to tell a compelling story and have clear direction in the narrative.

The lighting was influenced by the research i conducted regarding the racial issues and historcial context as well as conveying emotions felt by characters like hatred, fear and other connotations and denotations to contribute the the immersion of the play. For example the key themes surrounding racial  issues like intercacial relationships , white supremacy and racial hatred between communities is conveyed by the specific colours used in the lighting effects. Colours such as red have connotations of danger , warning , hatred and love. The colour red was used when Calegero expressed his feeling towards a female  who was black "She was tall , she was beautiful and she was classy, but she was black and that's a no no in my neighbourhood" this shows he wanted to approach her but was afraid because of the disapproval of his white community and their racial hatred and violence towards black people. The red signifies connotations of danger , love  and warning into not approaching the girl as historical context surrounding interracial relationships tends  to have violence throughout its history from as far back as slavery . Another example of lighting conveying meaning and highlighting themes such as white supremacy can be  seen during the car scene where Calagero and friends plan to attack and  cause destruction by throwing firebombs at stores in the black community. The lighting for this scene was Cold blue and white to infer the emotions of fear Calagero was feeling . Cold blue has connotations of winter and  uncomfortable feeling in contrast to warm colours which would have connotations of safety and  convey a more comfortable atmosphere for the protagonist. This suggest that because ill be using cold blue it signifies connotations that's Calegero is feeling nervous and uncomfortable around his friend at this moment. I will also be multi rolling as Calageros friends in this scene so the Cold Blue lighting will reflect how all his friends are cold blooded and are about to commit something evil. In  addition to conveying emotions the Cold blue , white lighting reflects to historical context where the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) a vigilante hate group who preach beliefs of white supremacy and have hatred toward blacks , fire bombed a bus full of protestors towards segregation, killing all that were inside. This show my knowledge and of the historical context and how I applied it to make an intertextual reference regarding that racial hatred fuelled  firebomb incident which took place in 1961. Furthermore the KKK dress up as ghostly figures in white robes which also reflect the feelings of fear and signifies white supremacy.

Sound Effects highlight key story elements which are crucial to the plot and aid in creating an immersive atmosphere and experience . They also aid in suggesting emotions like fear which will be shown by the heart beat sound effect. 

Progress into The Bronx Tale 

Week 11

After re writing the script in my own words and focusing on key scenes , themes and characters I felt I needed extra actors to help me drive my narration  forward.  I also needed to capture the chemistry and relationship between the two most significant characters in the play , Sonny and Calagero.

This was a problem I faced which I needed to resolve quickly due too short amount of time I had left  ,  I realised I needed some extra cast members to help me tell a compelling story and reach the aims I set to achieve. I Specifically needed someone to play Sonny as I cut down the play to 15 minutes so I could focus on the main narrative element which is the relationship between Calegero and Sonny . Without Someone to play Sonny it wouldn't be immersive enough and as I thought I should focus on the main protagonist/narrator as well as the key themes and events surrounding the story .

 It just wouldn't be as effective or productive if I learnt both lines and  multi rolled and played both characters so I asked my classmate Jeremy who thankfully agreed to play Sonny . 

Jeremy is also doing a one man play . 

I also needed someone to play a detective to help me break the 4th wall. 

I tried to multi role the scene and be both the detective and Calagero , however the feedback I received from my classmate Georgina who also thought  it would be better if I had someone else play the role as the detective.

I asked my classmate Abdul and he agreed to play the small part as detective.

I  kept working on The Bronx Tale  and we all had to perform in front of the class  again to get feedback on our  more finalised  pieces . I also watched the pieces of other groups and gave feedback on theirs.

I hadn't done much rehearsals as I just finalised my script so my performance in front of the class was more from a directors perspective than an actors performance. Instead of acting it I was explaining  what happens next. I also wasn't off book with the lines however I was in the process of learning the finalised script which I time same week to be 9 minutes long worth of dialogue .

Week 12

I sent Jeremy who would be playing  Sonnys lines to learn, I also was in the process of learning my lines off book.I knew my lines already sub consciously but I needed to get them into my long term memory. 

In order to achieve this i recored all my lines and listened to it on my way to college and before I go to sleep, I also carried a piece of paper and a pen where I would try write my lines out at the top of my head while imagining how It would while performed it. 

We also had to finalise any tech and staging decisions by this point.

I got the original script photo copied and went over the tech I wanted included which would help in aiding my performance in telling a compelling story conveying subliminal messages. 

Started  to envision what the characters would wear and have the costume  ready for the final week.

Still contemplating if I need more extras to carry out the racist sequences committed by Calageros friends.This was a problem as a not lot of time was left.....

Week 13

Ran the tech for my show on the Friday where I faced a few technical problems which I could potentially be a problem for me on the night of the show. Despite my show being so short I had a lot of tech which needed to sync well with my performance to create a more larger impactful experience and make it more immersive. I stayed after lesson to make sure my tech would be perfect and the sounds would be loud enough the back drops and lights came on in the right positions. I rehearsed with Jeremy who would be playing Sonny and  finished learning the lines over the weekend.

 What didn't go well was my previous  ideas for potential extras, one to play the girl Calogero fancies in one scene and some other extras to play his racist friends.I felt it was way too late and concluded that I could execute the scene on my own multi rolling and imagining those characters. After trying the scene I felt it worked well and was way more impactful as it highlighted the themes much more . I felt the theme were highlighted more by me performing those scenes on my own and imagining the characters because the audience would have to do the same creating further immersion  , all I had to do was make it believable to them using movement and body language to convey there were different and more than one character on stage despite it really just being me .

Week 14

My Play was set in the same time period as Abduls , Abes and Allys performance 

So organising costumes on the day was easy.  

Jeremy on the day came prepared with costume he pitched to me the week before which was all black formal wear , black suit trousers and shirt . 

Abdul wore a similar costume to the character in his play which he performed before me . 

Abdul was playing detective so a different jacket was provided for him. 

I wore a big oversized silver jacket , almost identical to the big jackets Calagero was wearing in the movie adaptation. 

Performed my  final production on the Tuesday 

Obtained some  industry feedback from Rob  about what he  thought off my performance. Rob was a bit confused at first as was black male playing a white Italian but a fellow audience member gave him context so he thought the overall play was very impactful and I highlighted the themes very well.
Gained other opinions from audience members  like my friend who really enjoyed it.