Props in the space

The space we chose was naturally for an adult themed performance as is on the back end to a primary school. Therefore the space is hidden away from children and is not an easily accessible place. The site its self had objects such as a ladder, pole and graffiti marks on the wall which led us to the idea of a shanti house. The idea of a shanti house was hard to create in terms of how the rest of the space was and its location. We discovered shanti houses to be in over populated and poor areas therefore having it behind a school would contradict the idea as people who live within a shanti house dont have an education. To develop the idea of being in a secretive, adult themes area we chose to do a shooting gallery. A shooting gallery is a meeting point for people who want to take or sell drugs. Its also known as a 'crack house'. Naturally the asthetics of the piece allowed us to go further with this idea. Even the floor was mouldy and slodgy to step in! On the day of the scratch performance we set our space up to become more visually pleasing. We used objects such as needles, condoms, images, food wrappers, rope and drugs. Using the objects was a good idea as it made the space come to life exactly how we had imagined it. To also compliment the space, there was already a graffiti mark on the wall therefore we used cardboard and spray paint to create more. Overall in terms of props in the space is was set out very well. We were told in our feedback to do less acting within the space as how we created it was enough to take the audience on a journey. A lot of the props we used was a symbolic way of representing the drug house we wanted to create. Also we didnt consider the impact of rain on our space as during the scratch performance the rain had ruined a lot of what we created. However it also created a dark atmosphere to what we were creating. Next time we will consider the weather as a means of creating and work around any possible disasters.