After a few collaborative rehearsals, I laid down a detailed performance schedule – down to the minute, who was on stage, what they were going to do, and so on. It was my job to take control during the show, cue the actors on stage and what they were performing, and make sure the show flowed smoothly.
To control the situation with precision, as the visual director, I tried various forms of documenting and articulating the performance schedule to ensure that each member understood their task.
Written proposal: DIRECTING
Video narration: this is based on projected video with subtitles to cue the actors to where they are. Certainly, this won’t be on the final show, but for rehearsals, it’s a good way to get everyone to understand the action.
Morover, I designed clear lines of movement and waiting position, which to avoide chaotic collision when the actors need to intersperse their performances—
- The carp only initially entered from the east, all the rest of the entrances and exits were behind the ice screen on the west side.
- The waiting position for the two small fishes is always on the west side of the screen.
- The waiting position for the dancers is always on the west side of the screen.
On top of that, I personally demonstrated all the characters twice so that the actors could grasp the techniques. For example, how the little fish trembles when struck by lightning, how the carp’s body changes when it ascends into the air, and so on. I devised and agreed with the group on hand signals such as going up, retreat, running left, running right, jumping, etc. that would remind the actors to act during rehearsals. We originally wanted to talk through headphones or walkie-talkies, but this might affect their judgement of the live sound effects, so we finally decided to dispatch with hand signals.
