Crying Out Loud Blog

Last week I worked as an Intern with Crying out Loud and got to experience the rehearsal and development period for Strings on Strings. It was amazing to see Layla at work with the technicians and the performers. The first day focused on the technical aspects involved in the piece such as lights and smoke…I watched as Layla and Mike and Joe tried to create the perfect state with lighting and smoke to evoke the ‘other world’ feel of the smoke below the ropes.

Layla’s focus was on how to keep an installation feel to the piece in this new space, it seems that performing a piece in a different space effects not only the performance but also the relationship with the audience and overall feel of the work.

Watching Layla rehearse with the performers I noticed a real attention to detail in the work. The movement worked perfectly with the musical score. The floor space and the ropes seemed to become a character’s in themselves as the performers interacted with the smokey space and I began to understand the nature of the work further. Moments of silence and stillness added together with the score and beautiful ariel choreography were really coming together.

By the end of the week it was clear that the different aspects of the work- live music, performers, lights and the smoke all had to come together in order to portray something to the audience. This was something very interesting about watching a work develop over the course of a week. The development period opened up new aspects of the work and the fusion of all the elements working together to create the artists vision.

Having seen the development of the piece so far I think Friday and Saturday’s performances will be exciting, I for one will be looking forward to getting the full effect of this new piece in the theatre at Jacksons Lane.