Stage Design - Viusal, Spatial, Aural

Stage Design:
I chose a Thrust stage because I think this really gives the audience the oppurtunity to be a part of the play. It gives different perspectives and angles, offering sides of the story otherwise left unexplored.



The Thust stage gives us the useful advantage of a stage wall. This provides the actors with a security, it is a place to wait and perform any off scene parts. i.e The Headmaster talking through the door. The Thrust also allowed more freedom with design, the stage is narrow and thin, mimicking that of a store room, but as it is surrounded on three sides, it is still intimate with the audience and very visible. Opposed to if it was a Prosenium Arch, where some audience members may feel far away and excluded from the drama.

Lighting:  
The plays stage directions mention a window, which, at the beginning, has it's blind drawn. So at the start the lighting would be rather dim, warm colours, reflecting on the early morning light and the dusty wood of the stage. As the play progresses, the light should become brighter, and then darker at the end. The corners of the room and the back of the stage would be dull as the play is realism and these places wouldn't be well lit.
However, if there are any monolouges or climax's, dramatic lighting should be used to have a circle of attention on the person or object at hand. All lighting should come from directly above to avoid hitting an audience member.



Reactions to 'Gotcha' by Barrie Keefe

The play 'Gotcha' by Barrie Keefe was written in 1976, it was about a nameless boy who ends up holding three teachers hostage on his last day at school.

At the time, grammar schools were a big part of the Educational Debate. Keefe took the idea that many kids were ignored if they were not academic or sports orientated and wrote the play to show just how many slipped under the radar.
If a kid was considered "untalented" whilst in education then their name wasn't known and they literally became anonymous to the teachers and workers at the school. This is reflected in the play itself, as the main protragonist is literally called 'Kid.'

When it was released it caused a huge stir and the TV showing caused controversy among some members of the public. The 70's were a time of huge change, and quite a few people were still stuck in their ways and refused to accept it, Mary Whitehouse was one of them. She descrive the TV showing as "One long, vicious, obscene gesture." And forced the BBC to ban the repeat when she realised it was showing again. This was the time just before Margret Thatcher came to power and by Whitehouse banning the repeat, it actually made it more popular.

As the play is set in a grammar school, a lot of the students or people associated with it may have been looked down on by the upper class, however, the casual violance and smoking scene throughout the play was part of everyday life, very different to modern times. This meant that these actions would not of initially had a shock factor to them but Keefe directed 'Kid' and 'Lynne' to come across as shocked and offended by the violence.