Storms

Creating a storm in a show has been done many times and will continue to be done, but we want to create something different. We identified that the storm will be on Alf’s boat and it will be crucial to the story, however there are many different types of storms, heavy rain, thunder, lightning, electrical, etc. Alongside this there are many different ways to show a storm visually.

How can we maintain stunning visuals, realistic puppetry and create the effect of a boat in a storm...well..for me its in the movement of boat, how can we make the stage feel like its moving without moving it, how can we recreate the sound of a storm without it actually being windy and raining. Today we worked on how to achieve this, initially I thought through the use of foley sound, however as we were using lots rope and three blocks on wheels, we rigged up the set on rope and pulleys and played with the idea of the set moving. As we started this the natural sound of the rope being put under strain and the set creaking as it was forced to move started to give us a base for creating a storm.

From here we started to build on it and the ropes intertwined started to represent in an abstract way the ocean, the ensemble in the background manipulating the set from the ropes turned into a crew trying to gain control of a boat lost in a storm, and Alf….well he was in there but if I tell you everything then there will be no surprises…

Jonagold - Matt