Read all about Daniel Naddafy's R&D Week here at Theatre Hullabaloo!
This week, we were so excited to welcome Daniel Naddafy and his team of industry experts and creatives (Natalie Thomas, Marty Langthorne, James Newton) to The Hullabaloo to house the rehearsal and development of their new production, Cloud Symphony as supported by Theatre Hullabaloo’s ‘Little Wonders’ Commission!
This is going to be a beautiful, theatrical experience for early-years children and adults. We followed along with their process this week, so take a look below what they got up to…
DAY 1: We started the week with a meet and greet with the Theatre Hullabaloo team and a cup of tea! We love to have this 10 minutes to get to know artists and their projects. Day 1 for Daniel and the creative team was an opportunity to explore some new ideas in the theatre setting.
One of these things was liquid light experimenting, see photo below! This effect is created by using sheets of acetate, coloured ink and an old-school overheard projector. This creates a beautiful spread of light and colour. They also looked at different cloud formations for inspiration, exploring the way the clouds look, move and how to recreate that.
*Alt text: a piece of linen material, with watercolour-like pink and blue cloud formations projected onto it*
*Alt text: 10 doodles of different cloud formations*
DAY 2: Day 2 of the residency began by rigging an old parachute in the space! This created a big billowing structure, just like a cloud! It has several rigging points so that it can be moved around. This particular rigging formation came from discussing cloud structures, where they move and collide, and how to make the space feel like you could be in the clouds!James, the musician on the project also began building the soundtrack to the piece. Using bass guitar lines and clever synthesiser tracks, they had the beginnings of cloud music!
*Alt text: Daniel & Natalie rig the old parachute from the ceiling, whilst James wears his headphones and creating music on his laptop*
DAY 3: Today, the Cloud Symphony team began by experimenting with colourful lighting states, and how to replicate a storm cycle using lighting, and matching those up with the soundtrack. They also worked on the movement quality of the parachute – raising it at certain points to create the feeling of rolling clouds. They have also been taking inspiration from pictures of the sun shining through after a storm – and how this can inspire different feelings for people, working out how to re-create these feelings for their audience members.
*Alt Text: Daniel sits beneath the parachute structure with a bright white light cast over it*
DAY 4: Day 4 began with going back over the learnings from the week, and a first showing to the Theatre Hullabaloo staff team, led by Artistic Producer, Miranda Thain – who has been lending her expertise to the Cloud Symphony team throughout the week.During the showing, people we’re invited to either sit inside or outside the parachute structure, and experience the transitioning storm settings! The team have created an almost dream-like state from the inside, appreciating the live soundtrack and wonderful vocals! The team also started experimenting with moving sound, attaching speakers to balloons and moving these around the space and audience to create a surround-sound feeling.
*Alt text: Some audience members lie beneath the cloud-like parachute structure with bright pink and purple sunset lighting*
*Alt Text: Audiences members lay beneath the parachute in bright white lighting*
DAY 5: On the final day, the Cloud Symphony team sat down with a cup of tea to go back over their learning for the week – working out the questions that came out of the week, what they’ll take forward for more working and what they’ll be leaving behind. They took down the rigged parachute, and experimented with hanging some new textures such as plastic sheeting. They tried out different lighting states on the sheeting, to see if they could create the cloud-like magic with this material.
I asked Daniel and the crew what the best thing about the week was:
“The pubs in Darlington!… Only joking, though they are great! I think the freedom to experiment in a free and well equipped environment without the pressure to create ‘something’. When you’re in a space that has everything you need, you’re able to achieve things much more quickly – a huge thanks to Theatre Hullabaloo & Miranda Thain for supporting this”
They had a final briefing, packed their suitcases and headed for the train station after a week of experimenting and bringing a dream to life.
*Alt text: Marty, Natalie, James & Daniel smile for the camera!*
We support lots of new work here at The Hullabaloo, why not head over to our ‘For Artists’ page to see how you could get involved?