Rabbit Resource Pack - Frantic Assembly

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Contents PAGE HOW? WHY? WHO? Discovering Rabbit 3 Directors’ Notes (from the published script) 3 The creative team and why these people? 3 CHAPTER 1 STARTING POINTS - OVERVIEW - THE PLAY The Family 4 The Real World: The City vs Nature 5 Paul vs Madeline 5 Drugs vs The Real World 7 Feeling vs Thinking 7 Frank vs Marshall 8 The King is Dead! Long live the King! 8 Shakespeare and Rabbit 8 The Rabbit 9 CHAPTER 2 BUILDING THE SHOW Writer/Director relationship 9 Design Concept 10 Finding a Cast - The Process and our Requirements 11 From Page to Stage 12 Deadly Avenger and the Rabbit Soundtrack 13 CHAPTER 3 FINDING CHARACTERS Character Insights 14 Who are these people? 14 A Physical Company - Approaches to Physical Scenes 15 CHAPTER 4 ESSAY SUGGESTIONS 17 BIBLIOGRAPHY 18 FRANTIC ASSEMBLY CAST LIST / CREATIVE / PR 18 How to use this guide Following the success of the Peepshow Education pack we have decided to create a specific education document for Rabbit. This guide has been created for those teaching and studying drama and theatre at AS Level and above, as well as those with an interest in how Frantic Assembly creates a new show. The aim is to create a document that is accessible and relevant to all. We understand that as education specialists you are much better qualified to judge the abilities and strengths of your students. Any suggested practical work or essay titles are purely suggested and should be adapted, tailored, and extended to suit the needs of the class. Much of this guide charts the development of Rabbit. This approach is in direct response to the many requests we receive for some kind of insight into the creative process and hopefully offers advice and inspiration for teachers and students looking at how to create ‘physical’ theatre. Where this guide may differ from the previous Peepshow guide is in its focus on the script of the play. As this was a different creative process for us (working from an existing script) we felt that the guide should reflect the way the play was always the focus. The current play (published by Oberon, ISBN: 1 84002 394 5) is the result of the development weeks with the writer Brendan Cowell and the cast. All quotes are accompanied by page numbers and are correct at time of going to print. We feel that discussing the work alongside a detailed knowledge of the existing play will give a fascinating insight into the choices made and the problems solved. It will allow students to study individual scenes and approach them with their own creativity and not just consider their work on Rabbit as purely critical analysis. We hope you find this resource an informative tool to support your teaching. As ever, Frantic Assembly remains committed to the value and importance of education within our work. We hope this guide helps to enhance your students’ enjoyment and engagement with Rabbit, and that you find the information an exciting resource for your teaching needs.
How? Why? Who? DISCOVERING RABBIT Rabbit was the result of a long search by the company throughout autumn 2002 and into 2003. After years of working to create new scripts as part of our development process, we decided to find an existing play that had yet to be performed. After contacting various agents, the Frantic office was soon piled high with scripts which through the dark months of autumn were filed according to our humble but essential opinion. During this time we eventually met with several writers and though those meetings were all extremely rewarding, we still found ourselves without that piece we were now desperate to find. After having set ourselves a Christmas deadline, it was with some anxiety that we admitted temporary defeat and took our Christmas holidays with a plan to resume the search in the new year. Steven escaped to Australia for this period and after spending New Year in Sydney was wandering through the city with his actress friend Susie Lindeman when they walked past the Griffin Theatre which had just revealed the programme for their new season. Outside was a poster for an upcoming premiere of a play called Rabbit. The poster featured an old man stood naked in a forest holding a bunny. Blown away by the poster alone, Steven asked Susie what she knew of the show. Knowing nothing about the show but everything about the director of the theatre, Will Sheehan, Susie set up a meeting for the following day. Within twenty four hours, Will had handed over a script and Steven was on the phone to the Frantic office with the words “I think we’ve got it”. Two days later, after a consensus from the Frantic office that this was indeed everything we had been looking for, Steven met Brendan Cowell in Sydney and informed him of the plans to create a Frantic Rabbit. Brendan swore a lot which Steven took to be an affirmative response. Seven drafts and nine months later, our Frantic Rabbit is ready... DIRECTORS’ NOTES (FROM THE PUBLISHED SCRIPT) In the past, Frantic shows were normally born out of conversations between ourselves as to what concerned us at a particular point in our lives. For this project, it was our intention to set ourselves a new challenge and search for an existing play that we could then Franticise. After many dark, autumnal months of relentless script reading and no result, we decided to take a break and resume our search in the new year. As is often the case with Frantic, results came up when we least expected it. A stroll past the Griffin Theatre in Sydney and a particularly eye-catching poster lead to our discovery of Brendan Cowell’s Rabbit which was due to premiere in Australia. Reading Rabbit was a profound experience. As a creative team, our normal practise was to talk about how we felt and then look to create a script from these ideas. With Rabbit, we found a play that contained and explored ideas that we hadn’t realised had been trapped in our heads. Events over the last two years have very much challenged and redefined our understanding and experience of the term ‘family’. We found this play remarkable in its bravery, its unflinching commitment to exposing the darker parts of our personalities. As a play, it contained so much and yet afforded us the opportunity to create, both physically and directorially, with the delicate and complex ‘spaces’ that exist between the five characters. The bravery of the play has been matched in every way by Brendan and the cast. Brendan’s willingness and desire to experiment is complemented by a brilliant cast whose energy, creativity and trust has and is creating a rehearsal process that is inspirational for us. The skill and generosity of the creative team assembled here has meant that working on something like this has only ever been a joy. For that – thanks. Spex to you all….. As for the rest of you – we hope this play hurts and heals in equal measure. Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett August 2003 P.S. Yeah, we can’t believe there’s an interval either….. 3 THE CREATIVE TEAM AND WHY THESE PEOPLE? For this production we re-enlisted the expertise of designer Dick Bird and production Manager Jai Lusser. It is always a pleasure working with these two and we dread the day that our diaries don’t match or we simply can’t afford them! We had worked really briefly, years ago, with lighting designer Giuseppe di Iorio and we were mightily impressed with all that he brought to the creative process. we were really excited about working with what, compared to the others, would be a relatively unknown quantity. Again, we were more than impressed! We also worked with Nick Manning for the first time. We don’t normally work with sound effects but Nick’s work was intuitive and enlightening. It plays a massive part in the creation of atmosphere in the woods. For our technical stage manager and our company stage manager we wanted people with personality but also that creative input and engagement to keep the show alive while it is on tour. Even with this tough criteria I think we got lucky with Heidi Riley and Tom Cotterill. Other collaborators who impressed us greatly were Paula Eden (who created the trees, foliage and the rabbit carcass!) and Belinda Clisham (who created the stunning vista outside the Cave residence). Thanks also to Hattie Barsby for her patience and inspiration in all things costume!
Page 1: Rabbit BY BRENDAN COWELL A COMPREHE
Page 5 and 6: THE REAL WORLD The City vs Nature T
Page 7 and 8: Drugs vs The Real World Paul Have y
Page 9 and 10: THE RABBIT Why is there a live Rabb
Page 11 and 12: d) Who is Paul Cave? This is a ques
Page 13 and 14: The Last Supper This is the final m
Page 15 and 16: c) Spin Spin is an opportunist. We
Page 17 and 18: Chapter 4 Essay Suggestions THE PLA

Rabbit Resource Pack - Frantic Assembly

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