The Dash

Theatre Performance

Stage One, Stage@Leeds

29th-31st March 2023

Set design/ Marketing/ Dramaturgy/ Perform

Life, death and everything in between…

Set in Britain we follow, Edith, an obituarist who receives a mysterious, unsigned and unpublished painting that holds a remarkable resemblance to her younger self. Immerse yourself within an exhibition of life lived against the status quo, exploring the journey of a life lived well versus a life well lived. ‘The Dash’ tackles the controversies surrounding social marginalisation and romantic relationships spanning from the 1940’s to the 1970’s. Ultimately, how do you choose to define ‘The Dash’ that separates the year you’re born from the year you die? Would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?

As a part of a degree project in the University of Leeds PECI3703 performance project, Mika participated as a performer, set designer, marketing team, and dramaturg in the talented team. Based on 'The Dash' by Linda Ellis; a poem that encapsulates the time which separates the year you are born from the year you die and how we use this 'dash' to make a difference. The team was thinking about pathways of life, regrets, fulfillment, and memory, and strongly aspired to accomplish delivering the message of the entirety of a life well lived versus a life lived well; how the choices we make affect our dash. Alongside using the poem as the stimulus for the show, the team decided to write their production which connotes the themes, emotions, and storyline of their show.

Set Design

To express the life is growing and it goes on, the set design has always idealised placing the scaffolding in a stepped structure from the beginning. While faithfully keeping the set design simple, the designers ensured not to overlook props that represent the era. Additionally, it always needed some design adjustment during the process due to different apartment requirements such as stage capacity, prop design, and risk assessment. Mika consistently approached those requests with an optimistic attitude and responded flexibly depends on the situations.

Marketing

To approach potential audiences outside of the university, Mika focused on introducing the work to an unfamiliar audience by social media, press releases, and marketing events. She always made decisions based on her research on productive marketing techniques and case studies. Also, from a design perspective, she prioritized guaranteeing the accessibility of information to the audience while creating the work such as posters, programmes and social media posts.

Please check out the programme!:

The Dash Programme by Pci The Dash - Issuu

Dramaturgy

Due to this story requiring a significant amount of knowledge about art, Mika's interests made her able to support from advising the art styles to art movements. The research not only guided the revision of the script but also ensured other teams had the same quality. For instance, she provided detailed instructions to the commissioned artist clearly and understandably with some examples. Also, she paid attention to subtle visual differences in the props from the 1940s to 1970s to prepare the props in set design. These led the team could recreate the past realistically.

Perform

Aiming to concentrate during the 2 hours performance, Mika emphasised the presence of the character in the scene by confirming the psychological movement of the character with the director throughout the rehearsals. This method was specifically able to unconsciously act the character during the show so it was efficient to enable natural reactions in the emotionally intense scene and deal with improvisation when some accidents happened on stage.

Working with a busy team allowed Mika to be trained as flexible and capable of translating visionary ideals into tangible accomplishments. Also, her meticulous consideration of the audience's viewpoint and her passion for the artwork has emerged as the cornerstone of delivering the exceptional work. The talented team completed 4 performances at the end of March 2023. And led to the sale of approximately 210 tickets out of 220, encompassing both the final performance and the opening night were sold out.