Video transcript
Drama Company 2023 - The Wasps - 06. Cast

[intro music]

OLIVIA CARROLL: Hi. I'm Olivia Carroll, and I play a guard in 'The Wasps'. The devising process is really important at the beginning. A little bit of improv, it may seem a bit repetitive in drama, but it goes a long way with building that trust and that really quick bond that you can create once you put yourself in a bit of a silly situation and let yourself go because everybody learns to bounce back off each other.

ETHAN BEATTIE: Hi. I'm Ethan Beattie. I play one of the wasps as well as the voice of Marlene. I feel like everyone really contributed equally to the show. There was no one person who was leading it as much. Everyone was building it up, even in tiny little pieces of impro that you completely forget about 2 weeks ago.

In 3 or 4 weeks, it suddenly slotted into this really key moment in the show, and you're like, oh, I made that. I did that. And then it goes on. And suddenly, you're in show week. And you're seeing it. The audience laughs, and you're like, oh, that's funny. I did that, all from this one little moment weeks and weeks and months and months ago.

JOSIE RAWSON: Hi. I'm Josie Rawson, and I play Guard/Hashtag Girl. Listening to each other, communicating with each other, never, sidelining someone's idea, never thinking that an idea might be stupid just because it's not what you specifically had in mind.

Being able to listen to each other is really, really important when devising because we need to be able to have that really nice mixing pot of everyone's ideas. And that's what I think you see in the show because you see everyone's little bit of humour and personality come in, in it. And it's really nice to see.

OLIVIA CARROLL: It's really special to see a fully devised show because it's always something new. And you don't have anything to set it based off of. You have the original text that we worked with, Aristophanes' 'Wasps'. But we fully created our own world, our own immersion in the internet. And it's all unique to what we saw this vision to be. So there was nothing that we had to go from. And it was all from us.

ETHAN BEATTIE: Nothing is wasted. Everything comes back forward. Everything is circular. Everything comes back together to create this one magical piece.

MARGARET LI: Hi. My name is Margaret Li, and I play a wasp in 'The Wasps'. I think because it is a completely new devised work, it was really good that we were getting feedback on like, this is working, and this isn't working. And because it's so loose and we could devise it however we want, that feedback was actually really helpful, instead of just like, oh, that's really not working. We just need to cut it. It's like they're trying to help us improve and how we can make this process and this work so amazing and work together really closely with what we want it to be.

ETHAN BEATTIE: Yeah, it's a shame to see a very full cutting room floor with everything clogging up. And you have to kill your darlings, unfortunately, sometimes even as late as tech week. But it makes the show better. It makes everything tighter. And you look back, and you think, that could have worked, but maybe it would have been too much effort. Maybe something else would have had to go. And you just don't know what would have worked. And if ultimately the end product is good, the end product is good.

MARGARET LI: I think it was good that we decided to adapt it to a modern context because I think we've made our play really relevant for the audiences that are going to come in, because a lot of the people that came in were schoolchildren. And we're doing an internet version of 'The Wasps'. And that brings up the relevance. And it's also really helpful in the devising process because we can personally relate to all of the things that we're devising.

And I think that helps with generating ideas or coming up with funny moments because we can think like, oh, what would I like to see? What would I like to put on a stage that I would think is funny and engaging and I would like to watch?

RYAN TAYLOR: I'm Ryan Taylor, and I play Doggy Woof Woof in 'The Wasps'. So originally, it was a small character at the end of the piece, at the end of the play. So they came out. So I was actually a guard to begin with, and I started out being a guard throughout most of the play, turning into a wasp, and then just changing into a costume at the end.

And so I was just kind of, a little moment at the end, a piece of comedy, to add a funny little dog, a person on all fours. It was a funny little moment there. So it was a very small part to begin with. But then after some rehearsal, getting some feedback from other people, we decided that maybe we should make it a developed character and add it into the play more.

So now I'm a wasp at the beginning but then straight into a dog costume. And I'm kind of that influencer, hip dog throughout the whole thing. And yeah, I mean, the audience, they get to know him as this piece of relief from whatever's going on in the stage. Like, Doggy Woof Woof here. Hey, guys, everyone. And it's a moment where everyone's looking up, listening to what he's saying. And obviously, he does eat the wrong cheese at some point, which everyone's like, oh, no, Doggy Woof Woof.

Well, I knew how I wanted to portray Doggy Woof Woof. I used to make YouTube videos. So that influencer kind of vibe. And I knew, as long as I had the energy up, as long as I delivered the necessary lines, the important parts, I could just have fun with it, really.

You always want to be able to be flexible with the lines. If you get a line wrong, you want to be able to be flexible with it and not really make it up but just keep the energy and improvise on the spot to give to the audience what the character is.

AFSANA KAZI: So I'm Afsana Kazi, and I play the role of Antimoti in 'The Wasps'. So my character represents the voice of reason. Yeah, basically the one reality, in a way. So 'The Wasps' is very much a piece about how people can get carried away and how insane, crazy things can go down. And I'm the one who comes forward and breaks that apart.

I think just interacting with the chorus, focusing, really, basically, on just how I stand in the piece, how do I convey my authority? How do I convey that I am the voice of reason, I am the one here to break all this craziness apart? Also, just working with the people who I'm interacting with, there is a debate at one point in 'The Wasps'. And just having a bit of one-on-one with the person who I'm doing a scene with, that was really useful. Yeah.

So first performance, I think, throughout this devising process, I was so focused on getting every single line perfectly right. And I learnt for the first live performance that we did that that was not the way to go because someone did drop a line. And I did have a moment where I froze. And I completely didn't know what to do.

And then I think, Gen, our tutor, gave us really great advice. And she was like, OK, well, just focus on being in the moment. Focus on the purpose of your line. And focus on what you're trying to convey.

And so the next performance that we did, another line was dropped entirely. But I had established a bit of a connection with my costar. And we'd been conversing. We'd been going back and forth, spinning around on chairs, going crazy. So I felt comfortable in that situation. And I could just pick it up because I'd established that. And it was easy just to keep going with it.

MAX JACKSON: Hi. I'm Max Jackson, and I play Tomoti in 'Wasps'. It stands for Tyranny and Misdirection Online on The Internet. And he's a bit of a obsessionist. And he has a big addiction to the internet and being very mean and a bully to people.

Like I said, it was pretty easy to play a hateful character. But to make him likable, I thought I could give him a bit of charm. And to do that, I like to relate my characters to people I've seen before or movies I've seen, movie characters. And so I related Tomoti to a character on a Netflix show, 'Lucifer'. And he's a very charming-- he's the devil. He's literally the devil. But he conveys that in a more charming way, where he's mean. He's angry, but he can also show his charming side of him.

So it keeps that balance between angry but also balance it out with the charming. So he's a bit cheerful, but he's cheerful in a way where it's mean. I could relate to Tomoti a little bit, not in the sense that I'm really mean, but I think everyone has an addiction to the internet. Everyone can be guilty of that. So I related myself to Tomoti's character through my-- I wouldn't say obsession but my-- I'd say my eagerness to be on the internet. So that's how I relate myself to him.

It shows 2 different realities-- so one where you think you can get away with it and then one where you don't get away with it. And I reckon this play shows how Tomoti thinks he can get away with what he says. But in reality, you can never really get away with being-- just being a bully online.

I like to speak to myself before I perform. I like to mutter to myself about my character and what it means to be him, to really get me in that atmosphere and get me in that mood. In terms of learning lines and whatnot, I just usually talk to myself in the mirror. It's just that old-fashioned repetition. Whenever I say a line, I kind of photographically take a photo with my eyes. And I just keep rehearsing it to myself until I find the right way to say it.