So after months of preparation, the day was nearly upon to test out our tank.
The plan was all sorted; movement and text were set, all we needed to do was the final checks:
Step by Step guide on what action will take place:
1: The Tank Officer sets the scene for the audience
“It’s the First World War on the continent Britain and Germany are locked in a gruelling battle on the ground.
“If only”
Asked Admiral Bacon
“There was a machine capable of laying its own tracks fixed with the means of offences and defences”
Early 1916 Sir William Tritton and William Rigby of Fosters & Co held a meeting with Major W G Wilson of the war office in a secret location here in Lincoln. During that meeting they designed a machine that would change the face of war forever. That first machine was tested on Lincolns Burton Park and the land you see opposite us West Common
Ladies and Gentlemen please step this way to witness the testing of the first tank. “
2: The Tank Officer leads the audience through the weighing rooms curtains and makes them stand inside a black box marked out on the floor, The Tank Crew build the Tank around the audience placing the netting over their heads for roofing.
3: The Tank Crew read out extracts tacked from diaries of those who served in the Tank Corp and those who saw the Tank in battle
4: The Tank officer makes the audience leave the tank and tells them to stand against the wall looking at the outer shell of the tank, while the audience are moving the tank crew, apart from the Officer get inside the tank.
5: The Tank Officer reads out the Men and Machines article from the Lincolnshire Echo, during this the Tank crew interject with dialogue about the tank in battle
6: As the Tank crew finishes of their dialogue and one of the crew leaves the tank, the tank officer leads the audience out of the testing area, while doing so the tank is dissembled
The most important part of our performance is the timing of the dialogue. The dialogue needs to overlap each other as if the words themselves are part of the tanks caterpillar’s tracks moving along flowing within to each other without pausing. After get some constructive criticism from our lecture Michael, we all felt a lot more at peace with what we had created and was looking forward to putting our machine into practise.