First Night

Our first night went brilliantly. The performers acted their socks off and the crew surpassed themselves.

I'm chuffed!

Breasting the Tape

We had the dress rehearsal tonight. So my job as director is over (although I'm sure I won't be able to resist the temptation to poke my oar in once or twice before the final curtain comes down on Saturday night).

After today, the production is solely in the hands of the fabulous actors, crew and technicians who do such a wonderful job of running our shows. And I have no doubts that they will do a fine job.

The past few days have been hectic and very hard work. The set (which looks deceptively simple, both on paper and in the flesh) was actually very complicated. The plotting of props and furniture seems to have been more complex than any previous show I've attempted. The lighting plot is more ambitious.

But it's all been worthwhile, because the show has pulled together at the last minute - as it always seems to do - and will (I hope) be a great experience for people to watch.

I've had lots of negative thoughts about this show over the time we've been putting it together - but I think they're mostly unjustified now. Though we will only know for sure in 4 days time when it's all over; when we're pulling down the set and finding out what everyone really thought...

Blimey!

Today we did our tech rehearsal. I know that's a bit of a leap, considering how long ago my last blog was.

We got-in to the theatre yesterday. Five LWB transit van loads of scenery and equipment. FIVE! I need to try and find a Luton van for next week to make it a bit easier.

So yesterday was a very long day for everyone, but we got most of the set up (enough working doors, etc, to do a run on Sunday night). Then back in first thing this morning to finish off more stuff and start tech-ing around 4pm. Amazingly we started our stagger cue-to-cue run only 10 or 15 mins late. And finished around 4.5 hours later.

Not a bad result. We'd already spent an hour or so plotting the lights for Act One, so we managed to plot Act Two as we went along.

I have to say, the actors are amazingly patient and showed great forbearance during this run. And I'm sure that their efforts are going to be worthwhile because the set, costumes and props look marvellous under the lights.

I am slightly concerned that we will have sticky moments on a couple of the scene changes because they are more complicated than anything that I remember our group attempting before - that's the peril of using two revolves in your scene design I guess!

Tomorrow is the dress rehearsal. I'm very confident that the show is going to work and will hang together well. I'm really looking forward to it - and at the same time dreading that it's almost over...

Cracked It

With the help of my ever patient actors, stage manager and props lady, I've managed to fix an awkward scene transition which has been bugging me for, oh, about 10 weeks! And all because I decided that we needed one less door than was really needed. But I think our solution is elegant, theatrical and neat though.

I've also tidied-up some issues with Lisette and the Coachman (much better now) and dialled-back the 'business' with Weinberl and Christopher, which was just not working - mainly because it was too contrived and not truthful. It's looking a lot better now.

One more run to come on Thursday before we get-in to the theatre on Sunday. Yikes! I'm going to try and look at the big picture instead of fussing over the details (as I tend to do). Now we need to make sure we're telling the story clearly.

I think it's going to be a cracking show. I'm getting tired now though and I'll be glad when the curtain goes up on Wednesday. The next 7 or 8 days are going to be hard work...

Ticking Over

A week to go until get-in. We've just had our now traditional all-day rehearsal which we have at this stage of the production. It's a chance to get a couple of runs under our belts, in more relaxed circumstances than an evening session allows, along with introducing the actors to costumes, sound effects, music and performance props for the first time.

I also took the opportunity to plan the scene transitions. Something that will have to be very slick in the show if it is to run with a good pace.

I'm now happier than I have been at any time since we started rehearsing. There are still parts of the show that could be paced-up (and I need to find ways of nudging performance levels up in those places) but I can see that overall we will have a fantastic show when the curtains open in (gulp) less than 10 days time.

The set is (please!) close to being ready - thanks to Alan, our designer, and my Dad, who have both been putting in loads of time during the week. Just a few bits of finishing-off this week - oh, and one major bit of build at the last minute!

This time next week I'll be just about rolling in after 12 hours work in the theatre getting the set in and ready, followed by a run-through with the cast on the stage for the first time. A week! Not long to go now.

Better sell some tickets!

Run run run

From now on we're concentrating on running each act - either separately, or the whole play together. This is the time when the pacing becomes important and we see if the individual parts of the piece we've constructed will all work together. I think they should.

I also sat down with the script this afternoon and worked out how each scene change was going to work. I think that we shouldn't have any problems. There are two changes in Act 2 which are nagging at me a little - there's a lot to move around and, as the play goes on the pace increases, so the amount of time needed to change the set diminishes. If we take too long (say 30 secs instead of 20) then it kills the play stone dead. I'm sure we'll work it out between now and the opening night (which is only 22 days away now!). The fact that I know that it's a potential issue means it won't be an awful shock at the dress rehearsal.

Working through the script like that also allowed me to fine tune a couple of scenes which were giving me cause for concern. I'll work on them with the cast before our Act 2 run on Thursday.

And I did myself a favour by choreographing the walk-down this afternoon. That's the bit after the end of the play when everyone takes a bow. It needs to be slick, smooth and (in my opinion) fair - we've got an ensemble piece and I'm not a huge fan on giving the 'main' actors the biggest applause. So I worked out a nice way of getting everyone onstage 3-at-a-time and then mixing up the line after the first bow. Much fairer on everyone like that, I think.

Sell, Sell, Sell!

Oh, I'm rubbish aren't I? It's been over a month since my last post. I've meant to sit down and write something before now, but I've never known what to write.

Rehearsals have been going very well - characterisations are great, the shape of the play is good, and we're well on the way to getting the right pace.

I've not had the same personal connection to the production that I've had in past shows. I think that's down to my personal circumstances, because the cast and the rest of the crew are putting in a huge effort, as usual.

Whatever the reasons, it's now only 3 weeks until get-in, so we're beginning the final push. From next week on we're running each act, or the whole play, over and over - tweaking the pacing and adjusting everything until it works like clockwork. It's now that the frustrations and hard work turn into something tangible.

Of course, while I'm now feeling much happier with the performance side of things, it's the time that we start the difficult job of getting the lights, sound, props, costumes and scenery over the final hurdles.

And the scenery is a major undertaking: Two (count 'em) 10-foot revolves built and we have to come up with an old-fashioned, working 'cash railway' which will also be able to be hoisted out of the way of the rotating set. In a theatre without a dedicated fly system. Hmmm...

So, a few technical challenges, but I'm confident that in just over 3 weeks, we'll have a show we can be proud of.

In the meantime, click the link over in the sidebar to buy tickets...

Just Let Me think!

So far, we've blocked 3/4 of the play, in just 3 rehearsals. One more and we've got the overall structure complete.

The title of this post is one of the things I say most frequently during blocking rehearsals for plays. Sometimes you find yourself faced with 5 or 6 actors all asking what they are supposed to do next.

In an ideal world, I'd like to be able to work out a play in the same way that one is taught by professional directors and actors. In other words, spend time working on the characters' motivations and actions and let the scene build naturally from there. Unfortunately, as is common in the am-dram world, the standard of talent/training and depth of committment of the actors varies from person to person, making it very difficult to address a play from that viewpoint. Also, the lack of time to rehearse (compared to a pro company) means that the director has to be quite dictatorial in making decisions on movement and characterisation that would, in an ideal world, be more of a group decision.

Having said that, so far the rehearsals have gone very smoothly. Already, the shape of the play is coming together - though doubtless things will change dramatically in places before we go on at the end of May - and most performances are already heading in the right direction. I think the decision to distribute scripts early was the right one.

We've had one small casualty. There was a misunderstanding with one of the original cast over which part she would be playing and when she turned-up to the first rehearsal, I think her disappointment at not playing the expected character was a fatal blow, so she has now pulled-out. Never mind, it meant that I was able to re-cast with one of our actresses who had not been able to take part otherwise.

On The Razzle Set

Had a good long meeting with Alan on Wednesday. He's got a great set design for the play (see photo. More at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ptmoore/sets/72157612202259216/). The pictures are of a preliminary model as he will be scaling it up shortly.

The main feature is the pair of revolves, each 10 ft diameter at stage left and right. These each hold a window and counter. The revolves will turn and lock into various positions giving us a simple way of showing the various locations specified by Mr Stoppard's play.

The outstanding major issue is how we work the money canister contraption which is required for both the opening and closing scenes, yet needs to be absent for the rest of the play...

Casting

Well, it was a bit more complicated than I'd hoped, but I finally got it cast. Although, when I say "finally", I'm writing this 3 weeks after the event so...

After a great read-through we had two audition sessions which were very well attended by ladies, but at which the gents were noticeable by their absence. That gave me two headaches:

1. How to divide up the ladies' parts (ooer!) for the best casting?
2. Where to find some more chaps?

In the end, inevitably, I ended up with 2 or 3 women who I was unable to cast. It's a real shame when you know that they would do a great job in at least one of the other roles, but you've chosen an equally good alternative for that part. But, that decision was relatively straightforward.

For the male roles, I've made one casting choice which I think is a gamble (but I'm keeping my fingers crossed). One of the other roles was also totally un-castable with the people who had auditioned, but luckily another group member decided that they would like to take part in the play after all, so now he's on board, everything slotted into place.

Opinion is always split as to whether to double-cast actors in amateur shows. I understand the reasoning that casting a distinct actor in every role gives more people something to do - and also bring in more bums on seats - but I really find it difficult to justify asking someone to turn up for rehearsals once or twice a week when they only appear on one or two pages. For that reason, I've tried to double-up the cast to ensure that everyone has at least 10-12 pages, minimum, even if their dialogue may be a bit scant. I hope that this is a balanced approach which maximises the size of the cast but prevents people getting bored.

Read-through

So, we had a read-through of the play on Monday evening and it went extremely well indeed.

As with all Stoppard plays it's a very wordy piece with lots of innuendo, spoonerisms, and other word-play gags. These don't usually work well when reading a play cold for the first time. But credit where it's due, the Ottershaw gang put their souls into the reading and we had a great time reading the play through.

Now I'm looking forward to a good turnout for auditions.

[And, of course, not looking forward to the decision-making process that follows...]

Poster rethink

Ok. Two things:

1. I forgot to set up an email notification for comments, so I hadn't noticed when anyone had left remarks here. Thanks though, Jo!

2. I've re-re-redesigned the poster. I can't be bothered to post the picture into here, but you can see the (definitely) final design here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ptmoore/3171262318/