First Public performance, Creatives get a little too excited and the merits or otherwise of Director's Notes! Director's Blog 27

Good morning. Its 7am. This is a very late start for my blog thanks to my crashing out for 8 hours last night, which is pretty unusual. But probably also a clue that I have relaxed a bit!

Unlike most of my blogs of the past production week, which have tended towards the long, this morning's is suitably short and to the point. This is in large part thanks to a growing reputation that I can talk for England! (from my Company Manager and actors!)

Those of you who do theatre, or indeed any job or bring up a family even,  will appreciate the importance of specific and qualitative feedback to your team on how things are progressing. Building a show is no different. So note giving is a critical part of ensuring that you produce the best you can, given your collective capabilities. 

The thing about actors notes though, especially when a show is up and running is that the ups or downs they experience from 2 hours of pretending to be other people don't always match with the need of the directors to reign things in, criticise, cut lines, change things!  

Its a head space (and I know as an actor myself) that isn't easy to go into after a heady performance experience and one frankly you don't usually want to at this point.  

Coupled with this high, tiredness, getting out of costume and heading for the bar, notes are a bit like when a mum demands that a child finish their tea, wash their hands, change their clothes, do their homework before she will let them go out to play!

So it is that there is inevitably a little resistance to MORE notes, the subtext reading something like "Can't she just leave us alone now for goodness sake, she's such a spoil sport!"  

I got wind of such yesterday from MJ, who is very good, kind and cheerful and gives me the heads up on the temperature so that I can avoid getting burned. 

Picking this up in the foyer after the show today, I realised that the length of my note giving was under some threat. There seems to be an unspoken rule agreed amongst the actors not to ask me too many questions in case I go off on an analogy or a further forensic analysis of a  tiny moment!

So sensitive as I am to the needs of my Acting Company, I shut up yesterday afternoon - literally, and explored the relative merits of giving notes in mime. It was quite funny but frankly pretty sub-standard as a method. Although the actors enjoyed my holiday of  silence I think the gestural method was possibly pretty demanding for them too and took twice as long. A bit like charades really. Hey ho!

In light of this note-rebellion, I have decided to procede with all my technical notes via text message to MJ, God forbid that we might ever have to speak in person! (Only joking MJ, I like speaking to you in person sometimes!)  And actually MJ liked that solution and so do I. 

However acting,character,emotion, movement, music, singing,cues, managing audience notes for actors are rather more sensitive and are the territory for me, the MD and Assistant Director to manage by negotiation with the Company Manager in terms of scheduling.

These kind of notes may often not be entirely concrete. They may require a creative solution conversation with the actor or actors.They may be to do with a look, a smile, a breath, a correct note, cue or line! 

Unfortunately there is no better way to do this than in a live creative notes time - otherwise there is a real chance that they may get lost in translation.  

Unpopular as these sessions can sometimes be, and I am sympathetic to this, I will continue to note with Phil and Owen until I have no notes left, which is unlikely before Press night, when I consider the show should be fully embedded.

After that it will probably be no more than once a week just to keep the show in check. As Phil will be there for every show he will also pick up any small points for me if he spots them. 

Actors are the most joyful people in the world, and they really do create magic on stage, but as a Director if you are not careful they can inadvertently add a couple of minutes 
(or hours) if left too long to their own devices! 

Even though I might even enjoy the hyperbole too momentarily, there is always a need to watch for the dangers of loss of discipline and clarity in favour of private references or 'in' jokes which are delicious to us, but perhaps not always referenced for an audience. Don't get me wrong, extemporising with the audience is really important as long as its responding to whats happening with them in the moment.

So from now on I will institute five minutes director's creative notes into Phils' warm-ups so that after the show the actors can relax and come down from it. And we can all enjoy a nice cuppa together without the danger of my waxing lyrical once again! 

Anyway - this is a little gentle rant about the job I am duty bound to do in service of the whole quality of the show  we have made for the most important people, our audiences, and particularly our kids in the audience. For this I make no apologies. 

Young Acting Company Two were brilliant yesterday too.

Sam makes me roll around laughing and I have to say did brilliantly yesterday in gesticulating to the very noisy audience to quieten down after Phil whispered what to do  to him from the wings and just when it felt to me that the whole audience was about to invade the stage, so excited they were! 

Sam conducted and then controlled them effortlessly and quietly - a great skill to have at 14! I was really proud of him.

That's it for today- short and sweet. And yes here is a very silly video of the Creative Team filmed rather patiently by Olly. We had set out with the intention to speak to our audience about how we feel about the show going up. I apologise in advance for our silliness, but you see, what I said above also applies to us in buckets full too! I always have to remind myself too!