Tea, toast and blog time again.
Day ten of full rehearsals already and ten days to go before the first Open Dress Rehearsal! And I'm not scared........much.
We have almost got to the end of plotting and setting Act Two, not bad going and on schedule thanks to everyone's hard work and commitment. Owen was on top form yesterday and has very much earned his keep as my Assistant Director as well as choreographer. His intimate knowledge of the ebb and flow of a Panto's narrative arc is second to none, and we both work on the floor with the actors almost all of the time, prodding, lifting, pushing, tickling! Worryingly I think there is a possibility that we both have a version of St Vitus Dance
(St. Vitus' Dance was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It involved groups of people, sometimes thousands at a time. The mania affected men, women, and children, who danced until they collapsed from exhaustion.)
We do have tables set up for us to sit behind and point at actors, telling them where to go - isn't that what directors are supposed to do? That would seem to me to be a pretty sterile way to go about something which is a process of living, breathing, spatial dynamics, sculpting and invention. So it is that both of us move happily amongst the actors, to work with their bodies, voices, character emergence and energy. Owen and I have never worked together before, and as I mentioned in an earlier blog, if asked a few months ago I would have been amazed to find out that we work in an almost identical manner, stepping in and out in unplanned turns and sometimes at the same time with the exact same words to experiment and shape an idea in flesh.
I think I may be earning a reputation for calling on the strangest of exercises and ways to release authenticity and locate character and relationships. I will share one from yesterday at risk of being carted off! I was directing a later scene in Act 2 when the Ugly Sisters prepare themselves for the imminent visit of Prince Charming to fit the slipper to find his princess.
I wanted the sisters to be compelled to traipse along behind their wicked mother, entirely under her control as she prepares them for capturing their prince. We were struggling to find the quality of movement I was looking for, having tried a few options that didn't get us far. And then an image arrived in my head as they often do for a method to achieve this "hang dog" quality I was looking for. So, thanks to a props and costume store filled with an eclectic mix of stuff to call upon in such times of need, I grabbed two long pieces of fabric. Returning to the studio and much to the bemusement of those gathered, proceeded to tie the fabric around Andy and Ian's necks, careful not to strangle them.
What then followed may be a rather dangerous thing to share, for fear of simply confirming the diagnosis! In all seriousness though - you have to use what you can to find the connections and the physicality. So.......... (she says, hiding her face behind a cushion) I asked Barbara (Rubella, the wicked Stepmother) to pull them around the room on "leads" like a pair of huskies. After several rounds of the room, the Uglies were well under their mother's command and through the hysterical laughing that ensued, Rubella removed the "leads" and then as if by magic the "Girls" were able to physicalise the "hang-dog" quality needed for that scene. So there you have it - that's how its done! ( well sometimes). Thanks to Andy, Ian and Barbara for throwing themselves fully into this curious way of working.
Anyway - enough of the rehearsal room for today, apart from to say its great to work all day with the Principals and then to greet the chorus kids at 4.30, as they arrive fresh from school and excited to join the adults. There is a great rapport and energy between them all, and so lovely to see adults and children acting side by side, and then the sound of their voices coming together in the songs. I love that.
Finally today, I am pleased to include in my blog the very first of our Principal's Vlogs. This is Amy, our lovely Cinderella, fresh from A levels and to this, her first professional job. I'll leave her to tell you more..............
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