Whew... at last it seems the chance is come to get down to settle on one play, one story, one character & what a luxurious thing that is after see-sawing back & forth from show to show for the past few weeks! The atmosphere in the rehearsal room subtly changes a little.. Thankfully this crowd are as funny and generous as ever between scenes, but the difference is what happens when Stefan calls us to action; more signifacant adjustments are quietly made to the characters & relationships as he gives us new ideas to try or lets us continue to fine tune 'problem' moments, giving us specific notes to work through. As we now have the lines set firmly in we can experiment further.
So as we charge through this short week, we run Act One & work bits, then do the same with Act Two, then up the pace to running the whole show once with notes & work then finally on Friday we blasted through the whole thing twice. We often find ourselves ditching ideas or blocking that we have stuck to for weeks, as now the story is becoming more ingrained in our heads and old early days notions are dismissed. The Thursday run was marked by us having a small but high calibre audience of four of our esteemed colleagues from the Dolls' House company who were keen to watch us during an afternoon off - they will not get the chance to see Bedroom Farce until sometime in October otherwise. Having bumped into these guys in the pub the previous night, we all leapt on the idea of having some of our 'other half' sit in to watch a run. This was okayed by Stefan and goes on record as another TBTL rep company first. FYI, rehearsals are very private things for a reason; actors & directors need to feel free, uninhibited & un-judged prior to opening a show & the last thing contemplated by any of them is an 'early' audience whose reactions can upset the sometimes delicate balance. In this case though, we are already working - and getting along famously - with these guys and so had no reservations about admitting them to our hallowed sanctum. I cannot stress how unusual that is. I know of actors who have even banned their understudy from the rehearsal room, never mind other thesps. Heavens only knows why your understudy shouldn't see you at work.. but there is nowt queer as folk. Needless to say it really helped us to hear and see the reactions of our colleagues to the extreme & funny goings-on of Bedroom Farce and we were chuffed to bits to have them there. Next day even more chairs appeared & it was the turn of all the important production folk to sit in and make technical notes between (blessedly) guffawing with laughter & groaning in all the right places.
I think we all feel pretty good about the state of things at this stage; our glorious leader gives clear and zingy notes, buoying us all along with great feedback and encouragement. The only problem at times is genuine hysterics from yours truly as Susannah ( and others-you know who you are!), veering from tears to laughter if any little thing goes wrong. I lost a prop address book at one point that shot across the stage in the middle of a big tantrum scene, only to have to chase after it a few moments later in order to make essential use of it. That provoked much merriment around the room, setting me off in the middle of my tears and misery. Very professional.. must tackle that before inviting a paying audience in!
As I write we come to the end of our last weekend of 'freedom' after week six. So we have been making the most of going out for walks, visiting friends & family and generally chilling out before plunging into the tech week and the dark inside of a theatre. Cinema club, walking club and most importantly, ukulele club might all have to wait a little as we tech our first show, open it then get into double shifts of Dry Rot rehearsals by day & Bedroom Farce performances by night. Don't even think about play number three: Roma & the Flannelettes or Great Expectations!
Looking out of my window, I don't think we'll be missing any stunning weather as we disappear into the dark of the theatre itself at last to ready ourselves for the lovely audience we now need so much to make our play really take off.
Don't let that weather put you off venturing up to Keswick and joining us one night for a rollicking good show!
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