Rehearsal 25-28

Slowly but surley
24/3/11 till 31/3/11


well i think we may have a set beginning, of coarse we need to tweak it but we are defiantly at a wake, that wont change. still i think as the piece progresses we will need to define the wake more as it gets lost in the madness, witch is fun to watch but it's not necessarily saying anything. the buffet table is also defiantly in. we have a lot of little scenes that we have place together and we feel like it is a good running order. although i have said that i have my reservations that the piece so far doesn't flow very well. but sometimes it just seems like that when you have made little sections and put them together, you cant be objective you know, hence the importance of the outside eye. we showed our slightly polished 20 mns to kevin and here are his notes.

• Chair organisation at beginning, not good. Change them around. 
• Bit more characterisation at the beginning. What do we do if they don’t shake our hands.
• Find some dialogue, don’t fall back on the pointless chatter. (probably from early talkies.) Makes it a bit less improvisation.
• Close down on the material
• The smile song becomes quite mundane without characterisation.
• Gary’s speech is good. Don’t set up the toast
• When we turn down before the chair dance, its all ASSES, if we want that show them that we want that. Hold it for longer.
• The switch into the descriptions is odd. Still reading into the wake. EDITING.
• Get props for the descriptions. Doesn’t need to be ‘that’ object. Could use the food from the wake table.
• The dialogue feels to staged.
• The text on the string is good. But needs to be bigger!!! You need to show that your helping the audience along. 
• Gary’s song odd choice. It’s a really strange shift, too shooting stars.
• The sign that says applause again jars. Is this about silent film or theatre? (CLEAN THINGS UP)
• Not sure why he should sit and watch us research. Need to know what we are investing in, what are we aiming for.
• Mary and the eyes?? Who is Mary and what about her eyes???
• What is it that keeps bringing us all to the front.
• The wake disappears. What was the point in setting it up at the beginning?
• What is the role of the microphone? What about a megaphone, a cardboard megaphone? Is the technology really important?
• Bring in the wives earlier on. The coat stand is odd. In the words of Kevin “It’s a friggin coat stand” however the image with Anna caressing the coat is really nice. The text here is also really nice.
• Choreography needs to be put in, in the sitting and waiting, if people aren’t in certain scenes.
• White curtain at the back is really nice.
• Should the table go all the way across the back.
• Not getting the French scene. The way the scene is set up the text doesn’t become very relevant. What is it all bout? However Anna and Lisa’s movement on the chairs is really nice.
• Why is Gary exercising? What is Gary’s purpose in the whole piece?
• We are trying to be a bit too cryptic, throughout the whole performance. It’s knowing what to spoon feed the audience.
• What if someone reveals the whole idea on chaplin as a mistake.
• Glenn text needs to get rid of the reference to the ‘smile’ lyrics.
• We all seem to be in the same place.
• Doesn’t know that all the material links to the ‘dead man’
• Who are Lisa and Jess describing the scenes for. 
• Gary Piano Note – “Take your foot off that friggin sustain pedal”
• Our description could be going back to the wake. A lecturn, possibly, something that Lisa and Jess can keep going back too.
• The silent sections seem confused. We don’t know what there, there for. However they are really nice and have really nice moments.
• We don’t know what needs to be set up and what doesn’t.
• Generally we need to pay careful attention to everything. Modern music works well but the audience needs to understand.


A long list to fix... but honestly i think we know e would have to do a lot with it. i think we need to be carful of putting in improvised text in to fill silences myself Richard and gary are very guilty of this. I'm so scared of doing nothing on stage, i like to always be chatting away, and sometimes thats fine but in this piece its just not going to cut it.


I have to admit right now i feel odd about the piece. its much more subtle in its style than what I'm used to making. I'm so used to falling back on funny... and i think i believe to be funny in a piece you must be very extraverted... but i think if we try hard and with an audience this piece can be funny in its own quiet way. although i don't think everything needs to be a comedy i do think everything must be humorous to some extent. Chaplain was a funny man after.