Rehearsal 32-37

THE INTENSIVE WEEK


27/4/11 to 03/5/11

So I'm going to write this week up as one long rehearsal... because essentially that is hat it has been. We came back roughly a week early from Easter break so we would have free rein over the spaces. 

This week was great, really great. I think the break from rehearsals over Easter let me really think about what I thought the piece was lacking. I came back a little apprehensive about how this weeks rehearsals will go. I was frightened that I would not find my passion and why with piece... but I can say now after this week I think I have.

As much as I should have probably been mussing over the material we have and generating ideas for material to come on the week or so we had off, but honestly I kind of let myself forget about it. I felt almost guilty first rehearsal back as every one came in talking about how they could not stop thinking about ideas all through Easter. I had thought but I think just because before Easter I was stressing about the performance I needed some time to calm down about it and come back with a new and fresh attitude, I think before the pressure of this being my last ever performance was getting to me.

The first thing we all agreed was that we need to just have fun with it... to stop being so ridged. We have good scenes and text to work with but the way it is structured now is not necessarily the best way, we are not talking about going right back to the drawing board but rather being playful with the good material that we have made to further improve it. When I came into rehearsal and realizes that everyone agreed we needed to play with it, I got really excited.

I realized, no we realized that the idea and method we were using of embodying one of his children was really smothering the potential of the piece. Every two minuets we all had to ask ourselves would Christine or Victoria, or whoever we were do this? It was not the, meticulous questioning we disliked, but we could all see that this meticulous thinking really wasn't helping our piece at all, in fact I believe its stiffening it.

Going through the piece without such restriction is refreshing and we are all putting ourselves into the actions we carry out, this is naturally lifting the piece. Also it think if I have learned one thing in my three years its that although I do not believe in an all encompassing self, its impossible when performing to escape what others perceive to be you. When watching Helen Mirren in 'The Queen' you never one think I'm watch the Queen on TV you think I'm watching Helen Mirren as the queen. I think it’s so important to me that this piece is more about us than Chaplin’s relations... or even Chaplin himself. I think we should use Chaplin’s work and legacy to make our own legacies in this performance. Also the themes of death witch are present, I realized are very poignant because although hopefully none of us will die we will all be leaving the 'uni' part of our life behind to start a new life in the big bad world :) and this performance marks the transition from uni life to the next. 

The main factors we looked at this week was omitting any unnecessary text... we were doing an awful lot of redundant chit chat and where as in previous performances I have made text in the rambling conversational style worked, this piece is far more choreographed ad controlled so we need to be carful about what we say and the way we say it.

The idea of putting in speech bubbles and title boards as homage to silent films is being work shopped I'm not quite sure where I stand on it. I think maybe they could work it on them was written personal facts about us the performers. We shall see how they come but they have not quite found their place yet.

We have also been rehearsing with food, witch makes the piece sooooooooooooo much better, and really you would not believe it. I don’t know why but we all agree that watching people on stage eating is very endearing and we fully intend to play on this.

Our piece this week had developed a real aesthetic that I am new to yet fond of. Its quite surreal with odd jarring gestures and allot going on yet for the most part everyone is quite calm and does nothing o extraverted. I think having so many people on stage means if we all do something even quite little at the same time it is, for the audience, quite frantic, even though individually we feel like we are underperforming (if such things exist).

Because we do want some down time in the piece for us as performers and to give the audiences eyes a rest we need an off stage. The buffet is great and essential to the piece but it does the opposite of provide an off stage it is very entertaining to look at and when the performers are picking at it I found it (when I was the outside eye) quite mesmerizing. We are having our own mobile theatre curtain built. Especially for us. Two of them that we will use to hide prefers behind. Also if they are curtains they fit with our vaudeville theatre theme and also allow us to make grand entrances. The man who is building them for us is called ...Phil Collins :)


Another thing we have finalized this week is the structure of the piece. Its a circle. it begins in wake and ends in the wake and there are many subtle levels in between. i think the image we begin with of all of us in a line making direct eye contact with the audience will be the ending image. 


the end is near now. its hitting us all i think that  we are finished soon... and i think this piece could be quite an emotional one.