August 2010 Archives

As we enter our last week of rehearsals with NYT, there was much hubbub and whispered mutterings as all the food and cooking equipment arrived in the rehearsal room. And for some strange reason which I can’t quite fathom just yet, it’s absolutely fascinating to watch people cook.

Not only does the sight of bright green coriander and fresh fruit and veg make a striking addition to the set, but the sounds of sizzling eggs and the smell of onions frying are really rather marvellous, which together with one of the most inventive costume designs I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with and a great script, make for an exciting build up to opening night.

It’s not been without its fair share of pot holes though, with a hefty roll of red tape thrown in by some frightfully forward thinking licensing folk. With 41 young people ready to be ‘andy wiv a rollin’ pin we’re now looking forward to a slightly overwhelming tech week before we open the show for previews next week. Relish will be the first (and indeed only) play to be staged at the Tramshed and so the whole experience is really quite something.

I may have done something this week that I shall live to regret. After much soul searching and deliberation, I have decided to part company with my agent.

This, given the fact that ‘Hecuba’ is coming all too quickly to an end and my Equity diary is looking distinctly void of theatrical engagements for the coming weeks and months, may be extremely silly. As breakups go it was remarkably amicable with lots of well-wishing for the future from both parties, and I know, for me, it was the right thing to do; but as with the collapse of every relationship I am left with those nagging thoughts; ‘should I have given it more of a chance…’ and ‘can I do it all by myself?’ Gosh, it’s scary going it alone.

It’s funny that when you’re at drama school, the showcase is the be all and end all. Although you are told again and again ‘it is a marathon and not a sprint’, your training is geared towards that final showcase, which is in turn geared towards obtaining an agent. What did we think would happen then? We would sit happily on our ‘I’ve got an agent’ laurels and walk into the National? Of course we didn’t… but obtaining the agent, it seems, is the first step in that marathon race.

It appears to be a bit weird at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year, with venues announcing better ticket sales than ever before. However, the more companies I speak to are saying the same as me and that is this increase is not reflected in the average Joe’s ticket sales.

We at Sell a Door Theatre Co are plodding along nicely. Certainly certain shows could be doing a lot better than they are, but I put this mainly down to certain aspects of our marketing campaign. The show that is currently keeping our Fringe Season afloat is our magical production of The Railway Children.

We set ourselves a huge challenge with this piece, not only with scale but also we were very keen to include youngsters from our young performers academy Open Doors. This far we have had three very talented young actresses with a fourth to arrive in the next few days to take over role of Phyllis.

Praise for our ‘Railway Children’ has come from all over; press, audience members, our venue and of course some exceptionally proud families. They are truly professional and every time I see them offer a performance to rival their older, more experienced fellow actors I cant help but feel a swell of pride.

Let me make this very clear - I made my “6 weeks of 13 hour days” bed and so yes, I must lie it. And I shall happily do that, most probably splayed across the entire mattress dribbling slightly, but it was a bit of a body shock (albeit a pleasant one!) returning to War Horse on Monday after a week off.

As I said last week, instead of packing my black Endurance Speedos and jetting off to Marbella, I headed to the north of London to begin rehearsals with NYT. And this week I’m splitting my time between the mass collection of pots and pans in Holloway road and the wicker delights of the New London, discovering that being so busy during the day is actually giving me an unexpected energy boost for the performances in the evening - that, or I’m totally over tired and going a little bit doolally. Either way, this week has already been jam packed with one offs and lots to talk about.

Having co-ordinated my holiday to coincide with Into the Woods opening at Regents Park - yes, I planned ahead. Yes, I’m a geek - it was an absolute treat to go back to the park and enjoy such a wonderful production. Whatever your thoughts on the show itself, and I’m one of those who have several reservations with it, Tim Sheader and Liam Steel have done an outstanding job of bringing the show to life. With a stunning cast led by the always divine Jenna Russell, the show feels right at home nestled into the looming branches of the Open Air theatre and with a glass of bubbly in hand, I grinned like a Cheshire cat at the opening narration and cried during the finale. And any show that has the power to leave you wanting to be a parent is a pretty marvellous thing in my book.

My word, has the last week and a half gone fast. I totally underestimated how busy I would be.

It all started back on the 30th when our ‘man with a van’ shows up two hours late resulting in us not being able to access our set from a lock-up in Wimbledon and with the main van leaving Essex at 6am the following morning, there was nothing left for us to do but to but to construct a brand new station platform for ‘The Railway Children’. Three hours, one trip to B&Q, £150, one dominos and a twenty four beers later we had a brand new, if not heavy, station platform.

Departing the next morning we stopped off in Cambridge, Huntingdon, Liverpool and Stirling, a mammoth journey I recommend no-one ever takes again, we eventually arrive in Edinburgh on Sunday Morning.

The C Venues technical Staff were exceptionally helpful, assisting us with seven shows worth of set and costume and props. You then discover at this point that you would quite happily sacrifice the platform due to the several flights of stairs you begin to encounter.

This week I find myself back in a very familiar rehearsal room in north London, with an enthusiastic cast of 41 as we begin rehearsals for James Graham’s new play, Relish with the National Youth Theatre. Although officially on ‘holiday’ from my day job, and despite being called a “total cretin” for not hotfooting it to Ibiza or some such tropical delight, it’s been great to get back and work on something new with the young and energetic NYT members.

And here it comes, the great, big but.

So, everyone I know is getting married. First of all a big congratulations to the new Mr and Mrs Richard and Sarah Neale on their beautiful wedding day on Saturday. More deeply heartfelt soppiness goes to the newly engaged Laura Thomas and Richard Dreyer, and to Vicky Bell and Matthew Stubbs and to all the other folk that are ‘making it official’ and proving that the creative types can get their act together and grow up too. Best wishes and all that.

Besides being overwhelmed by this happy epidemic, which seems to be rife amongst the theatrical twenty-somethings, the other big news is; Hecuba opens! Huzzah!

Goodbye Dorothy. Hello Believers. If it’s not one all singing, all dancing reality show, it’s another and the current Sunday night offering from Five continues to baffle me. It must be difficult to navigate a live TV show and I appreciate this is Emma Bunton’s first attempt but it might as well be broadcast from the Yorkshire Moors amidst gale force winds and the odd shower. I want to throw something at the screen when she repeatedly interrupts the judges with “Thank you judges” as the voice in her ear tells her to move things along; yes the judges ramble on but perhaps someone could give Emma a few tips on subtlety and how to play catch up if needs be later on in the broadcast.

Last week I was encouraged to be more supportive of those performers on the show who have enjoyed professional training. And at this point I should say there are several friends of mine on the show, and I certainly wish them all the very best and hope they get something positive from the experience. My support is of course extended to all the contestants, and I just hope the show itself puts you out in a good light.

This week’s edition saw the Bridgwater Show Choir (BSC) take to the stage. Would I be supporting them just because I was born there? No. I’m sure Bridgwater Football Club are great but I’m afraid they don’t get my support so easily either. In fairness no football club does. But I did take the time to watch the BSC Don’t Stop Believers video and then fast-forwarded to their live stint on Sky+ (after watching the Sondheim Prom… twice).

Yes, it was camp as a box of tutu wearing frogs and the pink scooters were possibly a contributing factor (perhaps their sole purpose in fact as they did little else) but do you know what, they did themselves and Bridgwater very proud! Easily the best dressed group so far - fun, simple, suited to their ages and they were together and sounded good. If anything let them down it was probably the song choice - after all, there are only so many times you can sing “wuh oh, uh oh oh” before it grates, even in harmony.

However, what followed was altogether more farcical. Duncan ‘that one from Blue’ James, recently seen as Warner in Legally Blonde thought the performance was “too well rehearsed”. There are times when you can rehearse something until it becomes stale but that wasn’t the case here. They had enough energy to power most of Minehead with extra halogens for Butlins; they were bouncing off the walls for goodness sake! If only we could levy the same criticism at Duncan’s recent west end stint.

Brace yourselves…. because then came the Don’t Stop Believing Supergroup (soon to be trademarked I believe). The basic idea involves Joe Public belting out a pop hit in a travelling pod and each week 3 new members will be added to the Supergroup, with current ranks standing at 15. Again, I know a few people in the group and they know that I think they’re wonderfully talented in their own right but this just wasn’t pretty.

There was questionable raincoat stripping, wardrobe disasters left, right and centre and ‘riffing hands’ all over the place as each new soloist seemed to want to out sing the previous group member - hardly a group and currently far from super. And then Emma Bunton commends (most of) them for not tripping over their brollies. I wonder if she saw the cast of Legally Blonde with their skipping ropes? Or the basketballs in High School Musical? If you can’t work with the prop, get rid of it.

My better side is slightly more sympathetic as they have been thrown together quickly and so hopefully as the show progresses, so will they and it’d be great to see a real Supergroup, who sing well and can dance slick choreography. Best of luck to them I say and I hope it comes together.

This week also saw me meet with the director of Bells Are Ringing for a quick chat about the show and plans for rehearsals. I’m already excited and with a great cast in place it looks set to be a lot of fun but as I’ve ranted about the Believers for so long, I’ll talk more about the Bells next week.

And I’ll leave you with the words of that loveable rogue Fagin, cheerio but be back soon.