A furiously busy day for the theatre today. Laurel & Hardy is in its final week of rehearsal, so yesterday the company came in ready for the difficult business of pulling all the loose ends together. Great Expectations started its first day of rehearsal, so there was a new acting company arriving, being shown round the building, and getting started with a read through of the script. And, as if that were not enough, Hull Truck were arriving with Our House, teching in the auditorium – although they’ve been touring the show for some weeks, this was their first time turning it from an end-on to an in-the-round show, so writer and director John Godber was here with the company to effect that change. In the evening I left the building through a throng of audience members, packed elbow-to-elbow in the bar and restaurant, ready to see what’s proving to be a popular show. Tickets were hard to come by before it had even opened – as ever I forgot to book myself in, so I was lucky to get hold of one for Friday.
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The Mayor and Mayoress have been great supporters of the New Vic during their year in office, so we were delighted to be guests at their Ball, and to invite some guests of our own. It’s rare that I get a chance to meet with people who aren’t part of the theatre industry, so it was a refreshing change to be quizzed about directing by a local solicitor; discuss regeneration with a local millionaire; and be dazzled by stories of an uncle who designed the Spitfire. There was a good meal, wine, photographers from the county magazines, dancing and speeches that never outstayed their welcome. “I’ve met some interesting people during my year in office,” the Mayor began, “but none more so than a little boy who came up to me when I was on an official visit to a school. ‘I like your bling,’ he said. ‘Do you live in a castle?’ ‘No,’ I replied, ‘I live in a semi-detached’.”
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A frustrating day today. After an inspiring session working with the sound designer on Great Expectations sound and music, I came back to my office fuelled full of creativity. I’d just sat down to start working on the script in preparation for rehearsals starting the Monday after next, when the phone rang. The actor set to play Estella has just been offered the role of a regular in The Bill, starting the same day as she’s due to start rehearsing with us. Will we release her from the contract we have with her?
There’s no point forcing an unhappy actor to be with us for two months earning Equity basic when we know she’d rather be launching a telly career. But it’s disappointing. I’d been so delighted to find the perfect person to play the role. And now I have to drop everything in order to recast a role – and with only four days to do it. The clock’s ticking, the agent’s are all at lunch, and next week’s Easter.
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Today we went to look at an alternative rehearsal space. Pressure on the rehearsal room we have here is tremendous: it’s the only space big enough for floor cloth for each show to be painted, so that takes priority for one week most months. When it’s not in use as a paint shop it’s the rehearsal room. When it’s in use as neither Borderlines and Education run projects in it, and occasionally – very, very occasionally – we’ll present a small scale show in there.
Next year the pressure will be alleviated by the annexe, which we’ve been fundraising for and looks set to go ahead quite soon. This will give us a purpose-built rehearsal space plus other space, and so we hope that Borderlines and Education will be able to do more of their work on site, and rehearsals will need to be farmed out less often.
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We’re revisiting the show after we were surprised by its reception last summer, and especially by the numbers of young people and families who wanted to see it.
The Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough wanted their audiences to see it, too, so it will transfer there after its run in Newcastle under Lyme.
I popped in to rehearsals yesterday and had enjoyed watching the actors, musician and directors working on it.
They were looking at the sequence where Stan pulls an impossibly long ladder out of a skip, leading to a routine involving playing with the weight of the ladder as it tips and swings, then throwing it backwards and forwards.
It’s a very funny sequence, but it was a real insight to watch the work on it, as the actors became familiar with this new, unwieldy, heavy prop, learning where its centre of gravity is.
They spent some time developing a rhythm that would allow them to throw it between themselves with complete confidence. And all the time, they were looking very precisely at how to make the ladder’s movement less noisy, more elegant; how to make their own footsteps less obtrusive; how to use their eyeline to make the sequence funnier – even, at one point, how to manipulate an eyebrow.
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