The rehearsal room is chockablock with Stuff. The designer’s vision for the play, which comprises twenty-seven scenes in a variety of hard-to-stage places (indoors, outdoors, in transit, at the coast), is a flexible space that can be any or all of those places. Around the perimeter of the stage is an eclectic collection of luggage containing all the props we’ll need. We don’t know what these are yet, but we’ve thrown everything we can into the rehearsal room so that we can find out.
We have trunks, boxes, crates, buckets, barrels and baskets. There is riding tack straight from the stables (it smells it, too); a box of tankards, china cups, wooden bowls, earthenware jugs; a selection of chairs; a collection of wheels; an assortment of ladders and planks; lanterns, candles and carriage lamps. Using all of this sprinkled with a large helping of imagination we will create a carriage, a pony, a gig and a trap; an inn and a vicarage; a fair and a shipwreck.
This week I’m gathering ideas for staging each scene, and the actors will learn the first five songs, work on their Cornish accents with the dialect coach and meet the fight director. They’ll also start to get a sense of the journey their character must go on.
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Tonight, the one and only performance of horror opera Fright Fest.
A group of young people has been working here for a year, creating a horror story with the assistance of our Borderlines practitioner and Artistic Director James Redwood. He’s been working with similar groups at the Regent Theatre in Hanley, and the Garrick Theatre in Lichfield. This week the three grisly tales have been brought together by the production team here at the New Vic.
The opera makes for fascinating viewing. The young people themselves have devised the stories, lyrics and melodies, giving a moving insight into the world of children and adolescents. The recurring motif in all the plays is change – from a child into a doll; from a child into an adult; from a child into a ghost. These young people, undergoing a rapid change from childhood to adulthood, have a heightened awareness of the potential for further change: its logical extreme being a sudden and total disappearance. The ghost story makes a perfect vehicle for exploring such fears.
The Artistic Director has arranged the music and produced a witty, atmospheric score played expertly by four professional musicians. The whole event is well designed and produced, leaving me feeling very proud of our team for their dedication and commitment to all the work we make at the Vic.
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We are poised for next week’s big Youth Operatunity production.
Groups of young people have been rehearsing across Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent, and next week they’ll come together to present a horror opera devised by the young people with the help of directors from the New Vic, the Youth Music Action Zone Make Some Noise, the Victoria Hall and Glyndebourne.
In the best tradition of horror, Fright Fest is a nasty tale featuring sinister children and demon toys – with lots of singing.
The set and costumes have been designed by our resident design assistant, and our wardrobe and workshop teams are hard at work producing spooky things like dolls with mirrored faces.
Our resident lighting designer has been out watching run-throughs; our marketing team has worked with Make Some Noise to produce suitably grisly posters and programmes.
I’m looking forward to seeing it all when it comes together next week.
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Finally, the first night of my first show in my first season at the New Vic.
When I was starting out as a young director I thought first nights would get easier to bear, but in fact I get more nervous every time – perhaps as I gather more experience of all the things that can possibly go wrong! Some directors don’t even make it in to the auditorium on the first night, and I’d certainly love to feel I could avoid it too. But I feel that, having been fine-tuning the show for weeks, it’s my job to tell the team why it worked if it was a success – and to be a support if it’s not.
As it turns out, it’s a great night. We had a good sized audience, including a number of significant people I’d been looking forward to meeting. The actors loved having an audience for the first time, and it was evident that they really enjoyed the show. As did the audience, who laughed in all the right places, applauded all the songs, and clapped deafeningly at the end.
The next day, a good review in our local paper, another good show and good audience. Now I can catch up with all the things I’ve let slide during rehearsals, program the next season, catch up on the next production – oh yes, and relax!
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The first technical rehearsal for The Glee Club last night. We’ve moved out of the rehearsal room into the auditorium for the first time. The technical involves working slowly through the play, adding sound and lights, listening to the actors’ volume, getting used to new entrances and exits, rehearsing quick costume changes, flying in scenery for the first time, working with props.
It will be a busy few days, and it’s often a fraught time, but I’m glad to say last night everyone was pleasant and positive. Today, though, we’ll be doing scenes involving frenetic backstage activity, so I expect stress levels to go up.
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