A number of the team have decamped to Scarborough, transferring our production of Cider With Rosie. We are both theatres-in-the-round, so it makes sense to exchange work with each other, and it’s good to have a close relationship with a sister theatre. But the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s space is quite a bit smaller than ours, so we’ve spent two days reworking the play, from cutting down the floor to reducing the scale of the performance.
Last night for our first performance we had a full house, and although it felt a little claustrophobic after the breathing space we had at the New Vic, the proximity to the audience gave the show a real intimacy. The audience clearly enjoyed it, and so did we. One of the nice things about meeting an entirely new audience is the way it refreshes a play. We made all sorts of discoveries. Moments that haven’t been funny before raised a laugh last night; detail that hasn’t been evident before was uncovered in this new space; the actors were inspired by the space and the audience to approach things differently. It was an invigorating evening.
I was glad, too, that with schools and colleges back in the swing we’re seeing a lot of young people in the audience. Last week a group of fifty students from Staffordshire University came as a start-of-term treat; and last night there was a large group of teenagers in too. They were very taken with the show – or at least, with one of the actors, who found himself mobbed by young women when he tried to leave the building after the performance.
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One of the stars of The Wizard of Oz is Toto, so today we held auditions. One of the strangest yet sweetest things I’ve ever done – and I speak as someone who has a real aversion to dogs. Perhaps the cuties we met yesterday have converted me.
Four dogs arrived right at the beginning of the day for a photo call for the local paper. The stage seemed set for a barking competition, but these pooches were perfectly calm, staying quiet and well behaved for the photographer. A black Poodle and a Yorkie with a red bow in its hair cuddled up in a basket, kissing for the camera.
Then we went into the auditorium. "Has he ever appeared on stage before? How does he get on with children? With crowds? With drums?” With the owner’s permission we played a CD full of loud bangs and whistles, sirens and explosions. The dogs seemed unperturbed, though I jumped out of my skin.
Then the main bit of the interview, with each dog introduced to Dorothy herself to see how they hit it off – after all, we’re looking for a match made in heaven. A cuddle and a tickle, then we rehearsed the first scene, in which the dog has to run on stage to Dorothy. To their great credit most of our auditionees managed their entrance, with only minimal biscuit bribery involved. One little one leapt on stage with such verve that it was clear she wants to be star. Another wanted to remain backstage – definitely stage management material. Another was so adorable that none of us wanted to let her leave.
By the end of the day we’d chosen our two Totos, who will appear in alternate performances. So we have two dogs, twenty four children, ten actors and three musicians...that's going to be quite an autumn!
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This is to be a new version of Mozart’s opera, faithful to the music but modernising the text and changing the scenario so that we can more readily respond to the characters and situations. The writer/director arrived with a well developed first draft, so this workshop was an opportunity to hear the text read and work a little on some of the scenes that have been most problematic, making some interesting discoveries along the way.
The Cider With Rosie actors joined us. As actors they have a very different take on the text, and an ability to hone in on one character that sometimes eludes me as a director, whereas I can easily see the arc of a narrative or a gap in a scene. It was such a delight to hear them reading very different roles from the ones I’ve grown used to over rehearsals and the run.
Now the writer/director will go away and rework his adaptation, taking into account some of the discoveries made during the workshop, prior to a second workshop later this year, which will focus on the music with singers and the musical director.
This Don Giovanni is to be set at the end of the nineteenth century, with the Don making a living as a stage illusionist and hypnotist. So there are magic tricks and illusions galore, as well as murder, vengeance, love and lust.
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Laurel & Hardy opened last night and was a real treat.
It’s been quite a tech week – what with flying The Boys, then realising the flying didn’t work and cutting it and replacing it with stage business instead; what with rehearsing the slosh sequence, and trying out flour paste; poster paints; wallpaper paste; water; even mashed potato, before settling on a combination of arrowroot and poster paint that has just the right consistency; what with putting on the wrong sailor suits and accidentally ripping the pockets and sleeves off them, then sending them back to wardrobe to be fixed, then cutting them anyway; what with washing all the costumes and the bedclothes and the wigs every time rehearsals end because everything is covered in slosh…Thankfully, although it’s been a hard week for the team, everyone’s been enjoying the show enormously, so it’s been a sunny, smiley week.
And now the audience is meeting the show, which is a joy. It’s rare to see an audience so enthralled by performers, but they are rather in love with our Stan and Ollie, and are responding vocally and with much applause. It’s going to be a delight to see audiences enjoying it over the coming weeks.
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The technical rehearsals for Laurel & Hardy are a riot. Today I popped in to watch the ‘slosh scene’, where Stan paints Ollie and incites a paint fight. It was very, very, very funny. I began to worry about the audience – is too much laughter bad for your health?
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