Fittings for three of the Wizard of Oz actors yesterday. Some gorgeous and ingenious costumes, including a wonderful apple tree with her skirts full of apples and a trio of pretty terrifying Ninja monkeys.
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blue/orange has been moving into the auditorium this week, having what seems to be a blissfully calm tech week. They needed only one session to tech the show, rather than the five that were scheduled (!), so they’ve had additional dress rehearsals instead. I’m sure the actors in particular have welcomed that – normally tech week involves starting at 9 and finishing at 11. The whole team ends the week tired, but for the actors it’s particularly wearing, and so hard to sparkle on stage after such a tough week.
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In the rehearsal room again, but this time for the first day of Wizard of Oz rehearsals. What a change from Friday’s blue/orange rehearsal!
We have three of the professional performers with us, and twenty-three of the children. The twenty-fourth child was admitted to hospital last night with suspected appendicitis, so we’ll wait to hear whether she’ll be well enough to take part in the show.
The work starts immediately, with the Musical Director teaching a song followed by the choreographer staging it. The children work incredibly hard, dancing and singing through the day, remembering all their words and moves at the same time as being pleasant and courteous to the rest of the team. I’m so impressed with them.
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A run-through of blue/orange. The company will move into the auditorium next week, but for now they’re still working in the rehearsal room. The three actors have had a lot of lines to learn, and this is their first run-through ‘off book’, but they’re pretty solid on most of it. And for me this run-through is a real treat – I’ve not been in the rehearsal room at all, and didn’t manage to come to the first read-through either, so the work the actors and director have been doing is all new surprising to me. And gripping. As the first act came to an end I wanted to stay for more; it was so refreshing to be intellectually so engaged and alive. It’s a terrific play, and the actors, for whom it’s a huge task, are doing it very well indeed.
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I’m writing this from a perch in the wardrobe department. Today it’s fittings for The Wizard of Oz, with the Wizard himself followed by half of the Munchkins coming in to try on their costumes.
I’m sitting outside waiting for a glimpse, chatting to the wardrobe team and enjoying watching the team work.
Two people bent over workbenches cutting out; one sitting at a sewing machine; one intent on some hand stitching; two in the fitting room with the designer and an actor.
Every now and again the fitting room door opens and someone whisks out, flicks through a rail of coats, selects one or two and goes back in, shutting the door firmly behind them.
From one corner of the workroom comes the occasional click and fizz of the steam iron, but apart from that and the whirr of a sewing machine everyone works in concentrated silence.
The workbench to my left is strewn with crimson pompoms; to my right, a dummy wears stylish grey armour and a bright red tail – the head of the Wicked Witch’s monkey warriors.
On a rail at the back of the room a froth of gauzy petticoats; a queue of naked dummies, apparently lining up for their costumes; on a shelf above my head, a dozen blank dummy heads waiting for their wigs.
And all over the walls and the workbenches are the many, many drawings that the Wizard of Oz’s designer has made to show what each character should look like.
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