Sat 21st May - Performance Day!

       
By rights, this probably final entry in the Nettle Roots blog should be entitled "Final Drama Day", but of course that was last week.

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In fact, some of us very keen group members turned up as early as 10am.  Others managed a 1.30 start, but all were keen and eager. 




People turned up in various states, from distracted due to having their car clamped, to hung over, to panicking due to not being sure of lines, or not quite understanding the finer details of the storylines.  Despite all of these things, the group as always had a positive, flowing energy, and there was a lot of mutual support.  The arrival of the rest of the costumes at 1.30pm, as well as the final actor, was the extra boost that the group needed, and despite all the worries and stresses and distractions, managed to get in a dress rehearsal that wasn't too bad.


The confidence boost from a not too bad dress rehearsal was all that was needed in order to get the creative juices flowing, and between 3 and 5.30pm, when the audience started to arrive, further last minute rehearsals allowed the group to really start to loosen up and start playing with their characters.


The final half hour, spent in the dressing room, pacing up and down, learning lines (still), tweaking costumes and hairdo's, suddenly remembering to put props in the right places, and so on, seemed to go on forever, as I counted the minutes until the play started.

We wondered how many were in the audience - a full house at the Hayes is about 40 seats.  We'd seen about 4 or 5 people come in and were fully prepared to perform to 35 empty seats and someones mum and dad.  In the last few minutes one of the group bravely tiptoed out and peered through the stage door.  They came back wide eyed. "It's full!".  Hooray!!  That was all we needed to hear.

When the time for the performance finally came, it was time to finally let go, and experience the moment for all  it is worth.  


At this point there was no point worrying.  Some sterling 


performances were seen.  Actors 
ad libbed in places, guessed their entrances and exits as cues were a little muddled, laughed when a table fell down, and generally gave the most spirited performance yet.  Some of the performances were excellent; We were lucky to have such an eventful script to play with - the party scene was lively, the explosion was loud, there were love scenes, fights, moments of highly charged tension.

All in all, everybody worked very hard and I think that we can call this project a success.  We bought a group of people together, many of whom had not done drama before, most of whom didn't know the Hayes exists.  We used a new script, written by one of the Friends of the Hayes.  


We brought people into Stone who had never been there before - both to help with the play, and to come and see it on the night.


This community project brought together residents and Friends of the Hayes with community members from Stone, Stafford and even Shrewsbury, who all worked very hard to create a group performance in an intimate setting.  The atmosphere was very special.  


Family of the writer bought in snacks and drinks at the end, which were enjoyed by performers, technicians and audience as two hours were spent in lively socialising and networking.

 So, what were the benefits of this project to the individuals and communities involved?  It is difficult to speak on behalf of others, for myself, it has been fantastic to meet so many talented and committed people, from many different backgrounds and generations - many of whom I will be working with again.  The satisfaction of a succesfully completed project is a tremendous confidence booster, and gave me a sense of validity at the beginnings of my career as a drama practitioner.  


I gained an understanding of the Stone community - it's friendliness, and prettiness, the shops, the youth centre, some of the pubs, the train station.  I've made contact with musicians, artists and healers, both in Stone and other areas, and feel part of the Hayes community, both in terms of the house itself, and the extended community, through the Friends and networks.  


I hope that others felt these benefits, and maybe even different ones, and invite all involved to add to this blog if they would like to.  Ask for help with the technicalities if you need it! 

Last drama day ...

Today was the last official drama day, and we finally had a full cast.  Now we just need to learn our words.   I will be in at the Hayes at 10am on Saturday, and hopefully as many others as possible so that we can spend the day brushing up.

I am extremely impressed with the cast for displaying such fortitude today.  the run through of the play took several hours, as people struggled through the script and stage direction.  

But everyone was in extremely good spirits and there were few signs of weariness as two hours after we were scheduled to finish, we finally rehearsed the final bow for the first time.

Getting some costume in was a help. As people donned one or two items of costume it helped to create the picture that we were looking for, and gave a little extra character to the roles. 

We had searched in our wardrobes, our friends wardrobes and the local second hand shops, and now, armed with aprons, gloves, a very small suit, a wig, hats etc, and a lot of artistic licence, we begin to colour in the picture we are creating.


We also had sound for the first time, as Chris came with sound desk and recordings of wartime music, doorbells and explosions, to work on his cues for the performance.  During Saturday daytime, he will also have some big speakers, so that we can really fill the room with sound, especially for the rumble of the explosion, which will be shaking the floorboards.


As always with doing a play, I wished for an extra couple of rehearsals, so that we could really become polished in performance.  As it is, this won't happen, and the most we can hope for is that people have learned their lines more solidly by Saturday.  

However I do think that the personalities of the characters, and the good spirit of the group will shine through and give a good, entertaining presentation.

This week, for all of the crew, there will be much collecting of costumes and props, and I'm sure that this will continue up until Saturday night.

I would ask everyone to watch the costume and props pages on this blog, to check for updates and to edit if they need to make any changes.

9th May 2011 - Starting to look like a play

I am very happy to say that in places, this play is starting to look like it will be an enjoyable experience to watch. Whilst there is technically only one scene, the conversations and action take place between many different cast groupings and scenarios.  This helps to keep the dynamics varied.  Also, as the cast become more familiar with their (many) exits, entrances and stories, and help to smooth moments of uncertainty in our interpretations, the flow of dynamics is becoming smoother.  This means that ideally, the audience experience, through the stories and characters depicted, a range of emotions, and the transition between these emotions is smooth and uncomplicated.  If this happens, the audience will become truly absorbed in our tale, and will hopefully be happy at the end.  If it doesn't happen, we will know because they will have all rushed off to the pub just as we got ready to perform our end of show bow.

At this point in the proceedings, my first concern, with any performance, is not about technical correctness, artistic interpretations, historical accuracy.  The time to ponder on and manage these aspects of our creation is coming to a close.

The most pressing concern to me now, is will the audience be entertained?  People will be travelling quite a long way to come and see this play, and we need to be able to confidently say that the journey will be worth it in terms of enjoyment, and for this kind of community endeavour, also in terms of the social experience.





In this session, we carried on blocking and working with smaller sections of the play.  Focussing also on the part of Rachel, as we have Sue for the first time in a couple of weeks.  It is fantastic to see the characters becoming more developed, and revising our own interpretations of what happens.



During initial readings Rachel's part had come across as quite together and with it, holding the fort in moments of trial and difficulty.  However, we are now seeing that in fact Rachel is far more human than this, and experiences confusion, fear and at times blind panic, as her carefully controlled world gradually falls apart.  Emily looks like she is finding some new strength by the end, as she becomes more assertive with both Rachel and Douglas.  Godfrey is found to be a truly unpleasant man, but there is an element of pathos about his character, and voices feeling of anger, hurt and rejection that sometimes people feel in their own lives but often do not have a way to speak of.  Anthony struggles with the conflict between his childlike need for a parent and the calling of adult independence and autonomy.  Vicky experiences shock and trauma, and looks for comfort in her mother, who has far too many concerns of her own.  Through all of this, family friends, who know part of the tale, and army officers, who know none of it, weave out a small part of their own lives, all affected in their own way by the events that unfold at the House in 1944.

And so the script and characters are peeling from the black on white page and becoming colourful, three dimensional entities, depicting life and some of the many events and meanings that affect us all.

So what next?
One more drama day to go - this Sunday (15th May).  We will continue to work in detail, ideally getting through the whole play. For the first time we will have the whole cast, and so we will need to do an enrolment session for the benefit of the new people - that is exploring the characters and their relationships.  This will take about an hour.  after that we have 3 hours of rehearsal.  I think that we have the sound equipment coming then, so there will be some time dedicated to setting this up - perhaps during the enrolment session?


On Saturday (21st May)  There will be dress rehearsal at 3pm followed by performance at 6pm.  I will be at the Hayes most of the day if people want to come along and work on anything or bring along props/costumes.


Nearly there folks!

Another update, new actors, new plans, new hope

Hi All

Cast update:
John has agreed to play Richard.
Jo has agreed to play Joe (now Jo) as well as Bridget
Peter has dropped out and out of necessity I will take on the part of Godfrey, which should be quite amusing.
Simon has agreed to play Douglas.

"thanks and a big welcome to the new cast members"

As before:
Sue is playing Rachel
Sophie is playing Vicky
Gabi is playing Emily
Dale is playing Anthony
Josh is playing Desmond
Jo is playing Bridget
Billie is playing Louise

Well guys, I think that makes it a full cast. No-one is allowed to get run over by a bus between now and the 21st.

On Sunday we will have everyone but Jason, who is still in India, Jo who has a pre-arranged cricket match, and Billie, who is studying for GCSE's.  John will only be with us in the morning.

We also have made some progress on the sound production, as Chris is speaking with Gavin and a friend who is going to supply some equipment.

Hooray!  progress!!

A New Stage and Blocking the Play.

Sunday 1st May.  No we don't do bank holidays, thankyou.

The stage is there - it is hidden under the carpet...

Hooray!  We have a lovely new stage, built by John the Carpenter.  It is bigger than we expected, but looks fantastic and is extremely solid!  Should last a few more productions after this one, and being made in sections, can be moved to other areas of the room or building.

This was just the right time because it made the main job of the day, blocking the play, much easier. Blocking is (well, my interpretation of the word) when you map out the movements of all the actors during the play, making sure there are no pointless movements, and that positioning, personal space, levels and so on, are all appropriate for whatever the script and action are trying to convey.  This can be quite complicated in places, but is very useful, especially for very dynamic parts of the action such as explosions and arguments.  Blocking also helps people learn lines as they can attach a line to a movement in their memory.

However, before I talk too much about the creative work we did today - I have to confess that at this point in the proceedings, 

I'm not panicking, but ...

I don't actually mind sharing this.  I believe in transparency, on the whole.  But I am a little bit concerned about the fact that we now have 3 weeks till the performance and still not got a whole cast, and haven't even started working on the last scene.  I'm not completely concerned as in wildly panicking, because I know this is a community project, made up of good will, and whatever happens, we have created something very good, out of a not quite finished script and a very small grant, in an extremely short space of time.  

Some really positive work was done with a skeleton cast...

However.  A full cast would be great.  I thought we had someone to play Richard, and was very excited, only to learn that he hasn't actually decided yet whether he can do it.  Firm decision due on Wednesday, fingers crossed.  I've given up on the person who was playing Joe ever coming back, and so am now trying to figure out whether to cut the part out of the script all together (my favoured option) or to find someone else (the scriptwriters favoured option).  I will try the second option, and if that fails, the first will have to do.  Another actor unexpectedly disappeared to Scotland , and so didn't come to this rehearsal, which was quite important as he isn't really familiar with the group yet and group coherence/trust is highly important in co-ordinating the performance and building confidence.  We do, I am very glad to say, have someone to play Douglas, and they will be at the final drama day, which is a week before the performance.  Luckily he is a very dedicated and thorough person and I think if anyone can pull of the part in one week, Simon can.  Pre-arranged absences include that the person playing Rachel was off in Scotland today, the actress playing Bridget is off playing cricket for 2 weeks, and our young 'Louise' is studying for GCSE's and will also turn up at the final rehearsal.  Phew.  That's all that off me chest.

Jayse saved the day by coming in and reading Godfrey's lines, and to his surprise, rather enjoyed himself

 That is the scary bit over - and I want to share it because producing plays and managing this sort of project often has moments when you think - flip, this can't possibly be done.  And if I wasn't quite such a ridiculous optimist, this may be one of those times.  But you know, I am confident.  We have some wonderful people, actors, technicians, family and friends, who are all working together and sharing the experience.  Something good is bound to come of this, isn't it?



We had the sound production person - Chris, who along with Gabi (playing Emily), have a Sound/Dance company (http://www.standingtone.co.uk/).  Chris is busily getting on with planning the sound production, the most complicated part of which is an explosion, including a rumble which will hopefully be felt as well as heard.  Chris coming along is one of those things that wasn't actually planned for, but now he has joined us, I really don't know what we would have done without him.

Haven't got a clue what Sophie's doing here, but she looks very happy about it ...

Josh and Dale rehearsing the explosion scene

 Also on the technical side, Becky came to join us to help with the costumes.  We are going to have to have some budget for these, as there will be some things which can only be brought or hired.  Saying that, we are going to keep the costumes as simple as possible, hinting at, rather that describing in detail, the style of the day.  We have started collecting costumes and props, and have so far got a dress for the character of Vicky, and a rifle.

Just a few more bits and pieces to go.  Actually I got a little pile of very old records today.  Anyone got a 1940s record player?


Speaking of props and costumes - Becky found a very interesting looking website - http://www.northstaffs1940s.co.uk/   I'll give them a ring tomorrow...

At some points blocking the movements felt more like choreography, as all members of the cast had to be aware of each other, and movements had to be carefully co-ordinated.

 The main point in the development of the drama today, was blocking.  We managed to block most of the play, however as we only had half the actors and one or two stand ins, we will have to go through it all in detail again next time.  Still, it won't hurt to go through it again.

Chris, the sound engineer, tells the rest of the cast how the sound
 production will take shape

 This play has lots of different threads of plot and sub-plot, relationships, both public and secret, and twists.  This means that there are often several characters on the stage who have all got very different purposes to being there.  In blocking the play, we have tried to show some of the more subtle meanings and motivations, that are not spelled out in the script, by putting them into the movements.  I won't spell them all out here, because it will be interesting to see if the audience pick them up from the performance.

Yes I know we said no scripts on stage...

As far as the no scripts on stage rule goes, despite the evidence suggested by the pics, the cast were actually very good.  The only people that had scripts on stage were those reading parts that were actually being acted by an absent other.  Saying that, there were times when I had to prompt every word of an actors speech, but hopefully that will have inspired those concerned to thoroughly learn their lines by next rehearsal.

Lunchtime is a very important part of the day, because it is when everyone gets to spend some time relaxing, enjoying the garden, and sharing a meal.  The best way to get to know each other.  We do talk about the play, but it is also an opportunity to share personal stories, ideas and experiences of other projects.

New members, old members and temporary helpers all having a tea break