Realising a Metal Harvest

Concept artwork for the original,
unrealised production

After the chaos of so many shows last year, this year has so far been quite straightforward.  A few productions, one a revival, and mostly I'm editing and shaping work, not actively writing.  But even so, I'm mostly reacting to events, putting shows together at the last minute (i.e. with a few months notice) rather than properly planning ahead.  There was a time when I planned 18 months ahead (even if not everything happened as planned - see the Seldom plan in posts ad passum) and could get my ducks properly in a row.  Here starts the planning.

One of the shows I didn't do last year was titled Metal Harvest and I was gutted that it fell by the wayside - it's a simple show in many ways, but it's a bitch to get right.  It's a storytelling/character/music piece about the life cycle of a shell from the First World War.  I was going to be performing it on the 100th anniversary of Britain entering the war, but it makes more sense to be doing it a hundred years after 1915 - an hundred years after the shell crisis and big changes to how munitions were created.  All sounds a bit dry, but the shell is a pretext to tell the stories of those who handle it.
And then there's the music.  On Wednesday I had a meeting with Richard Fawcett, who's composing and arranging the score (as well as playing a mean fiddle), and I'm glad to report the show is on - and it's already sounding really, really good.  We've worked together on music for a couple of shows now - the last being for The Passion which would have been a completely different show without the musical interplay.  We've been talking about this show for almost eighteen months now and for the first time I've been able to present him with an outline text, so that his musically ideas can now fill gaps between scenes, create physical sections, create atmospheres and push me to create new words.  To say I left feeling fairly buzzed would be an understatement.
I then walked down the road to the Quay Theatre and pitched the show to the coordinator and we have a date for a first performance penciled in (subject to fate etc.)  I'm hoping to run a limited tour after this first show, taking in some of the venues I've toured with Everyman, as well as any other places that come our way.  I'd also like to fully document the show, video and audio, so that it has more of an afterlife.

At the same time as rehearsing this show, I'll be finishing off work on the Chester Mystery Plays for my Before Shakespeare project - and hopefully doing some writing.  I've also got some work for another company, but that's not creative per se, so doesn't eat into my time in the same way.

That covers 2015 - now to sort out 2016 - but I can't do that till I see how well the Everyman tour goes.

Student Tryout

On Friday I did wend my merry way to the University of Essex to perform The Summoning of Everyman for some first years.  This is the second time I've done this and was a great way for me to tryout the show before the tour starts in earnest.  Here is a video of my time there...


"Really interesting and clever take on this play, that I first had hated!" *

[*All quotes are feedback from the students after the performances.]
I performed the show twice and generally talked about the play between times, so it was a full on few hours.  It was useful in two ways.
1. I remembered how to work the show, because it's all about contact with the audience and that's really hard to rehearse in advance.
2. I could test out some of my newer ideas about staging.  Some of which worked, some didn't.

"Intense and insightful, a true reckoning."

A student audience isn't the same as a regular audience - they are there to learn, as part of their course, as the play is one they are studying.  They are not necessarily there to enjoy themselves and therefore my job as performer is harder.  I had to draw them into the play - when the absurdity of what I am trying to do is at its most apparent.  Here we are, in a relatively clinical performance space, with few props / lighting or setting to create mood.  I then start pretending to be, not just one person, but many - using different voices and actions.  It is less about the suspension of disbelief, more the suspension of the absurd.

"Really creative production that makes difficult language incredibly accessible."

Sometimes the show worked well, the connection with some of the audience was clear and strong - sometimes I felt a fool, as others looked away, or were generally not connecting at all.  By the second performance I was tired and made a few simple mistakes that were not coverable.  You expect to go wrong occasionally, but it's easy enough to save.  But I moved someone into the wrong place and started talking to the wrong person.  It is not a mistake I will make again.  But that's why we do tryouts.

"I loved the audience participation!"

There is another dynamic in play - these are drama students, so unlike the regular audience they will all (by and large) want to perform more than watch.  It is usually the opposite for civilians.  So there isn't the same focus born of fear, there isn't the same anticipation and worry about what happens next.  Also, those who weren't chosen to be actively involved seemed less attentive - perhaps disappointed not to be one of those getting up and about.  Again, I suspect with a regular audience this is not the case.  This also changed the dynamic of the room - because inattention is contagious.

"I understand it better."

I was testing out a new lighting arrangement - which palpably didn't work in that space.  That's going to change between now and the tour.  I also had a brainwave at the beginning of the piece that I might put in.  What did work very well was the enforced silence for the audience before the show began.  As people entered they were asked not to speak and follow certain tasks.  It was commented that I was like a priest with his congregation - which is has positive and negative sides.
I didn't use any music to open the show - though I plan there to be something for when I start the show on tour.  The event lives and dies on the atmosphere and the commitment of the audience.  What I do with them and the text then becomes greater than the sum of their parts.

"Perhaps a little more physicality would make it more visual."

I'm caught in a double bind regarding physicality with this show.  If I do too much then I'm spinning on a sixpence, jumping from one attitude to another like a nervous tick.  I didn't get the balance right for these performances, and that's where I'm focusing work over the next few days.  Not bigger, but clearer.  And I need to clearly plot my eye contact, I got a bit lazy in some places.

All in all, it was a good first stab at the show - on Thursday I'm doing a home performance of the play - and I'm looking forward to seeing what new things happen then.  Full details will follow.  But for now - here are all the Good and Bad Deeds I collected on Friday from the students.  Mostly they are generic things - I didn't make it clear that I wanted something specific from their lives - but some are telling.

Bad Deeds:  A preponderance of lying and cheating, plus laziness and a clear confession to the consumption of illegal substances confirms these are students.

Hurting others / Hurting or hunting (not quite clear)
Adultery / Committing Adultery
Cheating x3
Lying x3
Murder / Killing
Rape
Sexism
Stealing x2 / Theft
Vandalism
Drinking in excess
Laughing at others / Making others feel bad
Quarreling without purpose
Ignorance to those around you
I have consumed illegal substances (a student? really?)
Lazyiness (sic)
Frord (sic - presumably Fraud.  Bless.)

Good Deeds:  Always less amusing and more worthy, by the nature of things.  A lot of focus is on outward demonstrations - caring for people, giving money, as well as support.  A few are more internal, largely about combating selfishness - which is reassuring when so much of our culture is about self.

Caring for - someone who is unwell / others
Being kind to others
Being polite
Helping X2
Love thy neighbour / loving the people around you
Charity / Sharing what you have / Helping others in need / Helping others / Helping someone out financially / To help those less fortunate than yourself
Give money to a homeless man / Helping the homeless / Giving money to the homeless
Being there for someone
Thy to help others and focus less on your "self needs" / I have put others before myself  / Selflessness
Being honest
Listening
Embracing a persons imperfections
Making someone / making other people / making people - smile : ) / Cheering up a friend
Helping a person with the stairs

A Reckoning in a Little Room

It's been a fraught few days as I get down to the nitty-gritty of rehearsing Everyman.  Ironing out those little mistakes (the same mistakes I was making 18 months ago!) and generally feeling like I'm not getting anywhere.  I am, it just feels sooooo slow...
Tomorrow is the last chance to get it right before a double bill of performances to students on Friday morning.  And they've read the play (in theory) so have a far higher chance of noticing any cock-ups.  Tomorrow I will also make my final choices regarding props, costume and additional bits and bobs.
That said, for all my due diligence for Friday, I've actually been mostly rehearsing the show for a performance next week which is at someone's home.  These rehearsals I've been calling 'a reckoning in the little room' - i.e. I've been rehearsing as though no one can move.  It's been interesting.  The only real problem I've had is for this exercise I've been rehearsing in my study, which means I constantly fight the part of my brain that's going - "ooh, I haven't read that book in a while".  Stupid brain.
Anyway, here's the first teaser trailer for the show - I've got material for two more, if I can find a moment to edit them.  Enjoy.  It's short.

Everyman Daily Report: 9

First of (hopefully) many publicity shots

Today went wrong very early on.  Having realised I have a doctors appointment at the end of the week I had to have a blood test this morning - which meant a visit to the new Community Health Centre - so called because they built it where there is no community whatsoever.  This took out my morning, because getting to the middle of nowhere from another part of nowhere takes a while, plus the queue took an hour to get to me.  (This was an improvement from the last time I was there, and the chairs in the waiting area have been re-positioned in a more sensible fashion - i.e. facing the general direction of the number counter.  And the nurse was lovely.  The machine coffee was reassuringly undrinkable.)
I then didn't quite get my connection to my first flyering site, plus I realised I'd forgotten various parts of my flyering kit for the afternoon and so gave up on the day as a bad job.
On the plus side - and after this massive whinge (sorry) it's a BIG plus side - I then spent the rest of the day working on the play.  I'm now much, much happier with progress.  I was starting to get the impression that progress was on the slide.  I was behind on my schedule, I hadn't got up and moved the show much and, though I was only a little behind, I was getting really worried that I wasn't giving enough focus on the show - too much on the process of putting it on.
I also took some time to sit and think about the aesthetic of the play - of imagery and what to do with the opening.  I've gone through so many different openings for this production, it's getting silly, and I need something to work against the venues I'll be playing.  I need to create atmosphere in spaces where there often will not be one, to create a sense of anticipation from the very start.  This is tricky.  And I'm still working on it.
Another thought that I liked today was to do something more with my collection of good and bad deeds from the previous shows.  I've still got them all, and I think something, some work of art to add to the art of the play, could be created.  Sketches in progress.
Also, I want there to be a comprehensive logic to the symbolism of the play - for the few props to add to the understanding of the play.  I'm struggling in some parts - and I don't want to abandon the use of props halfway through, I prefer an all or nothing look.
But props are a discussion for another day.  Tomorrow I'll hopefully get a few more flyers out and continue working on the close of the play (another discussion for another day) before I act as question master for a quiz.  As you do.  And, at some point, I'll finish editing the video shoot from the other day.  And... and... and...
It's nice to be busy.

Everyman Daily Report: 2

Today I focused on the second quarter of the play - where Everyman asks for someone to go with him on his journey to death.  There are three/four characters he encounters - Fellowship (his friends), Kindred & Cousin (his relations) who are two people in the original, but combined into one in this version, and finally his Goods (his worldly possessions).  These are all external elements of his life, people or things outside of his person, who he is deluded into thinking he can take with him.  These rejections prepare us for the second set of delusions in the second half of the play, where he hopes to go to the other side with all his faculties - his senses, strength, reasoning and beauty.  But that's future.  Today, just externals.
As external characters they are mostly straightforward - your friends and relations are real people and (though generalised) are not abstract.  They tend to talk to you - so the dialogue is natural, fast, flowing - even funny.  Your Goods don't tend to talk to you - but the character of wealth is straightforward, deliciously slimy and evil.  To relearn this lines - or at least reacquiant myself with them - is great fun.  I don't think I made as much progress with the retention of lines as I did yesterday, but some solid groundwork was done.
In fact, I was surprised how much of what I went over yesterday had stuck - I briefly ran over my lines as I went for a walk this afternoon - here is a pointless video of the opening speech.

Tomorrow I'm out and about all day, looking at venues and sorting out the last paperwork for the tour dates (see blog post below) so I'm going to focus my spare time into going over the line learning and text work of yesterday and today.  If I can be fully books down on the first half at the end of the week - confident and strong on words - then real work can happen next week.  Huzzah!

First Rehearsals - Everyman Lives

Back in  the fray, rehearsing The Summoning of Everyman.  It was a sad day, as I put away my old script and printed off a new one. The old script had been with me since the first run two or is it three years ago, but is now so moth eaten, so covered in changes and scribbles that it must be archived off and put to retirement.
The King is dead, long live the King!
Let's not get too sentimental, it's a script and even this new version, tidy as it is, isn't as important as the performing of it. This week will mostly be about the words - relearning them, retooling them, getting to a stage where I can get on my feet and move.  The tour doesn't start for seven weeks, but the first one off private gigs start in less then four (dates still available for private performance, do get in touch) so it's going to be a bit of a marathon from now on. You can follow my progress on Twitter, I'll be posting regular updates.
And tomorrow I'll be posting a full tour schedule - so you can book your tickets and tell your friends.
It's all rather exciting!

Audience Participation

Audience's, it has been noted, are different every night.  You can go out one night and find a warm and friendly reception and the next feel like you have just insulted everyone's mother.  I have been on the receiving end of many a shifting audience; it is one of the hazards of storytelling (like stand up) that the relationship with the people in front of you is even more direct and important that in traditional drama - but I have not seen such a shift in audience and performance conditions as extreme as with last weeks community production of Much Ado About Nothing.  (Which is almost certainly my last show of the year, as I'm planning a bumper crop of activity next year - news on this from future Robert.  BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE COMING VERY SOON!  Sorry for the capitals, I'm a bit excited.)

Firstly, this was an open air production and that adds an additional weather factor to the equation of audience reaction.  An audience in sun reacts very different from the drowned rats in the rain.  

Secondly, even if we say so ourselves, it was a damned good production - so we're not dealing with a restive audience that wants their money back.  The audience had a good reason to stay and enjoy and react.

First Performance:  If this were a scientific test I would call the first night the control.  The audience, a little slowly at first, reacted with laughter, nothing extreme; there were no highs and no lows.  The weather was perfect, sunny but not too bright, warm but not too hot.  We had a good solid baseline from which to pitch the show.  We did notice that the callousness of the British public was in full force as they laughed good and loud at the suggestion that Benedick "Kill Claudio", but this was to be a feature of the run (except the last night) and people can be such bastards.

Second Performance:  Weather wise the first and second nights were very similar.  The audience was quicker off the mark, laughing with good force from the beginning.  However, warning signs of what was to come were apparent.  Being outdoors in a lovely private garden, the audience were able to bring picnics and sit in comfort from an hour or so before the show started, so there's a fair amount of milling about from the audience and the odd bit of bumping into people when waiting for a cue.  Waiting to come on (in a Jeep no less) Don Pedro, Signor Benedick and I noticed that someone was taking a leak against the shrubbery in a corner of the garden.  About ten foot away from the public toilets (unoccupied).  Someone in the audience had obviously brought a well stocked liquid lunch to picnic on and was past the point of noticing minor things like an actual toilet facility.  It was the shape of things to come.

The first half went well and I was rather looking forward to the second.  As Claudio I don't get involved in the comedy of the second act, so I could focus on character and not worry about the timing of laughs.  How wrong I was.  The kindly weed waterer of the first half had come with a party of friends, all of whom were on a similar prescription of firewater.  In their eyes the audience was very much part of the performance and their job was not just to laugh, at whichever line they liked (funny or not) but also to introduce to the script additional witticisms of their own.  

My first encounter with this new situation came out of the blue in 4.1 - a scene where I denounce my bride at her wedding as a whore.  I had a cock-up backstage and (by dint of a brainstorm) couldn't seem to get the Sam Browne of my costume on until, literally, the last second.  So, I followed the priest on stage with heart pounding and somewhat unready (though it was kind of right for the emotional state of the character so I rode with it).  My first line would get a laugh, this I knew.  It's a laugh made of the unexpected bluntness of a man saying "No" at whether he wants to get married at his own wedding.  But I didn't expect the uproarious laughter from the well oiled rump who were sitting directly in front of me.  Or the muttering.  Or the continued laughter, where none should live.

Fate then intervened to make things worse.  Just as I was about to denounce my bride-to-be dishonest, my sword fell off.  More laughter.  I covered the fall with a quick pick up and brandished the sword throughout the scene with purpose.  It was at this moment that I'm all rage and really show off the nasty side of Claudio's character.  Our friendly spirit suppers started to boo and hiss.  It was pantomime.  I even had a comedy sword.  Bugger.

At this point I thought we might be able to put a halt to this section of the audience.  I've worked difficult crowds before - usually you can give a few pointed stares, give a bit more attack and speed up the text a bit so that they don't get a chance to jump in with retorts.  After a while they tend to step into line.  But this was open air, not indoors; they were throwing lines in over dialogue, not between it; and they were pissed, most audiences - even difficult ones - are not.  When Hero (my ex-bride to be) fainted one voice piped up "I'm a nurse".  And I knew we were doomed.

The next hour or so was hell.  Pleas were made by the owners of the garden to quiet them, to no avail; the surrounding audience told them to shut up, nothing.  The rest of the cast were having just as hard a time of it and were really upset that great scenes were being ruined.  I became incredibly angry.  It wasn't that they were ruining the show for me (they were, but it's all part of the job) but that they were ruining it for the audience.  I was also angry with myself for letting it get to me so much.  I became aware that everything I might do would now be seen as comic.  When I re-entered with the sword there was a burst of "there's the comedy sword" laughter, and any move I made made the sword wobble in what was now an hilarious fashion.  Control was lost - and I hated it.  It was also at this juncture in the play that one of this merry band of revelers left to find a bush in the garden to do a shit.

The only good thing to come out of this sorry farce was due, not to us as performers, but to the shape of the garden.  Luckily only half the audience had their evening ruined - the other half couldn't hear them because of the nature of the acoustic.

Third Performance:  Hot, hot, hot.  It was a matinee and the sun was shining.  The audience was a bit subdued, they didn't have the energy for big laughs.  Or, in some cases, consciousness.  You expect a few people to nap through a show, but when it's a picnic you can't miss 'em, because they roll out a blanket and lie down.  There were six people sprawled out at one point, but we didn't mind.  Unlike the night before, they didn't do us any harm.  And I'm sure they will claim they were "listening".

Final Performance:  Sun, cloud, rain, RAIN, rain.  The run up to the second show of the day was filled with prayers to the gods of rain.  Rain had been expected in the afternoon and it had been positively tropical, so hopes were high that we might, just might get away with a light shower after the interval.  We started in relative sunshine, soon obscured in cloud.  The audience were quick off the mark, reacting well.  The cloud got thicker.  Then, thirty minutes to the interval, the first spots.  It was gradual enough to give the audience time to slowly get waterproofs on.  The ushers went round with ponchos during the song in 2,3 - which was perfect timing as it doesn't really matter to the play, it's just a random song.  Transition from dry to wet was achieved without ruining the audience focus.  By the end of the first half the rain was well underway, though not torrential.  The interval was shortened, much to the general relief.

We lost the odd audience member, but it looked like more because many people headed for the trees at the edges of the space.  In the second half it all went a bit King Lear.  By the time we finished the wedding scene the rain was pouring down and the microphones giving us support were out of action.  The note went round - bellow.  I did 5,1 in the finest traditions of the Brian Blessed School of Acting - though afterward the rain lessened and the mics came back online.  Still the audience sat there, still they listened, still they laughed.

I have to say, the rain became the second half.  It had been odd playing some scenes in the afternoon in sunlight - as one cast member said: "It doesn't have that Gothic intensity".  In the rain, those dark scenes came into their own.  And by God, it's amazing how quick everyone is on cues when they really want to get back in the dry.

At the curtain call we applauded the audience for staying.  They didn't laugh as much as they might have done in the dry, but they were focused on the action.  And you can't ask for more from an audience.  You really can't.
And as we walked off the stage, the bloody rain stopped.

Ill Acting

Regulars to this blog will have noticed I've posted next to bugger all for months.  This has been due to a creeping illness which, as the consultant said to me the other day, "was moving in the direction of mortality".  Frankly that's an exaggeration, but I wasn't well.  Over a year ago I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which is - bluntly and literally - a shitty disease.  I have had to cut back on much of my theatre work because making theatre is stressful and stress makes me ill-er.  So, I've been focusing on writing and small scale projects and have been winding down on bigger commitments.  (That said, I won't be sitting on my heels, there will be new stuff coming up in the next eighteen months, possibly more new material than I've managed in the last year or so, just it'll be on a smaller, more virtual scale.)
Anyway, the last big commitment was a community production of Much Ado About Nothing in my local town.  A last chance to play juvenile lead (Claudio) before I'm too long in the tooth, so it fitted nicely.

And for the whole rehearsals schedule I've been as sick as a parrot.  Not just the usual symptoms of my unhappy colon, but a whole smorgasbord of sick.  Acting through illness is very distancing.  It's rather like acting with your arms tied behind your back - you know what you want to do, but it's all surface, the interior life of the character just isn't there.  Act 5, Scene 1 - a long and tricky scene - requires Claudio to travel from defiance, banter, to realisation and grief (depending on your interpretation, though regardless of which stops you wish to pull it's a busy scene emotionally).  The script states that he cries.  Prior to hospitalisation I had nothing.  Nothing at all.  I walked on, tried to look sad, said the words in approximately the right order and then had a coughing fit.  However, two days after they gave me the drugs that work (rather than the ones that make me ill - I was ill primarily as a reaction to my medication) and nice solid tear rolled from my eye.

Now, let's not get carried away - emotionalism is not necessarily acting.  The ability to feel emotion doesn't necessarily mean that I am acting better than before (for all I know, I was over doing it and came across as total crap) but it is part of being alive and being alive in a scene is half the battle.

It reminds me of my performance in Everyman at Easter - I'd found a really nice line through the piece, especially the pain and hurt felt by God at the beginning.  Again, in some rehearsals, there were tears (though I decided it would be more effective if held back rather than released into the wild) and I was quite happy.  Then I got gastroenteritis and had to fight through the show, rather than play it.  It came off, but all that hard work had gone and I had nothing.

Again, sometimes having nothing is to the positive benefit of a show.  A neutrality of performance can be very effective; I've seen shows destroyed by the overactive emotionalism of a quivering upper lip.  But that's ultimately a directing issue - as an actor I'm delighted to be able to feel again, to have all the options to play with.
Now, let's see if the director asks me to dial it back a bit.

The Passion: Week Three into Four

It's starting to get a bit crazy in Passionland, as the rehearsals step up a gear, with more calls, books down and the addition of layers.  Oh, for the love of layers.  The first few weeks of rehearsals were mostly about getting the words right, sorting out the moves and then repeating them a week later to make sure they still made sense.  Now the rehearsals become something more detailed.  I don't have to repeat basic instructions anymore, we can discuss character, build on what has gone before, add layers; layers of meaning to the words, layers of technique to performance, layers of physicality - making sure that the company is performing in the same style.
To do this I am rehearsing with many of the company separately of our regular dates, one-to-one sessions where I can get to the nub of what that actor needs to give the best performance without the distraction of twenty plus other people in the room.

Thursday 31st May 2012.  The Auditorium.  7.30pm.  Last Supper and Betrayal.

Ah-Hem.

For the first half of this rehearsal I split the conspiracy scenes with Annas and Caiaphas from the Last Supper so that they could rehearse simultaneously.  After an hour of work on the Last Supper we brought these two sections, that run as inter cut scenes, together to see how they flowed.  I also threw a few costumes at people, academic gowns and surpluses for the priests and doctors which, barring the hem on Caiaphas, worked well.  We also sorted out some detail on the arrest of Jesus, the section where Peter attacks one of the soldiers and, with a judicious use of slow motion, made that work.

Friday 1st June 2012.  The GKR.  7pm.  Judas.
The first one-to-one session with the cast, working on character and physicality.  We really got stuck into Judas, his sense of shame and guilt, of being in way beyond his depth, of his fear, and created the physical expression of this.  We also touched on Joseph of Arimathea, who is in our version Scottish and it suits him very well. 

Sunday 3rd June 2012.  The Jetty.  Act Two.  Crucifixion to Resurrection.

It was a slightly frustrating rehearsal as a couple people were not available, but we did iron out all the moves and had another detailed attack on the crucifixion scene, where the dialogue has to flow well as any delay causes problems.  Then we played around with the final scenes, the resurrection and doubting Thomas. 


Tuesday 5th June 2012.  The Quay.  6pm.  Annas and Caiaphas.
The second session away from the rest of the cast, this time touching on the words and physicality of our high priests.  Lengthy discussions of tone, how grotesque these people should be, how their relationship works.  Annas is the clever one, the one who works through the law; Caiaphas is a borderline psychopath who only wants Jesus dead, via as much torture as possible.  The two have the same mission statement, just very different approaches.  Their arguments and squabbles serve an important moral purpose in the plays - their confusion and rage, blackly comic as it is, is there to contrast with the quiet dignity of Jesus.  Many 'evil' characters of the Corpus Christi plays, and the medieval period generally (the Vices), have this characteristic.  They are all sweetness and light until something gets in their way, then it's an immediate tantrum and their mask is thrown aside.  The difficulty for us is to get the balance right, to show them as absurd, not play up to it for laughs.

Tuesday 5th June 2012.  The Auditorium.  7.30pm.  Act Two.  The Trial.
Straight on from the character work I throw Annas and Caiaphas into their biggest scenes. However, pleased as I was with the improvements to the performances they were upstaged somewhat by a. a creeping curtain and b. the chorus of "ra"s.  This rehearsal - the last before books down - is to be forever known as the "ra, ra, ra" rehearsal, primarily because it was concerning a lot of chorus business.  Hence lots of reaction noises to speeches, most of them sounding a lot like "ra".  Any fans of The Prisoner will be proud.  Unfortunately, at a moment when I wanted the crowd to react to a piece of violence, rather than a profound cry of "O!" in the manner of a classically trained Shakespearean, instead I got an "Ooooah" which more properly should have been followed by the word "Matron!"  It was a little difficult to continue for a moment as the spectres of Kenneth Williams and Larry Grayson wandered through my rehearsal.
It was my own fault of course, I asked the chorus to make noises from behind a curtain, a plastic-semi-see-through curtain, which meant that though I could sort of see them I couldn't see precisely what they were up to.

Wednesday 6th June 2012.  The GKR.  7pm.  Jesus.
Quite an important one-to-one rehearsal, tackling the interpretation of Jesus.  The text is fairly clear on this, for the most part it is a re-structured version of the Bible and, barring the odd passage from other sources, is straight out of the gospels.  This has meant that Jesus is something of a blank slate, a walking, talking statue who speaks words and doesn't emote much - and a lot of the time this is very effective, the audience is invited to relay onto him their interpretation.  Some moments, especially as we get closer to his passion, require emotion, require something more.  The Agony in the Garden and the Crucifixion itself are moments where fear and pain are necessary - though he is the son of God he is a man made flesh and so goes through all the hardship a man would.  We worked on the Last Supper and the Agony in this rehearsal, working through the text, talking, running exercises - on Sunday these will be put into practice.

Thursday 7th June 2012.  The Jetty.  7.30pm.  Beginning Act One - backwards and books down.

An aside...
Thursday 7th June this year is where the feast of Corpus Christi rests, the date when many of these plays were performed.  This varied as it was a movable feast, tied to Easter earlier in the year, so sometimes it appears in very late June.  That said, the plays weren't always performed on the day itself.  Just because they were known as the plays of Corpus Christi didn't mean they had to fall exactly on the date itself, like the Diamond Jubilee weekend fell on the Queen's official birthday rather than either of the possible dates for the start of her reign (on the death of her father or on her coronation).  Sometimes people have asked me why The Passion is on in July rather than Easter and the reply is simple - these kinds of things, prior to their banning, never did.  It was always a summer event, partly because it was outdoors and partly because it became semi-tied up with a summer feast.  This production is tied between two black holes of social activity - the Jubilee and the Olympics - which would overshadow in a bad-for-box-office way the whole affair.  We only just skirt shy of Wimbledon and various other distractions that drive people away from theatre.  And, more importantly, July is where the free slot for Sudbury Dramatic Society shows fell. 

But back to rehearsals.  Books down - aways a feared phrase and always a difficult time, especially when you haven't given the cast much time to repeat their scenes in rehearsal.  The cast dealt with it very well, squeezing out lines sometimes painfully slowly but out they came.  The next two weeks of rehearsals will all be run backwards, i.e. starting with the last scene first, then the second to last followed by the last, then the third to last followed by the second to last then the last and so on.  This way many scenes are repeated and people are running into scenes they know increasingly well, not increasingly vaguely.  It was also because I had a number of the cast absent who were all in the first scene, so no point starting at the top.

Sunday 10th June 2012.  My home.  9am.  Recording links.

During the interval of the show there is to play over in the bar and auditorium a fake radio station, playing mostly music, but inter cut with news items about the arrest of Jesus.  It's part of my idea that the show just doesn't end, it starts before curtain up and may not let up until after the close.  This is the only part of the show in modern English, I just couldn't find anything close enough in the original to use for the device, so the text is simply my attempt at media-ese.  So, Peter Morris, our friendly sound man turned up at my home and I built my Heath Robinson sound booth and I did a not quite Alan Partridge DJ impression, complete with twitter updates.  After all this trouble I doubt anyone will even notice - too busy eating ice cream.  But at least I can say that, if I only edited (rather than wrote) the play, I did write the interval.

Sunday 10th June 2012.  The Jetty.  11am.  Finishing Act One - still backwards.

A limited cast call, just the major players in the scenes.  Mostly it was a case of introducing Satan into the action of the scenes as, due to a scheduling issue, we hadn't managed to do this yet.  Have noticed one minor issue that occasionally names are going astray.  Judas was called Judith a few times, or was called Jesus instead.  In the latter case the actor in question didn't notice, so each time had to be stopped.  On the third time the whole cast was chanting "Judas" at them.  Quite surreal.

So, now we've got another week of rehearsals with books down, working the show in chunks, before we start running it an Act at a time.  In theory, we'll have time each rehearsal to run the half and do an hours work on detail.  And then it's time for full runs... and then it's tech, dress, curtain up.  It's four weeks to go, a whole month of work to make this show into something people will remember for a long time.  And the schedule for the coming week is even more gruelling than the last two.

Jesus and his disciples

The Entry into Jerusalem

Judas sells his master, the Last Supper continuing behind

Request to Pilate to bury Jesus...

The Burial of Jesus

The Burial of Jesus... complete

The Passion - Open Auditions

OPEN AUDITIONS FOR COMMUNITY EVENT

THE PASSION

Auditions Wednesday 14^th March at 7.30pm

at the Quay Theatre, Sudbury.

·                     Roles big and small

·                     Community parts

·                     Singing

·                     Everyone is welcome to join

·                     No prior experience required.

Sudbury Dramatic Society is holding open auditions for the biggest show of the year – a huge community production of The Passion.  As well as the usual casting SDS is looking for a community cast to join the company, to add their voices to community choir and create the epic crowd scenes.  It’s a chance for anyone to be involved in performing this summer in the run up to the Olympics, helping to tell one of the greatest stories ever told, in one of the earliest pieces of English drama ever written.

Auditions are to be held on Wednesday 14th March at 7.30pm at the Quay Theatre, Sudbury.  Audition scripts are available from the Quay Box Office, or on request via email - contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk

Show rehearsals are on Tuesday/Thursday Evenings and on Sunday Morning/Afternoons from late May to Performances in July.

*****

Sudbury Dramatic Society Presents...

The Passion

Based on the English Medieval Mystery Plays
Adapted for the Quay Stage and Directed by Robert Crighton

Before Shakespeare there were the mysteries, the first great dramas ever produced in English.  The original mystery plays were based on stories from the Bible, telling the story of the world from the creation through to doomsday and written to be performed on city streets over the course of a whole day.  This specially prepared version tells of the life of Christ focusing on his betrayal and what follows.  A powerful story told for all peoples, involving storytelling, music, drama and a community company open to all comers.

Performing Tuesday 10^th to Saturday 14^th July at 7.45pm

The Quay Theatre, Quay Lane, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2AN

NB:  All shots below are for pre-publicity purposes and do not reflect casting as we haven't held auditions yet.

NOTES ON THE PLAY

Below is a list of the Big Parts you might want to audition for – there are lots more small roles on offer, but these are the ones we will focus on at the audition.  As far as I’m concerned the auditions are not about whether you get a part, it’s about what part you get.

NB:  We’re going to allow cross gender casting for ‘evil’ characters to ensure there are plenty of roles for women – so Satan, Herod, Annas and Caiaphas etc are up for grabs.

PARTS OF INTEREST:  I’ve not gone into detail in many of the parts as most of the ‘good’ characters are self evident. 

John THE BAPTIST

ANNAS and CAIAPHAS – Male or Female.  The high priest CAIAPHAS is prone to psychopathic rages, ANNAS is older and the power behind him, calm and subtle.

SATAN – Male or Female.  Has a close relationship with Judas

GABRIEL – Male or Female

JESUS – mid-thirties ideally, but the primary importance is physical fitness.

JOHN, PETER, JUDAS and other DISCIPLES – any age

MARY – old enough to be the mother of Jesus.

MARY MAGDALENE

PILATE is an ambiguous role - a politician through and through.

THE FOUR SOLDIERS – must be physically strong.  The four soldiers are brilliant parts - typical workmen.  They look at a job, suck in through their teeth and say it’ll cost you. 

SOLDIER 1:  The foreman – orders people about, but does nothing himself if he can.

SOLDIER 2:  Like a leaf in the wind, flitters between following 1 and 4.

SOLDIER 3:  The young lad – inexperienced, answers back.

SOLDIER 4:  H & S officer, also the union rep, doesn’t quite get on with 1.

HEROD – Male or Female.  Unlike Herod the Great who came before him (who’s a big shouty Brian Blessed figure), this Herod is a good humoured dilettante, until angered.