Week seventysomething or possible eighty...I'm losing track to be honest - Week 5 of rehearsals
Week 1. **Blink** Week 5. How the hell are we at week 5 already? Who's messing with the space/time continuum?
Weeeeeellllllllllll, it's been quite the week, lemmetellyou. Crappy and good, with a liddle bit of crap on the side, but with a garnish of good to come. All washed down with a nice glass of who-the-what-now.
Monday was committee meeting - which I'm invited to only for the duration of rehearsals. Many, many things were discussed about the show - suffice to say everything's on track (**whoooo-whoooo**...that's a train whistle sound fx right there y'all)
Tuesdays rehearsal was the news that Tracey (Lottie) was going to have to drop out, which is a real shame. She had some problems with her knees and back last year and it flaired up a couple of weeks ago, resulting in some rather painful injections - but it has led her doctor to advise, and quite rightly, that doing a big tap number's probably not the most intelligent of ideas. She's a bit gutted about the whole thing, and it does leave a huge gapping hole to fill, but the good news is that Trace will still be involved and sing in the Pit during the run of the show. The rest of the evening was a mish mash as Ian Carter couldn't make it at the last minute so we had to go over some blocking that was missed and then go over the dances. Plus Jen went round getting measurements, head size, arm, inside leg, neck, inside leg, shoe size, inside leg, waist, inside leg....obviously I'm joking (**whispers** no, not really). Plus we saw Stephen Hutt's Excel Costume spreadsheet in action - seriously, poems will be composed about it down the centuries, mighty epics written about its mighty-epic-ness. I'm assured that a screen grab of it is on the way - if indeed you can capture the magic of its awesomeness in a mere screengrab...
Wednesday. Ah wednesday evening. That saw **sound of angels singing** a costume/set build/finances/animations meeting in the pub...yes the pub...with Jenny, John G, Sue and Jon H. Costumes are comin' on well, Jen's on top of things, has had quotes in and is travelling up to Sheffield next week to look at a few bits and bobs - mainly keystone cops and evening wear. She doesn't have to do it, but wants to - which shows the kinda commitment going on behind the scenes. Love her. John G seems to think he can build the set in his sleep, which is brilliant (but not advisable) and doesn't forsee any real problems - apart from a few niggly access issues which are being sorted. Then came finances with Sue, which was depressing, not because of Sue y'understand but because basically we need to sell out, and there aint much wiggle room. We did it for Happy As A Sandbag which was a pretty unknown show, and were oh-so-close with Smokey Joes Cafe so I'm confident we'll do it provided everyone pulls their weight. And then came Jon 'Genius' Hall and the overture animation and bits and bobs - and he didn't seem worried about any of the...yeah, i'm going to say...quite frankly appalling storyboard I'd done for him. But I'll work on it for him, and we're going to do a couple of tests...and if you haven't seen it please, please check 4 seconds of pure poetry....
Thursday and we're back to rehearsals. And for me this was the start of the proper rehearsals - and a lovely atmosphere. Ian C was teaching a couple of numbers which involved some gentle joshing, but people were knuckling down at the same time. Then we split into two rooms - me with the actors, and George with the dancers. Dancing is really comin' on - s'gunna be gooooooooddd. And the acting side was great considering it was the first time.... I'm really, really encouraged with how this is going now. Did a couple of small scenes just to get them used to how I work/direct, and I think, by jove, it's all going to kick into gear nicely.
Today, a few of my cast who are in the Funky Little Choir were on the radio singing, and they sound fab. (**wipes tear from eye**) They grow up soooo fast....
Neil
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