Michael Fenner - Henry I & Ypres
What a day! Tiredness (GOOD tiredness, from working so hard!) creeping in. Day always starts with us all playing a game. We don’t notice but the game is beautifully designed to induce teamwork, patience and collegiate responsibility... and FORGIVENESS! Then we have our warm-up proper. Katie (movement director) cleverly and magically using exercises to get us to almost breathe as one, to think as one. Hal (director) pushing us hard today. The company is so wonderfully deep in talent and Hal is trying to mine into that. It’s hard. All the scenes are so beautifully written and so subtle and multi-layered that it’s difficult to snap straight into them at this stage. We all sit up. Better be on our A-game! We finally finish our work-through of the entire play. This is the moment that we all realise it’s happening in about a week; we’re keyed-up but we’re in a good place! Everyone’s hard work is sweating through to the surface. (Literally!) More movement in the afternoon. Spoiler alert; movement is very important in this production. Not to give too much away, but magic happens on that stage! We snatch a chance to rehearse small discrete scenes with each other. In passing two actors rehearse their footwork for a fight-sequence, sandwiches in hand in the kitchen. Props are being painted, coffees bought, and prompts given by our indefatigable stage-management team. Beth (the writer ) is in, adding lines here and there to fine-tune a scene and to make sure the actors don’t get too carried-away with vocal improvisations (as is our wont!) Meanwhile Toby and Dani (our producers) are quietly working away alongside us, checking programme biographies and working on mysterious stuff that most actors have no idea about. Finally, we’re ready for our important de-brief in the Abbott Cook. A good day! Learn those lines back at the digs.. finally... exhausted... sle e p...