Success!

Last night's show was even better than the first. The actors performed with more energy and vibrancy and continued growing in their characters and finding new ways to express the text.

For the first time since getting in to the theatre, I wasn't watching with nervousness. The show was so assured that I was able to sit back and enjoy it, along with the rest of the audience - which was much larger than before, thank heavens.

Only 2 more shows to go and we're finished... Time to enjoy it while it lasts!

First Night Nerves

I'm sitting here, just back from the pub, very pleased that the first night was exceedingly well received by a small, but select, audience (luckily many more are booked in for the last 3 nights...)

I hate this aspect of directing. I sit there watching all the tiny mistakes/missed cues/late sound cues, etc, etc, that the audience don't notice. Cringeing at the errors and wondering how that fantastic cast will get themselves out of the impossible position that they've put themselves in....

Our 'butler' has a scene where he asks the Dean of Paddington for his umbrella at a crucial stage of the action. Tonight he got confused and took the chap's brolly a page earlier than he should have done... What a to-do! Will he recover...? He did - and with a stroke of improvisational genius!

Watching them do it for an audience is both gut-wrenching and exhilarating. But overall, the fact that we held the audience, gripped, for 2.5 hours and made them laugh is everything that we could have wished for.

The audience's reaction is the reward for 3 months of hard work for the actors (plus another 2 months, or more, for the director and designers). This is the night that it all becomes "worth it".

It's Now or Never

Last night was the Dress Rehearsal and I think it went pretty well. There were a couple of fluffed lines, which the cast covered without any problems, and one or two instances of late entrances or missed cues, but these are, I think, down to First Night nerves.

I know that the performances are going to go well, though it's a huge shame that tonight's audience is so small. Only 10 people, or so! Which is very odd, considering the good numbers we have in for the rest of the run.

Here's a link to a slideshow of pictures from the dress rehearsal.

Bye-Bye Rehearsal Hall

That's it! We've had our last rehearsal before get-in. And a very productive evening it was too. We concentrated on Act 2, which needed a little more practice, and ran a few bits and pieces over again until everyone was happy with them.

Next time we run the play it will be in the theatre, on Sunday night, on an unfinished set and with partial lights and sound. The time after that is the dress rehearsal on Tuesday. I can't believe we're so close to performance week...

I'm nervous, excited, scared, apprehensive and delighted, all at the same time. I know it's going to be a great show, but I worry about how it will be received. Ah, well. There's not much I can do anymore. The show is in the hands of the actors and they will do a superb job with it, I know.

Nearly There

18 days have zoomed past since I last wrote. Last Sunday we had a full 6 hours of rehearsal, complete with full costume and most props. It was a very valuable process. Not the most fluent of run-throughs, but that was probably due to working in a different environment, with unfamiliar clothing.

One concern I do have is that, though books were put down weeks ago, there are still some actors who are having trouble with their words in places. I'm sure it will all come good before next week, but it's a little frustrating as I'd hoped to be having smooth rehearsals by now and would be able to concentrate more on the pacing of each scene (and thence the encompasing dynamic of the show).

Overall though, it was very encouraging. I know that all the actors have a good handle on their characters - some of them maybe need to relax into them a little more - but they are all bringing a huge amount of talent, insight and humour to the production.

Now - all we need is for people to buy tickets!!

Home Stretch

We've now had a "stagger" run through each half of the show. Most of the cast are now off-book, some more confidently than others, though that's not a concern to me. Once books are down, actors soon find that they know their lines better than they thought they did and confidence soon takes an upturn.

Apart from a couple of tweaks which I had known about, but left until I'd known what I wanted to do with them, the whole structure of the play is hanging together well. I know that when we get into the theatre I'm going to want to adjust the blocking slightly - mainly we'll bring most of the action more downstage to use the Rhoda's generous apron area. In our rehearsal rooms, the floor area is nowehere near as deep as the actual stage, so some adjustment is always necessary.

At this stage I start giving more and more notes. I think I mentioned before that the better rehearsals go, the more notes I give, and so as time passes we come up with more ways to improve the action and more ideas to make the whole production interesting. I hope the cast are getting used to this... I do have doubts in the back of my mind that I don't give enough praise (and specific praise) to each actor. When I'm happy with what they're doing I just sit back and enjoy the performance! I think that most of them have worked with me enough to know this though. At least, I hope so.

My only concerns now are with other aspects of the production. I really need to get started with putting the show's programme together - we're going to take head-shots and publicity photos on Sunday, so that should get me kick-started.

There's also lots of work still to do on the set. Though now my designer and set-builder are back from their family holiday, this has now got back into gear; and our redoubtable team of old reliables were happy getting on with various bits and pieces in their absence. We're keeping fingers crossed for good weather this weekend as we can only paint outside and there are about 6 12-foot flats which need a good coating of Chelsea Green.

All that is in hand at least, so all we can do now is hope that people want to come along and see our production. Apparently sales are quite a bit ahead of where they usually are at this stage, but we need to ensure that this doesn't slacken off. Nearly time to send off press-releases...