20 September 2006

Set Dressing

Final rehearsal before the Green Room last night. For those that don't know a Green Room is a performance where a non-paying audience of nice people (members of Ottershaw Players in this instance) come and watch the show before it is put before a paying (and therefore more scary) audience.

It's getting there. We had an impromptu audience of Danny and Matt, who happened not only to laugh (hoorah!), but also profess to enjoying the performance. It was nice to get another opinion on the play, and also get some feedback. Maybe I should have got an audience in before now... It'll be interesting to see what the feedback is on Sunday. Fingers crossed.

In my current state of unemployment, as I'm supposed to be moving house this week I am busy sorting out stuff for the play and also for my imminent move (house is still not official, so I'm taking no chances!). I've spent the morning so far printing out old Ottershaw Players posters from the website, courtsey of Pete's cleverness at poster designing. I know that putting Ottershaw Players posters up is a completely self indulgent in-joke, but it amuses me. I've also managed to find a sepia picture of "Ophelia" (pictured), which will be perfect.

I'm off to paint a noticeboard white now; the joys of having nothing to do...

14 September 2006

Oversight

When I started this play, I was worried about a few things. I was mainly worried that the committee of Ottershaw Players, and other "grownups" (of which I am definitely not one) would think (or worse, find out) that I am incompetent, ditzy, easily distracted and forgetful. Oh and I worried that they'd think I was useless at directing, and that the play would be a complete embarrassment and disaster for Ottershaw Players.

I've stopped worrying quite so much now. If they do think I'm useless, they've not told me yet, and I thought I had got on top of my forgetful and ditziness... Until now.

Last night we had the producers meeting at Lyn Mison's house (Lyn is the festival stage director). Not only was I late (I couldn't find my way out of a paper bag, even if I had directions), but so were Pete and Phil, so from the start we weren't looking like the most professional of outfits. Pete asked me if I had a copy of the stage plan, *blank look* from me, so we fudged it together there and then (thankfully it's not complicated). Then Robert got underway with his magical lighting plan that I don't understand, but I'm sure will look amazing, so that was ok. Thankfully sound wasn't complicated ("do you have a CD or minidisk?", "CD", "ok"), and we explained about the odd obscenity on stage...It was all going quite smoothly, until Lyn mentioned she'd not seen my licence...

My licence??

Licence??

What licence?????

Yes, that's right people. Your "I'm so pleased I've become more organised in my old age" director, has omitted to apply for a licence to perform the play. The word you're looking for is idiot. So much for my impressing people with my organisational skills and (obviously) wonderful play. If we don't get the licence by 5th October, we won't be performing. IDIOT. I'll never be allowed to direct again!

Lovely Lyn thankfully didn't seem to think I was too much of an idiot (well she is probably a good actress), and Pete is going to phone Samuel French today and sort it out, so fingers crossed it'll all be ok...On second thoughts, cross your toes too...

I'll see you later. I'm just going to the bottom of the garden to eat worms...

12 September 2006

tick tick tick

that's the sound of time, trickling away from us...!

Sunday's rehearsal was really useful, as now, thanks to Dancing Dave, we have a full CD of sound cues. I had to shout at the kids a little to get them to either shut up or stop dancing around the stage, but eventually we got it sorted, and topped and tailed the script.

Line learning is still a real problem though. Ollie and Jack are coming early tonight to go through their pages of script, which hopefully will iron it out a bit. The other problem we have is people not being 100% sure of where they're supposed to be at any given time. Quite often Jack gives me a scared look from the "stage" and I have to point and gesture so he knows where he's supposed to be - this, I imagine, is quite distracting for the others! So the plan for this week is to make sure everyone knows exactly where they're supposed to be, and when... (Oh and to get Ollie to learn his lines!!)

I was nominated for the Player's Cup this year :) Not that important really, as most people who read this have either won it, or don't know what it means, but anyway, it made me smile. I just want to know who nominated me...

06 September 2006

Prompt? Who needs a prompt?

Well, actually, half of my cast...
Which actually isn't as bad as it sounds. The girls are nigh on word perfect, but Jack admitted as soon as the rehearsal started that he didn't know all his words, and Ollie has obviously tried hard to learn his, but he does have significantly more to learn...
Maybe I do them an injustice. Jack knows about 90% of his, and Ollie about 95%, it's just the last couple of pages where it all falls apart. So, on Sunday we're going to have a special "boys half hour" before the rehearsal starts. Hopefully this'll help them concentrate on the lines a bit better.
Last night we kept going over and over parts, practicing costume changes and changing the blocking so that it all works properly (not majorly changed though Pete, don't worry!), and everyone can get to where they need to be. It's looking good, and we're just adding in a few comedy moments to really pull it together.
We even had some music last night, which again helped us get a feel for it. Of course, in doing this I realised the true beauty of having a sound man (the long suffering Phil)... I found it almost impossible to concentrate on directing and pressing play at the right time! And they say women can multi-task...

04 September 2006

Shopping list, mark 2

Hello...
After a successful shopping trip on the weekend (thanks goes to Phil who not only followed me round all the charity shops in Godalming, but also incurred a parking ticket in the process...) I now only need a few things...

  • Flowery cardigan (an addition to the list)
  • Old theatre posters, preferably Ottershaw Players ones!
  • A pair of men's glasses
  • School bell (hand bell)
  • PE Skirt

With 9 more rehearsals before the performance, the tension is mounting.... A book amnesty on Tuesday will really show how well the lines have been learnt!!