Terrorism – director’s blog 7

This has been a strange week in our rehearsal lives, full of little bitty things that have tried my patience and made me think about my rehearsal process. Working in the way we do its important to constantly re-evaluate your processes, during and after the production. From a performance perspective I want to make the company feel as secure as possible in their roles and with the choices and decisions we have made. There was a moment yesterday when one of the company queried what they were doing and why they were doing it. This is of course great in one respect but also slightly alarming after 2½ months of rehearsal. Was I not clear with my questions and explanations previously? Did we spend enough time exploring character decisions and choices? It has left me thinking about how we record these choices and in our context this is something that we need to do in the rehearsal room. A character diary perhaps? Character graffiti wall? Questions for me to ponder…

Our run-through on Tuesday went well, still frustratingly not completely off book, which has gone against my first rehearsal assertion that the company needed to be off book after we had gone through each scene but apart from one exception this hasn’t happened. Not a lot I can do about this really, they’re adults and its their responsibility. We have reached the point now where I can’t really give notes to some company members as the script is the inhibitor as how can you give notes on a characters focus when there focus is on a script sitting on their lap? So as you may have been able to tell I’m a little frustrated today! On one hand we are in a healthy position going into our movement weekend but on the other I feel we should be further forward and are being inhibited by a slight lack of commitment beyond the rehearsal room.

I have an interview with Charles Hutchinson from the York Press today, who will write a preview for the show. I’ve met Charles a few times and he was very complimentary about An Exact Science? our piece about genetics but unfortunately he couldn’t make EQUUS. I quite enjoy being interviewed. Its unusual to have the opportunity to talk about something you really care and are passionate about. Charles is a great advocate for the arts in York and has always been very supportive of YTR’s work in general but also of our work with our youth theatre.

I’m sending the company out flyering on Saturday replete with flyers and T-shirts that have a quote from the play on one side and the show image on the other. Face to face marketing is good for the company to get out there, as they are the ones who know the show best and (I hope) can enthuse people enough to want to come and see it. Its not an easy sell this show, with a title of terrorism, as few people would want to see a show about suicide bombings and cataclysmic events. Communicating that its about terrorism with a small t, about the everyday acts of terrorism normal people perform in everyday situations – that is what we need to communicate to the people of York! And to persuade them its well worth spending £10 on…

I’m very excited about his weekend and our movement work with Jane. I feel I’ve been talking about it for such a long time as this is the ‘concept’ I’m putting onto the production I suppose. It’s a personal directory choice I’m making using a stylised physical approach to the transitions and one which I hope will lift the production beyond a standardised realistic interpretation of the text. We shall see in a couple of weeks I suppose…