Pericles – Director’s blog 12

 

We have just come out of three days of intensive rehearsal gasping for breath and a little heavy eyed but healthy both in body and spirit. For the first time in 29 rehearsal sessions, yesterday afternoon we had a full company to work with. When I told the company this there was a pleasing shock amongst them and appropriate shaking of heads – then some clapping to mark this achievement! This was a milestone in a way I suppose, not a good one to mark but it came at the perfect time for our fourth run through. I was pleased to be able to reach this point to understand the transitions and journeys through the play. To aid this process with such an episodic piece I asked the company to think each time just before they go on to think about the ‘6 W’s’, which are: Where have I just come from? Where am I? What am I doing? Why am I doing it? When is this happening? Where am I going to now? This is especially important with this play as there are huge sweeps of time change and journeying where action and circumstance must be remembered for the story to make sense. There was a perfect example of this yesterday when at the start of the second half Pericles came in to meet Helicanus returning to Tyre after years travelling. Pericles came in all smiles and greeted Helicanus warmly. In my notes afterwards I asked Joe, who plays Pericles why he was smiling if the last thing that happened to him was that he had thrown his dead wife overboard and then given up his recently born daughter…? The 6 W’s!!!

On our final day we managed to work with more of the production elements that will assist our story telling, namely the curtains underneath the platform that help define place and become practical in the storm scenes, nearly the complete musical score – we are now just adding in one main piece of set, lighting and costuming. These are obviously key elements and the costuming will be the main element for the company to get used to as there are quick changes and understanding of where the costume bands are placed for each country. Wearing your costume for the first time lifts an actor immeasurably particularly a younger actor as it acts almost like a mask part covering their own identity part giving license to truly ‘become’ this ulterior personality. Some of the company don’t need this mask as they have the confidence in their own skin to be able to find the physicality beyond themselves where others don’t have the body confidence to be able to push themselves yet, which can come with age but for some may never completely come as self-consciousness is a trait that is present in many people, young or not. I try to address this with physical warm-ups that encourage them to play and be stupid – my reasoning is that if I look a prat that will allow them to submerge themselves in this as well. Or maybe I just look like a prat…

I have been very impressed by the company this week everybody has lifted their game immeasurably and been professional, committed and enthusiastic in their approach to rehearsals. I asked them to raise the bar for themselves this week and they have done that with vigour and I can only applaud them for that. The piece contains many diverse sections drawn from different influences, from large physicalised choral scenes to single monologues spoken on a bare stage. There are some beautifully intimate moments in the play where I am drawn completely into their world and am beguiled by the truth in their playing. There are moments that make me laugh out loud every single time and I know they will continue to do so. I can’t wait for an audience to see this piece, as I want the company to have people watching and engaging in the world and characters they are creating and for them to feel their reciprocal energy. We are so close you want it come round quickly but now a part of me wants it to slow down as I don’t want it to end. I’m never happy either way! We still have a way to go to get up to performance level but we are on the right road and heading in the same direction.

Pericles – Director’s blog 11

 

It was tempting to do an April fool’s this morning and reveal that I was packing it all in and flouncing off in a theatrical strop but I’m feeling in a positive frame of mind today. After a disappointingly unfocused session on Monday yesterday’s rehearsal brought greater productivity and a first glance into the beauty of some of the more intimate moments in the play. It is said that Shakespeare only wrote the final three acts and there is some truly beautiful writing particularly when Pericles is reunited with Marina then Thaisa. I felt a glimmer of pride and emotion watching these sections last night as the distance and progress they have made is huge and is something which I hope they can feel. You can feel the journeys of the characters and the weight of the story in their playing and we are beginning to hit the emotive highs of the reunions built up from loss and tragedy of previous circumstances. This is where you realise plays are really meant to be seen and not read and how it is sacrilege for plays not to be explored practically in schools. Not until you see the actors connecting empathetically with the characters do you as an audience begin to understand their story connecting you with it and taking you on their journey.

 

So we have reached a milestone in our process having now completed all our evening twice a week sessions, which I feel has come just at the right time as the energy has just started to ebb a little from the company. Next week we are working Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday full days which will allow us to start some run throughs of the play and to understand the piece as a whole. My intention is to do a run through on the first morning, well when I say run through it will be more of an injured stagger I’d suggest but important nevertheless for us all to see the amount of work we need to do over the next couple of days. I envisage a few gulps after this and a few large intakes of breath…

 

A production of this scale has innumerable elements of which innumerable people are working on but I take a keen interest in all aspects surrounding the production as it feels to me like ‘my baby’. Perhaps this is part megalomaniacal but I prefer to think of it as a whole hearted immersion and connection with what I am doing. We are very fortunate here at the Theatre Royal to be working with an incredible team of very dedicated people who view our work as equal to that of the professional companies and we are afforded the same time and commitment as they get. With this comes big responsibilities for us and I want the company to realise this and to take responsibility for making a piece of theatre which is worthy of the professionalism put into it. Getting this across without sounding too teachery or preachy is a difficult one – but ultimately I hope they realise that by creating an excellent end product will serve not just the theatre but also themselves as people and performers.

Pericles – Director’s blog 10

 

There was much laughter and teenage awkwardness when the lovely Jean Harvey came in to work on the post-banquet dance with our Pentapolian Knights and Lady Dancers. After the usual cacophony of “I can’t dance”, Jean got down to getting them swaying their hips, shaking their shoulders and cha-cha-cha-ing. A cha-cha-cha in a Shakespearian piece I hear you cry? The piece is a montage of styles, forms and representations as I didn’t want it to sit in a particular period and who’s to say this dance form hasn’t been around for millennia? There may prove to be a congruity perhaps with the different elements I’ve chosen but I hope it all sits together appropriately, which I believe it will as nothing is done for the sake of it and will help the play to be read as in an indistinct period and of a universal nature. But they all bravely pushed through and they won’t admit it but they enjoyed it and look out for the comedy moment in this scene…

 

We are at a hazy point currently where 90% of the cast are off book but maybe 50% of those are still searching for their lines within that. Meaning that they aren’t committed to memory and therefore their characterisation has dropped. This is a difficult point for a director as part of you thinks have they remembered nothing you’ve been through in regards to building and developing character detail. But then you have to remember that they are still searching and those details will return once they’ve found their voice with the words. The whole process is about layering bit by bit, knowing when you need to stop and pull out the details and when to let things go to allow for continuity. You can’t achieve everything at once and it’s a fine balance to be reached, as part of you wants to get every detail right straightaway but until all the production elements are in place, the material’s, sound, lighting…its difficult for the company to completely engage in the world we are trying to create.

 

It’s a frustrating time as well as the production is so close but now we have to wait another 6 days to continue on the play, with only being 3 weeks away it feels we should be meeting regularly to really push on. Switching my brain to other things is proving difficult as the production has become all-consuming for me. Those three intensive days we have in pre-production week can’t come soon enough for me when we can really get our hands dirty and progress with the play as a whole rather than tiny segments. I want to see how the play works in its entirety, not just act to act, to feel the energy that transports us from place to place and make sure above all that we are communicating this brilliant story – as in the end this is the most important thing. It’s easy to forget this, again something that seems such a given but you get caught up in pictures and moments but unless the audience understands what we are trying to communicate we will have failed and that’s not something we want to contemplate doing.

 

Costume fittings went well last week and we finish the others off tonight, they look really good and no grumblings at all, which is a feat in itself and testament to the fine job done by Lydia. It’s all coming together…