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…

Pericles – Director’s blog 9

 

In thought...

We completed our third journey through the play on Monday and another key section of my call sheet reached. The crossed-out lines are starting to out weigh the one’s that aren’t…It seemed an apt time to reflect with the company where we’ve got up to and to allow them express any thoughts or concerns they had. After having said the floor was open to them then continuing to talk myself for five minutes there was either a worrying or affirming silence. Heads were nodded when I asked that they were secure in understanding the story – I told them to tell the story to people as I believe in the Augusto Boal quote “the best way to learn is to teach”. I think much of the time when young people work on plays they don’t really understand the story and this seems such a base requirement for working on any text. I have really pushed the company to understand the narrative and before every rehearsal we have ‘Julian’s story quiz’, where the cast labours to tell me what has happened previously in the story up to this point. So I have decided to take their silence as a positive and am part comforted by this with four weeks to go as I feel we’re relatively secure and I hope to be able to get my theatrical spanners out to do lots of fine tuning.

 

 Our cast hoodies arrived yesterday which I hope will be out around York proudly worn by our company in a shameless marketing exercise. Everybody seems really pleased with them and helps to bond the group together and feel as though they are part of something special. Which they are. Our new print looks great and reflects the nature of the piece being performed by young people and adds a fair degree of intrigue and tongue in cheek-ness. Next week this print I hope will be coming to a wall near you or will be handed to you in a neat business card format. There are a series of three, the prostitute, the fisherman and the pirate – it’s like the old sticker collections at school you’ll want to get them all!

I met up with a friend who I haven’t see for nearly a year recently and we had a good catch-up about what we were doing. I naturally talked about the production and she said to me it was nice to hear someone being so passionate about something. This made me think for a moment as passion in work seems such a distant thing for so many people but for me I definitely feel a great passion for what I’m doing at the moment. It excites me working with the company on this text, helping to realise the potential in them and the story. I love seeing the pictures being created in front of me and the company starting to truly ‘inhabit’ their characters and the mind ticking behind the eyes. It’s definitely only in the eyes can you truly see an actor inhabiting their character. Passion for something means committing to it whole heartedly and I’m glad someone has recognised that in me and I hope that I’m managing to communicate this to other people. Passion and drive is infectious and I hope our story will do the same for our audience in four weeks time.

Pericles – Director’s blog 6

Some people have been very generous in saying I have a tan, where clearly I haven’t, even North Africa isn’t that hot in February you know. So after a week off we were straight back into the mix on Monday night and a bit of a shock it was. I didn’t have sufficient time to plan the session and still relatively early on in our process that’s not a good place to be, especially when trying to choreograph a storm scene with 20 people. My thoughts had moved on from using lengths of ropes (sorry Joe) to crates as I think they’ll have a strong visual dynamic being moved and thrown through the air (if the company learn to catch – what do they teach in PE these days?) There were many people filling in for other missing company members (!*&%$!) so it made working out a sequence difficult and I must admit to feeling a bit blocked with it, which is a stressful position to be in but happens from time to time. What I should have done is moved on to later sections and returned to this section when we had the appropriate members. I didn’t so we struggled a bit but got through it…just.

We shall return to that section at another date and as long as each time we do it the scene progresses we’ll be fine. I felt exhausted after this session and was one of those sessions which was a real wake up call. There is an immense amount of work to be done. The following session was a curious mix of the good, the positive and the absent – there is such a massive difference to be seen with consistency, when performers attend regularly and their performance builds and improves each time. Our brothel scenes are currently the absent, one of our poor Bawd’s has had to do the same scene twice with neither of her compatriots in attendance either time. You can see the frustration etched in her face, its tangible and quite rightly as it will ultimately affect her own performance because we haven’t been able to rehearse in as much depth. What’s the answer to this eternal problem?

There was much excitement when Lydia came into rehearsals on Tuesday with costume designs – they certainly like to dress up this company. She has been very clever with the use of a single piece of material that can be moved and change shape to represent the different people from the different lands. So a band across the waist might be someone from Antioch then around the head might be from Pentapolis. I like the symbolism and simplicity of it as it requires a short imaginative leap by the audience, which is something we are asking of them throughout the piece. We also have our rehearsal set in which is great, a little wobbly and I have one member who told me they wouldn’t be able to go up it as they don’t like heights…hmmm. No sitting in an 8ft high birds nest from them then.

I’ve been asked what I want this piece to say to the audience. I couldn’t answer this question straightaway and was a bit stuck by it. I actually still am. I mean I know the story back to front and I believe I understand it through the characters relationships to one another and I am clear about the continuity in their journeys. Doesn’t meaning therefore just naturally evolve from this process? Do I have to be able to articulate what the meaning of this piece is? I feel as though I am doing this and that the company are clear about what it is we are doing and what we are trying to achieve…perhaps at the moment I just can’t quite articulate that into a sound bite…?