How to dissapear… Directors Blog 3

Apologies for the lack of blogging blog fans, but I’ve been trapped under an avalanche of that thing called ‘work’, a teasing and strict fellow he is too. So to coin an Alex Ferguson phrase we’re hittin ‘squeaky bum time’. This isn’t a reference to a medical condition but rather that time when it dawns on you that there ain’t that much time left to get it right. To be precise we have two weeks, which equates to about 24 hrs worth of rehearsal before we hit tech. That sounds alright actually doesn’t it? Breathe…

We are a week into using our set pieces, which are used to transform us from place to place, moved and manipulated around by the company. Sunday was spent getting these moves into place, of which there are many and playing around with how we physically get them about as they are trickier in practice than in theory. Lucy (designer) and I have agreed to adapt them slightly, which has made them easier to move around and I think they work very well as a sensory backdrop to the main character’s (Charlie’s) ever changing world and shifting recollections of events. As ever in the studio you’re conscious of space, space, space…and the seeming lack of it. Making sure the piece is visually accessible to all is a constant task of realigning and diagonal finding.

This is a piece of multiple elements; narratives within narratives, live and recorded music, naturalism and abstraction and empty and filled space. How a piece ties together is always in the final product, have we managed to convey the story within the multiple storytelling elements? Is the piece consistent in its choices? This play could be interpreted in many different ways, that’s one of the primary reasons why I chose it. But with choices comes problems…have the right choices been made? I feel we have made strong choices with this production, we have committed to experimenting with a mix of forms, that I believe will best serve this text. It’s a story that I think will gently stay and drift about in your mind, there will be loose ends to try and tie up, story lines to piece together and hopefully issues and ideas to consider and reflect upon.

How To Dissappear Completely and Never Be Found opens in the studio on Wed 21 Mar.

How to disappear… Directors Blog 2

Just shy off completing three weeks of our rehearsal process and we have just about hit Act Two. First acts are normally longer so it’s a good feeling to be slightly beyond half way. Work thus far has been getting the blocking in place, which is still at the ‘this chair is actually a table…that table is actually a bar…’ stage. I always knew this would be the case as the design for the show came a little later than it would do normally. I now have a beautifully crafted model behind me to play around with and use as a storyboard. By this I mean that I’ll go through each scene and photograph it with set pieces in place, which I’ll pass onto Liam, our lighting designer, and I’ll also use as a reference to make sure that I’ve been fairly even with my staging decisions. Have I put too much focus on stage left or right, for example. Some staging decisions you don’t know will 100% work until you get into the actual room. My slight concern is around the size and the space we have, as the studio is very tight with sight lines and it’s a constant consideration to make sure its evenly played.

The company have been great to work with, they’ve been very receptive to ideas and there’s a great keenness to progress, learn and get things right. Its nice to work with new people, its always an unknown, choosing people on a couple of hours audition as their attitude is so important to the ethos of the company, but so far so good. We’re progressing well with the text, finding our way through it and finding more and more how the outside influences in Charlie’s life have affected his choices and a sense of inevitability that is building up in the days and hours around his disappearance. His sense of loss is a powerful one, which I think I overlooked when I first read the play, but this is the catalyst for his demise, loss is a powerful emotion and one that doesn’t have any timescale on it. He doesn’t have time to grieve, as it hits him so suddenly and he gets caught in this whirlwind and spiral of chaotic events.

The plan is to get through the whole play by the end of next week – a spine from which to add the flesh. From here we’ll do a stumble through of what we’ve done, for many reasons; for company members to see the complete show, for me to see if the staging works and for our creative team to get a sense of the whole and how they will help layer up from here. The music can only really come once we’ve got this first layer, that we’ve found the language of the piece and to see where we need some support. We’ve left out many of the transitions between scenes, which will need to meld with the music and once we have the set pieces but the shape of the piece is looking good and we have a solid foundation to work from.

Much work still to do but a promising start.

– Julian Ollive

How to disappear…directors blog 1

This is the first of a weekly blog from the YAC rehearsal room, where I shall endeavour to pass on thoughts and musings on how the show is progressing and give an insight into how we’re working. This will be the 8^th YAC show I’ve made, and will be the 4^th for the studio theatre so I’m always conscious about keeping things fresh each time. Each new project is essentially original in that it’s a different play or show, it can’t be exactly the same…but sometimes you see work by directors or companies and it feels a similar formula, the pattern has been set and it never frays far from that. Part of this problem can be with working with the same artists. Its incredibly useful to have a shorthand with working with people, an understanding where they just know, its intuitive. But its also so important to throw the doors open and invite new people in, a fresh draft never hurt anyone…

 So with this production I’m working with almost completely new people, 7 of the 8 actors haven’t performed with the YAC before and I’m pleased to be collaborating for the first time with movement director Shona Cowie, composer and musical director Nick Calpin, and designer Lucy Campbell. With these artists I want to find a new way of making work, to learn something myself and bring fresh ideas and impetus to the production. I think my work has a ‘Julian Ollive’ stamp on it, I’ve been told it does and believe there is an aesthetic that I’ve developed but its important to me that it isn’t too fixed or prescriptive. You don’t progress by just doing what you know. Its also important to keep providing opportunities for new young people to us. Auditions are strange things, for both sides, for me I have to make judgements on people very quickly. Its true you get a sense of peoples ability pretty quickly but its crucial to stay open minded and not be too rigid in your expectations, because those people might not come through the doors.

 We start rehearsals on the 18^th and work pretty intensively on it three times a week through to the production, actually with a week off in the middle this time (which is nice!) I always refer back to previous rehearsal schedules I’ve done for a barometer of how long and intensive a schedule should be. I learnt from an early show that over 10 weeks is too long, its difficult to sustain momentum and you end up losing people along the way. Its quite a long piece this one so we’ll be pushing it through to make sure we’ve got a grasp of it before going back and adding in the finer detail. This isn’t an easy thing to do, leaving parts slightly under done but a rehearsal process is about layering. Those layers can’t all be laid down at once, I’m looking for broad understanding and interpretation of character initially, along with basic blocking in the space. Then the second time through we deepen the character intentions and physicality (hopefully off book at this point), then some sound may come into the process and refining transitions between scenes. Pretty rarely do major staging changes happen after the initial work through. I go into rehearsals with a fairly clear idea of where to place things, this comes from a detailed knowledge of the performance space but also I work quite pictorially when I work through a script so see it quite clearly in my mind.

 I’ve been wanting to do this play for a while so I’ve had some time to digest it but now is the time to fix thoughts and get some detailed text work done before rehearsals start. So I better go do it…

YAC auditions!

Audition call for Young Actors

York Theatre Royal Young Actors Company (YAC) is holding auditions for their latest production of How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found by Fin Kennedy. The production will take place in the studio theatre 21^st – 24^th March.  

Charlie’s used up 8 of his 9 lives; in debt, in trouble and in despair, he holds the urn of his cremated mother in his hands. With his life crumbling around him he is offered the chance to change his one remaining life forever. But to do this he will have to make ‘Charlie’ disappear forever…

YAC was created for 18-25 year olds with the objective of providing performance opportunities for young adults, acting as a bridge for some into the professional industry. The artistic vision of the company has a specific focus on new, contemporary and site-specific work. The company is run by artistic director Julian Ollive, the theatre’s Education and Young Actors Associate. Founded in 2008 the YAC first produced three new site-specific pieces for the York Youth Mysteries. Since then the company have produced a new piece of work exploring questions and ethics around genetics called An Exact Science? EQUUS as part of the TakeOver09 festival, Terrorism, Elsewhere in collaboration with Belt Up Theatre, Celebrating Severus at The Yorkshire Museum and most recently Little Angels by Hannah Davies.

Auditions are being held at the Theatre Royal on December 13^th and 15^th December from 7 – 9.30pm. We are looking for an ensemble of eight company members who will play multiple parts between the ages of 18 – 25 yrs. Auditions will take place as a whole group. We are looking for committed and passionate young people between 18 – 25 yrs old who are available to rehearse Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons from January 18^th. This is an exciting opportunity to create and perform in a contemporary play in a movement-driven style in a professional environment.

For more information and to book for into an audition day email julian@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or call Julian Ollive on 01904 658162.

Little Angels – director’s blog 4

The lights are positioned and focused, the paints dried, the grass is laid and the satellite dish is up…meaning we are raring to go! There are lots of little limbo states during production week, periods where you’re waiting for the next event to happen. I’m currently limbo-ing before the company arrives at 4.30 for our tech part 1, which we continue tomorrow at 10. The tech for those not ‘in the know’ is the setting of the technical elements, principally the lights and sound into the piece more formulaically, getting the levels right and the length of the transitions from state to state. Its also the first time the actors get into the theatre space, so there’s time to be spent working out the time it takes them to get from the wings to the stage and where props and set need to be positioned. It can be quite a fraught time, with a temper being known to be frayed from time to time. But I think we’re pretty well set and I’m envisaging (and hoping) it’ll go smoothly.

Certain elements and decisions as a director you can’t make until you’re in the actual space with all the actual elements. For example, lengths of music and there in and out points, you can’t set until we know the lengths of journey into and out of the stage space. Positioning of set always needs a refocus in the space, especially as the studio is a thrust stage so you always have to be conscious of making sure you are effectively playing to all three sides. Everyone has paid the same amount so everyone needs an equally good view of the action. I’m always very conscious of this and it needs constant modifications by watching from different positions throughout the tech and dress.

Filling these little limbo moments is difficult I find, as its hard to concentrate on other things, you just want to get going. We are at the stage of needing and wanting an audience. There comes a point in the process where you can’t really see the wood for the trees, you’re too close to it to be able to see it objectively. By this I mean the clarity of choices made, hence the clarity of the characters and story. Until an audience sees it, then lets us know their thoughts, its hard to truly know what you’ve got on your hands. Could it be the greatest play ever written (probably not), or could it be the worse play ever written (definitely not) but where exactly does it fall? The production becomes such a precious thing to you, you love it and nourish it and therefore become very protective over it. Nobody likes criticism, you want everyone to love it, but that’ll never happen. I suppose the best we can hope for is that it communicates to some people. That it has meaning and significance and causes the stirring of feeling and engagement in some way. That would be nice…but we’ll have to wait and see.