Tonight's the night!

Ruchita's diary
After a costume run on Wednesday night, we realised that we needed to finesse our acting and sync it better to the wagon movements so last night was all about pinning down the details. The staggered rehearsal lasted almost the whole day but I'm confident that we have a good show in place. We had hoped that we would be able to do just one run-through today but unfortunately there is still a lot to be done. The tension is so think you could cut it with a knife! We have 2 run throughs and a rehearsal with Cecilia on the cards before the opening performance at 9pm tonight.

9 hours and counting down. See you all there!

Videos and Sets

Ruchita's diary
Yesterday was all about nailing down set movements and choreographing our moves off-stage and I'm happy to say that it went off very well. The next test is to do all our moves in near darkness.

We also tried out video projections last night. The technical complexity of this project is quite daunting in that sound, video, set, action and wagon movements have to be precisely timed to one another. This is not easy and requires all of us to be on the ball and focussed during the entire performance. Tonight we're going to add lighting design to the scenography and try out costume changes at the same time. We're slowly adding the layers one on top of the other and the picture is getting richer and richer.

Working on Set Moves

Pete Brooks' diary

Its reasonably early morning (6.45) and I'm writing this now because I don't expect to get a chance later today. Last night we did a run with both truck and set elements and although there are of course glitches and hiati (is that the plural of hiatus?) on the whole everything is working really well. Bruno, who is working for Inteatro took some photos for the press and was clearly impressed. The end scene in which Martin, wearing a pig mask dances in the red curtained corridor is lovely. Maria has made a beautiful Chantal Ackermanesque short film for the end and overall there is much to be admired. On the down side I have a slight hangover as a result of trying to introduce some of the company to the delights of Fernet Branca, and bizarrely we have a Libdem/Conservative coalition government. Its distressing that now we live in a classless society old Etonian leaders of the Conservative party can once again be Prime Minister without being seen to obviously represent the interests of an elete. I'd rather have Thatcher.

Traffic Cops

Ruchita's diary
Speaking of directing traffic, I've just finished drawing up cue sheets and assigning people the panels they're supposed to move and I must say, it's a logistical nightmare! These are going to be put to the test today as we do 3 runs back-to-back of truck movements and set choreography both of which have so far been very complicated procedures thanks to the low quality wheels driving the set pieces. Where 2 people are needed to move one element, by tomorrow I hope we can make the mechanism efficient enough for just one person to take charge of each.

In the meanwhile Dee's busy with costume alterations and last minute changes to wardrobe, Maria's on rapid fire video edits and Martin's tweaking the soundtrack, adding foley sounds over the dialogue and music. There's frenetic activity on all fronts but things are coming together folks! This is going to be a very exciting show to put up!

Set Choreography

Pete Brooks' diary
It's been a fairly busy couple of days. On Sunday we marked up all the positions for the audience truck. It is a unnegotiable fact of making performance, that, just as inany other manufacturing process, it is not enough simply to know what you want to happen, you also need to know how to make it happen, and in the case of tracking shot, cueing, and the marking up of the floor are the key to getting things to happen in the right way at the right time and take quite a bit of thought. Last night we worked through all the set moves. Who moves what and to where.

Everything has to be choreographed. Every set element has it's place at every moment, not just when it's being used and because it is the cast who are moving stuff, there are costume changes to be taken into consideration and also lighting and projection positions. There are 15
set changes in 40 minutes making for a complex interconnecting puzzle that takes hours to solve. It's frustrating and difficult without being challenging in an exciting way. It's just something that needs to be done. It reminds me of something a TV director friend of mine said, and this someone who has directed episodes of both The Wire and The Sopranos. He says the director is just a traffic cop.

A footnote: I have just noticed that the blogmeister has been describing these diary entries as being from Pete Brook's diary. Dissapointingly they are not, they are from Pete Brooks' diary.(what a difference a space makes) I saw Peter Brook's Midsummer Night's Dream when I was at school and, reservations about his recent work not withstanding I have always admired him. The truth is we do not have a great deal in common other than that we both work in the theatre and are both bald. He came to see a show of mine once (Clair de Luz in 1994) I was so nervous when I heard he was in the audience I went to the toilets and vomited.

Playing with the Sets

May 05, 2010. Pete Brooks' diary

Last night we played around with the audience truck. Loaded it's heavy, but surprisingly manouvrable. Its obvious that it offers more possibilities than simply moving forward, but the possibilities themselves become difficult to cope with given that time is running out. I think that we will simplify the sound design, which is a shame (I'll try and write about that another time). Most things are working fine, one or to ideas seem to have shifted in ways that need to be looked at carefully but on the whole I think we are OK. I haven't checked the situation regarding volcanic activity but will try and write more later.