Entering the next exciting phase
As press night looms ever closer the pressure is on. There is a company of anxious actors, obsessively steaming, drinking soothing ginger tea, swapping stories of lack of sleep or aches and pains, girls panicking to find the perfect opening night dress, and the creative team holding us together never complaining about the stress and sleep deprivation they are under. Rehearsals continue during the day, sometimes for big number changes, at times smaller alterations, a shift of focus, a line cut, a music snip, a lyric change and these are the hardest notes to undertake. We no longer have the luxury of time, changes come in fast, occasionally in the rehearsal call, every now and then in the detailed daily 'love letters' from our director, Tamara, and we take on the responsibility of implementing them that evening. On occasion they completely transform the scene or help important moments land clearly. Now and again they don't work first time, forcing you to hide the terror flashing through your eyes in front of a full house as you have no idea how to get yourself out of the hole of missing the harmony or forgetting the new line. But you find your way out, put it behind you and focus harder in the next scene hoping that the seemingly endless red faced moment is swiftly forgotten by all. You either get 'the fear' of the changes or you embrace the evolution of the preview process and trust the fact that every audience laugh, murmur or sob has been analysed and evaluated by our creative and production team and the little tweaks we are given are to make sure we tell the best and clearest version of our story.
The other day we had a press call, where we invited goodness knows how many flashing bulbs and red lights of video cameras into our theatre to capture moments of the show for publicity. We tried our hardest to recreate these moments as truthfully as we do of an evening whilst making sure we were smiling in the right direction, holding bits in, and trying not to look too awkward. As we held army formations and hula-ed towards the faceless flashing auditorium, I felt another rush of excitement and gratitude to be involved in this show as we enter the next exciting phase.
Posted by Siubhan Harrison (Lorene) on 19/10/2013 @ 09:00hrs