Coming to the end of week 3 rehearsals for Sleeping Beauty.The ensemble (five second year Musical Theatre students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) have been working ridiculously hard. They really do create the entire atmosphere of the show and they are doing a brilliant job. But it means they are basically in every scene; either as uptight Courtiers, starving slaves or mischievous thorns. Transformative lot! So while I am busy falling asleep on the sofa (HAPPENED ONLY ONCE I SWEAR!) they are up singing 'feed me feed me' over and over, working on their perfect knife sharpening techniques.
A couple of photos of the ensemble in action..and Al's Ukulele...
The last couple of days we have mainly been working on staging Act two. There is A LOT of action in the second half and its pretty mental, so its taking a while. And every now and again there's a really meaty piece of writing that we need to stop and work on very slowly in order to try and hit the right tone and to find the right stakes (fairytale stakes, which are prrrrretty ridiculously high). Dominic is great at picking out moments and finding opportunities to tell the story in the most exciting way possible. We also have the luxury of two movement directors, Lucien Lindsay Macdougall and Benedicte Seierup, who teach movement at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. They taught Al and I when we were training there and we have always been huge fans. They are absolute masters of movement; encouraging us all to think about and explore physicality, rhythms beats, tensions, style and detail. They know how to bring a space to life and never let us forget the absolute detail of the world we are trying to create. They work fantastically with Dominic and are bringing so much to his vision and to the (rather mad) style of the show. We ALSO have an assistant director, Deborah Hannan, who is a graduate from the MA CCT course at the RCS and a very good friend of mine. I have worked with her before on an Arches Live project and she's a fantastic director. It has been very calming having her in the room in fact. If I'm ever feeling a bit unsure and don't want to burden Dominic as he has ridiculous amounts to think about at once, she always knows and can always help to guide me in the right direction.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK:
Al is playing a minstrel (and table slave) and in one scene he has to run on in a panic shouting 'BEAUTY!' ..Easy enough you'd think. Instead, he ran on, found his place, opened his mouth and out came 'Cinnnddersleeeping BEAUTY!' I think he's a bit confused. Bless him. However, as long as he remembers which christmas show he's in, his minstrel and table slave are going to be ACE. Hilarious.
On another note, Al and I just went to see Here We Stay, a partnership project between the Scottish Refugee Council and the Citizens Theatre exploring the life stories of asylum seekers, refugees and residents living in Glasgow today. It was brilliant. So moving and honest and brave. A well deserved standing ovation.
'Sleeping Beauty' is on at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, from the 1 Dec to 6 Jan. For tickets, please contact the box office on: 0141 429 0022; or book online at www.citz.co.uk.
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