('A.H' DENOTES A BLOG WRITTEN BY AL HANKINSON AND 'L.H' BY LUCY HOLLIS)

Thursday 3 January 2013

Things What I Learned

A.H: As Sleeping Beauty enters its final few days I thought I’d take the New Year break to reflect back upon this fantastic wee show, see what I’ve learnt and post the sum total of all this new knowledge here in this Blog for all to see. If you’ve been a regular follower you’ll find the final solutions to theatrical conundrums that repeatedly outwitted us for the entire rehearsal process and if you’re a new reader it’ll be a catch up to all that’s been going on here at A Season at the Citz. So, without further ado, here are the surprising, and not so surprising, behind-the-scenes revelations of Sleeping Beauty:

1)      The show in numbers
In total 13 cast members will have done 51 performances, 2 hours in length (including a 20 minute interval) over 37 days which means, if I’ve got my maths right, we’ll have racked up a total of 4488 minutes of performance time. Surprisingly, there were only 10 early morning School shows (though it felt like a hell of a lot more). Out of a 37 day run we’ll have had 10 days off, including 1 Christmas Day and 1 New Year’s Eve. My dressing room alone, which has 3 occupants, has gone through 6 tubs of expensive ‘White Face’ clown make-up and 8 rolls of microphone tape. Over 2 acts there are 13 microphones in use; 8 trap doors used; 8 quick changes; it takes 7 tech staff to make the show run smoothly and musically the show requires 1 Bassoon, 1 Coconut, 1 Double Bass, 2 Ukulele’s, 2 Tambourine’s and a recorder. The shortest running time for Act. 1 was 54minutes and for Act.2 33 minutes. Number of estimated hours sleep to recover when the show is finished? 4,50087.

2)      No pain no gain
Literally because repeated appliance of microphone tape (which in the medical profession is named ‘surgical tape’) to the same area over and over again makes your neck look like this:

And metaphorically because whereas in an earlier Blog of mine I spoke of the importance during a long run of staying present to ensure that fatigue and complacency doesn’t creep in, in practice, this was one of the toughest things we all had to grapple with. Simply because when you’re doing the same show over and over, twice a day, every day some shows are a lot harder than others. I will be honest and admit that there were moments when I caught myself on stage watching the action but thinking about what I need to get from Asda later. However, doing a show for such a long run also gives time for every line and movement to become incredibly detailed and nuanced. For me it was little things like realising half way through the run that I’d been putting an emphasis on a certain line in the wrong place or realising that as the Minstrel there was a way of holding my Ukulele that looked as if the instrument was barely being touched and that it was incredibly light. A small thing that’s barely noticeable but something that adds to the bright, light and austere world of the palace.

3)      Sick is unpredictable
Face before I get Sicked on:                 Face After I get sicked on: 

Nuff said.

4)      The Cast get the applause but there are so many others who deserve it :
I’m bound to miss someone out the number is so vast but there are so many people who have worked so hard just on this one show and the vast majority of name’s below have probably already started doing it all over again for the show after us. So a huge thank you to:

Karen & Elaine plus the several drafted in (wardrobe); Barry, Emma, Lindsay, Cathy, P.B, Neil, Nat (the tech team); Guy Liotta (sound); Guy Hoare (Lighting design); Naomi Wilkinson (designer); Dominic Hill (director); Debbie Hannan (assistant director); Paddy Cunneen (music director); Lucien & Benedicte (movement director’s); Jamie and everyone in workshop (set builders); Helen, Alison, Jennifer & Keren (Marketing); the entire front of house team who collectively run the bar/ usher/ sell the tickets/ diligently keep the peace during a show. Finally, a special mention has to be made to Tom, Molly, Lucie, Grieg and Eve: 5 second year Musical Theatre students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland who, on their first professional production of their hopefully long careers, have only ever been incredibly hard working and professional.

5)      There is no one-size-fits-all solution when closing Trap Doors

As a member of the ensemble in Act One it means that half my time is spent under the stage dressed as a Thorn popping up out of any one of the 8 trap doors built into the stage. However, quickly and seamlessly disappearing back into the trap door without getting any one of your head or hand thorns trapped is a martial art. Each member of the ensemble has developed his or her own method to dealing with this most complex of issues. One of my most intricate trap door closing movements I call the ‘Curl and Drop technique’ which is essentially a mix between a parachute jump, a break dance and wilfully falling on your arse...albeit gracefully falling on your arse.

6)      Trust your Director!
For those who are regular readers you’ll recall that while I have two characters in the show, Table-Slave and Minstrel, I was continually having problems working out how to play the latter. With the Table Slave I knew instinctively what to do and the more I worked on him the more images came to my mind to draw upon.
A selection of which included:

Beaker

Monty Python


Moley

Ultimately, with the T-Slave very little changed between the performance in the rehearsal room and the one you see on the stage.

However, Minstrel continued to elude me all through rehearsals and, worryingly for me, half way into the tech. Surprisingly, what finally unlocked it was a 2minute conversation with our Assistant Director Debbie during a break in the tech. In this conversation she explained to me about a certain type of Clown work known as ‘Buffon’ and that often the person with the lowest hierarchical status has the most power as he/she has nothing to lose and thus can do whatever they want to whoever they want. After that brief conversation in the middle of a hallway which took minutes, the lock I’d been trying to pick for four weeks was suddenly open and the character began to grow very quickly in a very short amount of time. The lesson: Always trust your director and never be afraid to ask for help! 

 ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is on at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, until Sunday 6 Jan. For all tickets please contact the box office on: 0141 429 0022, or book online at www.citz.co.uk. 

1 comment:

  1. Thinking of the fact that Diablo three is without having a question celebrity dresses discharged, you acquired a number of help. Pertaining to each individual suits for women Blizzard persons, We could primarily suggest which we treasure that romance and wedding dresses 2013 in some cases online shopping sites take care of a rising number .

    ReplyDelete