Monday 14 January 2013

The Preview

FRIDAY

And suddenly, the big day is here.

Teej comes in first thing in the morning, and by the time she leaves, the dances feel like they're in a good place. By 11am, we're doing  another full run of the show.  Its starting to feel more comfortable and confident...and I'm relieved to find that the daunting costume changes are feeling more and more feasible each time I do them!

At lunchtime, we grab a pasty and go to hook up the trailer to the landrover, ready for our get-out on saturday morning. Having the tour paraphenalia really underlines things...the tour is beginning!

When we get back to theatre, we make the decision to hold back on a second run, and conserve some energy before the night's show. Instead we do some tweaking....particularly those scenes that interact with the film. They have to be very precise, so its worth paying attention to them and getting them as smooth as we can.

Later, Benj and I do a speed line-run whilst walking through our blocking (movements) on set. And before we know it, it's almost 5pm.

Whilst the crew clear the space (moving the tech table to the top of the auditorium and getting things ready for an audience), the actors are starting to feel the nerves! We go down and try and eat some of the Tolmen Centre's top notch dinner, and then try to find a quiet place to slow our minds down, and focus for the show.  Before we know it, we're in our starting positions and hearing the sound of 200 people buzzing into the theatre.

 
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The show flies by without a hitch, and its alot of fun to perform. The Tolmen is a brilliant audience, and a lovely space for sharing a performance. The whole place feels really energised. The feedback afterwards is unbelievably positive, and we're so pleased to have made it through from beginning to end!

Later, we'll sit down together and talk about how to carry on improving the show (which bits need more pace, which bits particularly worked, which bits might need altering) The point of a preview is to test a show, and we're pleased to have had the time to do that, and with such a supportive and constructive audience.

Let the tour begin.

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