Telling stories with imagination.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Otieno Rehearsals

It's day three and so far only one tantrum from the writer (which bearing in mind he's also the lead actor, sound designer and as of this morning fight director!!! is pretty good going.) But as a director who works predominantly with dead writers I'm more used to fighting with actors! Luckily he is one of those too, and the tantrum consisted of a few minutes of silent mutterings and then a big hug and copious apologies. Though he was only trying to preserve the integrity of the play - which is always something worth fighting for.


In all seriousness Trevor is one of those brilliantly un-precious writers for whom the story comes first, and the words second, so he's incredibly flexible and open to change. Which is just as well as this evening's rehearsal report attests we re-wrote over 20 lines today! It's such an exciting time - the initial days of rehearsal - even more so when it's a new play. We're like explorers cutting our way through new swathes of uncharted territory - though I suppose not totally uncharted; the story and characters are still (mostly) Shakespeare's. Well, whatever the appropriate metaphor the actors are fearlessly making great inroads into this new and yet strangely familiar landscape - we've had lots of laughter, some tears and a few moments of honest, visceral, muscular pain - I guess moments of what Heather (our producer) is always harping on about - brutal beauty. Can't wait to see what happens once the actors are fully off-book - I predict broken furniture (but luckily our set consists of crates and sand, so nothing too fragile). More anon...

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