Friday, September 24, 2010

Our French adventure!

This time last week the first performance of Vanessa and Virginia had just begun. But not without difficulty. On the Thursday morning the team (Emma, Kitty, Beth, George, Luke and I) met bright and early at Gatwick's south terminal and were hit with a blow. Our flight to Marsaille had been cancelled. With this huge inconvenience and EasyJet proving to be totally unhelpful we quickly set about trying to find an alternative route to France, searching through every possibility, flights, trains, ferrys and driving. Eventually we managed to get some flights later that evening but at the expense of two of our party. Unfortunately the more expensive tickets meant that Beth and Luke were unable to join us.
So eventually at half 9pm our party of four arrived in Marsaille only to be informed that the hire care which had been promised as part of our flight deal, wasn't actually available, so tired and frustrated we clambered aboard a coach from the airport with our set, costume and cases and eventually arrived at Hotel Cardinal in Aix en Provence.

We awoke on Friday and headed off for what would prove to be a long day in the theatre. George quickly set about working with the students at the theatre and began rigging and focussing for the show. Even as early as 10am, with 9 hours till the performance time I was already aware of a swarm of butterflies in my stomach. Due to some technical complications, brilliantly handled by George, our tech was delayed and we were unable to finish a cue to cue of the show before we began.

Waiting side stage as the audience entered the space I was more nervous than I have ever been pre-show before. I think this was a combination of it being our first performance, the knowledge that we were performing to a host of renowned Woolf scholars and my own determination to do justice to the extraordinary woman I was about to play.

Despite all of this, the show went better than I could ever have hoped. Both Kitty and myself found new elements to our characters, found a new sense of play and exploration which had developed even further from the rehearsal room. It was a totally exhiliarating experience and I felt more than ever before that this woman was really coming to life. The response from our audience was overwhelming. I could never have hoped for such a positive response and it was hugely reassuring to know that all our work during rehearsals and research had been successful. Of course that isn't to say that there are still more things we can do to improve the show further, but for our premier performance and after an incredibly trying couple of days it felt like a huge success and has even opened up performance opportunities in Germany and Greece.

The rest of the weekend was spent both at the Woolf conference, hearing papers about Woolf's writing style and particular novels and walking the beautiful streets of Aix en Provence. The trip was an incredible experience and has left the whole team feeling incredibly excited about the next development of the project.

Monday, September 6, 2010

The Tech!

Yesterday we embarked on the challenge of teching 'Vanessa and Virginia'. It promised to be a long day, what with combining sound lighting and AV cues. As an actor, I always find it really exciting watching a piece come together in the tech, and it really felt that each part of the show came together to comliment each other. After 9 hours of plotting, running, testing and checking we began our dress rehearsal. I felt it went encouragingly well, and with all elements in place I found I was able to continue finding new sides and threads of Virginia. Th challenge now will be to maintain this momentum in the week and a half leading up to France. It always feels slightly strange going from a full scale dress rehearsal back to rehearsals without every element in place but it would feel even stranger and harder to leave the piece entirely for that time. So with plans in place for rehearsals, line runs and a continued focus on the piece we begin counting down the days until we leave for Aix (10!)

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Towards dress and tech

So tomorrow we start the process of introducing more elements into the piece. Tomorrow whilst rehearsing we will be working with both costume and music and then over the weekend we will be adding in lights and the projections. It is exciting as each addition brings new elements to respond to, to be aware of and enhance the ongoing work of the piece.

The rehearsal process so far has been an intense time with welcomed challenges that have really pushed me (and continue to push me). In the rehearsal process, as we worked through the units of the play and the characters grew older within the narratives and the layers developed I found I needed to sensitize towards shifts in feeling within the units and the tempos within the piece.

As Sarah discusses previously, one of the biggest challenges of this piece is creating life-altering moments in a few words or even just a physical and vocal shift. For myself there is a lot of narrative delivered in direct address. Since the last rehearsal I have been trying to solidify those parts of narration wherein I am relaying that which is happening right there at that moment, and trying to communicate this with clarity; conjuring the characters who are present in that moment, the place I am in, and the time.

The play is broken into units - chapters of the sister’s life. As the work on each unit has becomes more detailed and the emotional heights that are reached become more present in our bodies, it is very important to be aware of making each unit of the story distinct and not allowing huge resonances from a unit to carry through to the next without marking a shift. Here I am trying to work with physical shifts within the body, a changing of an emotional point held within in my body, an image coming into focus into my mind, an adding of weight both physically and in my mind as time moves on and the layers of the story resonate.

It has been a week since last we met and I am looking forward to returning to our Vanessa and Virginia world, building more and more.