Cheltenham: Week 2

Cheltenham

Making the first move:

Always approached with trepidation and a little hesitation. The first move to a new theatre is always a bit of an unknown. How long will you need to get there? How long to get set up? How will everyone cope with things in a different positions backstage? Different dressing rooms etc.

Luckily for me, GMoss and Sinead, it was relatively easy. We had done it about 26 times before last year. Yes, things are slightly different now, but the basic shape is still the same. But for Roger and Lucy it was going to be completely new. I'll refer you back to the guest blog I did last year in Nottingham for a complete run down on what we have to do on each in and how important local crew and location are vital for a smooth get-in (I wont bore you by churning it out all over again here!) -http://pollyhughesbirdsongthetour.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nottingham-lauren-our-dsm-takes-you.html

I haven't played Cheltenham for about 4 years, so much of my memory of it was slightly sketchy. I do remember it being a good venue for space and with a great crew.

For us though, it was a good day's get-in. Roger and Lucy both worked really hard and the result was there ready for when the cast turned up.

The Beautiful Bramley

This week, we had the benefit of not being on a raked stage, meaning that the cast didn't have to contend with the stopper for the door. Cheltenham's backstage is also much bigger than Eastbourne's so there was a lot more space to move around in and to set things. Much of the day was spent dancing around like Julie Andrews and exclaiming over the extra room. Dressing room wise, the cast were spread out over two floors with good sized rooms which also had the luxury of blow-up beds in each one. The only minor downside was that there were a lot of stairs to climb. But once you got up to the 3^rd floor, you had an amazingly well kitted out Green room which had double doors leading on to a smoking balcony. Not only that, but it was soon to become the home of our special guest for the week – Bramley the dog. Belonging to James Staddon, who plays Berard and Barclay, Bramley was on tour with us for one week and soon managed to become the most adored member of the Birdsong Company. This week also was to see Alastair becoming taking on a couple of extra characters in the show. He always plays Levi, but due to needing to be out front watching in Eastbourne, we hadn't yet included his Military Policeman or his Sapper, Turnwright.

Alastair as Turnwright

Once all the cast had arrived on Monday, and after a sound check and stage familiarisation session, it was time to open to a (once again) packed house. The response from the first night audience was astounding and was there to see the next day in the form of a 5 star review (http:stagetalkmagazine.com/?=2269). Not to brag about, of course, but there is something amazing about being involved in something that is getting this kind of praise. But, before our heads got too big, it was time to be whisked off to our digs for the week.

Mrs Miggins' Pie Shop:

As we get further along the tour I have no doubt that you will be hearing lots from us about digs. There really are three factors on tour that can either make a week great or make it completely depressing. 1. Theatre 2. Audience 3. Digs. That is it. Everything else is either a bonus or a niggle – there might be a great pub next to stage door that'll do a lock in or there might be just one dingy little place a mile away which shuts at 10pm. Sainsbury or Tesco ay be round the corner or they may be 5 miles away. You get the idea.

Digs can be wonderful or they can be the worst experience of your life. To be honest, I've always been quite lucky, but that's because I'm not terrible keen on staying in digs in people's houses. Sometimes you do get really lucky and have a great host with a reasonable rate. When I worked at Dundee Rep, I had a fantastic landlady who I still stay in touch with and a lovely room for about £65 a week. At one (unnamed) University town (which isn't Oxford), I had slugs trails on the floor, students playing guitar rifts at 4am and possibly the most dirty kitchen I have ever seen, all for the princely sum of £125 for 5 nights (I KNOW!). This is why I prefer to either be in a hotel or somewhere self-catering. I am far too aware of ending up in the equivalent of Mrs Miggin's Pie shop from Blackadder. 

This week's digs had been arranged by Duncoyd (Peter and Simon for those who didn't read last week's blog – and why haven't you?) way back in rehearsals. They had somewhere else in mind to start with but that fell through and so Simon had found these cottages about an 8 minute drive from the theatre.

And what cottages they were!

Myself, Peter and Jonny were in a beautiful cottage with a mezzanine bedroom level which overlooked an incredibly spacious lounge with a high beamed ceiling. Simon, the girls and George were in an equally beautiful and well equip cottage on the same site. I had a wonderfully comfortable double bedroom next to a lovely bathroom which was the same price as the slug trailed hell.

On the Tuesday Selma cooked up a lovely beef bourguignon and invited the whole company over after the show (unfortunately I had to go away for the night, but I hear it was a fabulous evening).

I think that Peter and Jonny are my favourite housemates ever. Peter was determined to cook for us most evenings and we sat up having great chats over the odd glass of wine or a beer. I soon was saying the phrase 'Jonny, this is your father speaking' a lot, as Peter was giving out fatherly advice (and occasional tidying up instructions) to him. One night we were watching Catfish -the series, and Jonny was trying to explain the concept to Peter.

At a local butcher's, Peter found
the biggest chop I have ever seen…...

Although he was resistant as first, soon Peter was watching another episode all on his own whilst everyone else was going to bed!

If you like the sound of our digs, here's the website for more infor if you're ever about in Cheltenham: www.churchcourtcottages.co.uk

Beware of The Bull:

I think I mentioned nicknames in my previous blog. Alastair likes giving these to members of his company, but insists that they can never be forced and just come naturally. You cannot create your own nickname and neither can anyone else but Alastair. I have worked with Alastair for 14 months now and am yet to have a nickname. Other members of the company might call me 'The Lozzatron' (which I secretly quite like, but don't tell anyone), but the moment Alastair finds another nickname, that is what I shall be. Last year we had Goose, Frog and The Bull. This year we already have The Bear and The Goat (I'm not going to tell you, you're going to have to guess). But why am I telling you about this? Because this week we had a visit... from The Bull.

The Bull is Tim Treloar who played Firebrace in last year's tour and also a friend of Simon's and he came on the Thursday to see the show and to have a few drinks afterwards. The next day was our first understudy rehearsal (more about those in weeks to come) and so meant a visit from Charlotte, our AD, who comes along to run them occasionally. Then it was Saturday, two shows and a get-out and before we knew it the week was over. Now it really feels like we're on tour again! Here's to seeing what Tunbridge Wells has in store for us.

The two Firebraces together: Tim Treloar and Peter Duncan

Eastbourne: Week 1

Eastbourne

Last year Malcolm and I were driving back from Ipswich where we'd finished the first leg of the tour, before the Easter break. Malcolm lives in Brighton and I live in Eastbourne and we were talking about possible venues that might come up on a tour the following year. I remember Malcolm saying to me, 'that would be good for us, wouldn't it, if we did Eastbourne, Worthing and Tunbridge Wells?'

So, here we are, nearly a year later and we're opening Birdsong in Eastbourne and with both Worthing and Tunbridge Wells on the tour schedule.

Yes, Malcolm. Very good indeed.

In all seriousness, I believe that there are few better venues than The Devonshire Park to open a production in, and that's not just because it's a 5 minute walk from my flat. In addition to producing a pantomime each year, they also do their own productions in the summer and have a history of co-productions that go on to tour nationally. Most of the crew there are lighting designers, production managers and scenic artists and props makers in their own rights, which is really helpful when starting a production there. Not only that, it is also one of the friendliest venues I have ever been to. Ok, I may be a bit biased, but I love it there! It's also a traditional old style theatre with a beautiful auditorium and only minutes from the beach.

But, enough of that. Let's get to Eastbourne week:

I have been here before:

I arrived at the theatre on the Friday night after the run in the rehearsal room and was immediately met by Gareth (who shall be referred to as GMoss, a nickname given to him by Alastair, but more about those in future weeks), our technical stage manager. Walking onto the set he said 'It's like we've never been away, isn't it?' Oh yes. Apart from a few changes in the floor texture and positioning, a few other minor adjustments and a re-paint, it looked exactly as it had when we'd left it in Brighton last August. GMoss, Roger, Jon and Anne-Marie had been there for most of the week getting the set in, along with Dom, our sound designer and Jenni, our associate lighting designer, who were setting up the technical aspects of the show. The cast weren't due to arrive until the next day and so we had some time that evening to start going through a few of the lighting and sound cues. It all felt so very familiar....

You were only supposed to blow the doors off:

The following morning the cast arrived and it was their first chance to get onto the set – they were only familiar with it from the model box and pictures so far. Alastair and I realised that we had vastly underestimated the height of the moveable tunnel piece from our memories, so all of the men were relieved to see it was actually higher than they had been used to in rehearsals. The rest of the day was spent getting used to the space and running a few scene changes

The set going up (taken from Birdsong Facebook page)

as well as getting into dressing rooms and finding out where the nearest cafes and shops were to the theatre. It's always difficult going from a rehearsal space onto the actual set as it is not always possible to recreate certain elements of the set in the rehearsal room. For example, we weren't able to fit the upper level decking into the rehearsal room this year and it is almost impossible to recreate the going over the top scene without the actual set. There was also another impressive element to the set which, although we did try to incorporate it in rehearsals, was going to be an extra challenge to the cast….
The door.

If you've seen Birdsong, then you'll know that we have a large swing door that opens both on and off stage to form part of the Azaire's drawing room, the trenches and dug-outs as well as other scenes and the cast have to move it into different positions during the scene change. We are also on a raked stage in Eastbourne (meaning that the stage slopes upwards as it goes back) and so in addition to moving the door, the cast also have to flip up and down stoppers to make sure it stays in position and doesn't swing open or shut. By the end of the day, however, the cast were moving about the space like they had been performing on it for years.

Technically Correct:

After a day off, we were ready to start the technical rehearsals on Monday morning. Sinead, Tony, Anne-Marie and Will from the theatre, had spent much of Saturday breaking down costumes to make them look war worn and affixing the proper insignia to the uniforms so they were all ready for the cast to put them on and get onto the set.

Technical rehearsals of The Letters Home scene
(From Birdsong Facebook page)

Technical rehearsals involve going through the entire play with all the elements, lighting, sound, flys, costume, scene changes and staging, and making sure that they all fit together. They can sometimes seem slow and laborious with a fair amount of hanging about for the cast and they may even grind to a halt completely if a particularly tricky problems occurs. Things ran fairly smoothly for us backstage as many of the cues and scenes were the same as the year before. There have been a few changes to the script and a some scenes have moved to a different place which did cause a few bumps here and there, but mostly it was about making sure that the cast were all comfortable with what was happening on stage and around them. Watching this you really become aware of how much the cast have to do during the show. Forget being able to hang around in your dressing room between scenes, they couldn't leave the side of the stage for fear that they might miss an important change or be in the wrong costume for a scene. For example, Lucy Grattan plays Marguerite. She also plays a bar wench in the first scene then a German in the next tunnel scene, then she has to get into her Marguerite costume to do the scene change into the first Azaire scene before having to change to a nurse to set up the hospital and going back to Marguerite. At the same time she is trying to keep track of what props are ending up where in her capacity as assistant stage manager. Another example is Jonny Clarke who starts off as Tipper before changing to Gregoire for a few scenes, then after one scene he has to exit and immediately get onto a stretcher carried by Simon and Peter to play a wounded soldier and then go back to Gregorire, then to Tipper and alternates between these two characters before when, towards the end of the play, he goes from Tipper, immediately to Gregoire to come off to have a quick change to a dead German tunneller. Phew. 

And that's before you add the actual moving of the furniture and props that has to be done, often whilst singing in harmony. There are lots more examples I could give you but I think you generally get the idea. Suffice to say that pretty much all of the cast are moving and changing constantly throughout the piece. Stop me if I'm boring you here..... No? Ok on we go to the dress rehearsal and opening night.......

Here we go again

I woke up on Wednesday morning with this phrase inside of my head and couldn't place which movie I had heard it in and therefore spent a great deal of the morning wasting time trying to think of it (it actually came to me a week later and it was Brendan Fraser in 'The Mummy Returns' for anyone who cares). The dress rehearsal was due to start at 2:30pm – only 5 and a half hours

Favourite shot from the dress rehearsals
Peter, Jonny and Malcolm in the tunnels
(Official production photograph from Birdsong Facebook page)

before the auditorium doors would be opened to the paying public. The last time the cast had run the whole play in sequence had been the previous Friday in the rehearsal room. This was a bit different and a production photographer was also coming to take some pictures. But it went brilliantly and with hardly any hiccups, so everyone was starting to feel a lot more prepared for the evening show. As I made my way to the prompt desk in the wings ready to make the half hour call to the cast, I found that it was covered in a small mound of cards and presents from the cast and creative teams. It's a bit of a tradition to give first night cards in theatreland and the cast and our producers had outdone themselves. George had made everyone kits containing a biscuit, tea rations, candy cigarettes and most importantly a nerf gun (WHICH I AM EXTREMELY EXCITED TO HAVE!!!!!). This, naturally led to nerf gun war breaking out on the top corridor a few days later involving Peter and Simon (who I have re-christened Dunoyd due to them being a bit of a double act), Jonny and Alastair and Sam and GMoss. When I reported this to Lieutenant George instead of breaking it up he grabbed his gun and joined in.......

Peter, Alastair and Selma with Artistic Director of Eastbourne
Theatres, Chris Jordan and General Manager Gavin Davis

We opened to a packed house that Wednesday night and the cast left the stage at the end to cheers and whistles feeling elated. We were then kindly invited to first night drinks with the Friends of Eastbourne Theatres and then it was on to local bar Maxims for a few late night snifters. But not too late as we had a matinee the next day. The rest of the week flew by after that. We had some filming on the Friday afternoon with the same company who made our trailer and, with another matinee on Saturday, before we knew it it was time to leave. But before we could go there was the small matter of the get-out for me, GMoss, Sinead, Roger, Anne-Marie and Jon. Sinead and I usually finish our wardrobe and sound get-outs at around the same time and we joined Anne-Marie for a quick drink before heading off to bed, looking forward to a day off!

The whole week in Eastbourne was one of the best production and opening periods I've had. We were playing to packed houses for nearly every show and a great vibe about Birdsong was getting out through social media and reviews. A great way to start the tour and I think everyone was left looking forward to the weeks to come....

Birdsong Rehearsals

Rehearsals

Ok. So, I have offered to take up the mantle of Birdsong blogger this year. I hope I can live up to the great work done by Polly Hughes on the 2013 tour and also hope I don't end up boring everybody by writing lots of endless waffle. If I do, please shout loudly at your laptop, phone, tablet, whatever (it may make you feel better) and I'll try my best to ignore you.....!

I do have to start off with an apology about this first blog. It's going to be rather long. I'm going to attempt to sandwich 3 weeks of rehearsals into one session and I promise I'll try to make it as interesting as possible (you may find it useful to engage the shouting loudly therapy I suggested above if not). Right then. Here we go!

First Day of School:

I always end up comparing the first day of rehearsals to that first day in September when you used to go back to school. Everyone's just a little bit nervous and anxious to make a good impression, wondering how they'll fit in and what everyone else is going to be like. So, with sandwiches packed and forgetting my PE kit, I set off to OneKX in King's Cross for the meet and greet for this year's Birdsong tour.

Now, I was in a better position than some. I worked on the tour last year and already knew a large number of the company. I wont give you a complete run down of the cast and creatives, as you can go to www.birdsongthetour.com where you can see a compete list with biogs and headshots, but in addition to the cast and creatives there's also Gareth Moss, our Technical Stage Manager, Sinead Francis, our Costume supervisor and Wardrobe Mistress on tour and me, the Deputy Stage Manager. We all worked together in the same positions last year and are now joined by a new Company Stage Manager, Roger Richardson and Lucy Grattan, our new Assistant Stage Manager and who also plays Marguerite. It was great to see some old faces who I hadn't seen since last August as well as meeting all of the new ones. After a short Meet and Greet (where, to continue with the school analogy, a few of us more naughty ones sat at the back guzzling biscuits and gossiping), model box presentation (to any of you not familiar with what that is, it is basically a tiny scale model of the set in a box) and lunch (more biscuits and gossiping), we were straight into rehearsals.

Having done the show last year, and with only one returning cast member this year (the marvellous Malcolm James as Azaire/Gray) it was really interesting to see how the new cast approached their roles. Alastair Whatley is great at letting the cast find the roles themselves and is not a director who pushes an actor into a particular direction (no pun intended) with a character. He allows them to find it at their own pace, with occasional gentle nudges here and there.

However, Alastair also likes ball games........

Balls to it:

Yes. Those of you who know me well know how much I love the ball games.

I don't.....

But our Associate Director, Charlotte Peters, reported to me in the afternoon that her first mission that morning had been to buy several tennis balls as well as some larger softer balls, I feared the return of the bench ball game that Polly wrote about last year.

Now, I cannot deny that these games are team building and help with co-ordination and mental awareness. However, I also cannot deny that when these games are played too close to props tables and bits of delicate period french furniture, painstakingly sourced by our producer, Anne-Marie, something gets broken. I am not looking at anyone in particular here. At all.... Tim T and Tim K.

But, I don't want you to get the impression that our days are frittered away play ball games. Absolutely not. We had a shorter rehearsal period this year and the hard work had to start straight away.

Off we go:

Rehearsing the bar scene

Naturally, to anyone familiar with the book, play or series, you would assume that the hardest part is the role of Stephen. You would be semi-correct. Stephen is a mammoth task for any actor and one that George Banks threw himself into from the start, but Birdsong the play is always approached as an ensemble piece and during the show every single cast member is almost constantly busy with costume and scene changes as well as balancing several parts. This is also true of rehearsals. Whilst Alastair may be rehearsing scenes with certain cast members in the main room, Charlotte could be working on characterisation in the cafe upstairs, accent coaching with Tim Charrington will be happening in another room, Tony Green may be working with the infantry men in the hall on drills and the correct way to put on webbing or handle guns whilst Sinead is doing costume fittings in the changing rooms and Tim Van Eyken and Sam Martin will be somewhere rehearsing the violin pieces and the letters song and we were often lucky enough to be joined by Rachel Wagstaff for any script changes or explanation as well as help with characterisation. In addition to this, throughout the 3 weeks we also had to arrange sessions with Lucie and Tim Klotz on movement and fight work.

It's a lot to take in and a lot to fit into the 17 days that we were in King's Cross. But we progressed well. By the end of the first week we were able to run a lot of the Act 1 scenes that we had done so far. By the end of the second we had completed a run of Act 1 and by the Thursday of the final week we had done a full stagger through (which is exactly what it says – you stagger through the whole play, stopping if needs be) which went so well that it was really more of a run. On the last Friday morning we were due to do a full run in the rehearsal room, which

would be open to any of the creative team who wished to attend as well as for

Sebastian and Rachel.

A tidy rehearsal room ready for the run

Completely prepared for the run, I arrived at the rehearsal room to find that there had been a massive problem with the trains at Gatwick which was affecting some of our company's commute (this had also been the week of the tube strikes...).

In the meantime Tim Van Eyken started running a warm-up with the company who were there when the fire alarms went off. And so it was an evacuation out into the street for about 10 minutes whilst the fire engines turned up. When we were allowed back into the rehearsal room and all of our company had managed to get there, we were able to start the run. About an hour in to the run........

The fire alarms went off again.

So, it was back out into the street to wait for the fire department (and can I just say how impressed we all were with the response time. They were there within 5 minutes of the alarm going off). When we got back inside we could continue with the run. The cast coped with this disruption brilliantly, particularly Carolin and George who had been in the middle of a very tender and emotional scene between Isabelle and Stephen, and the rest of the run was undisturbed. We were all in hight spirits after the success of the last two days of rehearsals and now everyone was keen to get on the set and get into costumes to start teching. Our next full run of the play would be the dress rehearsal in Eastbourne, only hours before the audience would begin to arrive for opening night.....

Play time:

It wasn't all hard work and no play in the rehearsal period. Tony Green took Jonny Clarke, Peter Duncan and Simon Lloyd on a special team building mission across London, involving two of them having to help a 'wounded' comrade back to base:

Simon, Jonny (with special 'blackout glasses' and Peter on their special mission

Alastair had also celebrated his 30^th birthday just prior to the start of rehearsals and after the first week we were joined by some of the previous Birdsong cast to hep him celebrate:

  Alastair with Tippers 2013 & 2014

Jonny Clarke and Charlie G Hawkins

And throughout the rehearsal period other former cast also dropped by:

Alastair and Emily Stride 2013's Marguertie/Lucille