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....