Hello,
Right, something entirely practical now, what will you need? Well obviously in the spirit of the whole event please find a suggested list below:
Sports Trainers
Sports Socks
We will be paintballing on Saturday, please bring clothes suitable for this and footwear too.
Smarter dress shoes for the more formal occassion
You will be provided with a uniform for all rehearsals and at least a top for the sports events, so do bring a pair of shorts/tracksuit if our budget cant meet a whole sport outfit.
Enough clothes for a month away you will have access to laundry facilities in Suffolk and in Bracknell.
Outfits for extra curricular activities such as theatre going/eating and drinking.
In short try and be as economical with your packing as possible, we always have limited space and just a car and van to transport us, set, and our luggage.
One large rucksack/bag should be ample. Two is really pushing it.
Also please do bring along any research you have, any articles, music, DVD's, records, newspaper cuttings etc. I am keen to have these to hand in the rehearsal room wherever possible which we can have up and around us when we are working on the play.
Chris...I need your biog as a matter of thi highest urgency...
Best wishes,
Sunday 1 June 2008
Thursday 29 May 2008
The Verse
Its all been getting quite maniacal for the few days orchestrating an expanding team of sound designers, choreographers, stage managers etc. But as I lay in bed last night I realised that at least on this blog alone we have not so as much as mentioned the text itself, so I thought I'd better rectify that.
Other than Craig whom I know has worked 'outdoors' many times before, I think I am right in saying that the remainder of you have little/no experience out of doors. This factor, and believe me, it is a very big factor, could potentially prove the biggest hurdle for you in this early period of rehearsal and performance.
The main problem is obviously acoustics, we are not in a traditional theatre space built with actors in mind, rather the spaces we play in tend to have no acoustics whatsoever and range from gardens and ruins to old country houses. In short there is nothing for the sound to bounce and resonate off, and coupled with all the extraneous factors like traffic, picnics, airplanes at inopportune moments etc it means simply being heard can never be taken for granted especially with 'the wind and the rain' thrown in for good measure.
It poses a challenge for us as there is a huge plethora of subtle nuance within the text which we must try and bring out. But take comfort from the fact that the verse often benefits from being said openly, honestly and outwardly, it was written for Elizabethan theatres which as we all know had no roof and not wonderful acoustics. What we must keep reminding ourselves over the first few weeks is that we must present this show in the open air, and thus we will be having a dress run in the open air and we will rehearse sometimes in the open air to give you a flavour of what happens to your voice when out of doors. So whilst we may find many a subtle wonderful moment, we might have to mark it, remember it for Southwark and then find something else that will work for an outdoors space
What is vital is to get into the habit of really and truly warming up each day and every performance day, this might sound basic, but it is easy to forget when tiredness begins to seep in. We will all be doing a group warm up and Ron will be working with on a singing warm up, but there are other basic breathing exercises that you will all be familiar and you will likewise have some idea of which exercises and techniques work best for you and I would encourage you all to do these on top of what we are doing.
The real trick is to find the balance when out of doors between volume, clarity and colour. Whilst the wonderful close proximity of the Southwark audience will enable us to bring the play right back into more of a chamber piece, we must for now jettison any ideas of whispered voices and hushed speeches. But I do think this, although challenging, presents a great opportunity for us to discover the verse and prose in its raw form. The verse provides you with the structure, the place to breathe and a real way into your characters, and is something that in this adaptation could be overlooked in favour of the music/movement/ character etc.
The great inimitable John Barton once said that
Other than Craig whom I know has worked 'outdoors' many times before, I think I am right in saying that the remainder of you have little/no experience out of doors. This factor, and believe me, it is a very big factor, could potentially prove the biggest hurdle for you in this early period of rehearsal and performance.
The main problem is obviously acoustics, we are not in a traditional theatre space built with actors in mind, rather the spaces we play in tend to have no acoustics whatsoever and range from gardens and ruins to old country houses. In short there is nothing for the sound to bounce and resonate off, and coupled with all the extraneous factors like traffic, picnics, airplanes at inopportune moments etc it means simply being heard can never be taken for granted especially with 'the wind and the rain' thrown in for good measure.
It poses a challenge for us as there is a huge plethora of subtle nuance within the text which we must try and bring out. But take comfort from the fact that the verse often benefits from being said openly, honestly and outwardly, it was written for Elizabethan theatres which as we all know had no roof and not wonderful acoustics. What we must keep reminding ourselves over the first few weeks is that we must present this show in the open air, and thus we will be having a dress run in the open air and we will rehearse sometimes in the open air to give you a flavour of what happens to your voice when out of doors. So whilst we may find many a subtle wonderful moment, we might have to mark it, remember it for Southwark and then find something else that will work for an outdoors space
What is vital is to get into the habit of really and truly warming up each day and every performance day, this might sound basic, but it is easy to forget when tiredness begins to seep in. We will all be doing a group warm up and Ron will be working with on a singing warm up, but there are other basic breathing exercises that you will all be familiar and you will likewise have some idea of which exercises and techniques work best for you and I would encourage you all to do these on top of what we are doing.
The real trick is to find the balance when out of doors between volume, clarity and colour. Whilst the wonderful close proximity of the Southwark audience will enable us to bring the play right back into more of a chamber piece, we must for now jettison any ideas of whispered voices and hushed speeches. But I do think this, although challenging, presents a great opportunity for us to discover the verse and prose in its raw form. The verse provides you with the structure, the place to breathe and a real way into your characters, and is something that in this adaptation could be overlooked in favour of the music/movement/ character etc.
The great inimitable John Barton once said that
Two simple qualities will see an actor through the supposed minefield ofIn short we just need to harness the verse, yes let's hunt out the cadences, antitheses, alliterations, elisions, strong and weak endings etc but above everything else- trust your judgement, if it sounds right- it almost certainly is.
Shakespeare's verse: common sense and a feeling for what sounds right.
Friday 23 May 2008
Greetings!
Hi guys! Just wanted to say hello to all.
I'm really excited about seeing you all in the rehearsal room here and there. I'm going to be trying to take as much of the producing work off of Alastair as possible during the rehearsal period, so if you have any "producery"-type questions, drop me a line and I'll be happy to help!
Best,
Max
I'm really excited about seeing you all in the rehearsal room here and there. I'm going to be trying to take as much of the producing work off of Alastair as possible during the rehearsal period, so if you have any "producery"-type questions, drop me a line and I'll be happy to help!
Best,
Max
Drivers
Hello, happy bank exeat weekend.
I need to know which of you would be willing to chip in with the driving in the early summer leg:
Not that many journeys, nothing too trying.
1.) Bracknell to Plymouth (3hrs)
2.) Plymouth to Hampshire (2hrs)
3.) Hanmpshire to Bury St Edmunds (2.5hrs)
4.) Bury St Edmunds to Dunmow (50 mins)
5.) Bury St Edmunds to London (2hrs)
bear in mind this is split over two weeks, it doesn't equate to too much. Please could you let me know if you would be willing to drive a.) A car, b.) A large Transit or c.) either
Please can you let me know as soon as possible so I can sort out insurance matters.
Many thanks
I need to know which of you would be willing to chip in with the driving in the early summer leg:
Not that many journeys, nothing too trying.
1.) Bracknell to Plymouth (3hrs)
2.) Plymouth to Hampshire (2hrs)
3.) Hanmpshire to Bury St Edmunds (2.5hrs)
4.) Bury St Edmunds to Dunmow (50 mins)
5.) Bury St Edmunds to London (2hrs)
bear in mind this is split over two weeks, it doesn't equate to too much. Please could you let me know if you would be willing to drive a.) A car, b.) A large Transit or c.) either
Please can you let me know as soon as possible so I can sort out insurance matters.
Many thanks
Thursday 22 May 2008
Music and Singing
The following is an edited version of the brief I gave Ron, who is going to working with you as Musical Director.
Well in short, I am keen to use the boys voice to bring out the feel of the boarding school and as the play progresses- I would like to use their ‘chorister experience’ to underscore and at times juxtapose the dramatic events that take place both in the story of R+J which they are acting but also their own stories.
The key thing to bear in mind is that as students they are boarding school pupils who sing hymns and maybe Latin plainsong on a daily basis and therefore have a degree of musicality built into them, they are certainly more attuned to classical music than todays kids. I really want to bring this out and use it as a tool for them to confront the repressive regime in which they live. Hymns like ‘god be in my head’- that sort of simple a cappella suited music that has an incredibly spiritual feel would be suited. (nb: if you have any suitable suggestions I would be very keen to hear them, as would Ron)
The music should help transport the boys and the audience into both the world of the chapel and then headlong into the world of Romeo and Juliet
What I mean by this is that for example in the opening scene, I would like them to be singing as choristers- setting up the religious connotations from the off- something quite angelic-
But I think as the play progresses we could move away from hymns and into more simple ‘humming’ and even sound scaping to a degree.
There are a couple of other bits of music- the main bit being the dance- in which I was thinking that we could use some 50’s rock and roll that they bring in on a gramophone- which again is a point in itself…I don’t think we should use any prerecorded music- it should come only from what the boys have eg: themselves, the gramophone etc, we could use some artistic license and have some come in towards the end of R+J when they have totally immersed themselves in the play, but on the whole it should be music that they create themselves within the space.
Please be reassured you were cast on the basis of your acting and not your singing, however we will be working on this every day, and Ron will be in rehearsals for some of the time, to teach and then revise and work the music. If you watched the great Gareth Malone on BBC's The Choir, you can see how this sort of music has the uncanny ability to forge bonds and connections and this will be pivotal to the show both on and off stage. I know Chris highlighted this in his blog previously in that choral singing was very much a feature of daily life, and in fact remains so, at these public schools. It wasn't always a showing off exercise, but just a ritual, an every day occurrence. I remember when I was at my boarding school we had hymn practice every Thursday, which was basically an excuse to wind up the poor teacher whose job it was to teach us harmonies etc, to be honest I dont think we ever got to harmonies, as the harassed man resorted to sending more and more of us to the headmasters office. The tune was about all we ever accomplished in these sessions. Again though I think this demonstrates that this surplus of religion didnt exactly inspire a genuine devotion or respect for the material that we had, we did it, and we didnt often do it offensively, but we didn't endow it with anything more than a passing alto.
As I arrived at my senior school, The Perse in Cambridge, which although Private, was my no longer a boarding school, this 'aloof' take on religion took a step further, and morning hymns were reduced to a state of belching bassonic rumbles that one could hardly say 'took the roof off'. I remember being initially a little taken aback by quite how superfluous these morning religious assemblies were to basically everyone, even the Chaplain. Just a bi-weekly ritual that was relic of the school's more pious days.
The point I'm making here is that religion and these hymns and music we will be singing was just part and parcel of everyday life, I don't think that a lot of thought went alongside day to day religion, just as not a lot of thought went behind anything of any great importance. Such was the aggressive timetabling that there was precious little time for any extraneous thought other than making it on time to your next scheduled activity. There was no time to stand and stare. And so this elicit breaking out and playing and exploring with ideas and literature really must be a huge journey of discovery, from the blatant and obvious things like physical contact to the subtler elements like the singing- where the music was for possibly time in the boys experience the first time endowed with meaning and passion although not directed at perhaps its intended purpose.
Thank you Chris for your post- much food for thought in here, I encourage you all to follow suit and share your research. I cannot make you do it, but would only encourage persuasively. We are all busy, but you should be finding the time to think about the play and your lines, and this is just an extension of that and a tool for us to progress to a collective understanding. Just do it.
Finally I would remind you that you need to send Ron as a matter of urgency your CV and a brief synopsis of your voice and singing experience- ron.mcallister@southhillpark.org.uk. ASAP please.
Well in short, I am keen to use the boys voice to bring out the feel of the boarding school and as the play progresses- I would like to use their ‘chorister experience’ to underscore and at times juxtapose the dramatic events that take place both in the story of R+J which they are acting but also their own stories.
The key thing to bear in mind is that as students they are boarding school pupils who sing hymns and maybe Latin plainsong on a daily basis and therefore have a degree of musicality built into them, they are certainly more attuned to classical music than todays kids. I really want to bring this out and use it as a tool for them to confront the repressive regime in which they live. Hymns like ‘god be in my head’- that sort of simple a cappella suited music that has an incredibly spiritual feel would be suited. (nb: if you have any suitable suggestions I would be very keen to hear them, as would Ron)
The music should help transport the boys and the audience into both the world of the chapel and then headlong into the world of Romeo and Juliet
What I mean by this is that for example in the opening scene, I would like them to be singing as choristers- setting up the religious connotations from the off- something quite angelic-
But I think as the play progresses we could move away from hymns and into more simple ‘humming’ and even sound scaping to a degree.
There are a couple of other bits of music- the main bit being the dance- in which I was thinking that we could use some 50’s rock and roll that they bring in on a gramophone- which again is a point in itself…I don’t think we should use any prerecorded music- it should come only from what the boys have eg: themselves, the gramophone etc, we could use some artistic license and have some come in towards the end of R+J when they have totally immersed themselves in the play, but on the whole it should be music that they create themselves within the space.
Please be reassured you were cast on the basis of your acting and not your singing, however we will be working on this every day, and Ron will be in rehearsals for some of the time, to teach and then revise and work the music. If you watched the great Gareth Malone on BBC's The Choir, you can see how this sort of music has the uncanny ability to forge bonds and connections and this will be pivotal to the show both on and off stage. I know Chris highlighted this in his blog previously in that choral singing was very much a feature of daily life, and in fact remains so, at these public schools. It wasn't always a showing off exercise, but just a ritual, an every day occurrence. I remember when I was at my boarding school we had hymn practice every Thursday, which was basically an excuse to wind up the poor teacher whose job it was to teach us harmonies etc, to be honest I dont think we ever got to harmonies, as the harassed man resorted to sending more and more of us to the headmasters office. The tune was about all we ever accomplished in these sessions. Again though I think this demonstrates that this surplus of religion didnt exactly inspire a genuine devotion or respect for the material that we had, we did it, and we didnt often do it offensively, but we didn't endow it with anything more than a passing alto.
As I arrived at my senior school, The Perse in Cambridge, which although Private, was my no longer a boarding school, this 'aloof' take on religion took a step further, and morning hymns were reduced to a state of belching bassonic rumbles that one could hardly say 'took the roof off'. I remember being initially a little taken aback by quite how superfluous these morning religious assemblies were to basically everyone, even the Chaplain. Just a bi-weekly ritual that was relic of the school's more pious days.
The point I'm making here is that religion and these hymns and music we will be singing was just part and parcel of everyday life, I don't think that a lot of thought went alongside day to day religion, just as not a lot of thought went behind anything of any great importance. Such was the aggressive timetabling that there was precious little time for any extraneous thought other than making it on time to your next scheduled activity. There was no time to stand and stare. And so this elicit breaking out and playing and exploring with ideas and literature really must be a huge journey of discovery, from the blatant and obvious things like physical contact to the subtler elements like the singing- where the music was for possibly time in the boys experience the first time endowed with meaning and passion although not directed at perhaps its intended purpose.
Thank you Chris for your post- much food for thought in here, I encourage you all to follow suit and share your research. I cannot make you do it, but would only encourage persuasively. We are all busy, but you should be finding the time to think about the play and your lines, and this is just an extension of that and a tool for us to progress to a collective understanding. Just do it.
Finally I would remind you that you need to send Ron as a matter of urgency your CV and a brief synopsis of your voice and singing experience- ron.mcallister@southhillpark.org.uk. ASAP please.
Sunday 18 May 2008
Costume
Just a gentle yet firm reminder... please can you reply to Fiona and send her through your measurements. If you have yet to be in touch- please email Fiona on fionajd@hotmail.com and request either a measuring sheet or if you have recieved this please send her the requested measurements as soon as possible.
Thank you in advance
Thank you in advance
Friday 16 May 2008
Cast List
Just realised that you dont officially know the casting:
so please find below the cast details:
STUDENT 1: CHRIS HOGBEN
STUDENT 2: TOM HACKNEY
STUDENT 3: CRAIG GILBERT
STUDENT 4: SAM DONNELLY
I am delighted to have got you all on board.
In terms of script: please ensure you are looking to the METHUEN edition, it is the edition you should bring to rehearsals, I would advise you also bring a paper copy as sent to you all previously as well as a hard copy should you wish.
In terms of line learning: given a 6 week or even 4 week rehearsal period I would never request being off book before rehearsals begin. In this instance we have 2, and we have a huge mountain to climb, having script worries into the the second week is a recipe for seriously compounding any insecurities. I would seriously sugegst trying to get of book asap. Certainly by Friday of week one I will be asking that books are not brought onto the rehearsal floor. It is beastly, I know, but neccessary I feel if we are to do the play justice.
Finally on this note, we will in the first week be working towards a basic rudimentary run through, to which Ellie, Max and the team at SHP will be invited to. Ellie has requested to come in and her feedback and support will hopefully be constant in the project up till the Southwark opening. I want to warn you in advance of this, and to affirm a principle that the way I work is not to close off the rehearsal room entirely, whilst keen to make it a safe and comfortable place to try out ideas, I do invite constructive and structured feedback from a chosen few who will be popping in and out from time to time. Half the time they wont be concerned directly with what you are doing, but rather concnetrating on matters of design/costume/staging etc.
Just remember that this early rehearsal period is a pre cursor to another week before Southwark and another two before the tour opens in Autumn, it is as much a chance for the design and creative team to try out ideas as it is for you guys, so please dont feel an undue sense of pressure that is resting in your shoulders solely. There is a large support team in place, and we are all here working together on one piece to make it as good as it can possibly be.
Please try and learn it as neutrally as is feasibly possible- a difficult request- but it will be tough to have to re-learn something to say it/feel it in an altogether different manner.
Finally I would be keen to hear your initial thoughts on the characters you are all due to play. Nothing concrete, just initial responses, take the hints within the text and run a little with them-
eg: crucially why they play their respective characters in the play itself? How you think this reflects on their own personalities and how the experience of rebelling against the school and acting out this play is important to them not just as a group, but also as individuals.
Again I reiterate that nothing you write binds you to any interpretation, any back story or anything like that, it should just be a rambling if needs me, guttural response to your character and his role within the play.
so please find below the cast details:
STUDENT 1: CHRIS HOGBEN
STUDENT 2: TOM HACKNEY
STUDENT 3: CRAIG GILBERT
STUDENT 4: SAM DONNELLY
I am delighted to have got you all on board.
In terms of script: please ensure you are looking to the METHUEN edition, it is the edition you should bring to rehearsals, I would advise you also bring a paper copy as sent to you all previously as well as a hard copy should you wish.
In terms of line learning: given a 6 week or even 4 week rehearsal period I would never request being off book before rehearsals begin. In this instance we have 2, and we have a huge mountain to climb, having script worries into the the second week is a recipe for seriously compounding any insecurities. I would seriously sugegst trying to get of book asap. Certainly by Friday of week one I will be asking that books are not brought onto the rehearsal floor. It is beastly, I know, but neccessary I feel if we are to do the play justice.
Finally on this note, we will in the first week be working towards a basic rudimentary run through, to which Ellie, Max and the team at SHP will be invited to. Ellie has requested to come in and her feedback and support will hopefully be constant in the project up till the Southwark opening. I want to warn you in advance of this, and to affirm a principle that the way I work is not to close off the rehearsal room entirely, whilst keen to make it a safe and comfortable place to try out ideas, I do invite constructive and structured feedback from a chosen few who will be popping in and out from time to time. Half the time they wont be concerned directly with what you are doing, but rather concnetrating on matters of design/costume/staging etc.
Just remember that this early rehearsal period is a pre cursor to another week before Southwark and another two before the tour opens in Autumn, it is as much a chance for the design and creative team to try out ideas as it is for you guys, so please dont feel an undue sense of pressure that is resting in your shoulders solely. There is a large support team in place, and we are all here working together on one piece to make it as good as it can possibly be.
Please try and learn it as neutrally as is feasibly possible- a difficult request- but it will be tough to have to re-learn something to say it/feel it in an altogether different manner.
Finally I would be keen to hear your initial thoughts on the characters you are all due to play. Nothing concrete, just initial responses, take the hints within the text and run a little with them-
eg: crucially why they play their respective characters in the play itself? How you think this reflects on their own personalities and how the experience of rebelling against the school and acting out this play is important to them not just as a group, but also as individuals.
Again I reiterate that nothing you write binds you to any interpretation, any back story or anything like that, it should just be a rambling if needs me, guttural response to your character and his role within the play.
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