Library Theatre on posterous

Started the technical rehearsals today.  Always a strange feeling for an actor to leave the relative safety of the rehearsal room and stand on the set for the first time, often forgetting everything you have learned over the past 4 weeks in a heart beat!  Who am I?  What’s the play?  And what the hell am I doing here?

It’s dinner break at the moment and everything seems to be running smoothly.  We got through the first scene change rather quickly despite me taking an epic time attempting to change a tablecloth.  I’ve got to serve food, wash pots and we must get through the whole plate smashing business yet, so here’s hoping they all bear with me!

Hopefully, we will make it to the interval before the end of tonight’s rehearsal as Sue Twist (available for all appointments after March 10^th!), has just informed me that she is done after that the interval and would quite like a lie in tomorrow!  I’m not even going to repeat the language from Ms. Twist in regards to the car parking debacle!  Dianne Fletcher has already left the building so it’s just me and the annoying boys, Alun and Paul here for the long haul.

Oh and everyone’s looking marvelous in their costumes – especially Old Mother Riley…ahem…I mean …Sue Twist! (Still available for all appointments after 10^th March)

Natalie Grady 21^st Feb 2012

Natalie Grady plays Minnie Gascoigne in The Daughter In Law. See Natalie in our trailer here.

So today was our last day in the rehearsal room at the Zion Arts Centre.  It was very useful to have that last run through in the rehearsal room before the excitement/nerves of lights, costume, theatre takes over.

I have always as an actor professed I love rehearsal more than performance.  It’s a great period of exploration and discovery and there’s always that feeling of being close to the writer and his words.  The task now is trying to keep hold of that during the whole excitement of moving on to the stage and being in costume and having the music and lights and everything that makes it feel like a show!  And not the ‘real life ‘ one has been trying to create for the last 4 weeks.

That said, I cannot wait!  I do love the whole ‘moving into the theatre’ experience.  I spend my whole life as an actor searching for truth and trying to find something real, but I cannot let go of that need to be in a theatre space.  The sound;, the smell of a stage!  Nothing beats it! And that’s the point isn’t it?  - To share the work!

After today’s runthrough, we all went for drinks at a local bar, ‘Kim by the Sea in Hulme (highly recommended white wine and houmous!)   This has been the first night out in 4 weeks.  Not that we’re not a close company, it’s just the nature of the piece has had us all in such a state that we are constantly looking over the script , searching for answers and the idea of ‘going out’ after rehearsals, even to me, has been a big No No!  This is the most challenging piece of writing I have ever had to work on and I know other members of the cast are in agreement.  It demands a certain  amount of specificity , emotional truth and energy that in my experience, even bloody Shakespeare does not ask of you!

So here we are!  There’s no running away now!  (I’ve joked about going away on holiday this week … no-one finds it funny!)We move in to the Lowry Quays theatre tomorrow to begin our technical rehearsals and hoping to God the plates smash well and dramatically enough! (more to come on this I’m sure!)

Before signing out, it’s worth noting that 4 weeks ago I met some random actors that I have subsequently become very close to.  They have been such a huge part of my life for the past 4 weeks. We all share one very important thing in common, which is  a love and respect of this play, DH Lawrence and a desire to do justice to this exceptional piece of writing.  I don’t know if it is DH Lawrence himself or our very wonderful director, Chris Honer, but I know for me and I can detect in others, there is no actors ego on display here, just a respect and a desire to do justice to this wonderful piece of drama.  In a business full of self-promotion, ego and fame, I feel very lucky as a young actor to be part of something that means something and has so much to say – even  100 years after it was written!  #luckygirl  (sorry, I am young - and am a twitterer!)

Finally, to sum up today’s rehearsal.  Never were there truer words said than these of the genius writer that was Harold Pinter.
“Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.”

Natalie Grady 20/02/12

Natalie Grady plays Minnie Gascoigne in The Daughter In Law

So today was our last day in the rehearsal room at the Zion Arts Centre.  It was very useful to have that last run through in the rehearsal room before the excitement/nerves of lights, costume, theatre takes over.

I have always as an actor professed I love rehearsal more than performance.  It’s a great period of exploration and discovery and there’s always that feeling of being close to the writer and his words.  The task now is trying to keep hold of that during the whole excitement of moving on to the stage and being in costume and having the music and lights and everything that makes it feel like a show!  And not the ‘real life ‘ one has been trying to create for the last 4 weeks.

That said, I cannot wait!  I do love the whole ‘moving into the theatre’ experience.  I spend my whole life as an actor searching for truth and trying to find something real, but I cannot let go of that need to be in a theatre space.  The sound;, the smell of a stage!  Nothing beats it! And that’s the point isn’t it?  - To share the work!

After today’s runthrough, we all went for drinks at a local bar, ‘Kim by the Sea in Hulme (highly recommended white wine and houmous!)   This has been the first night out in 4 weeks.  Not that we’re not a close company, it’s just the nature of the piece has had us all in such a state that we are constantly looking over the script , searching for answers and the idea of ‘going out’ after rehearsals, even to me, has been a big No No!  This is the most challenging piece of writing I have ever had to work on and I know other members of the cast are in agreement.  It demands a certain  amount of specificity , emotional truth and energy that in my experience, even bloody Shakespeare does not ask of you!

So here we are!  There’s no running away now!  (I’ve joked about going away on holiday this week … no-one finds it funny!)We move in to the Lowry Quays theatre tomorrow to begin our technical rehearsals and hoping to God the plates smash well and dramatically enough! (more to come on this I’m sure!)

Before signing out, it’s worth noting that 4 weeks ago I met some random actors that I have subsequently become very close to.  They have been such a huge part of my life for the past 4 weeks. We all share one very important thing in common, which is  a love and respect of this play, DH Lawrence and a desire to do justice to this exceptional piece of writing.  I don’t know if it is DH Lawrence himself or our very wonderful director, Chris Honer, but I know for me and I can detect in others, there is no actors ego on display here, just a respect and a desire to do justice to this wonderful piece of drama.  In a business full of self-promotion, ego and fame, I feel very lucky as a young actor to be part of something that means something and has so much to say – even  100 years after it was written!  #luckygirl  (sorry, I am young - and am a twitterer!)

Finally, to sum up today’s rehearsal.  Never were there truer words said than these of the genius writer that was Harold Pinter.
“Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.”

Natalie Grady 20/02/12

 First as a group, so we could shout out all our queries at her, which she dutifully Nottinghamified then for us....that is a real word, ya know!

 We then had individual sessions, in which Sally was able to highlight any idiosyncracies from our own home accents that might be jarring with the rythmn and tune of the dialect we are rehearsing in. We are all from different parts of the country, so everyone's needs are different, in a sense..

 As I hail from the Principality, the main advice for me is, even when I've nailed the Notts pronunciation,  to avoid speaking it with a the Welsh 'song'. The Notts tone is much flatter and more direct, than the sing song lilt that Welsh provides.....we don't want Huw Edwards and Brian Clough morphing....that would be bad.

 Sally's assistance is invaluable to me. As the dialect of the play is so site specific, I don't feel confident enough to 'play' with the text or character, or even to start seriosly learning lines until I have the accent down. Every actor has a different approach, but that's mine.

 Anyhoot, I have 8 hours of train travel either side of this weekend to mutter to myself!

 Before I go, I have been informed by our stage manager, Jamie, that I have been signing off this week in the style of 'who cares out there' etc...and that it could have been interpreted as who cares about what we are doing here. However, those of you with more nouse than my old mucker Jamie ( who, it should be said, works underground all day! ), will have picked up that I was asking the world of the tinternet if anyone cares about what's occurring with the Welsh Rugby Squad at present!

 Anyway, this has been both cathartic and joyous! Come and see us all in the flesh from Feb 23rd!

 oh,...and by the way....veteran Stephen Jones has been flown out to Gdansk as back up in training for the injured Rhs Priestland, whose initial replacement James Hook, has flown back to Perpignan to play for his club......stop! 

It's a dramatic scene to start our second act with, that contains a lot of important dialogue, so I hope that punters will have supped their ice creams and sat down in good time so as not to have missed a bit!

It was Natalie who went on to have the longest of days today, as she was in every scene - well that's what you have to expect if you find yourself as the actual ' Daughter in Law!'

We are progressing steadily through the play. The form goes, that we speak each scene through to ensure everyone involved knows exactly what their characters are saying and why they are saying it. We then have a crack at getting the scene on it's feet for the first time. Then we tinker, and try different approaches here and there.

This is a way of working that suits me as an actor , and I remember it fondly from when I last worked with Chris, our director.

We had our first scene with all members of the 'Gascoigne Family' present , this afternoon. So slowly throughout the week, different actors are beginning to share the stage together, and the process becomes more and more fulfilling, as varied opinions are put forward. Or, alternatively, one can hear oneself waffling on and on until one has forgotten what the initial point was in the first place! For that, read 'me', around 3:15pm today.... Again though, that is what rehearsals are supposed to be about - feeling relaxed enough to spout on without fear, so as to secure the right info for you and your character to progress.

Little additions to rehearsals today were the emergence of new props, the ladies in their 'practice skirts' - which are cumbersome beasts designed to make Natalie and Di even more uncomfortable throughout the day! Ultimately, they help to give an actress an awareness of the pace and style in which she will be able to move onstage, ahead of adorning the full costume at the 'technical' rehearsals...

Paul and I have asked costume for our character boots , so we too can share in the discomfort of the period.

Dialogue coach, Sally Hague pops in tommorow morning to see how we are tackling the Notts accent and all it's peculiarities.

Oh, and for your further interest, Ladbrokes are offering 7-1 on a Wales grand slam.....in fact, scrub that....I don't need more people betting and bringing down those odds!

There is a major plot-line within the play that involves adultery and an illegitimate pregnancy - the repercussions of which, within this tiny mining community of Eastwood, Notts, in 1912 are explosive.

It was this plot-line and the effect it has on all the characters that we were unravelling today.

Of course that's not to say that there wasn't  plenty more scope for 'Business!' Something that I mentioned yesterday....

Making cakes, stoking fires, pretend snogging, & even "drying the dishes!' - the latter being done with great panache by Mr. Paul Simpson, as he is doing it with one arm - what with his character 'Joe's' other arm being broken, in the play.

I can only speak for myself, when I say that I was experiencing some mild brain ache during the witching hour of 3-4pm, thanks to the wonderfully tight woven script that D. H. Lawrence has provided us with.

I find this part of the process the most all encompassing as an actor. Getting to grips with whom you are supposed to be, while remembering what you are supposed to say and how to say it, while trying to ward off all the insecurities that come with putting yourself in this daft position in the first place - what a bizarre profession!

Oh, and Gethin Jenkins is out for 5 weeks, both Priestland and Lydiate are major doubts for the opening Ireland game!.....I don't need this extra worry....does anybody care?!

Perhaps, more worryingly it's just me. Anyhow, this is when we start walking about the place with bits of paper in our hand, trying to appear seamless in our actions!

We are aided greatly by the stage management department, who very helpfully mark out the stage area and provide us with all the neccesary parephanalia for a working kitchen in 1912.

Di Fletcher (Mrs Gascoigne), Paul Simpson (Joe), and Susan Twist (Mrs Purdy) bravely entered the fray this morning, while myself and Natalie Grady (Minnie) followed suit this afternoon from 3:45pm - 6pm - 'call that a day's work fella!' I hear you cry! ...and no doubt you have a point,....but today was all about 'business'......'Business' is the stuff that American and Russian actors are very good at!

This is the dealing with props and practicalities on stage.

To be fair it was Natalie who was faced with getting her head round the simulation of taking the potatoes off the hob, draining them , checking the meat in the oven, transferring the soup from pot to terrine, before timing a fake collision with my character, Luther.......they'll be getting us to actually speak next!!

More progress was made with the Notts accent today, as well as many of the old terms and phrases in the script that generate from the dialect of the era. Chris Honer , our director, and assistant Josh Azouz, provided us with some much needed clarity in that area.

Obviously the only other big concern for everyone, is the progress of Warren Gatland's newly named Welsh rugby squad who had their first day in Gdansk, Poland, where they are undergoing a gruelling, state of the art fitness programme ahead of the 6 nations...... whoops, apologies, that is for my other blog running at the moment. Or at least it would be, if anyone was interested!

Well, it was that 'first day of school' feeling again today, as we started rehearsals for the Library Theatre production of 'The Daughter in Law.'

I find it's always a funny feeling, as an actor, at the very outset of a project, as you can feel a million miles away from what you want to achieve by 'first night.' That's what 'rehearsing' is all about - trying to get there...

I worked on 'Someone who'll watch over me' in early 2007, so it was lovely to see some familiar faces today.

Wow, 2007 seems so long ago - my daughter wasn't even born, and Wales were nowhere near the world force they are today in the world of Rugby Union!

Being a proud Welshman brings me on to the hot topic of today - accent.

We are all playing roles within the North Notts mining community - a very familiar environment for D.H.Lawrence as a child. I enjoy working on a new accent for a role. Last time here, it was Californian. Believe it or not, I find this one much tougher to crack.

The accent is a strange hybrid of both Northern and some Southern sounds - it's a very particular rural accent that is proving a major challenge for me to get under my belt.

Alun Raglan (plays Luther).

We've been working with several local primary schools exploring the themes around our production of The Wind in the Willows which plays until January 14th 2012 at The Lowry.

Incredibly cute and very insightfull, well worth a read!