Pilot Theatre

So here I am waiting in the Keragon Room nervously excitedly pacing and waiting for the arrival of the cast and all that will be attending the meet and great. It strikes me as I pour myself a cup of tea how only 2 years ago I was nervously anticipating a meet and great but as Assistant Director for Fungus the Bogeyman.

I excitedly great the cast and the welcomes begin. It is wonderful to feel so supported by not only my fellow Pilot crew but by all the different departments from the theatre as they gather round for the discussion of the set and costumes. The actors are sent on a tour of the theatre and I run through my plans for the afternoon with Marcus.

We are joined in afternoon at the rehearsal room by Mandy and Sarah and Bec our new Press and PR team member. The read through is wonderfully thought provoking, the actors do a fantastic job and there is a real buzz in the air.

I gather the actors around the table and we discuss the characters in each Vision and their stories. The different heritages and voices in the room make for extremely interesting discussions and discoveries. I share my visions for the piece so that they understand what I am keen to achieve. I then decide to get them up their feet where we spend some time getting to know each other through various games and exercises.

Storytelling is something I am want to focus on so I finish the day by asking the actors to think of a story from their Youth where they discovered something for the first time. I explain that it needs to be something that connects with them emotionally.

I began the day with a warm up and then started a discussion about the play. I then used specific exercises to help unravel the characters in order to the actors to make character choices at this early stage

I started with a simple exercise where I got the actors to ask each other to cross the room where I asked Lisa and Raad to convince Daniel to cross sides. I specified that I did not want him to move unless he really wanted too. They tried a number of things to get him to move and nothing was working so I asked them to up the stakes and that's when everything changed. They started connecting to him and what he wanted and that's when we saw him change and want to cross the space.

We then had a discussion about how this exercise informed our choices for the characters of Vision 1. How they were able to make links with these moments and their characters situations were clarified in these discussions

I had asked them to think of a story to tell yesterday as I was interested in how they were going to tell them. I asked that they thought about whom they were telling it to. I wanted them to make decisions on who were which would then determine how emotionally connected they allowed themselves to be. We had a conversation after each story about what they contained and what would change if they were telling these stories to someone more personal to them.

All the characters in the play reveal stories about themselves that are personal and difficult to their situations. What is important for the characters in the play are not to revel in this sadness. It is buried grief and is not for everyone to see. I wanted the actors to find their own connections with this concept and then apply them to the stories they will be telling.

Status is something I am keen to explore in the rehearsal room as each vision is a battle of wills of individuals. I create different scenarios and give the cast the given circumstances and a time frame to get to a chair that I have stated its importance of.

Each exercise sparks debate and conversation about not only character development but also decisions for the play. Our discussions include political debates and understanding of intentions and corruptions. Having different voices in the room allows us to be able to have a truthful insight into each persons life experience.

It is only day two and I am already feeling a huge connection to the actors through our sharing of stories and backgrounds.

Wednesday

I start today with an exercise using four walls and label them with four emotions. Happy, sad, fear and anger. I create a safe space in the centre of the room which I label Vison 1. I then leave paper at each wall and allow the actors to explore these emotions and find connections at each wall. My intention is for them to decide what is at each wall that they connect to and then what safety they find in the centre of the room.

At the moment I am focusing on Vision 1 characters in order for the actors to develop them fully. I am aware of not running before we can walk so make sure we spend time relating the exercises back the play and allowing the discoveries we make to assist the character development.

I realise how difficult it is to stop talking about the play and all its many layers. There is so much within such short visions to develop and so much to make comment on that I find that in each tea and lunch break we find it difficult to talk about anything else, so much so that Amy the stage manager has to remind us to stop talking and have a break!

Thursday/ Friday

i decide to get the work on its feet today and start blocking Vision 1. I am able to see how much the character work has helped when I start developing the piece. This is where all the work from this week comes to fruition and we are able to start seeing the play as a whole picture.

It is wonderful to see the actors so free in their choices which hopefully has come from empowering them through the previous work on the text. My main objective was to spend Thursday and Friday blocking Vision 1 and 2. Having spent a time on character development and analysing the text it was amazing to see by Friday afternoon how much we had accomplished in a short space of time.

Week 2

Is ignorance bliss?

I am not sure what is happening to be at the moment. My emotions are all over the place! I have started to rant to myself on the walk to the rehearsal rooms about Israel and Palestine and solutions and theories. There is a constant shift of thoughts and feelings of all that is being exposed to me and it strikes me that I a lot of what I am facing is most probably what I have been hiding from for a long time.

Today is spent working on Vision 2 and 3. I am able to go back on the work I had previously blocked, making new decisions and finding new moments. Each time we work on a section we find different points to explore. It is incredibly exciting to see the play start to take a wonderful shape and the cast are handling the work beautifully.

I spend time working on the dynamics of Vision 2 and the relationship between Tanya and Mourid. There is a constant shift of status and power which I relate to a cat and mouse scenario. Both characters want and need something from each other which is enabling us to create a tense struggle. Tanya is a tricky character to play. She is extremely controlled and particularly odious at points in her responses to Mourid. It is important that we find the vulnerable side as well as her tough exterior to avoid the danger of a one-dimensional character.

I had previously arranged for a lady called Margy Venon to meet me so we could have a discussion about the time that she had spent in Bethlehem with a family. We had an interesting conversation about the geography of the land and the Occupied Territories. She is fiercely passionate about the Palestinian peoples plight and was eager to discuss the reasons why. She had some wonderful photos of the family who run the Tent of Nations, which is based in Bethlehem and also of the surrounding land which included pictures of the illegal Jewish settlements. I felt that it was important for the actors to see this pictures so I asked her to come to rehearsals to share some of her experiences.

The rest of the day is spent reworking detailed sections of Vision 2. As I leave for the day I realise I am no closer to answering questions that I asked myself on the walk in but at least now I am asking them.

Last thought of the day.

What are the distinction between religion and art? Can each learn from the other?

Saturday

Our rehearsal today is for three hours but it feels like three minutes. I spend time working through Vision 1 as it seems like a long time since we tackled it. It is apparent after watching a run the parts that need work.

One of the most important things about this vision is to play the reality of the situations. As an audience we must believe that this is a real zoo and that these characters exist. The character of Um Hisham drives the connections and conversations. She is not sentimental in her approach which can be a difficult concept to explore.

  Rehearsals

Shlomo and Yuval

Um Hisham

Week 3, Opening show and the rest of the tour

I am afraid I will have to apologise for the huge delay in finishing my blog. Time just ran away in the last weeks of rehearsals so barely had anytime to eat and definitely no time to call my Mum who was not happy with me!

Week three involved Naomi Wallace seeing the piece for the first time which was exciting and terrifying. It was on the Monday of the third week so the work was still being developed so a little nerve wracking. Luckily all went really well and she really liked it. She could also see how it would develop so it was great to have her feedback on choices I would be making for the next week. We then spent the rest of the week running the piece and finding detailed moments for each Vision. We spent a long time doing this so that the characters were fully developed and the actors felt safe and comfortable. There were a few sticky moments when we ran the all three Visions together as the actors were used to working on them individually however these issues were overcome by doing runs and then going back over each Vision seperately until they were stronger.

Tech week was fairly calm as the show had few lighting ques so did not involve the actors waiting around for too long. They also had time to get used to the space which was important as they were playing to three sides. Matt Savage, our lighting designer did an incredible job and Amy out Stage Manager was an absolute star so we were more then prepared for opening night.

Opening Night- Thursday the 29th October

I could not believe it when we finally got to opening night how quickly the time had gone. There were a few last minute panics, mainly from me! The dress runs had gone well but it was clearly obvious that the actors now needed an audience. I made my way into the studio feeling sick with nerves but was instantly reassured as soon as the show opened. The actors did an incredible job and the feedback was wonderful. It felt really good to know that we had a fantastic piece of work that we all so proud of. The next few shows were varied, pace was difficult to sustain and there were still moments that needed work however we had a few days to do that until Press Night. The nerves kicked in again on Press Night but were dispelled by the end due to another fab show!

The rest of the tour came and went with performances at Lincoln Arts Centre and Nottingham Lakeside. It was good to see the show in other venues especially end on on spaces. It was also reasuring to know that it was just as strong. We are now gearing up for the Spring tour which starts on the 8th Feb. We are currently having meetings about how we will market the show in London and potential collaborations with a training centre in Bethlehem so will keep you posted.