Monday, July 19, 2010

Edinburgh Springs 'Awake'

Production: All of them!
Rehearsal Wk 4
by Susie Dumbreck (Company Manager)

Sitting in a cafe in a very wet Edinburgh. Have seen production trucks, scaffolding, Lampies, Noise boys (and girls) and a copious amount of multipocketed shorts and steel toe capped boots roaming around outside the major venues as the fit up for the fringe well and truly gets underway.

Those who know and love the Edinburgh Fringe will know that very soon Edinburgh becomes a heaving mass of artistic talent which sings, dances, plays, laughs, crys its way into the city. Every available flat in the town becomes an artistic haven for those performers who are lucky enough to get the chance to come here. Alongside this we have the dedicated fringe going public - who are what really make this festival one of the most special in the world.

So it's with great joy that I see the large 33 sign go up outside The Pleasance, the home of RSAMD's Spring Awakening offer this year and where the courtyard will soon be filled with the chatter, excitement and of course queues of performance going public (oh and lots of lager/cider swigging in the bar).

Those who are swithering over whether to come to Edinburgh this year - DO IT - the programme really is fantastic. Make sure you get along to RSAMD shows. Follow us on twitter @RSAMD_Fringe.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Casting ... and underwear!

Production: Spring Awakening
Rehearsal Wk 3
by Helen Hart (Wendla)

So we finally find out our 2 casting groups today! (for those who have no idea what I'm talking about, we are double cast for the show and today we found out which of us are in each cast & who we will be working with.) This is great to know as it allows us to start forming bonds with our scene partners and it allows us to take our work to the next level. I think there were some suprises in there but I'm glad we can get started on creating a dynamic with our own cast and developing it as a group.

The show is getting closer and I think it would be fair to say we are all nervous about how soon we open! But I have faith that we can pull off a great show (come and see it please.) Costume fitting today was hilarious, Carly & myself (Car is also playing Wendla) had alot of fun trying to fit into the tiny underwear they want us to wear! They accidently asked me to try on a bra that was 3 sizes too small, I think I gave the wardrobe department a bit of a shock when I came out of the changing room! haha!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Poking, a-GORA-phobia & Leeroy Jenkins!

Production: In Touch
Rehearsal Wk2
by Michael John Griesen (Friend)


Today we went over David’s ‘Birthday Poke’ in more detail, which was necessary as a couple of people that were not singing in it before now are. Seth was still struggling with the exact rhythm of ‘po, po, po, po po poke!’ He tapped it out so enthusiastically on his music stand that he broke his pencil. We’ve made a few changes to the lyrics in “Alive” as well, one which took us a good ten minutes to get right. After a short toilet break we discussed our research that we had done in the last two days which was very interesting; we looked in detail at what ‘Friend’s’ and ‘Mairin’s’ conditions are, and Seth talked his character’s fear of the outside world.

Seth: “I think David might have a-GORA-phobia”
Ken: “Is that a bit like a-LUM-inum?”
Seth: “Yeah, scared of metal.”

The above exchange was apparently hilarious to everyone else but it went completely over my head. Byron then showed us a youtube video of a team, of what seemed to be computer geeks, planning a World of Warcraft raid, until one of the characters, who had just got back from the bathroom, ran recklessly through the doors to the monsters shouting- “LEEROY JENKINS!” (His name.) The amusement that resulted from this kept us happy all the way through lunchtime. Mikey found this particular video hilarious, and tears were streaming from his eyes for the next half hour, just at the slightest mention of this video!

Helen presented information on internet addiction and gave some examples of how it has pulled families apart. One thing that we found pretty ridiculous was that the only way you could access information about an internet addiction helpline, was ONLINE!

Candice spoke about quarantines, and gave us plenty of information on how quarantines would work and be undertaken in todays society. This was really helpful for the characters of 'In Touch' who have been affected by the 'quarantine'.

Mikey presented information on 'Locked in Syndrome' which is what his 'human character' suffers from. He read a few passages from a diary by a patient who suffers from the syndrome, and it was incredibly touching and gave a real insight.

Finally, Rachel presented her research about artificial intelligence, and the possible ramifications of unconscious beings developing consciousness.

Candice said that I fried her brain. I take that as a compliment. Ken then instructed us to get into our pairs and discuss our characters more, starting with a list of everything we knew about our characters, then developing this into making our own decisions about how we wanted to play them. To make this easier, we pretended we were on television, and we got interviewed in our pairs and had to improvise replies. All in all, it was a extremely productive day of rehearsal, and we left with a bundle of information and ideas to play with.

'In Touch' with Muffins

Production: In Touch
Rehearsal Wk2
by Michael John Griesen (Friend)

Today we had our first read-through of the whole show. We read Act II as well even though we’re not doing that in the Fringe. It was fun because we could remember a lot of the Act II music from when we did it in March for New Musical Development. Jamie (who plays Mairin) brought in 3 containers of muffins; blueberry, chocolate chip, and toffee, and we ate most of them throughout the day. It was good to hear Ken's (Director) views on the play, and we discussed some of the character decisions that we could make. He then encouraged us to go away and research about our characters such as possible backstory, and avatars in general. Also, during the afternoon part of our rehearsal, England beat Slovenia and USA beat Algeria in the World Cup, so there was general rejoicing! More importantly we also had another look at the first act; the act we will be performing at the fringe. This was useful, as we were able to ammend and adjust any inconsistencies or practical problems in the script, such as smoking on stage! Though, in the long run that will be better for our voices if we're not smoking!!!