Monday 19 September
A very busy opening to the week.
The choreographer Joumana is back and we work through Act 1 to show what we have done over the last week.
Working through Act One…
Looking at the physical work that is actually done.
Vital statistics include
Number of boxes to be made in Act One : 180
Number of balls total: 1,080
Number of balls to be wrapped: 600
Number of boxes and lids to be made: 180
Number of staples to be used by end of the Nottingham Run: circa 172,800
A production line is set up to make the boxes. With speed accuracy and aesthetics taken into account.
Myself, Sarah, Badria and Kourosh go into Manning School to do a workshop – a great group who respond brilliantly to the actors and create some powerful work in a short space of time.
A hard afternoon – working through a very visual, slightly confusing area of the text that takes time and focus for us to progress. The cast and crew appear restless but knuckle down to get the job done. (All very well behaved once we have the audience in!)
An audience with Alan….
We show them some of the rehearsal process. Then talk stuff through.
Phillip speaks of Murathan, one if the writers. Murathan is from Eastern Turkey, a successful playwright and poet. Hence the poetic aspect of the piece.
Alan talks through the premise of 1001 Nights and asks various cast members to speak part of their story.
Questions from the audience – are they (the characters) able to express the anger they must feel at the restriction in the expression of their intelligence?
Alan makes clear that they are not academics but nor are they an underclass intellectually, even though they are working in these conditions.
He speaks of the different circumstances when working with a new company as opposed an ensemble of 8 years.
The hunt for Abas Amini continues, he has spoken to Kylie at Northern Stage today and Kourosh leaves a message for him inviting him to rehearsal.
Tuesday 20 September
A sense of achievement to get to the end of the day and to have done a ‘jog’ (traditionally known as ‘a run’) of Act One. The SM informs me that a trade mark Northern Stage opening has been created and we both experience the first tingle down the spine.
Movement is placed more and more into the visual heart of the peace. There is a niggling sense of us running out of time so everyone is starting to work harder.
A new ASM (Assistant Stage Manager) – Matt - has joined the team and quickly been initiated in the joys of unmaking boxes, unwrapping glitter balls and cutting up crepe paper. Long may the glamour of theatre continue.
Friday 16 September
Busy, busy day: All eyes on Act 2.
Working through the logistics of section after section.
Focus on Fadia’s story with the four men.
A skeleton shape for the whole show now exists.
Production meeting – all departments involved. Many more boxes and balls needed. Everything seemingly going according to plan.
Costumes are starting to be tried out – everyone looking far too attractive at the moment!
Touch base time at the end of day –
Alan talks about how this show is very much the performers battling against the work that needs to be done.
Good and strong the relationships between people. A slight rivalry between the men. See so much about your characters within the activities that you do. It doesn’t work so well when they try and act or perform. Searching for a kind of sincerity and honesty. We are still looking for the way into the stories. He reminds them of the exercise earlier in the week of them sitting opposite and telling their stories every time Alan says next. Be fearful of acting these stories. Even the final stories, they are close to them but it doesn’t me they are the lesbian, the translator or a suicide bomber.
The cast discuss connecting the stories to themselves. Fran gives an example of how, like the apple in the final scene, he recently kept the seed of the avocado and put it in a plant pot - he gave this to his daughter and said that it will take 5 weeks to grow. That is the time that he is away from his family on tour (’til the next visit home). When the plant grows he will be home.
Alan – The instinctive and the natural – is the magical moments – They are real, truthful and filled with a kind of sincerity.
Fran – a thin line between who you are and the character you are playing. Alan places the actors in scenes that bring out the theatricality of you and your situation.
Looking for REAL MOMENTS.
Don’t be afraid to think ahead about the work that needs to be achieved. Set yourself surprises and challenges. These are more important than the made up things.
Cast feed back on what they need
Look at all the stories. – esp the feeling, opinion behind them.
Maybe split stories up and make decisions in advance – harder when everyone is together all the time. Sort out the ideas.
Thursday 15 September
Let the games begin:
Start on the story of Mehraban which is currently being told by everyone in the form of a chorus.
The packing of the lids onto the boxes and the carrying of them into the main cardboard boxes becomes an epic competition that may well now stay in the piece.
Alan takes great pleasure in carrying the highest piles of boxes.
Afternoon:
School groups – fabulously well behaved and full of life come in to watch rehearsal.
Continuing through Act 2 at a good pace. Lots of visuals, including the caged men and the never ending Father Christmas’s that carpet the stage.
A great spirit within the rehearsal today and a strong work ethic.
More injuries through – Frans back is aching and bruised knees abound.
Wednesday 14 September
Warm up – led by actor Francisco and Asst director Lisa Spirling.
Exercises included –
Ball game :
Throwing a ball one route from person to person; saying everyones name in a certain order; walking from person to person in a different order; do all three activities at the same time.
Copying within the circle:
Focus exercise where everyone is watching someone else in the chain. They copy ‘everything’ the person they are watching ‘does’. Each action is repeated. No one introduces anything, they simply receive and copy. This exercise was less successful – focus wasn’t maintained and the idea didn’t develop. Will try again.
Looking at Act 2: Some Improvising
Shazia, Badria and Zolfa sit on a break talking about life in England compared to home. Their ‘ideal’ man is discussed. Some great stuff comes out of this – now got to find a way to bottle this for the opening of Act 2.
School groups come in – wonderfully well behaved.
Look at Shazia’s story as continued in Act 2. The Father Christmas’s are put out and the men do Fadia’s story.
Alan talks with the cast about where we are at. First he asks for all the filled boxes to be laid out on the floor. Act 1 feels very clear in terms of structure and the physical tasks that need to be done. A work ethic. Act 2 feels like we are on a coffee break. It doesn’t have the same amount of struggle, nothing to fight against. The principal idea is that these jobs push you into fighting to tell your stories. Want to explore today how Act 2 can become tougher.
So possibly going to shift order of the stories around.
Time is spent looking at the space visually – the metal cases that hold the glitter balls are played with and become cages trapping the men. A sea of filled boxes covers the floor for the opening of Act 2.
Shaziar is not in rehearsals in the evening as she is performing her act for Tony Blair at the House of Commons.
Maziar shows his footage from Iraq that will be part of the show. Really powerful material including tortured prisoners and shots of a man having his hand cut off as a form of punishment. Interesting discussion arises of how you play the character of someone who has been tortured – particularly when the real thing shown on film is less traditionally dramatic.
– another day of harrowing film footage where the stage manager had to hide in the loos.
On a serious note – what’s wrong this world.
Tuesday 13 September
Great day in the office: Have worked through Act One and started on Act 2. Lots of cuts and changes.
Maziar is in rehearsals – we look in detail at the Shahrzad story of the murdered husband. At times creepy but very powerful.
First run of Act 1 ok – but storytelling could be more natural. Alan does a fantastic exercise where the cast sit opposite each other and are given numbers. They then tell their story and are cut off when Alan says ‘next’. No one knows when it will be his or her turn. As a result they enter into the story telling naturally and with more enthusiasm.
I’m currently watching many men dance in between 49 father Christmases. (It should be 50 but one got left in Newcastle).
Scaffolding – to represent the gantry is put in place – the odd bit is missing, but we start to get a sense of space and the four walls of the factory.
Please note – the arrival –of the new story that made Nicola cry was Maziars and not Murathan as written in an earlier Blog. Apologies.
Alans’ quote of the day “I don’t like to make a fuss”.
Monday 12 September
Morning off – 2pm start
Director, stage manager and deputy stage manager are stuck in traffic on the road from Newcastle since 10.30am.
Francisco leads warm up with circuits and concentration exercises.
Work continues on Murathan story. Look at table movement link between that and Shazir’s story. Attention is on accuracy and speed. It is put to music. The tasks, such as making boxes and dividers to go in them are brought into the performance.
Shazir tells her story and we move on. The ensemble work out amongst themselves how to pack the balls in tissue paper and place them in the boxes. Alan takes charge. When the show was performed in Copenhagen the balls were emptied onto the table, we try to remember how this was done without them falling off. – Answer is there used to be a ridge on the table – this has now been taken off so they can move across it easily. It will be back on soon.
