Tring and Whitstable

This week the Shrews were originally going to be in Romania...but sadly complications meant we were unable to go.  However the Globe managed to organise two one nighters to keep us Shrewing...

Backstage at Tring

On tuesday we went to Tring Park School for the Performing Arts http://www.tringpark.com/ which was Arts Ed. back in the day I think.  We had a very enthusiastic audience of students and locals and once again the weather smiled on us.




I think this might be the only time we perform to rows of students in pajamas and onsies under duvets...but watch this space...

Whitstable Ahoy!

Oh we do like to Shrew beside the seaside

Fish and Chips by the front

Yesterday we went to lovely Whitstable and the amazingly cute Playhouse Theatre...which proudly boasts a beautiful balcony despite being the size of your average studio theatre. 

behold the balcony!

We were made very welcome, and the audience were so enthusiastic we managed an extra curtain call.

Afterwards Leah met Simon Paisley Day at the Stage Door, who lives in Whitstable...and played Petruccio in last year's Taming of the Shrew at the Globe - I think it's always a bit intimidating to think that another actor who has played the same role has been watching you - but she took it in her shrew-stride...

Next stop...Malta!



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Week Two at the Globe and Midnight Matinee

What a mad week of Shrewing it has been.  We returned to the Globe to do shows on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights at 7.30...and an extra midnight matinee on the Friday.

Here are some pics of our warm up on our last day at the Globe, Friday, which was also filmed for the BBC world service...not quite sure if and when we'll get to see that...

The Globe shows have continued to be an amazing experience, and sold out, which is great - but nothing quite prepared us for the midnight matinee.
We knew that everyone who was coming was going to be fairly hardcore Globegoers, Shakespeare lovers, or at the very least up for a unique experience - but when we walked out on stage the cheering meant that we couldn't begin for quite some time...
The audience were so responsive and enthusiastic - there were times I was worried the laughter would mean we would grind to a halt - and I would be lying if I didn't say that they were the best lubricated audience we have performed to...which probably helped their responses along a bit...

But the show was also a surprising learning curve- I don't think I've ever let myself enjoy a show as much.  I always worry that if I relax too much I'll lose focus and the plot...but I suppose it's true that if you're relaxed, the audience also breathe out and just go with you...and we were tired, and it was mad, and yes some of the audience were a bit blotto - but I actually think it might have been the best show we've done so far.

And what a privilege to share such a unique experience with 1500 odd people in such an amazing place.

And to spare the blushes of the cast and crew I have not put up any photos of after the show...when we watched the sun come up in the yard of the Globe, with wine and hotdogs and so much adrenaline that even when I got home at 6am I couldn't sleep...

Herstmonceux

Amongst our Globe dates this weekend we had two nights at Herstmonceux Castle, outdoors, by the moat.
It was the first venue that Josh, our assistant director, teched us into and we spent some time checking for sound levels, checking we hadn't forgotten how to work the smaller, touring stage (we had a bit), and Josh had a few notes for us from our last few performances at the Globe too...

Here are some things we learnt while at Herstmonceux...

Wind is not the friend of the actor trying to be heard.

Herstmonceux is a brick castle built in 1441, only the exterior is still original, and it is now home to the Queen's International Study Centre hosting students through the Canadian University Study Abroad Program - this meant the Shrews have been well fed in the student canteen.

It's 'Herstmon-zoo'... not 'Herstmon-sir'...who knew?

Although I worked out in Portsmouth this was going to be a tour of alternately boiling / freezing / being soaked - I had not previously thought (until performing at dusk next to still water) about biting insects - luckily Carrie, our stage manager was one step ahead with the bug spray!

You can get a haircut for £10.60 in neighbouring Hailsham.

Shrew Tree

The Shrews enjoy the Nature Trail between shows...

First show at the Globe

What's that Miss Hunt? Our names on the door of our dressing room at the globe...why, yes, it is...

After Sunday off for good behaviour, we Shrews hit the Globe on Monday with not a little trepidation.

Our Portsmouth shows seemed to have gone down so surprisingly well I think we were still in shock.  But how would the show translate to the (much bigger) Globe stage and (much bigger) Globe audience?

And...with Joe having only 4 hours rehearsal scheduled on the stage itself before the first show...how would we have time to re-block etc...

I suppose the answer is, if the thoughts and intentions are right (and we hope they are)...you just physically (but not mentally) spread out a bit...

And of course our Globe friends were there to help us re-jig the jig, re-tune our tuning, hone our text and look after our voices.

I think we were intimidated by the thought of treading the hallowed boards...how would we fill the space?  Then the truth slowly dawned on us (well...perhaps it dawned more quickly for the smartest shrews...but it didn't hit me til about halfway through our first show on Monday night)  It's EASIER than outside.  You can be heard, you can be seen, the sound and the audience are focused in on the stage in a way that outdoors we really have to work for - yes, there are pigeons, yes there are planes (a lot of them) - but the audience really stay with you.

Josh, our assistant director, sort of summed it up when he said after our first show that he wished we could have seen our open mouthed, amazed faces during the bows.  I think we were just gobsmacked.  We had somehow done it, it seemed to go down a storm...and suddenly we knew what it sounded like to have 1500 people clapping and cheering you.  Overwhelming.

There are some rehearsal pics and audience comments on the Globe's facebook page Shakespeare's Globe
and don't forget you can follow me on twitter  https://twitter.com/picul

God give you good night!

Portsmouth Part Two

Ahhh! How much simpler to be blogging from my laptop to you all instead of fiddling with my phone.  We Shrews are enjoying a well earned day off before the Globe - having travelled back from Portsmouth after last night's show - rammed with all out luggage into Leah and Kate's speedy little cars.

Although a bit of a blur - an exhausting, fun, sunny, blur - we seem to have moved forward miles in a week. 

The shape of the play backstage is becoming familiar to us - this is a whole new play you can only learn once up and running - when do I have to change, and into what, where should I be next, what should I have in my pocket, when should I leap out of the way of an exiting trombone / actor / stage manager, what are the real timings (there is the line I need to be one by, sure, but the line I need to be moving by), when and how can I help others / when is it best to clear out of the way, etc. etc.

Thanks to Kate Lamb for this lovely pic!

Learning to do all this silently is the next challenge...

We have learnt a little about the weather - we have not yet done rain...but we have done extreme sun (Malta practice?) and poor Kate Lamb was freeeeezing in her dress last night.  She has already developed a special backstage look of dress + dressing gown + puffa jacket...

We have learnt that the good folk of Portsmouth love the shrews - huzzah!

We also had the learning curve that was our first schools matinee.

Some of you will know that I taught Shakespeare workshops in schools for several years, from primary to sixth form and so am very much on the side of the kids here....

but....

On a sunny day, with some quite young year groups who don't know the play (it's june, exams are over, so it looked to me like they would be studying it next year for gcse or even sats, so we are talking 12 and up), and a fair few teachers hiding away at the back to keep in the shade (caveat - this was not typical of the entire audience!) it provided some real challenges.  It's hard to win over a crowd who see it as a couple of hours of sunbathing and texting...

We did learn a lot from it -

The play is robust enough, and so are we, to continue amongst difficult circumstances.
The play does speak to a young audience, and many were clearly engaged and following the story, even in the face of the disruption of their peers.
We mustn't try and engage loud crowds through volume - we know this really, it will only ruin our voices and we will only lose - but it is such a tempting instinct...

On the whole I think (given the sun and the lack of supervision of large groups in the audience) the level of engagement was exceptional - it just felt like such hard work at the time.

One really sad realisation I took from the experience was the level of peer led homophobia that is clearly still prevalent in schools.  It (naively) hadn't crossed my mind that schools audiences would struggle with the concept of a female actor kissing another female actor.  I do remember from schools performances of Midsummer Night's Dream that there were sometimes a few 'yuck' reactions when (the male) Lysander kissed me (sometimes even from me when the actor concerned had insisted on eating pickled chillies for dinner).  But this was different.  Every time Petruccio mentioned kissing Kate they would call out 'don't kiss her' 'that's disgusting' etc.

I think it brought a few of us back to school days, remembering when being seen to fit in is so important.  And feeling that you have to prove that you are not gay (and presumably hide it if you think you are) is such a part of that.  It was a bit heartbreaking to remember. 

Joy, wisely as ever, pointed out that there will have been some quiet minds in the audience who would have been strengthened to see a same sex kiss, unapologetic and unexplained...my worry is that the reactions around them would have unbalanced any positive.  But she's right, just as there will have been kids who thought:

 'I can't believe it's Shakespeare and I can understand it'
 'I think I want to be an actor'
'These jokes are actually funny'

there will have been some for whom it was the first time they saw a same-gender kiss as something other than something to laugh about...

portsmouth

Greetings from Portsmouth and shrew towers (ambitiously described when we rented it as a holiday villa...but twill serve)! After two very long tech days in very hot sun we are all pretty exhausted...I may have had a bit if a Victorian moment and passed out...embarrassingly...but our stage manager Carrie was at least able to proudly christen her new accident book. The set looks amazing in the gardens of Portsmouth museum, and I have to say, the staff have been amazingly patient as we have to walk back and forth through exhibitions to get to our dressing rooms. I had the slightly surreal experience of warming up in the Sherlock Holmes exhibition yesterday...it was the coolest place I could find. The dulcet tones of stephen fry on loop the while. As well as our stage management team and Joe and josh (director and assistant director) we have had the designer Hannah, ping the text assosiate, Kevin our fight director, the ever smiling corin our md, wardrobe, and many friendly producing and casting globe faces supporting us. The aforementioned marvellous Martin of the voice arrived to watch our (somewhat disasterous) dress rehearsal and talked to us afterwards about the space from a voice point of view...using the audience and playing out more (essential to outdoor Shakespeare...very counterintuitive to modern actors). He also gave us a great vocal warm up, which did wonders for my tired squeaking. Somehow it was suddenly time to get ready for our first show, before we really had time to realise it. Half an hour warming up voice, costumes on, not even time to panic. How did it go? I have no idea! It went...we did it all...no major incidents...no quick change fiascos...and the audience seemed to love it. As I type torrential rain is beating down...schools matinee, our second ever show, in a few hours...this could be interesting!

Last Week of Rehearsals

Meet the newest shrew! Kate Lamb's dog Willow, who will be touring some of the venues with us.  Here's Joy saying hello to her today, our last day of rehearsals in London before we go to Portsmouth to tech next week.

This week we managed a few sort of runs...although there are still some mysteries to be solved...and the challenges of next week loom heavily in the shrew brains.

Set...being outside...costumes (and super fast costume changes)...props...these are all yet to be thrown into the mix and we only really have two days to do it all.

The (small) silver lining, I think, is that compared to a traditional tech for a show, we should get some acting time.  There are no lighting or sound cues - all the music is live and unamplified.  Usually teching is a very slow process of moving slowly between lighting states and fixing when they will change, setting sound cues, set changes / things being flown in and out - and there will be none of that...

No lights, no fancy set changes, no pumping sound track...just eight ladies, a wing, and a prayer...

Wish us luck...and dry weather...