Maker’s Diary: Meeting & Rehearsals

I have just got back from rehearsals and despite feeling crazy tired, am pleased that it went well today. I had a meeting with Olu at lunch time. We discussed the concept of ‘making it matter’ and having something at stake for the audience. I filled Olu in on all of the developments in my thinking and the structure of the performance. Our chat really filled with confidence and I think that the positive vibe that created carried on through into the rehearsals tonight.

We spent the first half of the rehearsal developing and polishing all of the textual elements. I think that these are coming on really well….well except for the usual lines issues! The girls are still giving Nigel a hard time but he is persevering and I am sure that they will warm to him. I am just so concerned at our lack of time to really develop the radically changed format. One key development today was the decision to give the audience the power to stop or change any of the scenes. We just need to define the exact rules of engagement for that contract with the audience. We started to try out the game aspects of the performance tonight. Some of the games manifested with more ease than others. It is simply a case of making sure that all three of the performers are comfortable with all of the games and feel at ease playing with each other. Once they can do that they will be able to lead the audience in participating in that too. Once they are comfortably familiar with the games I think they will start to have more fun with them. They are being over-thought at the moment. It needs to be more natural. It is just impossible to anticipate how the audience might respond to the games but that is what makes it exciting for me….and hopefully for the audience too. I understand the nature and function of the games as a performative device but I can’t really predict how they will manifest on the night. The familiarity of the games…as recognised through cultural schema should give the audience some clue as to the rules and contract of those activities but the displaced context should create enough unknown space for liminoid acts to happen.