Friday 28th July
End of the last week before the show opens. Few words to cover what we've been doing.
Friday was bits and pieces. Had very precise times to work scenes. Not in the chapel so did outside scenes inside. Good for voices – we have a tendency to speak loudly and excitedly, so its good to work in smaller rooms and get more natural. Was hoping to do a run to tie up the week and give a good indication of where we're at (and what we still have to do) but we ran outa time. Ran the second half and it was very long but helped to clarify character journeys. The play is very enjoyable but we need to really nail stuff to make it perfect. And the audience will tell us when its right.
Worked the big lovers scene – when everything goes wrong and people start fighting. Long and complex. Were helped by the director who'd call out ideas for units of the scene – LOVE, HURT, DECEIT etc. It goes so quickly that we have to mark each unit or it just becomes general and unclear.
Quince has had a few big ideas thrown at him recently and they're all working. Trying to keep a handle on them all. Storing a lot of things in my head at the moment.
Real life is somewhere else. Looked at my diary and discovered it was marked 2 weeks ago. Should have phoned a lot of people and emailed more. But other work is on hold until we're up and running. Then I can get back to all those tasks I was going to do.
Each week I've been giving up things I really like. First of all it was chocolate – very difficult – then it was tea – I drink a lot of tea in the evenings – and this week it was sugar. Extremely hard. A lot of bread and hummous, sugar-free marmalade and peanut butter. I feel very humble – people manage gluten-free, sugar-free, wheat-free diets and I'm moaning about my hard luck. But its been eye-opening. Sugar is in the most unusual things like baked beans, tinned soup, cereals and pasta sauce – nuts! Totally unnecessary and ridiculous. I've been doing this to appreciate how hard it is be without things I love – which is exactly what Demetrius does in MND.
The weekend is for relaxing. Gonna see a Traverse show on sunday but nothing else planned. Time to reflect, consolidate, work the script and set my mind for next week.
