Eeeeeeek! Only a few more days until our opening night, and my word, that is an alarming, yet thrilling, thought! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the rehearsal process; it’s absolutely flown by – time flies when you’re having fun, I’ll tell ye! Because it’s been a relatively short rehearsal period, I’m almost saddened by the thought that it’s coming to an end, as I’ve only ever performed shows for a week or less. But I keep forgetting that it’s actually running for a few weeks, and therefore this is a whole new ball game for me. So, no tears yet!!
Over the next few days I’m going to concentrate on the deeper, more emotional moments for my characters. There is one scene in particular which is completely heart-rending and poignant. The concept of having to give up her daughter beacuse she can’t afford to look after her is something I’ve never experienced and hope to never have to, so I need to just think about what must be going through my character’s head at that point in time, the will and counter will being played etc. She’s typically a very strong, valorous character in the play, but here I think she must have to show a tiny ray of weakness because she doesn’t want to have to go through it at all. However, she has guts and she knows what’s best for her child and so she makes the right decision. The stakes are so high for her here, and for Burns, and I just need to think about them more.
Another character that still needs a bit of work is Mary Campbell (Highland Mary). I just need to take her further, think about how she is different from Anna Park; what is her rhythm, her physicality in contrast to that of Anna? I realise I’m making it sound like there’s still so much to be done and it’s only a few days before lift off, but that’s not the case at all! I think it’s just because I have four very contrasting characters, none of which the audience get to see for very long or feel like they get to know well enough, so it’s simply a case of portraying all the different sides, dimensions and idiosyncrasies pertaining to each character fully – nevermind successfully!
I’m really enjoying performing my two solo songs and feel I’m coming into them more now. They’re both challenging, but the more I perform them the more confidence I gain and therefore the more rewarding the experience becomes.
All in all, I believe the show has tremendous potential, and I have complete faith that the audiences will adore it! There are some beautifully moving moments, full of poignancy and truth, which is well counter-balanced by the Laugh Out Loud comedy. It’s a real gem of a show and I think we now just need to let it sparkle and soar, and it’ll be fantastic!!
Jennifer Macdonnell
Archive for category Blog
Less Than A Week To Go
Jul 29
MISSING YOU ALREADY
Less than a week to go until we start technical and dress rehearsals and I’m getting really excited about how the show is shaping up. The songs sound great and there are some great fun scenes to perform, as well as some real ‘hankies-oot’ moments! All we need to do now is polish everything up, ready to wow our first audiences.
The funny thing about rehearsing a show is how much things can change once you have a live audience. It is as though you go through the entire rehearsal process with one of the cast missing until the opening night and then, once the audience are in to react and provide the energy you need to play off, everything finally takes shape.
Of course, the whole idea is that the show is rehearsed with the audience’s reactions at the forefront of your planning but there is just no way to tell what unexpected little miracles or hiccups will come your way once the final part in the cast is filled. And, of course, just to keep things interesting, the final part is played by a different performer every night.
Fi-diddledy-dee!
Sometimes you reach the stage in rehearsal where you yearn for the audience to be there because you want to share in the joy of the work that is being created. That is when you know you are involved in making something special and that is where we are at just now with Ae Fond Kiss – preparing to welcome our missing cast member with open arms and a big old smile.
See you soon!
Gilchrist Muir
Half Way Through Rehearsals
Jul 23
Can’t believe we’re over half way through the rehearsal process already! Last week was brilliant, got so much done in just a week, and now we’ve finished blocking, it’s all starting to take shape. Yesterday we did our first run through and it was really great to put it all together and see the show more as a whole. The show’s looking really good and I was surprised at how much of the lines myself and the others had absorbed. However personally I am concerned about my singing as I’ve not got the most confidence in my singing, especially my head voice and quite a lot of the songs are extremely high. Also at the moment I seem to be tired all the time, which is having a negative effect on my voice, must just be the early mornings, bit of a shock to the system. Well I’m off home this weekend back to Chester for early nights, family time, lots of script work and some home comforts, lovely lovely.
Am loving working with everyone, am really lucky to be working with such a great company, and am enjoying the script incredibly, getting to really know and understand all my characters now which is exciting. I’d like to now explore further Nancy’s more emotional scenes such as the letters with Burns, and also have all my lines completely well and truly learnt by Monday!! Good luck to me.
Rebecca Bradley
A Fan of the Bard
Jul 21
Having just finished my 2nd Year at Queen Margaret University, this is my first professional paid show. To have landed a part in “Ae Fond Kiss” is not just a personal achievement but (not to sound too cheesy) an honour. Being such a fan of the Bard from a young age – to be acting in a show all about him is a terrific endeavour which I am rather looking forward to being a part of. Each time I read the script I seem to enjoy it more and more. It has everything you would want in a play – sincerity, humour, music, tears, laughter, some fantastic characters whilst still paying a respectable tribute to the legend that is Robert Burns. I really do think, without sounding like a PR, that it has something for everyone whether you’re an avid fan of Burns or have never heard of him (heaven forbid!)
When I first found out about my assigned characters I was more than pleased. I can’t wait to get them up on their feet.
Day one consisted of a read through and our first singing sesh with our very talented MD, Matthew. As much as I love and enjoy singing, it has never been a forte and I can see it perhaps being a bit of a challenge, however, the songs are beautiful and I can only hope I do them reasonable justice!I am extremely positive about this show; the cast are great and it’s just brilliant to be a part of something which is spreading the word and educating people about my favourite poet.
So far we have finished uniting the text, made plenty of progress on the songs and are just beginning to getthe first scene up on it’s feet.
Alison McFarlane
The End of Rehearsal Week 1
Jul 18
Well, we’ve reached the end of rehearsal week 1…and what a week it’s been!!
It all began on Monday morning as the cast of ‘Ae Fond Kiss’, as well that as that of our sister show ‘Treasure Island’, congregated at the Powerhouse Room (our show venue) in the Mining Museum in Newtongrange. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, as well as a couple of brand new ones, which really made me feel immediately at home in the company and filled me with an instant sense of fervour for the weeks ahead.
My fellow Nonsenseroomers have already charted the events of that morning in previous blogs, so to save repeating ourselves I’ll move swiftly along to the rest of the week’s endeavours…
Firstly the songs! Our first ‘sing-through’ with our wonderful MD Matthew took place on Monday afternoon. It was so uplifting to hear these beautiful arrangements of some of Burns’ most recognisable melodies…and also to hear a couple of his lesser known ditties, one or two of which were previously unknown to me. A couple of the girls have truly beautiful songs, in ‘Ay Waukin, O’ and ‘Highland Mary’ (and voices to match based on our first few singing sessions) which I eagerly anticipate hearing once the girls have become suitably comfortable with them. I was also thrilled to learn that the song I chose for my audition, ‘We’re A’ Noddin’, had made it’s way into the show on the back of that audition…and even more so when I discovered it would be sung by a man in drag!!
Of my own songs, ‘My Love is like a Red, Red Rose’ stands head and shoulders above the rest, both in terms of the basic melody itself and the scope it gives me to truly perform and make the song my own…Burns was, after all, a wee bit o’a showman at heart! Thus far, the complex harmonies in ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ are proving to be the greatest challenge, however once we’ve nailed them I honestly believe it will sound beautiful enough to have inspired the great man himself! (no pressure then…)
Away from the world of the sing-song, we have made some excellent progress in putting the basic shape of the show together this week. There are some fairly intricate scene changes and some truly manic costume changes…but it just wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun if everything was straightforward, now would it?!
Well, that’s about enough from me for one blog…I need to get myself ready for a rehearsal of my other Fringe show, King Arthur, now anyway! (figured this is as good a time as any for a wee ‘plug’…check out http://www.siegeperilous.co.uk/king_arthur09/cast.htm for cast & production info as well as ticket sales).
Tattie-bye for now,
Allan.
Here tae us, wha’s like us…?!
And so it begins…my first taste of life as a professional actor! This will be my first Fringe performance, and after years of attending numerous Fringe productions, I’m ecstatic at the prospct of actually being involved in one! All last week I’d been really excited about starting rehearsals, so much so that I think nerves came into play on Sunday night as I had the most restless sleep ever!! It sounds ridiculous and, yes, rather dramatic, but it’s just that feeling of embarking on a new project, a new journey and it being something you’re so passionate about.
This is my first involvement in Burns’ works since the tender age of eleven. Och aye, the days of primary school Burns recital competitions, I remember well, and even better the day I won the Burns Competition and was invited to recite my poem, “O For Ane An’ Twenty, Tam” at the Kinghorn & Burntisland Rotary Club Burns supper. I have fond memories of my parents hosting annual Burns suppers with a group of friends, each guest taking their turn at a different part of the preceedings. As well as entertaining their pals, we also had family Burns suppers and to this day, I am not a fan of cock-a-leekie soup and detest haggis! But it was never so much about the food as it was about celebrating Burns insightful, prolific work.
Anyway, to return to the more immediate topic, I am absolutely LOVING the Burns’ songs in the show. They sound awesome! When I first got the sheet musicand heard Matthew, M.D, play my two solo songs to me, I was amazed – they both had the most fluctuting range I’d ever heard in any song arrangement. I thought, “I can’t possibly sing that!” Nonetheless, after a few rehearsals I feel I’m getting increasingly confident with them and am actually totally enjoying singing them now! Yes, Wednesday was a successful and progressive day for me
The Highland accent, required for one of my characters, is actually posing fewer problems than I thought it might. Oh aye, Cathie assures me I’m on the right tracks. Yet, I fear, even though it’s still fairly early days, it’s coming out a tad Welsh. But alright boyo, I’ll work on it!!
Jen
Treasure Island Shenanigans
Jul 16
Well I thought it was about time that I joined in on the blog shenanigans especially after Lee’s epic post. Where to start? I am really enjoying myself, there is so much banter going on (hard work too of course) and of course every boy’s dream sword fighting! So far we have worked our way through half of the script and it is already beginning to take a good shape. As I am controlling the Jim Hawkins a lot of the time I am getting sore arms but its all for a good cause. I just need to get on those press-ups and build up my guns!
The sword fights are looking good, still need to work on how I use Jim properly during them though. It been quite tricky to make sure that its Jim who is fighting and not me even though it is actually me who is doing the fighting – a complicated concept indeed. I do feel like I’m getting better each time I pick up Jim. I had some great news today….. we now have our ‘real’ Jim in rehearsals which is brilliant!!! So now we can bond with him and work on bringing him to life.
I am enjoying the freedom we have with the script and the opportunity to really be creative, its so much fun. We are coming up with some classic material each day.
So far so good and now to leave u with a joke.
What is a pirate's favorite type of music?
Arr and B!
Rhys
First Degree Burns
Jul 15
Ever since my earliest recollections of primary school Burns recital competitions, I have enjoyed a fond affection for the insightful and lyrical wordsmithery of our national bard. Not since Shakespeare has a man so aptly surmised our existential trials and hardships with analogies and imagery so exactly appropriate, you marvel that they had not existed before.
One such example comes from the very poem I recited as a child, and which began my love affair with Burns’ work; A Man’s A Man For A’ That.
“The rank is but the guinea’s stamp;
The man’s the gowd for a’ that.”
It is a couplet that could easily be used to refer to Burns himself; despite attaining the various trappings of celebrity and success within his lifetime, he seemed to have scant regard for its worth to him; possessed instead, as he ever was, with his quest for true love and the succour of the human soul.
In this regard, he was a man after my own heart. Little surprise then that I should have auditioned for Nonsense Room’s ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ – and less even that I should be thrilled to have landed a part. Or, rather, six parts.
The challenge ahead may be great but so was the man and so is the material so I can but do my best to do his great works justice.
Here’s tae ye, Rabbie!
Wha’s like ye?
Gie few an’ they’re a’ deid!
Six Roles For Breakfast
The joint read-throughs of Ae Fond Kiss and our Nonsense Room sister-show, Treasure Island went very well, with plenty of lovely characterisation coming through from everybody already – and this was rehearsal day one! Both casts are full of the kind of people you hope you get to work with as an actor; generous, fun, considerate, enthusiastic – this should be a fantastic two months.
So the script has been perused and it seems I have a generous helping of both characters and gags! I am to play: Burns’ father, Gilbert (his brother), William Creech (his publisher), John Armour (Jean Armour’s father), Tam (a pub-dweller – perhaps of O’Shanter fame?) and last but not least, Annie Wilson (landlady of The Edinburgh Inn).
The most obvious challenge is making all the characters different enough in voice and physicalisation but also believable as representations of the actual persons concerned… and then there’s making sure they’re all funny.
Yes, it is certainly a hilarious script, aptly described by Bruce, our director and the co-writer, as a ‘romp’ through Burns’ life and many loves. It is full of raunchy encounters, saucy one liners and some larger than life characters that had me in stitches just reading it. I guess this is a good thing since I have to portray a few of them now!
Round The Old Joanna
Ah, but I do love a good old sing-song! Just as well really, as there is a considerable amount of it in the show.
Today we were learning our parts for the five-part harmony versions of Ae Fond Kiss and Auld Lang Syne, just two of the Burns songs arranged for us by our musical director, Matthew. He is rather talented; the harmonies sound lush! There is nothing quite like the ecstatic sensation of being a part of creating complex and beautiful harmonies with other people. It gives me the shivery shivers! I’m really looking forward to performing these for an audience now.
I’ve remarked to others in the cast and now I’ll tell you guys – I reckon this show has a near perfect balance of raucous comedy and moving, poignant moments of real emotion and it moves seamlessly between the two. Many of the most touching moments are provided by Burns’ own work; his poems and also his songs performed by each of the three girls in the cast, portraying the characters for which the songs were originally written, which adds a bittersweet edge to the laments in particular – especially in the case of Highland Mary.
(sniffle, sniff)
Gilchrist Muir
Treasure Island Blog 14/7/09
Jul 14
Lee's Blog continued….
Day 1- We started at the Mining Museum for the morning where we met everybody involved. We then continued with a read through of both shows which were great to hear out loud ! Both shows look like their going to be great fun and there was generally a good vibe after the readings! I then enjoyed some poached eggs on toast from the cafe and off to Rosslyn for the afternoon session…Sword Fighting! Something i thought would just be testosterone filled enjoyment was actually a real challenge and required a great deal of focus! Everyone seemed to help each other plough through and the opening fight scene was bearing some sort of shape by the end of the day. Came home with a frazzled brain but with the satisfaction of a good days work…Roll on tommorow more sword fighting!
Day 2-Met in the Rosslyn rehearsal space again today for 10am. Start with a bit of a group warm up then split the casts and get on with business. We start by going over the fight we had been working on yesterday which is really starting to come togeather. We then decided to think up as many pirate quotes and phrases as we could which could be used for ad-libbing in the show. Next we took a look at the second fight scene between Arrow and Benn Gunn. This fight is more light hearted so we tried to push for as much physical comedy as possible which i think should be pretty funny! This for me in particular was very physically demanding and left me very sweaty and tired, but Bruce seemed fairly pleased with what we had put togeather, so after a bit of tinkering this scene was pretty much complete by the end of the day. My voice feels fairly strained from the pirate banter so may have to take a bit more care of the old vocal chords over the coming weeks before i start sounding like rod stewart!
Ae Fond Kiss Blog 12/7/09
Jul 12
Blog by Rebecca Bradley
Right so it’s the Sunday before rehearsals start so I’m just reading through the script and continuing my work on the Scottish accent. I’m so excited about the play but my main worry does have to be putting on the Scottish accent and doing it well, but that’s not stopping my eagerness and excitement.
I’m on a summer break from the acting course at Queen Margaret University at the moment, which has been lovely, free time and sunny days, but it’s great now to have a project, something to work towards. I really am looking forward to getting my teeth stuck in to the characters of Nancy, Nell and Jean’s mother. So far I’ve been researching Burns life and work to grasp a better understanding of what life was like and the living conditions of that time.
Can’t wait for tomorrow, get to see where we’re performing, meet everyone and do a bit of singing, great stuff.