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

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!

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 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.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup, that about sums up my level of nervousness and excitement at the prospect of trying to do justice to arguably Scotland’s favourite son….EVER!!

I was amazed, humbled and terrified in equal measure when I was informed that the role or Burns was mine. I have been a great lover of Burns’ work from a very early age and competed in many Burns recital competitions throughout primary and high school. I even based my drama school ‘Movement Assessment’ (possibly the most daunting thing I’ve ever done, considering how ‘gracefulness impaired’ I have always though of myself) on debatably Burns’ greatest masterpiece, Tam O’Shanter.

Now I find myself trying to bring the great man himself to life and one question stands out like a sore thumb every time this concept springs to mind…WHERE DO I START??

Thus far, I’ve spent most of my spare time reading various biographies, guides and opinions of Burns and I think I’m starting to get a better understanding of what is a very complicated individual. From such humble, agricultural beginnings, it is fascinating to see just how far his talent and passion for the written word would take him…and yet how unfulfilled it would ultimately leave him without the love of a good woman (or twelve!!) to share it with. I was also very pleased to learn that, contrary to popular assumption, Burns’ was actually around 6’2” tall (only an inch and a half less than myself, as opposed to the 9 inches I previously thought I had on him) and was not quite as slim as many of his statues etc would tend to suggest…which considering he spent so much of his early life toiling in the fields, would seem to make sense also. I’ve got a long way to go to match his trademark “sideboard” facial hair, but I’ll give it a bloomin’ good go!!

All in all, I am incredibly excited to get started and really get my teeth into this amazing character!

Here tae us, wha’s like us…?!

 Lee's First Blog
 
With only a few days before the start of Rehearsals, now feels like a good time to start blogging! I have spent a good bit of this week working with my good friend (The Puppet) trying to gain a bit of confidence with my puppetry skills which prior to this week were pretty non existent, but we will get there! We also spent a day at The Mining Museum in which we had a great deal of fun with the publicity shots at various locations within the museum, which apart from the unusually hot weather was exciting stuff! Need to go through the novel one more time before Monday which i will be doing with Puppet in hand, as I have found this the best way to practice thus far! We also had a costume fit the week before last which was the first real cast meeting. This was a first for me….wearing tights is surprisingly comfortable….but removing them was a challenge in itself! Cast and crew seem  to all get along splendidly and i'm looking forward to the adventures ahead…

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First Rehearsal – Andrew Warnock (George Bailey)
 
For some time now I have been looking forward to this project with equal measures of excitement and trepidation.
 
Lets take the latter first. How could anyone approach such an iconic and well loved character as George Bailey and not feel a little overwhelmed? The story of Its A Wonderful Life and the characters therein tend to mean more to people than those of other Movies. So many people (me included) have grown up with the story and have attached a great deal of sentimental value to it over the years. For anyone taking on such a story, the fear of being compared and coming up short proves a gigantic psychological barrier and in weaker moments you just can't help but imagine a sea of dissappointed faces, shedding tears and wondering how you could do such a thing to them.
 
That's the trepidation part. And the Excitement? All of the above reasons. The challenge of taking something that people think they know inside out and presenting it as something new and fresh and relevant. The prospect of illuminating areas of the story that maybe people didn't see before, or at least hadn't thought of.
 
Anyway, it was with all these thoughts swimming round my head that I arrived for the first rehearsal. The day got off to a shaky start, as the rehearsal space at Roslyn Glen Hotel was unexpectedly shut. This proved a brief and minor set back and actually allowed us the opportunity to walk along to the nearby Chapel (one of our performance venues) and have a good look round. That done, we returned to the Hotel and got down to the business of analysing the text and breaking it down into small workable chunks. This is a vital part of any rehearsal process as it helps the cast towards a greater understanding of the story and the part they will play in it. The cast assembled here have thrown a lot of interesting thoughts and ideas into the mix and I am already starting to feel excited about the direction that the story might in go and the way its characters will develope. 
 
All in all, its been a fruitful first day.
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