So, I’m going to be completely honest. I expected to have done daily updates by now but I had no idea the whirlwind that this process would be! We are officially halfway through our rehearsal process and it feels as though we have lived a lifetime since we began. Wow.
Week One saw us all stepping into the bones of a rehearsal room and building it into our own, piece by piece. We had an incredible consent based workshop with a member of R C Annie, which gave us the tools to communicate what we need as individuals and what we expect as a collective. With democracy being demonstrated in full force, we created “Our Values”, which outline the way we want to run our space so that we can all have the most fun, exploration and ownership of this piece.
Food has already been a highlight of this process, the incredible Elaine and Francis at the Karibu Centre cooked us up an absolute storm of a meal which beautifully brought our first week to a close! We had a cast trip to a Jamaican shop for delicious patties on Jamaican Independence Day, yums all round. Personally, I’ve had Chinese food at least 4 times already and am constantly dreaming of the next. Our biscuit collecting has been reigning high and kept us all sane – provided by our incredible Jen. Daily talks are, of course, a ritual in anticipation for all the food we’re going to try in the US, the countdown has begun!
Week Two is where we started to really settle into our rhythm and our true, competitive selves stepped into the light. Warm ups are an essential part of any rehearsal room but I dare say that our ones are a sight to behold. Our competitive nature is fiery and olympian worthy and I guarantee we are going to be the world best at zip zap boing, 4 square, and g’day Maj (curious? Some of these might be popping into our workshops…)
So, success would be an understatement. This process is entirely unique to anything we have done before (“always excepted our dear” Grace, an incredible AFTLS alum) – we have navigated directing ourselves and each other, enjoyed getting “stuck in the treacle” of our rapid multiroling and somehow covering bases of; script editors, costume/set designers, stage managers and welfare team. All of this being said, we concluded Week 3 with a full run through of the entire piece. HUGE pats on the back all round, team!
Looking ahead to the coming weeks, we are planning for run through after run through, costume catwalks to make our final design decisions, all props locked down, chaos, laughter, last minute US packing and most importantly an almost-pinch-me-I’m-dreaming-is-this-real-finished-version-of “Much Ado About Nothing”! Updates pending.