Habeas Corpus 3

I appologise for this being a tad late but I've just not had time to blog. It's also nearly half one in the morning so appologies if this isn't as in-depth as you'd like but unfortunately performance comes before blogging :).

Okay well Monday saw our final Dress Rehearsal and Tech Rehearsal.
We were now in the theatre (WOO-HOO!!!) and what a massive difference it made. Suddenly we had this mass of space we didn't know what to do with. It was like learning to swim in a paddling pool and then being dropped in the middle of the ocean. Obviously this meant that we needed to be much quicker getting on and off stage because we had that much more ground to cover. In some instances, delivering lines as we are approaching our "spot" so as to allow the play to flow naturally. Our set consists of three chairs. During rehearsals, at the church hall, we used the resident chairs, as it were. The chairs we're using in the play are much taller , much lighter, and much easier to tip over. There's a point in the play where 'Shanks' leaps the chairs in a single bound, to escape 'Muriel'. It was at this point in rehearsals that the actor playing 'Shanks' discovered just how easily the chairs tip. Moral of the story? Use the actual props asap in the rehearsal process and get used to what you can and cannot do with them.

Something I forgot to mention in the first entry, we are performing Habeas Corpus in the round - well almost, the audience are on three sides. This means that we do not need to ensure we face the front so much as you would when performing with a proscenium arch, for example. It also means that many of our entrances and exits are through the audience. One of my exits, where 'Dennis' runs off stage is a fairly narrow gap between the main block of seating and the stage left block of seating. I also had light shining into my eyes and as i ran off i literally could see nothing. I asked the techy if he could put a piece of tape of something on the floor across the width of the exit so i can see where it is, and know how wide it is. He got his tape and stuck a great whopping white arrow on the floor. Brilliant. Subtlety is lost in Essex. But at least I can now see where I need to go. Which is always helpful.

I discovered something else about my characterisation of Dennis. I've taken him a step further in his stance. I now have him occassionally stand like he needs to use the toilet, one leg straight, the other bent, and pelvis rolled back with bum sticking out. Then obviously the lost innocent child facial expression adds to that.
As for Dennis' spots, they still looked stuck on and the red wasn't really working. But I had an idea...

As mentioned previously, one of our actresses was taken ill and our AD stepped into the breach. We were all completely impressed, within a few days she was very nearly word perfect for the whole play.