h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Rather than revive the last drama thread (F116773?thread=2448564&latest=1), which is unfinished as I haven't worked on the pantomime masks any more yet, I thought I'd start anew with this.

lbClaire spurred me into composing, with her new thread on Twelfth Night (I don't like the word twelfth, it makes my tongue wriggle just writing it)

The next play I've been cajoled into is called "Something Blue" . It is set in a hairdresser's in Beverly (near Hull) on the day of a woman's wedding, and coincidentally the day that Princess Diana's funeral was held. Since the plot is not as well known as lbClaire's play I can reveal it involves a girl, her mother, the groom's mother, her best friend, and the hairdresser.

I'm treating it as sorted, as we have a cast, I know which character I'm playing, and we have the promise of some input from a director with blocking, though he can't attend all rehearsals.

>>some input from a director with blocking

What does that mean?

I know what you mean about the word 'Twelfth', Pimms! Luckily it's just the title of the play, we don't have to say it.

Something Sounds fun! Who's going to lead the rehearsals the director can't make? Will it be a free-for-all or will you take charge?

Gnomon, blocking is the process where the director works out where the characters enter, exit and where they move and what they do (in terms of physical stuff) while they're onstage. After that's sorted, it becomes the process of trying to communicate that to the actors .

Lbclaire

'Blocking' concerns the absolute basics of what people are doing on stage. Where you enter, where you exit, when you move, when you sit down etc. The blocking bit of a director's notes would be 'A enters from the stage left door, and crosses stage right to the card table', rather than anything about their state of mind, their body language etc. Once you have the blocking sorted out, you can work on characterisation and all the arty stuff.

Presumably this director doesn't have much spare time, so can only help with the overall pattern of things, not the details.

That was a simpost. Honest! Lbclaire's explanation is much more succinct than mine!

Great minds think alike, eh?

Thanks for providing explanations for me lbc and davidb

Yes - it seems a bit ad hoc, but somehow a couple of people in the drama group have decided they want to put on a play, roped in the rest of a cast, and then started looking for a director. We'll have someone taking notes when the director is present who'll be assistant director when he isn't there.

BTW I'm to be the hairdresser - no haircutting skills required fortunately "Johnny" a slightly camp gay man who has set up a shrine to Princess Diana in his shop and frequently wants to update himself on how the funeral is progressing, to the annoyance of the mother-in-law-to-be who thinks the focus of attention should be bride and the wedding.

Sounds like a fun play to me. with it.

Who's it written by, Pimms?

Gill Adams - I couldn't recall it without the play in front of me, but a bit of googling found it:

http://www.josef-weinberger.co.uk/weinberger/plays/play/blue.html

(to see Weinberger's full selection of plays: http://www.josef-weinberger.com/weinberger/plays/jwplayindex.html)

Rather than the blurred blue tinted view of a bride on the cover in the link we'll be creating a monochrome image of a bridal veil (a pivotal prop in the play)

So much for a quiet summer. Since finishing Scrooge six months ago, when I told my wife I wouldn't be performing anything on stage for fifteen months I have been in a ballet a play, am rehearsing for a second play and yesterday was asked to be in an operetta in October (the Merry Widow). Ho hum.

You love it. You know you do!

Ooh, we're doing a couple of brief bits from The Merry Widow in a concert. They're more fun to sing than I was expecting. 'Words Unspoken' is rather lovely.

I haven't got a clue what I've let myself in for. Apparently I will recognise some of the music, even if I wasn't aware it was from the Merry Widow. The rest of the cast have been going through the songs for about a month. I'll discover what it is about on Friday (the group only rehearses once a week - though as a minor principal I may have to turn up on another night too )

The difficulty of being in the Merry Widow is the overlap with the rehearsal period for the next Manx Ops show, which will start in September, about six weeks before the Merry Widow is performed. In the past I've found it becomes a bit hectic with rehearsals for one or other show on most nights, and inevitable clashes requiring a discerning judgement as to which to skip

The next Manx Ops show has now been announced. It will be "Jekyll & Hyde" to be put on in March 2007. At the moment I know nothing else about this show. I imagine it will be a dark costume drama, similar in tone to Sweeney Todd.

Manx Ops finished "Back to the Eighties" last week (the second show, which began rehearsals four days after Scrooge finished, and which I bowed out of). It is the first of their shows I've been able to watch all of from the audience. It was jolly good . I was making a point of often watching the ensemble, rather than the principals, in order to see whether I would have been out of place. There were no obvious struggling dancers gamely performing at the back - all were highly capable - though I did realise that not all the ensemble appeared in the more demanding numbers

The newest and most popular 'Jekyll and Hyde' is by Frank Wildhorn, the American equivalent of Andrew Lloyd-Webber (pretty much). It contains the song 'This is the Moment', which is deeply over-recorded, and has lots of male roles, but very little for women to do. I'm not a fan of the music (though 'Bring on the Men' is fab). Maybe it works better on stage with things to look at. There are several CD versions out there, none of which match exactly with the current songlist of the show!

I hate having overlapping rehearsals as well. Hope that works out OK.

I had the overlapping rehearsals problem for about a month after Twelfth Night started rehearsing and before Half a Sixpence went on. Was a bit of a pain but luckily DannyB was able to work most of the Twelfth Night rehearsals so that I could miss the clashing ones. Had to miss the HaS band call, but that wasn't really a problem.

I'm sure you'll manage, Pimms - and how flattering to be asked specially to join the cast!

Lbclaire

That'll be the one David. I now recall there was supposed to be a song I'd have heard from the show, the title escaped me, no doubt it is "This is the Moment".

Yes Claire, being asked to perform a part unsolicited is hard to turn down - I did manage it with the restaging of Rocky Horror with a shadow cast this August. I would have been paid (about ) but it wasn't a sufficient incentive for the aggravation, and I've already done the show.

Last night's rehearsal was somewhat disconcerting. we still have no sight of a director, one cast member turned up an hour late and another (for whom the evening had been arranged due to her other commitments) at late notice phoned to say she wouldn't be attending after all as she had been invited to a party with free

Her part, after some discussion (and aggrieved head-shaking), has been offered to someone else. The play is supposed to be put on in five weeks.

The lack of a director also means we are headless, and everything is decided by committee. We seriously discussed shelving the play, but nothing so drastic could be agreed, and a wishy washy consensus to continue was accepted. We don't seem to be able to arrange anything more than one rehearsal ahead, and I am sure you'll agree this doesn't create a rosy outlook for a good production.

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!!!

Blimey, that's unbelievable! No wonder you re-cast.

Sorry to hear you're having so many problems with this, Pimms. Is no-one prepared to just take the bull by the horns and direct?