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

The directorial feedback was useful, though a trifle damning . One comment was that, if it was up to her, she would cancel the show, as the chances of transforming it from what she'd seen into something adequate would be very difficult to achieve in a week

Harsh but fair . The run was heavily laden with appeals for prompts, the pace slow, the movement around the stage almost non-existent, characterisation poor. The 'director' (person brought in for feedback) was highly experienced - an ex-drama teacher, founder member of the group, years ago. She cautioned against having an interval, as it was likely the audience wouldn't come back. She admitted almost falling asleep in the second half.

On the bright side she did admit that I was one of a couple who actually appeared to know their lines . But it is hard to shine when interacting with the slow grasping for lines of some of the others, and hard to move in character around the stage without the fear of drawing eye if there is no directorial feedback on what works.

Top tip: Never get involved in a play with no director.

We have resorted to providing our own props, in the absence of anyone else seriously organising them. I covered a cardboard box with white paper and sketched a design on it to act as the vital 'veil box'. Others have brought along champagne glasses (one of which I smashed at the rehearsal when trying to put down the tray of four of them), marshmallows, a tv remote control and so forth.

Discussions have been had over cancelling but decision will be made on Sunday. I'm concerned that if anyone sees me in this turkey I'll have a hard time convincing them to come to anything else I'm in


Pimms
"The natural condition [of the theatre business] is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster."

Oh, dear.

Have a .

And another:

I'll echo David there... and will add my favourite panic settler too

You know, it could well turn around, as long as people get their lines down. We did Henry V three years ago, and the director, for reasons unknown to anyone but herself, decided to bring in someone from outside the group to be Henry. Sadly lacking in both commitment and enthusiasm, he didn't learn his lines. At all. He got them wrong even when he was holding the script, and for the rest of us it was a nightmare. As well as the lines, he never grasped his blocking, so at no point could we even begin to try to act with him.

The show was looking like a complete mess. So the director fired him - with two weeks to go. We were all seriously considering urging her to cancel. But then she begged / bribed / blackmailed DannyB to come up from London, learn the part (now this is Henry V in the play Henry V - not exactly a cameo) and save us all. And so he did!! .

As soon as he arrived things picked up and the show went on to great reviews. You can ask him about the stress he felt, however...

Sometimes all it takes is an extra push of commitment from people. A week isn't long, however, so it really depends on how much you can expect them to pull their socks up... And without a director, there's no-one to bully them into it.

Tough one - I don't envy you. It would be a shame to call it off, but the last thing you want is for it to be a disaster.

Oh, and the postscript to the Henry V story is that I'm actually quite grateful to the useless original Henry, as without him, I'd never have got together with DannyB.

The last two nights of rehearsals have gone better, but have had a significant difference - one person has not been present, having had other commitments (some recklessly made only a few weeks ago when she was already committed to this play and knew it would be on next week )

The next rehearsal including her is the first at the Hall, on Sunday - hopefully with a set. If she hasn't also made marked improvements there is definitely a weak consensus for cancellation. We don't want to, and some difficulties have been resolved, so to avoid wasting all the effort we have put in my guess is we'll bull ahead anyway and chance our reputations.

Your anecdote about Henry V brought a Python sketch to mind:
Superman One: Oh look... is it a stockbroker?

Superman Two: Is it a quantity Surveyor?

Superman Three: Is it a church warden?

All Supermen: NO! It's Bicycle Repair Man!

Superman: MY! Bicycle Repair Man! Thank goodness you've come

DannyB - is this your alter ego? Well done on rescuing Lbc and her broken show

Hey Pimms, you don't know how close to the truth you really are!!

He's actually more like Dutiful Boyfriend Man, really .

Glad to hear it's going a bit better, but how annoying about that one person not being there. Fingers crossed that it keeps improving and you don't have to cancel.

Managed two complete run throughs this afternoon (12-5 - on current estimated performance the play seems to last a bit over one hour ignoring time-outs), interspersed with lengthy discussions on whether to cancel the show. Lacking a director everone was included in the discussion, whether they wanted to comment or not. I had to work to get the first rehearsal started at all, as one person was fairly morose about the situation. The pre-ticket sales, which are never exceptional, were pretty dire - in all something less than two dozen over the three nights. Obviously many colleagues have 'said' they will come, but they haven't committed to purchasing tickets in advance.

The first run through of each act was lamentable (but nevertheless probably better than last Tuesday when we had the damning feedback), the second an improvement. Not perfect, but enough to let me leave feeling that a tolerable production will be possible, hampered by small audiences meaning little feedback to work off, and a less than perfect prompter, who seems intent on feeding the next line he thinks follows, ignoring the sometimes alarming jumps made by the actors which would benefit by skipping some dialogue that has been overlooked, and will lead to further appeals for prompts when the end of the missed passage is reached and dialogue gets repeated - one line was repeated three times this afternoon

Never, never, never get involved with a production that has no director.

This weekend I have also ordered a new computer, harvested cherries from the trees at the front of the house, delivered bread and jam jars, received freshly picked strawberries, resealed the bath, mowed the lawn, spread compost (I needed room in the compost bin) and made half a dozen jars each of strawberry and cherry jam. Not all weekends are this productive.

Gosh...that's a busy weekend! We spent five hours (there) and seven hours (back) driving to and from Durham to see our friend in a production of Richard Harris's 'Outside Edge'. Was quite a fun show, though hampered by a shortage of younger people, as so many drama groups seem to be...

So you're going ahead with it then? Well, lots of . When do you start?

First performance Wednesday 12th (then only Thursday and Friday, Saturday was already prebooked). Some effot is going to be made to "paper the house" - offering reduced (possibly free) tickets to a local care home to get some bodies in the audience. As long as they don't snore . Unlikely to have mobile phones going off

Good idea. Making a financial loss isn't so bad if you at least have some bodies to perform to.

Mobile phones - no, probably not. But how about buzzing hearing aids, or the background noise of commenting old ladies (ooh, he's got a cup of tea...ooh, he's come back on again...ooh, look, I like him etc etc) that we always seem to get?

Got some decent direction last night from a former member of the group who came along to prompt and assist with the programme.

There were some good bits of ad-libbing (confidence to do that rather than look plaintively at the prompter is a definite improvement), though the weaker members of the group (for one of whom this is her first major role) are suffering from nerves. Beyond encouraging them I am not sure what else I can do to help.

Not much, I don't think. Just hope that the nerves can be channelled into focused adrenaline, keeping them on their toes... Rescue Remedy is always a good nerve-calmer too.

Glad to hear it's picking up in these last couple of days.

First night last night. It can be called a success, in that the audience appeared to enjoy the show, the minimum turned up to cover the costs of hiring the hall, and we got from the beginning to the end without anyone leaving either cast or audience.

It was close though. I admit the first major error was mine I start the play, and my first line is the cue for the second character to enter. However I underwent a brainwipe and was convinced as I knelt on stage in front of Diana's shrine that my colleague's cue was a non-verbal crossing of myself. Naturally she waited for the verbal cue, and the prompter thought I was simply milking the moment before starting to speak.

This is what comes of only having the sound effects for the first time on the dress rehearsal, as I wasn't practiced at lighting candles, kneeling, praying, and crossing myself against the backdrop of the speech by Tony Blair before speaking. Eventually (and it seemed an age) the other character entered and the play swung into action. When next off stage I was able to ask what happened at the start, and it was only then that the existence of my first line was forced back into consciousness. Lucky I didn't intemperately berate my colleague when it was my error

The other errors were mostly not picked up by the audience, apart from a painful period when the two characters finishing the first act got lost on the last page of the act, and wandered a couple of dozen pages into Act two to another scene they have together. The prompter was lost and it looked as if we'd never finish act one. They managed to get back on track, but then one was uncontrollably sobbing for the first half of the interval. She is convinced no-one will ever ask her to be in a play again.

Definitely a plus point being able to have every night onstage.

Every night!?

Glad the first night went better than expected.

Eek! It's all too easy to forget a line when you're distracted by other stuff. And also easy to get confused about which bit you're doing if you have several similar scenes with the same person. Well done, though, sounds as if you made it through relatively unscathed. Hope the rest of the performances go well and audience numbers improve.

Last night went better all round, but the audience was more thoughtful (read "quiet") than the first night, and at most responded with a quiet titter throughout the play.

One person came back to watch for a second performance (because she was bringing someone else to see it) - these were the two who came to the dreadful rehearsal a week ago and recommended not putting it on. They admitted afterward that the performance was like watching a different play it had improved so much . The lady who saw it twice gave the cheeky comment that it was nice to hear the first line of the play

There were skipped lines, swapped phrases and a little cue jumping, but it all stayed in character and generally flowed well, bar an acceptably small number of prompts.

Last night tonight.

Hoorah!!

Amazing what a little adrenaline (for that, read blind panic) can do, eh?

All over now. Set struck, cast dispersed.

All I have to do now is stop replying to people in a camp Northern accent.

The last night was similar to the second. I don't know what it was about the first night that provided such excellent feedback to the humour.

One minor problem on the third night was the . Unlike previous nights we started with the bottle opened the night before (previously having finished the bottle each night after the show ). What should have been obvious is that although only about half a bottle is used during the show trying to do two performances on one bottle is very likely to finish the bottle on stage before all necessary refills have been made.

I had to say "Ta, I can't believe I'm going to be a godfather" to the generous top up of about one drop of champagne almost squeezed out of the bottle.

Afterward we got an Indian/Chinese take away and ate them at one of the cast's house (classy eh?).

Now my mind is again turning to making the masks for the production of Robinson Crusoe this Christmas, though I mustn't forget the Merry Widow.

Well done on getting through it all despite the rather enormous setbacks.

Yes, well done Pimms. Not as bad as you'd feared, and I hope you actually got to enjoy it a bit too.

Thanks all.

How are your rehearsals going for Rope and 'the wedding play', lbClaire?

Sudden diversion into blog land when trying to see what DavidB has been up to dramatically

http://pimmslettuce.spaces.msn.com/personalspace now has a (very short) blog entry