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

Really good Will be even better, but they were missing the brass yesterday due to conflicting appointments.

This blog may be updated almost daily for next couple of weeks as we are in final days before preformances start.

Last night had full run. The director in his notes afterward gave me a couple of amendments to tweak my performance. He was pretty pleased with the way the show as a whole is runniong and most of the comments were refinements, not picking up on errors.

One point for me was to ensure my anger doesn't erupt before Dr Jekyll's remarks cause it to. We are supposed to look uncomfortable with his proselytizing, which boils over into anger when he requests a human subject (from the inmates of the Mental hospital of which we are the Board of Governors). However the director noted that my anger was too physical with arms waving, and he wanted it toned down to the level exhibited by the discomfort and restricting the reaction to earlier remarks to steely glares.

Another point was to react differently to the coquettish swivel of the hips as Nelly the prostitute leaves me (just before I get murdered) - instead of an amused chuckle, the director wants a more lustful reaction. He also wants her to fiddle with the crucifix around my neck while she talks with me.

Finally the director got down on his hands and knees and demonstrated the kind of ignominious crawling around he wants me to emulate when Hyde is beating me to death. The difficulty is timing the scrabbling to end at the right time and place for Hyde to strike me next.

We were all asked on the next full run to record the amount of time we have between exits and entrances. This should assist the wardrobe mistress in allocating assistance for recognised quick changes, and make everyone aware of their own timings. Some ensemble need to swap between being rich and poor and minor cameos several times (eg the priest in Murder Murder).

In my downtime I am doing a bit of origami - I'm on my second spotted giraffe presently. That is when I am not collecting up the mugs, empty cans and bottles that many of the cast are abandoning in the rehearsal room

Last night was for principals only, and as I wasn't paying enough attention I missed the exclusion saying Board of Governors were not required. So I turned up and had nothing to do. However I suggested it could be worthwhile to go over my murder scene, which the director agreed with. This allowed some finessing of the movement and tone used.

Without realising it I had lapsed into an almost sing-song overly dramatic rendition of one of my lines ("Do you knooow who I am?" - reminiscent of the swooping delivery of Lady Bracknell's "In a haaaandbag?"), and the director wanted it to exhibit real anger and be believable. I also was told to struggle more and go red in face when being throttled before my head is banged on floor. Hyde was worried he was gripping me too hard by the realism I achieved in this

When Hyde strikes me he has to swing and stop the stick, so that it appears to audience that he has made contact. He did *actually* hit me with his stick on one strike, though I had to reassure him and the director more than once that the blow had no more force than a light poke of a finger (having already had most of the force taken out by Hyde stopping the blow). Generally the blows are supposed to land behind me

I also got a useful cue for starting my crawling (the word 'Satan' in Hyde's solo) - before this it has been hit and miss whether I end in the right place to be struck, and with the more vigorous crawling I can't afford to make pauses after starting.

Made an origami for the alternative Lucy (it being Valentine's Day) which she appreciated. The main Lucy had appeared with a large bouquet she had been sent by her partner. Note: the director has referred to the understudies as 'alternatives', which I guess has more positive connotations on the value placed on them in the cast.

Ah, the joys of a rehearsal you weren't supposed to come to!

Sounds as though you're in a good position ready for the run.

[Lady C.]

Last night's rehearsal was for the 'alternatives', but there were more stand-ins than anticipated due to a lurgy going around that trimmed the cast by half a dozen, including Utterson and alternative Emma, also Stride was absent. This made the final scene a trifle frantic for AD, who was flitting around covering all three parts for the benefit of alternative Hyde.

For a good bit of the rehearsal when I was not on stage I was proofreading the programme. I have done this in previous years, and again said "please don't credit me in programme". This is because I simply don't trust (based on experience) that all corrections will be made accurately, and it would reflect badly on my grammatical pedantry. It is frightening to be told that the draft has already been through three readings and discover half a dozen or more typos on most pages I also don't want a credit becuase I didn't do the whole job - I shared it with someone else, me working from the back, her from the front.

The lack of alternative Emma meant that one preparation I'd made for rehearsal was jiggered. For the past three weeks she has been taking advantage of my wife's baking business, and purchasing a loaf off me on Thursday's (one of my wife's baking days). Fortunately I was able to relate this to another in the cast (playing the prostitute Nelly) who was keen to try the abandoned loaf and bought it

Full run again on Friday night. Several cast still off, and main Lucy called it a night after first song to be replaced by her alternative for rest of the rehearsal. Main Jekyll also had moments of ropy singing More tweaks offered for my performance.
I came in a fraction early on start of Facade, and so need to find some way to fix my musical cue properly with the musical director. I reverted to a modulated 'Do you know who I am?' which had the Director making me repeat the line to him loudly until he was happier with realism. It also suggested to one wag to provide me with a sheet of paper with my name on, "which you can hold in front of yourself"

More amusement when the Director discussed the drawing of Utterson's sword stick, which descended into sexual innuendos about its size.

There were requests followed by entreaties, for cast to assist with promoting show (now at 1300 sold which will mean some drastically empty houses unless we can boost ticket sales) I volunteered to distribute leaflets in town centre on Saturday (on second request) - still only eight out of cast of about forty could be cajoled into committing themselves for this

The director made the analogy that for us the theatre was a passion, for the audience a one night stand, requiring more effort to sell.

Goodness, I would have thought it was in everybody's interest to promote the show

Do you want me to come over to the IOM and give them all a good slapping?

Sexual innuendo at a rehearsal? Surely not!

We're having ticket sales trouble as well.

I hope everyone recovers from the lurgy soon.

Can you get a pre-opening night write up in the paper? Or will the radio stations do inexpensive advertisements for you? Or is your radio all nationalized?

The local radio stations will run stories about our show during the week itself, and we can normally manage to get stories in the local press for a couple of weeks beforehand (photos of us at rehearsal, plus in-costume photos of the principals at a local landmark normally). Other than that, you need a big hook to get publicity. I have considered falling down the stairs and breaking my leg so we can get a 'the show will go on' story - how about you, Pimms? Any drastic ideas?

Well, he is being set on fire on stage ... there could be a story there.

Agreed. I'm sure a lot of people will pay to see that once they find out.

Getting information out about our programs before the fact is the most difficult thing we face at the library. The media would much rather cover the actual program. They don't seem to realize that without adequate publicity, there won't be an audience. To say that it is frustrating is an understatement. They want us to buy advertisements for the programs, which we can't afford.

I have to say the committee have done as much as can be expected to advertise the show - the banners are now up at key spots, there have been articles in papers, radio interviews, leaflet drops, partnership deals with a hotel adjacent to the theatre offering meal/room and theatre ticket deals, the preview evening where we performed numbers from the show (see posts 50 and 54), and exhortations for cast to sell show to everyone they know.

Show starts next Saturday - five days away.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a long day. It started with assisting with 'get-in' at the theatre of the set at jhust after 10am. Having turned up with my leather work gloves (experience learned from previous stage moving) I was able to volunteer to heave bits of set out of the lorry.

They people who had packed the lorry with the set were lucky they couldn't hear how we described their packing. The first thing we needed was the flooring that had to be assembled for everything else to rest on. This flooring was neatly stacked at the *far* end of the lorry, meaning nearly everything else had to be unpacked first, with nowhere to stack it but the road, as the stage had to be left clear. Although the flooring sections were neatly packed most of the rest of the set appeared to have been stuffed in any old how. This made unpacking slightly hazardous. Jekyll's lab had shelving with mulitudes of bottles on. These originally had been held in place by placing the base of the bottles into some kind of gunk that set fast. However several bottles has come loose from this and were rolling around>

When the flooring sections had been unloaded and stacked on the stage they had to be assembled. Each piece was about four feet by eight feet, with a metal underframe making it about four inches thick, requiring two people to lift. These at least were all clearly labelled, with colour-coding to indicate which legs needed to be bolted in place. The legs were lengths of metal pipe, from eight to twelve inches long, some angled slightly. It wasn't until Row A flooring pieces had been bolted together that the essential colour-coding matching of the pipes to flooring was fully appreciated. We had given the first section a frightening rake (slope), which we had to revise.

Good organization meant that tea, coffee, doughnuts and ginger cake were made available. It has to be said that more people turned up to help than is usually the case (probably cast feeling guilty about not handing out leaflets), which made the movement of set quite streamlined.

Also present in the theatre was the special events representative who had set up the flame strip and demonstrated it to the backstage crew who would be operating it. It is a box about four foot long by eight inches wide and high. This is linked by pipes and cables to a control box and gas cylinder offstage. When the correct buttons are pushed noisy orange flames burst from the strip up to about eighteen inches high. It wasn't in place before I left, so I haven't tried lying near it yet.

Must remember to spell check before posting (The people, multitude and a &gt

More to write about rehearsal with band in afternoon and full run in the evening. That is the last time in the rehearsal rooms - from now on for this show it will be in the theatre. Teching tonight and tomorrow. Dress rehearsals Thursday and Friday.

Pimms, I hope your backstage crew has better than average knowledge about the workings of the fire strip.

I like the typos - they show a certain excitement about the whole thing

The fire strip fascinates me.

So the band rehearsal and full run on Sunday. The band ran Act 2 and bits of Act 1. Before the full run I was able to get away for fifteen minutes to rush home, get some grapes and rye, caraway and raisin bread, then pick up some milk while filling up with petrol on the way back.

During the second act I approached the wardrobe mistress to alert her that I had't sen any f my costume yet, adn was free to try it on. Since Wednesday (I think) she and the director have been giving fittings to the cast and making notes on what needs adjusting. She found my Bishop's costume,but no sight of Working man costume for Murder Murder. She was despairing that so many cast had tried on thier costumes then hung them back without reattaching the name label pinned to it. It will make dividing the costumes into dressing rooms difficult. I made sure mine was there No shoes, and black waistcoat completely covers purple bib, so probably wrong waistcoat supplied. Director asked me to come back tomorrow so he could see costume (he'd been watching Act 2 when I went through costume with Wardrob mistres)

The run went well, and the director was fulsome in his compliments, singling out some for particularly good characterization. There were a few points to note, one of which was again my gesturing with my hands while I sing to Dr Jekyll in the Board of Governors Meeting. He wants me to kep my hands behind my back - retain the facade of someone in control. Also, despite having looked at the orchestra score with the musical director, discussing the point at which I start singing, and thinking I'd got it nailed, the director felt my timing was out. (I know as I write what happens the next day )

Everyone was reminded this was the last rehearsal in the rehearsal rooms and told to take all their belongings, as the keyholders would not be coming back to open up later in the week. I realised a handful of props remained (umbrellas, Lord Glossop's staff and the gavel used by Stride) and offered to take them down to theatre.

Last post related to Sunday. On Monday the weather was foul - cold and wet. In the afternood I went down to the rehearsal room to try costume again. It was noted I need a crucifix to hang around my neck, shoes were found, and braces extended to give right drop on trousers. The director also noted need for black waistcoat with V neck. He also pulled together a working man costume for me from spare items - a pair of quite tight trousers, rough shirt with sleeves roled up, neck scarf, something like a bowler hat, and scuffed brown boots.

He asked for Bishop's shoes to be polished, and despite the warnng given out on Sunday night about the frightening cost of the costumes, and non-negotiable order not to smoke, nor eat, or drink anything other than plain water while wearing them, allowed me to take the shoes home. It is going to be quite a task to transport the costumes from the rehearsal rooms to the theatre, while avoiding any risk of damage. For example some of the waistcoats would cost over £500 to replace, the wedding dress worn by Emma in excess of £4000. As the director pointed out none of the costumes can be replaced by popping down to the High Street.

I also took the umbrellas, staff and gavel. At the theatre I discovered the gavel was unecessary, as one had been provided. Other stuff
One advantage of a principal part, no matter how small, is preferential placement in ressing rooms. I found I was in the same dressing room as I was in in Scrooge - No 2 (second closest to the stage) - again sharing with five other men in the cast. A nice sheet has been set up to tick yourself in and out on by the stage door. It remains to be seen how long the pen on a bit of string will remain attached

Monday night was the first tech rehearsal and only covered the beginning up to end of Engagement Party (about halfway through Act 1)
Many bits had to be repeated several times to iron out movements on the actual set.

The referred to in previous post relates to the fact that the director remained unhappy with my delivery of the starting lines of Facade, and made decision to bolster the crucial beginning by adding a second voice - that of the person playing Sir Danvers Carew, who played Scrooge in the previous production. It isn't the first time this has happened to me but it is like failing a job interview, you always feel disappointed, no matter how hard you try to rationalise it. Rationalising I can relax a bit because the pressure of starting the big number is lessened, and I am still a named part, with a spectacular death scene.