Exhaustion and Elation

I can't believe it's over.

Now what?!?

These pictures are gorgeous though...

I'll just gaze at them for a while...

My cast are so pretty!

Shiny shiny goodness :D

One month to go...

So everything has settled down. We've lost several cast members (some minions and also sadly some quite good people who I couldn't give good enough parts to) but have been left with a good number of lovely 'tekkors' whose job it is to wander round the set building things of which they do a pretty convincing job. We've rehearsed most of the first act and some of the second and have had our first production meeting!

Having two directors is proving invaluable in rehearsals, especially when I occasionally turn up having not been home the previous night. Ahem. I have learnt my lesson and will endavour to be on top form for all future rehearsals! Nigel is providing some great improv games and scenarios, helping the actors really work out what their characters are beyond just the written lines. I'm busy being picky about lines and blocking and the cast are busy being generally awesome. I'm looking forward to getting everyone off book though and so have set a deadline for line-learning of a week today!

Adam, the producer, organised the first production meeting and seems to have found almost all the actual minions and heads-of-department needed to actually run the show. Christine is doing costumes which is lovely, Simon got roped back in to do publicity as well as act and die horribly on stage, and apparently there are several freshers who we're keen to get involved as well. We need to draw as many new people as we can into our DramSoc web of doom! Come to the dark side, we've got cookies, etc.

On your right you will see a preliminary set design Henry has just sent me and which I hope he won't mind me posting here. Ah well, he'll probably never find out. ¬_¬ It's all very pretty anyway. Apart from it will also have set dressing. And stairs I hope, otherwise that could be tricky. And it won't be green and brick coloured. But apart from that - ooh look isn't it pretty! :) Am very excited. Not as excited as Henry though, he's going a bit crazy trying to work out how much crazy stuff he can fit into the set. Is quite alarming! I shall have to meet up with him soon and find out more of his crazy crazy plans...

An infinite number of minions...

So that's it - finally I have cast it. In the end we had 38 people come to auditions! Even with the four who subsequently dropped out it will be the biggest cast DramSoc has had in years. What do I do with them all?!

It was quite frustrating not to have enough speaking parts to go round - there was a lot of potential there and some people who could do very well but I just wasn't able to give them a big enough part. Still, most of them seem happy to be involved anyway. Now I just have to make sure I keep them entertained! The biggest challenge will be the first rehearsal on Sunday for which I've called everyone though a few people can't make it. I'm planning on lots of ice-breaker and acting games to ease us into the process and get to know each other before starting some basic blocking for scenes. Though since most of the 'extras' will be improvising there won't necessarily be a lot of blocking. Hmm. I'll think of something! :S

Very impressed with all the talent though and really excited about working with people. The guy cast as the villain was deliciously evil and there are several incredibly talented new faces - as well as a few familiar ones. The next challenge will be working out a rehearsal schedule that everyone can actually make it to. :S

The script is pretty much almost entirely finalised mostly. There are a couple of good lines I haven't been able to fit in, and a few major plot/character failings that are impossible to fix, but I'm quite pleased with it. I've got it down to fifty-six pages too which I'm really hoping isn't too long. Tomorrow will be the end of the road for script re-drafts as I have to print out thirty-four copies ready for the cast read-through! Fortunately I've had lots and lots of help, comments and suggestions. :)

Have also been messing around with a black/white theme for the posters but I'm not convinced it's really what we're after. What do you think?

Auditions

I'm actually in a play myself this week but I had to take a couple of hours out to some auditions for The Dark Side. There will be more auditions at the weekend but we thought we'd grab the people who turned up to the acting workshop - and there were actually quite a few. As the workshop finished at about 4pm we started off with about ten people and realised we didn't really have enough scripts to go round! As we got to five o'clock and had gotten through barely half of them, more and more people started arriving. There's wasn't a sign on the door, so people kept wandering in, and when they did, there weren't enough scripts for them and I had to jump up and explain the process in the middle of an audition. Co-director Nigel kept running outside to get copies of the relevant bits of scripts so he could read in for the other characters in the scene. It was chaos.

At this point the almighty Tosin turned up and proceeded to save the day. I have never been to an audition which needed a bouncer before, but Tosin fit the bill perfectly. He also managed to photocopy enough scripts for everyone and even did some crafty flyering for 'The Ugly One' as well! Both myself and my poor producer got a bit of an earful along the lines of 'this what you should have done! Why does no-one listen to me?!' :)

In the end there were twenty-four of them. Twenty-four! We were there till 7pm, bar a short but vital loo break. It's only the first audition and there are more than enough people to fill the parts already! It was also great to see so many new faces, and in particular so many very impressive new faces! We got a couple of people (villains in particular for some reason) who seemed perfect for a particular part - and many who I'm going to have trouble finding good enough roles for.

After the auditions I spend the rest of the evening in a combined tech/plot (or 'plotech' ¬_¬) for The Ugly One which opens tonight and is very awesome. Luke, Phil, Tosin and I spent most of it singing quite loudly, and when Henry and John Winters turned up they were told that the sex scene wasn't even in the play it was just Phil and I having fun. Hmmm. Managed to get the 12.36am bus home, so now am rather sleepy!

Oh, and I almost forgot - Chads (our props guy) auditioned too! He read the role of Josh - the props guy in the play, leading to the following status:

Chads Chadwick Is a techie acting as an actor by auditioning for a part playing a techie in a play he will be teching. This may be confusing.

The Story of a Play, Episode IV

Tuesday was Imperial College freshers' fair (or fayre). It was incredible to see the sudden burst of manic activity in college following a long summer of having the union to ourselves. I flitted down to the MTsoc table (half of which had been sneakily taken over by techies) on a couple of occassions but spent most of my time in the Union Concert Hall which had been taken over by Dramsoc. There I courted anyone who was foolish enough to poke their head round the corner, persuading all and sundry that they needed to join Dramsoc and audition for my play/be a techie.

To bring you up to speed then, I have written a play! And I thought that since this blog has been so neglected it needed a theme and a purpose. This purpose, I have decided, will be to keep you all informed of the progress of this year's Imperial Dramsoc Christmas Show - 'The Dark Side'.

Work has already begun - I've found most of my production team, had some very productive meetings with Set Designer Henry, got logo ideas from Adam, worked over the script several times (with thanks to Adam and Priyan among others for their helpful suggestions) and of course press-ganged everyone I know into auditioning.

May not be actual logo.

So basically this will be one giant plug. Hmm, that doesn't sound like it'll make for fascinating reading. I will have to find enough interesting occurences to give you all something exciting to read. Well we'll see how it goes, and I shall try not to bore you!

In the mean-time I have a job interview, work and extensive rehearsals to get to tomorrow so good-night until next time!

The hero of every story

Once upon a time there was a boy who never grew up. He was proud and reckless, won every battle and was the hero of every story. No daughter could resist the lure of such adventures and so they followed him, soaring through the skies of magical world and seeing incredible things. But one day they would remember the families they left behind and one day they would have to grow up. And so the boy would be alone again until the next time. But everyone who came would leave him, for they had to grow up and he never could. And he was still filled with his own greatness, and still daring and still reckless, ancient and forever and burning at the centre of time, and his companions came and went and he never aged. And he was wonderful.

Every child grows up. Except one.

Noises Off !

[A review I wrote for the Imperial College Dramsoc performance of Noises Off]

Antimini sneaks into the dress rehearsal for Noises Off and gets totally confused.

When it comes to a play within a play, Dramsoc's latest production takes full advantage of the confusion. Although I set out with the noble aim of relating to you the witty intricacies of the plot of Noises Off, at the time I was too busy wiping away tears of laughter to work out exactly what was going on.



Noises Off is Michael Frayn's smash hit comedy about a bunch of actors attempting to put on the not-so-smash-hit farce 'Nothing On'. Dramsoc have joyfully embraced the shabby setting of the Union Concert Hall as well as their own extensive experience with wobbly sets and broken props to create a story that is both utterly ridiculous and suspiciously familiar.

Aided by some impeccable acting talent, director Fran Buckland has crafted a beautiful piece of visual theatre that is one of Dramsoc's most professional productions for some time. Newcomer Nigel Fullerton keeps the audience in fits of laughter, often without saying a word, while Gilead Amit's god-like voice is all we need to find ourselves empathising with the long-suffering director. The whole cast display a wonderful comic flair that barely allows the audience to catch their breath.



Watching the dress rehearsal last Tuesday was a thoroughly surreal experience as characters discussed their imminent opening night, real and fake techies wandered around fixing things, and copious amounts of sardines were flung around the stage. I'm pretty sure the sardines were supposed to be there (they may in fact have been integral to the plot) but it was usually impossible to tell whether the strings of hilarious screw-ups were really in the script or not.



The play gets off to a slow start and there is some initially quite confusing mime in the second act but it doesn't take long for the pace to pick up and the gags to start piling up. Solid performances from the whole cast carry us through as each act grows into a crescendo of farcical events. Tom Veitch for example embodies a consistent and utterly believable helplessness in his character, while Simon Worthington gives the endearing impression of having just accidentally wandered onto the set.



Having watched the dress rehearsal I am not entirely sure where Dramsoc ends and the cast and crew of 'Nothing On' begins. Director Fran sat in front of me watching the dress with her head in her hands at times while in front of her the 'Nothing On' director sat despairing. I'm informed that set designer John Winters didn't sleep for days in order to create the ridiculously ambitious set which is essentially what happens in the play. In fact I'm pretty sure Nigel smashed the fourth wall in with his foot at one point while falling down some stairs.



For a taste of what to expect from Noises Off you could try checking out the photos that accompany this review, that is if there are any - at several points I saw the photographer unable to hold his camera steady due to being collapsed against the stage giggling - but for some good laughter therapy you're probably better off going along and watching it for yourself.

http://felixonline.co.uk/?article=124

Ten Thing The New Who Generation Can Grow Up Terrified Of:

Everyone ready to hide behind your sofas? That's right, they're the creepiest, lowest budget space monsters around. Be afraid, be very afraid of...

10. Televisions
(a somewhat counter-productive phobia to introduce to potential viewers)

9. Anyone playing a brass instrument while wearing a santa suit.
(most children sensibly extend this to all father christmases)

8. Shop Window Dummies
(not just new who, this is one for all the family)

7. Fat People
(and chips. An RTD anti-obesity campaign?)

6. Christmas Trees
(they're out to get you)

5. GPS
(I always knew they couldn't be trusted)

4. Gas Masks
(all war period dramas are suddenly terrifying)

3. Blinking
(now that's just mean)

2. Water
(you just know that they were standing at the water cooler trying to come up with an original idea)

and finally, the scariest thing the doctor who scriptwriters could come up with!

*fanfare*

1. The Dark
(and when it's sunny: argh, shadows!)