Article - Hull Daily Mail...

An article in Hull Daily Mail about the record breaking success of Hull Truck's two Christmas shows; 'The Flint Street Nativity' and 'The Elves and the Shoemaker'.

Here's the link:

"The Flint Street Nativity, written by Tim Firth, the creator of Calendar Girls, has become the biggest-selling single run of any play in Hull Truck history."

(Hull Daily Mail)

A Congratulations...

Following the success of The Flint Street Nativity at Hull Truck,
we received this card from writer, Tim Firth

Article - Hull Daily Mail...

An Article about the broader implications of the considerable successes of The Flint Street Nativity and the Christmas show for children, The Elves and the Shoemaker. Here's the link:

"My feeling is we've started to turn a corner." (Andrew Smaje in Hull Daily Mail)

Review - The York Press...

A lovely review from Charles Hutchinson of The York Press. Here's the link:

"Firth’s salient powers of observation are as sharp as ever..." (The York Press)

Review - The Guardian...

A four star review from Alfred Hickling, who saw the show on Monday night:

"It's a hilarious yet heartbreaking preview of the dysfunctional adults [the children] are destined to become." (The Guardian)

Review - Yorkshire Post...

Another four star review, this time from Nick Ahad of the Yorkshire Post. Here's the link:

"You’ll be fighting back tears when you watch the parents tell their lies and half-truths, when you have already heard the real story from their children."
(Yorkshire Post)

The Show Must Go On!

At Accident & Emergency (Frazer and James)

Actors and crew working under pressure in almost total darkness or sometimes dazzling light, can make theaters a dangerous place, which is why health and safety is such an issue for everybody involved in a production. Nevertheless, from time to time, accidents do happen, sometimes during shows.

All actors could probably tell you about an occasion when a show has been stopped due to an injury, or, more likely, an occasion when an actor has picked up an injury one night and has needed to miss the following performance, with all of the knock-on implications that that throws up. I certainly saw my fair share of injuries when working on War Horse in the West End, since it involved puppeteers flying around on stage inside life-sized puppet horses.

Me, operating the front legs of Joey
in War Horse

In my twenty years as an actor, I can't remember two hospital-worthy injuries happening during the same show!! But that's what happened during The Flint Street Nativity last night!

James has an extremely funny moment when he falls off the back of the stage (on to a crash mat). However, last night, due to subtle changes in the audience's response and therefore the timing of the fall, and the fact that his hat drops down over his eyes, he got disorientated and fell from a slightly different position and at a slightly different angle. Consequently, he hit his head on platform close to the crash mat. We all heard it!

Sarah Gentle, our company stage manager, immediately called for an ice-pack. James carried on into his subsequent scene, which pretty much follows the fall.

I don't think many of actors realised when Frazer subsequently sustained his injury, since it occurred at the climax of the nativity when the stage is very busy with movement. Whilst swinging on a rope as the Astronaut, he landed awkwardly and jarred his knee.

Both injuries occured within the final quarter of the show. But, you know the old adage, the show must go on! Both soldiered on until the end, with the help of Dr. Theatre (adrenalin) which offsets the pain. James managed to get himself in positions so that the gash (and blood) were hidden as far could be from the audience, most of whom will have noticed nothing.

As you can imagine, we were all shaken and upset. There was a strange unsettled atmosphere on stage, as James sat unusually upstage, hiding his face during the final scene.

Immediately after the show, Sarah Fonlon (stage manager) took James and Frazer to Hull Royal Infirmary. Frazer wanted to have an x-ray in order to reassure himself about his knee. He was told to rest, take some pain killers and cold treat the joint. He'll be performing this evening, but might need to modify some of his movements on stage, in order to give his knee a chance to recover.

By 3am, James had had about eight stitches in a nasty cut just below his eyebrow. When he came out he told us that the doctor had asked him, "Haven't I just seen one of your colleagues? Is this a particular dangerous show that you're performing in?" Maybe he thought we were Cirque de Soleil!

Anyway, today James is nursing a black eye, but will perform as normal this evening. Fortuitously his injury kind of suits the child he's playing!

Review - What's on Stage...

Four stars from Gary Clark of What's On Stage. Here's the link:

"... all the cast deserved a standing ovation for some brilliantly observed character acting." (What's On Stage)

Press Night(s)...

Yesterday night's performance was for an audience which included the critics.

How many came and from which publications I'm not sure, but there were certainly some. Apparently, as is often now the case, the press will in fact be attending the show in dribs and drabs throughout the week, so this wasn't one-off event.

Personally, I prefer it when Press scrutiny is spread across a number of nights, since it avoids loading the pressure on a single performance. Other actors prefer to get it out of the way on a single night. Either way, press performances are I guess on a par with the Opening Night in terms of the levels of anxiety they create. So, it was quite a nervy beginning to the show.

That said, we'd already performed five shows before last night, so there was plenty of experience in the tank to offset the nerves no sooner had the play begun. In the event it was a fantastic show, wonderfully received by a very bouyant audience.

I'd feel as though I were tempting fate if I said that I cannot imagine the show receiving anything but favorable reviews, so let's just wait and see. Good or bad, I'll post any reviews on this blog.

Let's hope they are good, if only because it will surely influence the number of people who come to see this wonderful piece of writing and production.


Correspondingly, last night was the last show for a while that will be seen by our director. Matthew returned home to London today to prepare for his next production. Before the show, he wrote us each a card describing his appreciation of the work we have done, which was very gratifying.

It will be strange not to have our director in the audience. Tonight it feels as though suddenly the production has been handed over to us to parent. Of course, a show is a living breathing thing: No doubt things will morph over time, mostly in a good way (as we make a still deeper connection with our characters), but sometimes not. Consequently, the director will return periodically, to consolidate and applaud any moments that have deepened and to tighten or clarify any tiny moments that may have become slightly obscured.

The Opening Night...

Tonight was the show's official opening night.

The show's opening image
(as seen from the Gavin's music pit)

The opening night is the first for which an audience pays full price for tickets. As such they expect to see a show that is technically sound and has been road-tested with an audience.

Following yesterday's preview, tonight was in fact our second performance in front of an audience. Second performances are notoriously dangerous. Having met the challenge of the first night, a collective sigh of relief occurs within the company. So it's very easy for everyone to arrive the next day feeling relieved, slightly unfocused, perhaps even complacent. There are often slip-ups on a second night that hadn’t occurred on the first when everyone had been so switched-on!

I get very fearful on second nights and almost will myself to get nervous, so that I have the necessary focus. But it's difficult because one is battling against tiredness caused by the on-going stresses of the past few week.

Gabriel (Lauren) plotting with Wise Gold (Lucy, left)
and Angel (Rina, right)

In the event, our second show was fantastic. It felt as though we took a huge step forward in terms of revealing the richness of show. The audience seemed to enjoy many more strands of the story.

Matthew had given us notes in the bar after the first preview the following evening. We'd also had a technical rehearsal this afternoon, to iron out a number of technical problems and to integrate sound cues to cover a couple of transitions. And, of course, as a result of the first preview, we've started to understand how to navigate our way through the show given the audience’s reactions.

The Stable Scene, involving Donkey (Frazer), Narrator (Neil),
Mary (Elaine), Joseph (James) and Shepherd (Laura)

We've started to learn where laughter might occur and when therefore we need to pause momentary, in order for an audience to hear a subsequent line that may be an essential element to another story strand (with its own subsequent pay-off). It's not quite a simple as it sounds this, because the need to pause must be balanced against a need to maintain the pace of the action and the rhythmic demands of the dialogue. In fact the quality of the laughter determines how quickly one might overlap it with the next line and this will vary from night to night, depending on the particular audience.

It’s a fascinating process, almost like a science.

The next milestone in the history of our run will be Press Night next Tuesday. Between now and then we have three shows, including a matinee tomorrow. We'll continue to receive Matthew’s notes, work sections of the show in order iron out any minor technical issues and to clarify the story, whilst deepening our understanding of how to navigate our way through the show in relation to the audiences responses. 

I’ll write again following our Press Night on Tuesday 14th.

First Preview...

You have to be brave to be an actor.

Timberlake Wertenbaker

Yesterday was our first performance! It was also the day of our dress rehearsal and the completion of our technical rehearsal.

We arrived at the theatre early to finish the tech-ing the show, from the transition between the world of the children to the world of their parents. As I said before, this transition is busy with set, lighting, sound and costume changes and a flying sequence. It is therefore very technical and took a while.

We were about to tech the final moments of the show, literally the last song, when the fire alarm sounded and the building was evacuated! So, there we stood outside the theatre for 45 minutes in the freezing cold. High spirited but well behind time, we were nonetheless beginning to think we'd never get to the end of the tech, or that we'd end up dress rehearsing in front of an audience that evening.

Evacuees

Eventually, we returned to the theatre, swiftly completed the technical rehearsal and prepared to squeeze in a dress rehearsal.

We were confronted with a choice. Because we were behind time, both ourselves and the crew were due a break before the evening show, which would preclude us from dress rehearsing the entire show. Matthew offered us the option of dress rehearsing the majority of the show (thereby maintaining the length of our break), but the company instantly agreed to shorten the break, knowing that a full dress rehearsal was absolutely essential for us to feel prepared.

So we dress-rehearsed the play in full in front of an audience of theatre staff, including the artistic director, Andrew Smaje and the writer, Tim Firth. The dress went very well, with few major hiccups. Everyone was relieved to discover that they could, more or less, get from one end of the show to the other, remembering all of the essential technical stuff, much of which has an impact on the other actors.

Tim Firth was very pleased and said that he felt we'd achieved a pace that former companies had taken a number of performances to reach, and also that the thrust staging gave an added sense of this being a classroom around which the children run. We were very encouraged.

Being in a theatre company and performing a play is a microcosm of life. A birth happens on the first day of rehearsals and a death on the night of the final show (though hopefully memories remain). With this in mind, the first preview is rather like having a baby: It's tremendously exciting, and terrifying at the same time.

Frazer summed it up when, pacing around the dressing room immediately beforehand, he asked "Why do we do this? It's at moments like this you wonder why, don't you? And, at the same time, you totally know why you do it and would have it no other way! I'm feel totally alive!"

In the event, the night was a huge success!

It being a preview, the audience (a full house) had paid a reduced ticket price and arrived understanding that they were about to see a show thoroughly rehearsed, but as yet untested with an audience. The electric atmosphere that goes hand in hand with this, was undoubtedly the appeal for many of those who choose to come.

They clearly loved the show. They were roaring with laughter, particularly during the second half, when the pay-offs to numerous story strands come rolling in.

Having read the play for the first time, way back, before rehearsals had even begun, there are so many moments in the show at which we'd ourselves had never laughed. It was absolutely thrilling to hear an audience respond to these moments.

In the bar after the show, we were victorious and elated, like the proud parents of a newly born baby.

Day Two of Technical Rehearsals

Our first public performance is tomorrow.

Today, again, we arrived at the theatre 9.30 to get in costume and continue tech-ing the show at 10am. The day ended at 10.15pm, having reached the appearance of the adult characters (the parents of the children we play).

According to the schedule, we were due to complete the technical work on the show by about tea time and conduct a dress rehearsal in the evening. In the event, as is often the case, things took longer than expected and in fact we haven't yet technically rehearsed the entire show.

Tomorrow when we arrive we will need to complete technical work on the scene involving parents, before conducting a dress rehearsal in the afternoon and then opening the show in front of an audience in the evening.

As one can imagine, for everybody concerned (actors, directors and crew alike), the days leading up to a first performance are fueled increasingly by adrenalin. Long days spent focusing on minute technical detail, little rest, a dress rehearsal (during which one is trying to remember and implement all that detail) and, finally, the prospect of a first performance in front of an audience requires immense amounts of energy. 

There was some relief that we managed to technically rehearse the final moments of the school nativity itself and the subsequent transition into the scene involving parents, since this is the most technically complicated part of the show, involving the moment of pieces of set, an actor flying on stage, lighting and sound changes and a huge amount of stage business.

Frazer very quickly figured out a brilliant (very childlike) way to use a rope to swing across the stage in his astronauts costume. This may have saved a lot of time re-configuring the rope system. It's a great example of a kind of creative problem solving that is necessary when tech-ing a show. No matter how much preparation has been done, when finally one begins to work through the show in situ with lights and sound all manor of unexpected issues arise, which require a lot of people thinking on their feet.

The stage right wing

Behind the backcloth, upstage of the set

Day One of Technical Rehearsals...

Designer, James Coterill, making some
final adjustments to the set

With two days to go before our first performance, today is the first time the actors have worked in the theatre, on the set itself.

This morning we arrived at the theatre at 9.30am, in order to get changed into our costumes and begin 'tech-ing' the show at 10am.

The men's dressing room,
with costume supervisor, Sian

Essentially, 'Tech-ing' involves staggering through the show, establishing the correct lighting states for each moment and determining the sound and lighting cues. The actors have an opportunity to work through the technical aspects of their route through the show, including any backstage business, entrances, exits and quick changes.

It's always a painstaking process. Rarely does the company perform for longer than a minute, before the Company Stage Manager (Sarah) calls a halt to proceedings and a technical detail is addressed before resetting again from the same point.

The (temporary) Lighting and Sound Desk

A temporary lighting and sound desk is set up in the auditorium, so that the lighting designer, operators and stage manager can communicate freely with the director and stage crew. Eventually, the desk and operators will be located in a box, unseen, at the very back of the auditorium. Unfortunately, the lighting desk crashed a couple of times and the software needed rebooting, which lost us some time.

But, technical rehearsals are always very long. I write this at 8 o'clock in the evening. (My character isn't involved in the action for a while.) We are likely to finish at around 10.30 tonight. So far we have got about two thirds the way through the first half of the show.

The Beginning of Week Four...

Just three days until our first performance!

Similar to the end of last week, we spent the morning working on the detail of particular moments within scenes. However, the emphasis of the work has shifted away from the playing and more to the technical.

As such we worked on moments that require precise use of props, for example, the arrival to the stable of Shepherd, which involves the use of baby Jesus and Dirty Pedro (See 'Auditioning for Dirty Pedro'):

The afternoon run-through included noticeably more costume items and props than before. We are readying ourselves for tomorrow when we begin technical rehearsals on stage.

As I write, the technical crew are completing the fit up (construction and painting of the set) and the lighting director (Mark Doubleday) is overseeing the plotting and focusing of lights. Matthew is due to be at the theatre this evening, in order to program lights starting from the beginning of the show.

Hopefully, when we arrive tomorrow there will be a rough plot for at least the first part of the show, ready for us to work with and for adjustments to be made.

The auditorium at 6pm this evening.
(Compare it to the model box presented to us on Day 1)

An Early End to Week Three...

It's Saturday afternoon and, unexpectedly, here I am in the living room of my flat in London cosily wrapped in a duvet! We were due to rehearse today, but Matthew decided that the show is in very a healthy state and that we should therefore have the whole weekend to rest.

Yesterday we ended our third week with yet another run-through and some detailed work in the afternoon. The run went very well indeed, despite many of us feeling as though our performances were tired and lacked an edge.

Afterwards Matthew said he felt we've each made a strong connection with our characters, that we are therefore making stronger choices in terms of how they behave, and, correspondingly, that the dynamic world of the classroom is reading very clearly.

Amongst other things, the afternoon included more work on scenes involving Elaine's characters.

Because Jenny Bennet is the child who 'knows everything' and is chosen by the teaching to do everything, Elaine has lots of stage business. 

Similarly, Jenny Bennet's mother (also played by Elaine) is the busy-body chair of the PTA. So, she's the one who organises the wine and mince-pies for the parents (the final scene) and flies around the stage organising and involved in multiple-conversations.

Consequently, Elaine has a very complex technical route through the show, which requires incredible focus and lots of practice. And, of course, all of this technical detail must be executed in character. It's just as well that Elaine is an excellent actor and a cool and capable all-rounder.

For me, yesterday was another day of discoveries. Some were specific discoveries, like how to say a particular line so as to express a richer meaning with the words.

But I also made some broader discoveries. I'm becoming more relaxed with my adult character, and despite having had no distinct break-through in terms of my understanding of him, he feels more real and more grounded as a result of this relative relaxation.

I also learned something about the rhythm of my child character; namely that he rarely runs; somehow, he's too self-conscious. Hitherto, I'd been running away from Peter Crouch (the classroom's Praying Mantis), in order to satisfy some notion that it would be more comic. Yesterday, I allowed myself to walk away and this felt far more expressive.

Walking down the road at lunchtime, it occurred to me that I'm doing a lot of talking at the moment! That might not sound so surprising, but I'm usually very reserved and speak very little.

In Hull I've been gassing in a way that I can't remember doing for years! I can only suppose that this is because I'm very happy in this town, with this group of people, doing this play.

Auditions for Dirty Pedro...

During the show a toy donkey bought by one of the parents is wheeled onstage by James who is playing Joseph. As Laura (Shepherd) has explained, the problem with it is it says rude things in Spanish if it's ears get pulled!

Today we had to create a recording of the rude things it says, to use with the prop should it get it's ears pulled. Each of the male cast members had a go creating the donkey's lascivious comments. As yet we don't know who's recording will get used during the actual show, but here are a couple of the candidates:

Does any other profession have such a ludicrous job description?

Day Fourteen...

Another fantastic day of rehearsals!

This afternoon was our third run-through and, as one would imagine, it was the tightest and most detailed yet. Matthew encouraged us to be 'anarchic in our playing', in other words to permit ourselves to go where our instinct takes us, perhaps to our character's more extreme places. Consequently, it was a very animated run with much verve and spontaneity.

Following the run, the collective sense that we are creating a cracking show was palpable. Team spirit is very high and everyone is looking forward to performing the show in front of an audience. That's not to say there isn't more detail to be added: We've two more runs this week, with room for detailed rehearsal between. But it feels as though we are in really good shape and that everybody knows it.

In the evening, a few of us went to see the show currently in the Studio at Hull Truck. The Maddening Rain is a one-man show about a guy who becomes a trader in the city. It's a savage story about banking culture.

I'm not too keen on one-man shows, because I sometimes get bored seeing the same face and hearing the same voice for the duration of the show. This however was utterly compelling from start to finish. It's an absolutely thrilling, engrossing and provocative piece of storytelling. And the actor, Felix Scott, is sensational.

It's well worth seeing in the next couple of days, if you get a chance.