The Start of Week Two...

Line learning in the green room (James and Rina)

Fresh from a weekend at home, we spent this morning singing, first the opening number (in preparation for some filming later on), then the Shepherd's song. Fraser and I think the Shepherd's song is the best in the show and, even at this early stage, Laura, who found her character very quickly, sings it really well.


The marketing department are creating an advert for local television, based on the design of the show's publicity image, which features cartoons of each of our characters, with photographs of our faces superimposed on the bodies. (See surrounding wallpaper.) For the TV ad our faces will be seen, again superimposed on the cartoon bodies, this time singing the opening number!


So, after the break, having recorded the song itself, we took it turns to sit in front of a green screen (eventually to be replaced by the cartoon background) and mimed twenty seconds of the song to camera.


Hitherto, we'd only ever sung the song standing in a clump, so we'd never been able to watched each other. It was brilliant seeing the sometimes dramatic, sometimes subtle differences between the way each character sang the same words.

About to be filmed (Elaine)

During the afternoon, we worked the beginning of the Act Two. And since I won't be around tomorrow, we then worked on a scene and song in which I'm involved early in the second half.

Frazer and I have a wonderful duet, that he sings as Donkey and I sing as Wise Frankincense. We learned this first with Gavin (the musical director) and then worked on the scene from which it springs.


As usual, before launching into the scene, we discussed with Matthew (the director) what goes on between the characters and how this relates to them in broader terms. We then read through the scene two or three times before getting it on it's feet.


I really enjoyed rehearsing this afternoon. Matthew is very calm, which inspires a great deal of confidence, and his direction is very measured and very thorough. What I most like is his ability to speak about a specific moment in such a way that one feels one also gains an insight into the character as a whole. He has great insight.


One of the important things to come out of it for me was an invitation to explore the extent to which my character speaks with a lisp; how this might be dependent on the way he is feeling from moment to moment and who he is with; and how this should be balanced with the desired effect we wish to have on the audience.

Trying the donkey's head for the first time (Frazer)