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