Gary Wood Swipe / click to begin
Monday For The House of In Between we spent four weeks in a rehearsal studio. At the end of the rehearsal period the technical sessions, or “Tech”, begin. This is when all the other elements (set, costumes, lighting, sound, props etc) come together for the first time. For the men in our cast our Tech really began this evening when we had to have any hair that was not on our heads savagely waxed from our bodies! We managed to lighten the mood with red wine and singing to drown out the screaming!
Tuesday Today was such an exciting day as we started working with the set and in our costumes. It takes a little while to orientate yourself on the stage. You spend weeks rehearsing in comfy clothes, on a flat floor and then suddenly you’re dealing with jewellery flying off, bits of costume in your face, lights -- not to mention the raked stage at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. By the end of the day we had covered about one third of the show which is pretty good going.
Wednesday Considering we only have 7 cast members, there are a huge number of costumes and pieces of jewellery that get worn throughout the show: 30 saris, 17 blouses, 11 petticoats, 123 bracelets, 31 rings and 14 necklaces! In rehearsals we were able to leave a scene and whilst waiting for our next entrance think about what was coming next. During the Tech process it has become apparent that there are so many costume changes for us all that nearly all our time off stage is spent changing for the next scene!
Thursday During Tech the cast generally work from 1pm - 10.00pm, but the creative team and crew are in from 9 or 10am. One of the many great things about working at TRSE is that we’re all so well looked after. On each side of the stage in the wings is an area for cast water bottles. The theatre will refill them every day - it may seem like a small act but during these long days you can easily forget to hydrate, so for us this is a real gift. The theatre also provides hot food for everyone during dinner breaks!
Friday Dress rehearsal time! Today we went through all the choreography in sequence and our choreographer, Seeta Patel, was on hand. I’m happy to say there were very few problems. There is a superstition in theatre that if you have a bad dress rehearsal then the first performance will be great, but if I have a bad dress rehearsal I will go in to the first show TERRIFIED. We have an hour before our first performance and I feel relatively calm. Now if you’ll excuse me I must go and paint my nails. I’m not kidding.