We're off...

I'm afraid my daily blogging fell victim to the stresses and strains of opening the show, and we're now well and truly on our way. Our dress rehearsals went amazingly smoothly, as did the previews, and I can only hope the audience enjoyed our press-night performance as much as I did. I'm not surprised at all to find that the show is great, great fun to perform, and people's responses to having seen it are so far very favourable, I'm pleased to say. All in all, I'm really chuffed with what we've got and am excited about sharing it with as many people as possible over the coming weeks. Hope you can come and have a peak yourself...

Week 5 - Thursday

Day two of our technical rehearsal, or 'tech', and perhaps now would be a good moment to explain briefly what a tech is. Basically, it's the first time every element of the production comes together. Costumes, lights, sound, scenery and props are from now on exactly as they will be in performance. We start from the very beginning and work gradually through the whole play, going over every scene- and costume-change, lighting and sound cue, entrance and exit, until each one is happening smoothly and at the right time.

It's a slow, laborious process and usually takes several days just to get through the play once. West End musicals and other big technical shows can have techs lasting a week or more. There's a lot of waiting around while lighting cues are re-plotted, or more efficient scene-changes figured out, and all the while the costumes are being observed under the lights, and changes made where necessary. For us actors, it's also an opportunity to get very familiar with the layout of the theatre, and plot our various journeys through the play: where to go for each change, what entrance to use etc. We can also use the time to get accustomed to the performance space: what the acoustic is like, or what the sight-lines for each part of the audience are like and so on.

So there you have it. When you next hear an actor talk about 'going into tech', hopefully you'll have a bit more of an idea what that means.

Week 5 - Wednesday

Our first day of tech. Usually, in totally new surroundings and with so many new technical elements to take on board, techs can make you feel like a pretty useless actor. It feels like all your work has gone out of the window and you don't believe a word you're saying. For some reason, I felt totally the opposite today. Not that I suddenly became sensational or anything, but I felt very much more comfortable than I had in the rehearsal room.

There are a number of factors here I think. One is that for once no one is remotely interested in the quality of your acting. They care if you're in the right place at the right time, wearing the right clothes and holding the right props, but for now the standard of your performance is pretty irrelevnnt. This really eases the pressure. Free from the shackles of scrutiny, you can play the scenes on your own terms and have some fun. Another factor is that because you're suddenly faced with the banks of empty seats where the audience will be, exactly what you have to do to communicate the story to them is immediately more clear. Everything seems simpler. It's also in the nature of a tech that you repeat things over and over, which in itself is no bad thing.

Slow but steady progress through the play, and we were apparently on schedule at the end of the day. When I had the chance, I snuck 'out front' for a peak, and the show looks and sounds fantastic.

Week 5 - Tuesday

Our last day in the rehearsal room. We had a very productive morning, mostly searching for a higher gear in our performance energy for the songs. When you've so much to think about all at once in an actor-musician show like this, one strand of your various tasks can sometimes unconsciously take a bit of a back seat. Often it's the lyrics that suffer as we all start to mutter a bit. We've had several notes about this issue from Ian, so it was really helpful to drill the numbers with this in mind. Everyone was much happier with the results.

Our final run before tomorrow's technical rehearsal (or tech) was a good one, and a definite step forward. Most of our morning's work had been retained, and the general energy level was certainly higher than yesterday. The show's not quite baked-through yet, but a few days in the oven of the tech should see to that.

Week 5 - Monday

Another morning of preparation for an afternoon run. 'Working notes' I suppose you'd call it, with the choreographer and musical director. Part of the morning was difficult because we found that setting one of the songs raised some convention questions which we couldn't really answer definitively without Ian in the room.

The run was a little mechanical, or 'Monday-ish' as Ian put it, but sometimes this can be no bad thing because it beds in some of the technical challenges of running the whole play together, and provides a firmer platform for the future. Let's hope so anyway.

Week 4 - Friday

I learned a bit of a lesson today. I'm someone who likes to retain a little bit of freedom and improvisation in the staging of scenes, as I'm sure a number of exasperated ex-colleagues would tell you... Because of this, in my first scene, where I have to handle a whole load of different props, I've tried not to have all the various picking-ups-and-putting-downs set in stone too much. The trouble was, I was finding myself having to think about those things instead of about the scene, when for the character these physical tasks would be second nature. So before today's run, I spent a bit of time working out exactly when and where I'd put my clipboard down, and when I'd pick up the boots etc etc. It really paid off. I felt much more comfortable in the scene because I wasn't tripping myself up with the props all the time. And ironically, I felt the scene actually had more freedom, because I wasn't constrained by physical uncertainty.

In fact, I found the whole run much more enjoyable than yesterday. I just felt like a play, instead of some scenes we'd chucked up in the air to see where they fell. Went into the weekend with a great deal of optimism.

Week 4 - Thursday

A bits-and-bobs morning in preparation for our first full run in the afternoon. The run itself felt a bit like being lost in an enormous forest that I'd visited before in a dream. The immediate surroundings were familiar, but it was very hard to keep a sense of how things fitted together. Parts of act one still felt very uncertain and under-rehearsed, and although act two still seems in good shape, that wasn't so much of a pleasant surprise this time. Still, I think the other actors are doing some really great work.

Dennis King, the composer, came to watch the run, which was great. We've had such a good time working on his fantastic music, so it was nice to have an opportunity to thank him for it. I found my violin-playing became a little tense, but I think I can forgive myself that. Dennis seemed extremely pleased with how the production was shaping up, which is really encouraging.

Week 4 - Wednesday

So... a run of act two. We all felt this was in much better shape than act one had been when we ran it. Plenty to do of course, but definite cause for optimism.

In the afternoon we went back to act one and did some more detailed work, particularly on the opening of the squad's Jungle Jamboree show. The musical stops-and-starts that time in with the brilliantly awful gags are quite complex, but they work really well when we nail them.

Week 4 - Tuesday

The final sequence of scenes was our focus in the morning, which wasn't too tough going for me, for reasons that will become clear when you see the play! The afternoon was mainly spent working on the links between scenes - a similar job to the one we did with act one. There is a nice, logical progression from scene to scene in act two, which makes it easier to remember what is coming next.

The evening session was spent entirely on the music, which I really enjoyed. It's a great relief not to have to worry about dance steps, or the next scene, or what you just messed up in the previous one, and just concentrate on one thing. I think we made some real progress.

Week 4 - Monday

For the first part of this week we'll be concetrating on getting the second half ready for a run on Wednesday morning. The Privates on Parade sequence is a major part of the second half - its anchor-point if you like - so it's great knowing that we've already worked that section a great deal. The scene that follows it will I think be one of my favourites, and it takes place in a railway carriage on the 'up-country' tour. There's a great dynamic between the four squaddies, with lots of banter and micky-taking, but this time with a sting in the tale...

Week 3 - Friday

In the morning we showed off the results of yesterday's graft to Ian, who seemed pleased I think. We then did a few bits and bobs in preparation for a run of the first half in the afternoon. The run had some good moments despite being a little scrappy in general, but that's to be expected at this stage. It was really useful to have that entire half laid out in front of us so we could see clearly what needed some extra attention.

Week 3 - Thursday

We were a director down today, so we took the opportunity of drilling and polishing lots of the the dances and music. It was a tough day, and we finished a little before our intended 9pm release-date because basically everyone was too tired to think any more. There will definitely be a positive pay-off for a day like this though.