So, I just turned the handle of my saucepan around on heating up the spaghetti for our supper, and a whole bank of wall tiles fell off the kitchen wall. Marvellous. Another example of the delights of renting...
Still, I would have no play at all if I had never experienced such things. Imagine transforming it from 'Utility Room', where the boiler has broken down and we're gearing up to a power cut later, to 'Drawing Room', in which a sensuous log fire crackles and pops satisfyingly whilst the main characters sit reading Jane Eyre and sipping champagne.
No, it's all good practice for writing plays that speak to people. Or at least, speak to those who have ever lived in less-than-ideal conditions. Or at least those who have experienced breaking boilers, tumbling tiles and blankety blank (you fill in the gaps. Let's play: Guess what the next mishap will be). No, it's best I go through all this, along with my long-suffering husband and bemused child, so that I have plenty more fodder for the next play. Though I do feel sorry for my characters. It would be nice to think of them as moving forward in their lives, rather than facing another Christmas feeling freezing cold, wrapped up in duvets around their clothes, waggling their phones out of icicle-covered windows to gain a ounce of signal, eating budget vol-au-vents that taste of rubber... Where do I get my inspiration from??!
xxxx
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Casting Doubt?
Good morning!
So, last night was the casting rehearsal. Having been beside myself with excitement about this stage last week, I turned up at the adult education centre feeling nervous, stressed, and terribly serious. I couldn't shake off this mood all evening, even after a glass of house red at the Slug and Lettuce across the road.
But I now have a great Andrea, and a brilliant Mum/Suzi, Dad/Barry. I was less sure about my Adam, only because I wanted to hear more from the actor, and it's probably my fault for making the part quite hard to gauge and get right. But said actor got into the swing of it well, and sparked off my Andrea swimmingly, so I'm sure it'll all be fantastic.
Crumbs - the responsibility! I had no idea that playwrights, directors and the like had such a hard job. I thought they just sat on their fold-up chairs, shoulders back, pen in mouth, enjoying the sun.
Certain actors really shone out, and we scrapped over them in the pub, each of us wanting a particular person for our lead female or male, each of us convincing the others that ONLY that particular actor could possibly do... Logistics (e.g. ages, sexes etc) made it harder still, as certain roles were just not suitable for for youngsters or for women etc. So we've done some doubling up, and had to tell some actors that they don't have parts - which is totally horrid. Luckily, that's not my job, but on the to-do list of our extremely dedicated tutor/director, Bev. We also have another director, called Nathan, who came down from Nottingham Hatch to direct two out of the four plays. I got to work with him, and he seemed good, and very committed to the project. Interestingly, he got the actors to swap around male and female roles, which threw me more than a little at the time, but I understood his logic afterwards. It gave a very good indication of how well each actor could get into the swing of the script and run with it, regardless of the particular part they were reading. And it also showed us who read well with whom and how they got on together in the roles.
So next week we're rehearsing at the Curve, in the room we'll be doing the performances in! We'll have our actors in place, and the directors will start directing, and hopefully us playwrights can join in - saying 'Noo, noo, nooooo!' and 'Yes, yes, yeeeees!' at appropriate moments. And I have to ask my long-suffering husband if he can be home even earlier than normal to look after our naughty child while I dash off to be at the theatre early for our extended rehearsal time. Oh crumbs. I feel a day off coming up for Husband, so he can 'chill' (i.e. lie across the sofa watching back-to-back old-fashioned versions of Sherlock Holmes. With the curtains drawn. And on such gorgeous days outside. How can he??!).
The new house is... well... Possibly the less said about it the better. The move went well. I can thoroughly recommend the removal men. And the lovely lady who cleaned our old house for us. I know - VERY lazy of us not to do it ourselves... But the lack of curtains in this new rental house (I should always include the word 'temporary' in that description. It'll make me feel better...), not to mention the massive flood in the kitchen yesterday after my mum had a bath, the dodgy fixtures and fittings and ... well, pretty much everything about this house is ... interesting. We feel totally like students all over again, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, with boxes and bags surrounding us (no point in unpacking much stuff when we're moving again in two-three months), and shower curtains pinned up with washing pegs etc. And there's a nasty drains smell that wafts through the kitchen every now and then, making us gag. Thank heavens it's Spring/Summer and we can open doors and windows and usher the little ones out into the totally concrete but actually quite inviting back garden for a spot of mud-cake making in the sandpit, or saving princesses from mortal danger in the police car thing...
So, I had my doubts after the casting session last night, but actually, I'm very happy with my actors. And with the ones chosen for the roles in the other plays. I think it'll be a smashing night, and one to remember for the rest of our days.
Tune in next time.
Kirstyx
So, last night was the casting rehearsal. Having been beside myself with excitement about this stage last week, I turned up at the adult education centre feeling nervous, stressed, and terribly serious. I couldn't shake off this mood all evening, even after a glass of house red at the Slug and Lettuce across the road.
But I now have a great Andrea, and a brilliant Mum/Suzi, Dad/Barry. I was less sure about my Adam, only because I wanted to hear more from the actor, and it's probably my fault for making the part quite hard to gauge and get right. But said actor got into the swing of it well, and sparked off my Andrea swimmingly, so I'm sure it'll all be fantastic.
Crumbs - the responsibility! I had no idea that playwrights, directors and the like had such a hard job. I thought they just sat on their fold-up chairs, shoulders back, pen in mouth, enjoying the sun.
Certain actors really shone out, and we scrapped over them in the pub, each of us wanting a particular person for our lead female or male, each of us convincing the others that ONLY that particular actor could possibly do... Logistics (e.g. ages, sexes etc) made it harder still, as certain roles were just not suitable for for youngsters or for women etc. So we've done some doubling up, and had to tell some actors that they don't have parts - which is totally horrid. Luckily, that's not my job, but on the to-do list of our extremely dedicated tutor/director, Bev. We also have another director, called Nathan, who came down from Nottingham Hatch to direct two out of the four plays. I got to work with him, and he seemed good, and very committed to the project. Interestingly, he got the actors to swap around male and female roles, which threw me more than a little at the time, but I understood his logic afterwards. It gave a very good indication of how well each actor could get into the swing of the script and run with it, regardless of the particular part they were reading. And it also showed us who read well with whom and how they got on together in the roles.
So next week we're rehearsing at the Curve, in the room we'll be doing the performances in! We'll have our actors in place, and the directors will start directing, and hopefully us playwrights can join in - saying 'Noo, noo, nooooo!' and 'Yes, yes, yeeeees!' at appropriate moments. And I have to ask my long-suffering husband if he can be home even earlier than normal to look after our naughty child while I dash off to be at the theatre early for our extended rehearsal time. Oh crumbs. I feel a day off coming up for Husband, so he can 'chill' (i.e. lie across the sofa watching back-to-back old-fashioned versions of Sherlock Holmes. With the curtains drawn. And on such gorgeous days outside. How can he??!).
The new house is... well... Possibly the less said about it the better. The move went well. I can thoroughly recommend the removal men. And the lovely lady who cleaned our old house for us. I know - VERY lazy of us not to do it ourselves... But the lack of curtains in this new rental house (I should always include the word 'temporary' in that description. It'll make me feel better...), not to mention the massive flood in the kitchen yesterday after my mum had a bath, the dodgy fixtures and fittings and ... well, pretty much everything about this house is ... interesting. We feel totally like students all over again, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, with boxes and bags surrounding us (no point in unpacking much stuff when we're moving again in two-three months), and shower curtains pinned up with washing pegs etc. And there's a nasty drains smell that wafts through the kitchen every now and then, making us gag. Thank heavens it's Spring/Summer and we can open doors and windows and usher the little ones out into the totally concrete but actually quite inviting back garden for a spot of mud-cake making in the sandpit, or saving princesses from mortal danger in the police car thing...
So, I had my doubts after the casting session last night, but actually, I'm very happy with my actors. And with the ones chosen for the roles in the other plays. I think it'll be a smashing night, and one to remember for the rest of our days.
Tune in next time.
Kirstyx
Saturday, 19 March 2011
A Game of Drafts
Just sent off my finalised draft to our tutor, Bev. Plus my blurb for the programme. Oh, how I enjoyed that! I want the job of blurb-writer. Full-time. At a theatre. Or tv station. Or anywhere, in fact. So much fun! And I've said what ages I want my actors to be. Suzi is now definitely in her late teens. It's going to be a really cringeworthy relationship with Roger, in his fifties. The more shocking, the better. We've got some DMU drama students in the mix as well as professional actors, so one of them would suit the role very well...
Should really be packing those boxes...
Went to States of Independence earlier - a writers' fair held at De Montfort Uni. Great event. A pity I only made it for the last half hour (garden party earlier that day, preceded by, of course, packing). But I got to meet the editor at Pewter Rose whom I worked with on my story and poem. And picked up some interesting leaflets. There seems to be an arts association who are interested in plays... Must read the literature properly. And I finally showed my face to the Leicester Writers' Club members there, who might otherwise have decided I was a fictional character seeing as I NEVER make it to club meetings at the moment.
Supper tonight is the contents of our now-turned-off fridge, all cooked up together to make a delightful, unsavoury mash. Sausages, fish fingers, peas and the odd carrot. Lovely. I shall tuck into that with vigour just as soon as I've cleared out that over-spilling drawer across the room...
Over and Out for now. Catch up soon.
Kirstyx
Should really be packing those boxes...
Went to States of Independence earlier - a writers' fair held at De Montfort Uni. Great event. A pity I only made it for the last half hour (garden party earlier that day, preceded by, of course, packing). But I got to meet the editor at Pewter Rose whom I worked with on my story and poem. And picked up some interesting leaflets. There seems to be an arts association who are interested in plays... Must read the literature properly. And I finally showed my face to the Leicester Writers' Club members there, who might otherwise have decided I was a fictional character seeing as I NEVER make it to club meetings at the moment.
Supper tonight is the contents of our now-turned-off fridge, all cooked up together to make a delightful, unsavoury mash. Sausages, fish fingers, peas and the odd carrot. Lovely. I shall tuck into that with vigour just as soon as I've cleared out that over-spilling drawer across the room...
Over and Out for now. Catch up soon.
Kirstyx
Friday, 18 March 2011
From Page to Stage
I am an over-excited child.I stumbled into bed on Wednesday night 1.30am after celebrating The News, only to snore like a volcano (when on earth did that start happening?), toss and turn, and then wake up like a wide-eyed baby and go bouncing down the stairs BEFORE the alarm went off. Freddie made it to pre-school on time for the first time since... well, since pre-school started back in September.
And The News is? That my play 'Futility Room' has made it through to a rehearsed reading at Leicester's Curve Theatre (the main theatre here). 'Beside myself' does not do an ounce of justice to how I currently feel.
The actors are booked in (twenty of them!), the director having meetings with our playwriting tutor, Bev, tomorrow, the finalalised scripts due to Bev at 9pm tomorrow evening.
Today, pre-school is off all day because of the parish show, which means I have a bouncing four-year-old currently plonked in front of Bob the Builder: Can You Fix It? - the Cbeebies computer game. An extremely useful learning too, I find. Tomorrow we are going for a birthday lunch for a lovely friend down the road, then leaving His Princeliness at her house so we can pack our possessions into boxes, so that we can move house on Monday morning. We have clutter everywhere, half-filled containers littering every room, piles of recycling to take to Oadby recycling centre, and a layer of dust so thick that Freddie's been practising his writing skills in it. Of course, I should, technically speaking, be applying my mind to all of this, given that this House Move is something I can't ignore and that if I don't do something, come Monday morning we shall be homeless, and covered in dust.
But - the play!! The futility of my efforts to pack boxes. Especially with a four-year-old in the house. The futility looms in the utility room... ha, ha.
We get to cast the actors next week. SO exciting. On Wednesday night we meet them all and decide who will best suit each part. We have a great range of ages and sexes (like, male and female. Stupid sentence.). And almost all of the actors are professionals, which is fantastic. Can't quite believe it.
So here we are, Friday morning, script lying on the floor, child whooping every time he gets a plank successfully lowered into Bob's yard, someone coming later to relieve us of our giant, space-devouring double buggy (from when I looked after our nephew Rafe), and one very over-excited, jittery and utterly distracted little girl. Namely me.
Tune in next time.
Kirstyx
And The News is? That my play 'Futility Room' has made it through to a rehearsed reading at Leicester's Curve Theatre (the main theatre here). 'Beside myself' does not do an ounce of justice to how I currently feel.
The actors are booked in (twenty of them!), the director having meetings with our playwriting tutor, Bev, tomorrow, the finalalised scripts due to Bev at 9pm tomorrow evening.
Today, pre-school is off all day because of the parish show, which means I have a bouncing four-year-old currently plonked in front of Bob the Builder: Can You Fix It? - the Cbeebies computer game. An extremely useful learning too, I find. Tomorrow we are going for a birthday lunch for a lovely friend down the road, then leaving His Princeliness at her house so we can pack our possessions into boxes, so that we can move house on Monday morning. We have clutter everywhere, half-filled containers littering every room, piles of recycling to take to Oadby recycling centre, and a layer of dust so thick that Freddie's been practising his writing skills in it. Of course, I should, technically speaking, be applying my mind to all of this, given that this House Move is something I can't ignore and that if I don't do something, come Monday morning we shall be homeless, and covered in dust.
But - the play!! The futility of my efforts to pack boxes. Especially with a four-year-old in the house. The futility looms in the utility room... ha, ha.
We get to cast the actors next week. SO exciting. On Wednesday night we meet them all and decide who will best suit each part. We have a great range of ages and sexes (like, male and female. Stupid sentence.). And almost all of the actors are professionals, which is fantastic. Can't quite believe it.
So here we are, Friday morning, script lying on the floor, child whooping every time he gets a plank successfully lowered into Bob's yard, someone coming later to relieve us of our giant, space-devouring double buggy (from when I looked after our nephew Rafe), and one very over-excited, jittery and utterly distracted little girl. Namely me.
Tune in next time.
Kirstyx
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