Tech Week on Anything Goes

Teching Anything Goes this week. It's been an excellent week so far...

We've had our Lighting sessions. We've had our sound session. We've had our mic checks and last night we finished our spacing rehearsals. I decided to use one of our Q to Q sessions to continue spacing work because...

Our set has four levels on it and a lot of stairs, so we've used two tech sessions (7.5 hours) to move from the flat rehearsal room floor to our cast of 43 dashing up and down and dancing on all the levels. We're also changing many of the entrances and exits, now that we have the depth and width of the Main stage. It's a joy to get on stage! And the height means that I can create some super images and see the students- I can also do some fun 'ambient work', creating the world of the boat-

Our set is looking super. It still has echoes of my original idea and also is a good set for a comedy that often verges on farce. My original idea I'll save for another time- it was a more conceptual approach... and the Directorial Decision to take a Conceptual Approach to a Classic American Musical Theatre piece is probably a whole other conversation!

Today is our Q to Q. We start at one p.m. and will finish at 11:30 p.m. Normally, in this type of tech, it would be three sessions, but as I said, I devoted a session to spacing, above and beyond our 3.5 hours for spacing...I'm going to get into work early to pick up other tasks to make the Q to Q go as smoothly as possible- and to connect with other projects that I'm working on later this season.

This technical process is the biggest that I've directed in Canada and it's always interesting to notice the differences as I move from one country to another...

Technical rehearsals vary depending on the country and genre of theatre that's being produced. In the UK I'm used to getting the actors in costumes from the beginning of the technical rehearsals so that all elements are dealt with at once. I look at the actors in their costumes, under the lights that have been plotted and we go through all technical elements together. In Canada it's often a more layered process: for the Q to Q today, the actors are in their own clothes, wearing mics and show shoes and we have show lighting conditions. I see the actors in costume, under lights on Sat. at the dress rehearsal. And then our invited dress rehearsal is on Sunday. One of the impacts of this difference is that the actors have less time to get used to their costumes on stage...For 'period work' and for unusual costumes, this can be a challenge. In the US, they often structure technical rehearsals in a different way... What I notice everywhere is that people tend to be used to what they know- and that's fascinating to observe as I go from place to place. What I've learned is that as a director, I need to be flexible and knowledgeable about the various approaches because quite often, it's the genre and the company that choose the way the technical rehearsals progress, not the director. The scheduling is done months in advance and the director generally joins the process later.

There are a many factors that go into creating the Tech Schedule. For example, there are several unions that converge in a large performance space and this has an impact on scheduling. Creating a Tech Schedule that meets everyone's needs can be formidable challenge, so I've learned that I just need to be organized, manage my time well, communicate with all the teams and Technical Director/Production Manager all the time, exercise my imagination when looking at the emerging production, keep looking at what's coming up next and always stay solution-oriented.

I'm really looking forward to our Q to Q. I'm not very good at saying that "I'm excited!" I tend to get excited when I've got through the work and it's all worked out! But I'm really looking forward to it working through all of the elements and getting our production in front of an audience. It's fantastic to see all of the work of so many creative and technical people coming together on stage. And the student actors are doing extremely well- (growing in confidence and skill every day!) and the lighting and set are looking lovely, so I'm sure that I will get excited- after the Q to Q and the tech. dress and the two dress rehearsals!

more soon...

Tapping Teens- Day Two

That's the banner poster for Anything Goes at The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario.

Today was Day Two of rehearsals. We have 42 in the cast.

The Grand has a great tradition of mentoring, so twice a year they create productions with high school students from London and the surrounding area. In the spring it's a play, (this year I directed Macbeth, while I was here as Apprentice Artistic Director) and in the autumn it's musical on the Main Stage. This is it's the 1930's Cole Porter classic, Anything Goes.

There are students working on every area of the production, mentored by professionals at The Grand. This year we also have a student assistant director and assistant choreographer. The rehearsal process is about 3.5 weeks of rehearsal hours, spread out over 8 weeks. The students have a rigorous audition/interview process and then sign contracts to commit to the production.

I'm 'returning to my roots' on this one... I was, (believe it or not) a tapping teenager... Yes, that's right- I tapped. I was working professionally in musical theatre at tender age of 17. However, although I worked in musical theatre for a number of years, I have not directed a musical. When I started directing I focused on my passion for language and classical theatre.

So- back to the teens.

We started on Sunday with a meet and greet- then I dove into an acting workshop to introduce some vocabulary that we'll be using in rehearsal. That was followed by a session on vocal health and a vocal warm-up with Rick Kish, (our singing coach) and two hours of full company music rehearsals with our Musical Director, David Hall. The seven-hour day sped by!

This week rehearsal is mostly spent learning music, while I introduce text work on the scenes to the actors- we'll be doing basic 'table work', objectives/units/actions and I'm encouraging them to do this work at home, so that we then have a place to start the exploration in rehearsal. I'll have about 5 days to 'get the play on its feet'; it'll be speedy...

On Friday and Saturday I'm back in Toronto on The Sad and Cautionary Tale of Smackheaded Peter. I'm working on this in the evenings this week- producing, organizing, supporting. There's lots to do-

I'd still like to divide myself in half and it's still a lovely problem to have!

Here's the stage that the teens will be performing on- It's a beautiful theatre.