Having logged on here, the first thing I notice is the distinct shortage of blogs, for which I am utterly ashamed. I am somewhere between York and Darlington, trundling through the Great British countryside and its steadily greying skies, and staring out of the window I am aware that this might be the first quiet, still hour I’ve had to myself since rehearsals began. It feels a little strange that this peace and quiet comes the day before our show opens. The calm before the storm perhaps. No matter. I am grateful for it, as it provides a welcome chance to reflect upon everything that has happened in the last few months to get us to this point.
Never before has anything I've done seemed so all-consuming. One of our goals with the (Kindling) project was to learn just what it takes to ‘make’ a show – from the initial pitch, through applications, accommodation bookings and budgets, then on into devising, scripting and rehearsing. Never before have I felt like I was juggling so many things at once, and so relentlessly. I do not have a Producer’s brain at all, and have found it a real challenge maintaining all of these things.
Never before has anything I've done seemed so all-consuming. One of our goals with the (Kindling) project was to learn just what it takes to ‘make’ a show – from the initial pitch, through applications, accommodation bookings and budgets, then on into devising, scripting and rehearsing. Never before have I felt like I was juggling so many things at once, and so relentlessly. I do not have a Producer’s brain at all, and have found it a real challenge maintaining all of these things.
A brief aside – typing while listening to an iPod on shuffle is a dangerous thing. You will find yourself pausing nervously every three to four minutes, awaiting the next song, hoping it is not from one of the many poorly-judged albums that seem to have crept onto a playlist, and fester there. Thankfully, I have Paul Simon. Berlitz French for Beginners is less welcome.
And so, the show opens tomorrow. I am looking forward to sharing the work. It is tiring telling stories to no-one. It feels as if the next stage of the process has to be with an audience. And then hopefully there will be some response. While the show might not break any records for audience numbers, I believe in it whole heartedly. It has come from an honest and open place, and it strongly resonates with with me. I hope that it resonates with our audiences. The show is about the present, the here and now, this moment. It is about a shared experience. If tomorrow, having finished the opening performance, we can come off-stage having had a shared experience with the audience, and with us all considering this moment in our lives – our own ‘presents’ – then I will be immensely proud.
Despite a relatively short blog, I now appear to be in Newcastle. The dangers of peace and quiet. And a shuffling iPod.
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