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History ensemble member on Nick Asbury stepping once more unto the breach (and looking forward to the next game).
Once more unto the breach
Saturday morning we had rehearsals for Henry V. In the afternoon we did a run of Richard II. THEN THERE WAS THE RUGBY. A WHOLE day off on Sunday! Then a run through of Henry IV Part I and II on Monday. Then back to Henry V on Tuesday. Honestly, we're getting a little schizophrenic.
 Geoffrey added a little to the blog I wrote about the rugby last week by recording the 'we few, we happy few....' speech for ITV which was played before the match on the telly and apparently in the England dressing room beforehand. So we like to think we had a hand in the win on Saturday night.... Amazing what a bunch of namby-pamby actors can do, isn't it?
The runs of Richard and the Henrys were fun affairs. There is a strange feeling that comes over you when doing these things because your brain and your body act before you have time to think. Muscle memory and word memory beat thought and you find yourself speaking, moving, dancing whilst in an almost out of body experience. The dance that Hannah, Anthony and I do as The Queen, Green and Bushy in Richard II we had not practiced or gone through in 2 and half months and suddenly there it was. My feet seemed to be moving in the right places and my mouth was opening and closing but I had no knowledge of the moves or words. They were just there. And nobody seemed to stop me or giggle in the corner and hide their faces in bafflement so I must've been doing the right things.
Henry IV Part II was a more interesting affair because it was the least bedded in of all the shows over the summer so some of the cuts etc. were not as fresh in the mind as they might. Still, we got through it. I couldn't remember half of my cuts and changes but we navigated around them.... Sigh.
Then it was back to Henry V. We really are enjoying rehearsing this one. It's bloody hard work. And it's hard to get it right too. Pistol is a fascinating, weird, fantastic shambles of a character and I love him. But he's bloody difficult. But he'll be rewarding to play and hopefully the audience will go on that journey with him.
Which is of course what we have done with the England rugby team over the last few months! ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREECH, DEAR FRIENDS, ONCE MORE!!!!
 Respond to Nick's blog
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