What Country Friends is This?

Week 8: Gifts of the Season

18 December 2011
Actor Felix Hayes had a big announcement: his wife, Hannah Broadway, gave birth to their daughter, Ursula Olive Hayes.

'I have done nothing but in care of thee,
Of thee, my dear one, thee my daughter, who
Art ignorant of what thou art…'
(The Tempest. I. ii. 16-18.)

Felix and Hannah spent many an afternoon walking along the Avon during Felix's previous season with the RSC, and in the boathouse next to boats named 'Miranda,' 'Ophelia,' and 'Viola,' they saw 'Ursula,' and took to the name from Much Ado About Nothing immediately.

While Felix is on paternity leave, the company is cleverly rehearsing all the scenes he is not in. This is not easy, as we are rehearsing The Comedy of Errors this week, and Felix is playing Dromio of Ephesus. A baby tax has been instituted across the company to purchase Ursu some great gear.

20 December 2011
For our company Secret Santa gift exchange, we set a £10 limit. Composer Adem Ilhan, who keeps an immaculate beard, received trimmers. Actor Jan Knightley, who likes to keep fit, received a skipping rope. I make no secret of my love of good food and drink, and received a herb grinder.

'I see a man here needs not live by shifts
When in the street he meets such golden gifts.'
(The Comedy of Errors. III. ii. 181-182.)

Some of Stage Management disregarded the 'secret' part of the task. It became common knowledge that Deputy Stage Manager Ali Tanqueray bought Assistant Stage Manager Sarah Hopkins a nail file inscribed with: 'I'm not bossy; I just have better ideas.'

No Shakespeare-related presents came to my attention.

23 December 2011
In time off from The Comedy of Errors rehearsals, I got a final pre-Christmas present: a three-on-one session with Movement Director Struan Leslie, Vocal Coach Michael Corbidge, and Assistant Director Jamie Allan.

I was placed in a doorframe and asked to stand upright. Struan showed me that I tend to keep my weight in my heels, which means my body tilts slightly backward, retreating into the doorframe. To deliver text and movement on stage, it is better to have your weight forward, propelling out of the doorframe. On a practical level, I need to shift my weight from being back on my heels to being forward in my toes.

To highlight the point, Struan and Michael chased me around the space while I lifted heavy objects, avoided obstacles, and responded to verbal cues like 'jump,' 'crawl' and 'roll on the ground.' At the same time they asked me to deliver different speeches from the plays.

Being on the move required my weight to be forwardly placed, which gave power and direction to the words I was speaking. It also left me with a desperate hunger for mince pies, brandy cream, and mulled wine.

'Does not our life consist of the four elements?
Faith, so they say, but I think it rather
consists of eating and drinking.'
(Twelfth Night. II. iii. 9-11.)

Photo: Felix Hayes, actor, playing Dromio of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors, Fabian in Twelfth Night, and Trinculo in The Tempest.

by Ankur Bahl  |  No comments yet

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