Keith's blog

It's the Final Countdown!
Last week we had our final week's rehearsal in the rehearsal room.
 

After our first run the previous Friday there was much food for thought and it was right back to the beginning of the play. Some ideas were jettisoned, others developed further, and many new ones tried, at this stage it's still growing and will continue to do so through previews, press night and beyond. One significant new thing for me is that I've been given a song to sing by Paul Englishby who's rather brilliant and is composing all the music for our part of the summer season. It's a counter-tenor Miserere sung in Ophelia's funeral procession, beautiful and very moving setting of that liturgical text. When I started to rehearse it with John Wolfe the Musical Director for the show (and also the RSC's Head of Music) I nearly couldn't get through it because I kept choking up! I was, and am, quite daunted by it as I need to use a part of my voice that I don't use very often; the so-called ‘head voice' or falsetto; I can sing but I'm a belter, this song requires something much more delicate. As well as being very high in pitch, there are a couple of long delicate phrases that require precise breath control, so I've worked hard using John and Paul's expertise and that of the Voice Department, Alison Bomber and Lynn Farleigh, to try to do it justice.

We had a second run of the play on Wednesday (16th) and a huge leap forward, we were more assured as to the shape of the play, that extra assurance thus gave us the confidence to be braver and everyone upped their game. After the second run Greg was more selective in what needed to be rehearsed on Thursday before our final run in the rehearsal room on Friday. Friday's run came and we had an audience comprised mainly of the producer (Denise Wood), designer (Rob Jones) and technicians who will work on the show, sound and lighting, wigs and makeup. Greg gives us the customary warning that they won't be a very responsive audience, as they will be taking notes of what they will need to do when we get to production week in the theatre and the technical rehearsal. This tends to be a feature of final runs, for instance Tim Mitchell the lighting designer would note where actors are standing so that he can have an idea to sketch out the lights for a particular scene, similarly Jeremy Dunn (sound) would note where any effects should go and if there are any special requirements such as radio-mikes. Our final run was another step forward and left us poised in an excellent state of preparation for this week. We say goodbye to the rehearsal room with a glass of Cava and some nibbles bought with Greg's Mobile Phone Fund. This is made up of fines incurred by actors whose mobile phones go off in rehearsals. There is a sliding scale of fines if a mobile phone goes off in normal rehearsal it's £5 if, heavens forefend, during a run a whopping £25!

We have Sunday off and into the theatre for the technical rehearsal, or 'tech' in thesp parlance, on Monday. We are scheduled to tech for three full days, hopefully culminating in dress rehearsals on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon before the first preview on Thursday. I love techs, rehearsals pre-tech are necessarily actor-centric when we first arrive at the theatre its over to stage management and the technical staff so the heat's off for us as they strut their stuff. As actors, apart from the mechanics of the play, we use the time to gently acclimatise ourselves to the space vocally and physically. On entering the theatre for the first time it is clear that Rob Jones's model of the set that we saw seven weeks ago has been magnificently realised in situ as constructed by the Timothy's Bridge Road workshops as are the costumes made by our wardrobe department. Around the auditorium, a scattering of cast and crew all taking in the new environment we get to discover for the next few days, the glow of computer screens, the murmur of muttered instructions into headsets, and the tap tapping of fingers on keyboards. The technology now available for theatre is amazing, digital sound, motorised lights and automatic flying all help to create the physical world of Hamlet. For three days each scene was painstakingly set up for light, sound, music and we slowly went through the play. The bulk of the time is spent on scene changes, any special effects that need to be tested and a quick changes of costume that need to be practised and repeated as necessary.

We completed the tech in time to have a dress run on Wednesday evening. In the first dress the actors have to get back in the driving seat having not been in control for the best part of a week which can be pretty tricky because there's so many new things to deal with, thus we tend to approach them with caution rather than with all guns blazing, to make sure we get through safely. It was a good dress run and we only stopped once when the players came on early to set up for the play-within-a-play whilst we of the Danish court were still hanging some lanterns. Following the run, Greg decides that it'd be better to work on a couple of technically complex sequences on Thursday and forgo a second dress before our first preview, which is what we do in the lead up to playing in front of the paying public for the very first time!

I write this during our first preview which is being attended by Gordon Brown! A bit of a shaky start for us on the battlements as the radio-controlled torches we use to light each other in the first scene crashed; mine within about 30 seconds and Ewen's about four minutes in so we were in complete darkness for a significant portion of the scene, we are told that it could've been because of the number of police radios in and around the building interfering with our signal; the potential for this to happen again is too risky so it's decided that we'll operate the lights manually.

We've got to the interval and all is well, a couple of minor glitches but the audience seem to be very much on our side and we're imbued with the feverish excitement that goes with a first preview.

We've just finished to a standing ovation; a truly excellent first preview, Greg is very pleased and David T relieved that at last we're up and running! Backstage afterwards we lined up to press the flesh with the Prime Minister who was very jolly and charming as he was when I met him a couple of years ago (just goes to show that you shouldn't believe all you read in the papers), then swiftly on to The Duck for an excited collective debrief with drinks and chips and onion rings laid on, which absolutely hits the post-show spot!

KO 28/07

   Respond to Keith's blog

Responses to Keith's blog

"It’s been wonderful to read your blogs and I’m so looking forward to my very first Shakespeare play and what a baptism of fire for me! Hamlet, has always been one of the plays I wanted to see and, more to the point, to try and understand, just how Shakespeare composed and visualised his plays and how, in these modern times, we can reconcile the concerns and lives of our predecessors with our own. I shall be spellbound, I know. Best Wishes to Everyone in The Cast "

Julie

"I am enjoying reading your blogs enormously and check the RSC website regularly for updates. I am amazed you find the time to write, in between all the rehearsals and performances you are involved in, as well as your trips to the Dirty Duck (I hope to see you and some of the cast there when I pay it a visit after watching you on stage next week!). It is intriguing to hear about the preview night from an actor's perspective. I have read lots of fan reviews of that evening which are extremely complimentary about the whole cast. I don't think anyone noticed the technical hitch at the start! A huge "Well Done!" is deserved all round. I am confident that press night will be equally triumphant. Looking forward to seeing the play in person and your next installment. "

Janine

"Thanks so very much for the insights into rehearsals and the excitement felt by the cast and crew in the lead-up to the opening preview night. Your blog is an excellent counterpart to the reviews of Hamlet that have been accumulating over at a certain forum (okay, so it might have something to do with Doctor Who….). And from the reviews I’ve read, all members of the cast and crew should be congratulated for their efforts. It would seem that we’re all just as excited about seeing Hamlet as you all appear to be performing and participating in it. Many of us – including those who aren’t fortunate enough to be attending -- have dragged out copies of Hamlet to either be introduced to it for the first time or to dust off old memories of studying it in high school. I am greatly look forward to seeing the production in November. "

Cindy

"I wanted to say how much I have enjoyed reading the blog and how interesting it is to read what the process of putting a play together is like from an actor's point of view. Thank you very much for all your insights. Also I came to watch Hamlet last Friday (1st August) and it was brilliant! I had been looking forward to it a lot but it was even better than I had expected and the rest of my family really enjoyed it too. I think it was the best production I have seen by the RSC. It would be great if there was a DVD recording of it we could buy - I'm sure there would be plenty of demand for it. I'm really looking forward to coming to see Love's Labour's Lost now. Thank you again."

Ruth

Latest blog posts

- London previews 
- There's no place like London 
- The end is nigh 
- If music be the food 
- Autumn anarchy 
- Another opening 
- Labouring on 
- Open Day 
- Bottom up! 
- Love's Labour's Last
- A pressing engagement
- Sunday lovely Sunday
- It's the Final Countdown!
- Bits and bobs
- Walking before we can run
- Words, words, words
- Up and Down
- Athens to Elsinore 
- A bit of a break
- Dream on      

About blogger Keith

         

Likes: Music, cycling, food, theoretical physics

Dislikes: Queuing, flying, mice (and creatures of similar size), smoking

Keith plays Marcellus in Hamlet, Egeus in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Marcade in Love's Labour's Lost as part of the ensemble.