There is only 2 and a half weeks to go (everyone was quite clear on this) and so it was a tad disappointing today that a few of us were tripping up over lines we knew before - what was happening! Things I knew just went out my head and the same happened for other people. Maybe it is line overload. I don't know. We worked on some scenes that needed work so maybe it was just that, that things need a bit of polishing. Anyway the director, ever calm and encouraging, seems to have faith in us and is still positive which I think is admirable. It helps, to say the least and it also gives you the added incentive to get it right and justify his faith in you.
Funny how knowing your lines at home is different from knowing and acting them out at the theatre. Everyone's said the same. But it is different because you have other people saying things, possibly slightly differently to what you were expecting, and you are doing physical things as well. More to remember today but happily one little scene went quite well.
I hope that people come along: I mean, whoever comes will enjoy it, I'm sure, so in that way it doesn't matter, but it would be nice after everyone has worked hard on it. It's still an adventure for me because now things like props, the set and lighting are coming into it so I don't know what to expect. Probably best that way so I don't get too worked up beforehand. But I know a bit of nerves are useful.
Shame you get nerves in the wrong place, sometimes. I try to remember my meditation and breathing although it usually goes out the window when you want to be calm.
With ever increasing darkness in the news and in the grey skies of these short autumn days, it is nice to have something warm and Christmassy to look forward to.
Sunday 15 November 2015
Tuesday 10 November 2015
Bumps and fonts
I had an interview last week, 3 and a half hours in total: a tour of part of the school, two 15 minute group discussions with students, a 45 minute IT test and an interview with three people. I got to know the other candidates (two internal) over the course of the morning, so we had fun, even if I did not get offered the position. It was only part time, so I am hoping to hear from a similar school which has a full time position and is nearer.
Rehearsals last week were interesting: we all seemed to fluff our lines on Thursday night and took forever to get through one scene, but perhaps you have to do this to get it right. On Sunday we went up to the wardrobe section and I tried on some outfits for Pattie. Turned out I had been wearing the bump upside down, and now that the kind wardrobe lady has helped me with it, it looked much better, with an added bit of padding too. It took some squeezing under a couple of dresses. The director asked us to look at the recent comedy series, The Kennedys, which is set in the 70s like Season's Greetings, and has a pregnant character. He asked me to look at how she walks, moves etc. I was watching an episode and recognised the actress but couldn't think where I'd seen her. When I looked online, guess which school she went to. Only the one where I'd had the interview.
Work-wise I am trying many avenues but not all of them lead where I want to go. Time is ticking on and I do want to get something soon. It can get very disheartening. Beggars can't be choosers, but then again I have good qualifications and experience and know perfectly well I am capable of a lot. If everything wasn't so expensive I would not be in this situation. Supporting yourself also makes things more expensive but don't for one minute think I'm hooking up with anyone just for their money. I keep having the weirdest, unpleasant dreams, mostly about being trapped, funnily enough.
I still have my articles to write for Wiltshire Life magazine about our font obsession. I had great fun making my sister a quiz all about the places we have been, including a photo montage at the end. Choosing the photos made me realise just how many places we have been to and how many marvellous things we have seen, adding in photo after photo of fonts and doors and creatures and designs. It was quite moving in fact. I fail to see how anyone could not be excited by some of it. But I understand that they're not... It's quite funny now that we only want to talk about these places and when I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the play. Turned into a right bore.
I don't care. I know what I like and what I can do. Still having fun doing logic puzzles and getting paid for them. Inspired by the Antiques Roadshow, my current one is on antique finds. Every week on that programme someone has found something valuable in their garden or in a skip. I saw a lovely little gravy boat in the charity shop yesterday, from a Staffordshire pottery. Things do shout quality, it's true.
Rehearsals last week were interesting: we all seemed to fluff our lines on Thursday night and took forever to get through one scene, but perhaps you have to do this to get it right. On Sunday we went up to the wardrobe section and I tried on some outfits for Pattie. Turned out I had been wearing the bump upside down, and now that the kind wardrobe lady has helped me with it, it looked much better, with an added bit of padding too. It took some squeezing under a couple of dresses. The director asked us to look at the recent comedy series, The Kennedys, which is set in the 70s like Season's Greetings, and has a pregnant character. He asked me to look at how she walks, moves etc. I was watching an episode and recognised the actress but couldn't think where I'd seen her. When I looked online, guess which school she went to. Only the one where I'd had the interview.
Work-wise I am trying many avenues but not all of them lead where I want to go. Time is ticking on and I do want to get something soon. It can get very disheartening. Beggars can't be choosers, but then again I have good qualifications and experience and know perfectly well I am capable of a lot. If everything wasn't so expensive I would not be in this situation. Supporting yourself also makes things more expensive but don't for one minute think I'm hooking up with anyone just for their money. I keep having the weirdest, unpleasant dreams, mostly about being trapped, funnily enough.
I still have my articles to write for Wiltshire Life magazine about our font obsession. I had great fun making my sister a quiz all about the places we have been, including a photo montage at the end. Choosing the photos made me realise just how many places we have been to and how many marvellous things we have seen, adding in photo after photo of fonts and doors and creatures and designs. It was quite moving in fact. I fail to see how anyone could not be excited by some of it. But I understand that they're not... It's quite funny now that we only want to talk about these places and when I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the play. Turned into a right bore.
I don't care. I know what I like and what I can do. Still having fun doing logic puzzles and getting paid for them. Inspired by the Antiques Roadshow, my current one is on antique finds. Every week on that programme someone has found something valuable in their garden or in a skip. I saw a lovely little gravy boat in the charity shop yesterday, from a Staffordshire pottery. Things do shout quality, it's true.
Monday 2 November 2015
it's getting more real
This line-learning and rehearsing is quite tiring, I think. I suppose it is a lot of concentrating. It is strange how you think you know the lines at home and when you get to the theatre, and you are standing in a different place and hearing different people saying the cues, suddenly it gets muddled and goes out of your head. Got to get them in there now. It's getting increasingly near.
I need to be louder so I am hoping that I will be able to get some tips for projecting my voice from the others. I don't want to spoil anything by not being heard. It's good to have someone telling you that because I think I'm speaking loudly but, as Richard pointed out, at the start I am at the back of the stage and the sound has to carry a long way. So I have that to work on. I still feel odd doing little actions like tidying my husband's clothes, so I hope I can get on with that and get over the oddness.
I need to be louder so I am hoping that I will be able to get some tips for projecting my voice from the others. I don't want to spoil anything by not being heard. It's good to have someone telling you that because I think I'm speaking loudly but, as Richard pointed out, at the start I am at the back of the stage and the sound has to carry a long way. So I have that to work on. I still feel odd doing little actions like tidying my husband's clothes, so I hope I can get on with that and get over the oddness.
I have sent a flyer to everyone I know round here so I hope that some of them will come along. It would be good to have as many people as possible. Now I appreciate plays more because I know how much hard work has gone into it. I think I should go to many more. I went to the Masqueraders' show on Friday which was mostly singing, some dancing. It was impressive that so many people enjoy getting up there and singing. At least I don't have to sing, I couldn't do that. When I stepped through the front door, it was at once both scary and exciting. It suddenly made our own show more real. In a few weeks' time, people I know and don't know will be coming through those doors to watch the show. Which is exciting because I know they will enjoy it, it is very funny and my fellow cast are wonderful, as is the director. So I have total trust in them which is a nice feeling. I am of course nervous to do my best and to get it right and so on. But I think that we will be concentrating so hard it won't be possible to take that much notice of the audience.
I have seen posters around town now which look great, so I hope that people are in the mood for a festive trip to the theatre.
Gloucestershire
Hallowe'en is always going to be a strange day, in my opinion, as the two worlds of so-called reality and spooky things are at their closest. Strange things have happened historically and today was no different. Well, for a start it was gloriously sunny, which was unusual. We had decided that it might be one of the last good days this year for getting out to places (sob!) so we set off, this time in The Van, which was a pleasant change and meant that anyone who did hurtle down narrow lanes towards us would have to do the reversing this time...
So we set off further afield than usual, all the way out past Cirencester in Gloucestershire. It is an area we visited once before and so we were recalling the delights of Langford, Inglesham, Highworth, Ampney St Mary etc and the not so delightful drizzle in which we visited them. Gloucestershire seemingly has a wealth of things to visit and we were absolutely spoilt with what we found. It was one of those trips that was just one gasp after another. And we increasingly laugh about how probably no one else really understands our excitement. Although there are a few people who have shared or share our interests.
First stop (and what a stop), was St Swithins, Quenington, a place near where we'd been before and nearly visited, but ran out of time and energy. We were without our usual information books, but my sister remembered that Quenington had "beakheads" - the ones where animal heads grip the arch above the doorway in their beaks or mouths. Always entertaining and always worth visiting. So we found the cute old village of Quenington, complete with 15th century stone gateway, the "knight's arch" and stream. The church notice proudly declared "NORMAN DOORWAY" which boded extremely well, as when the church cares about its romanesque architecture, you can be sure they have looked after it well. (It is a Grade I listed building, I am glad to read). So we walked with anticipation up the long pathway craning a little to get the first look at the door, expecting something exciting. (It's always exciting that first glimpse...) Gasps ensued. The doorway has a wealth of excitement. It's as if the carver got carried away and did everything he could. Arch decoration, capitals with fabulous faces, flowers, interlacing patterns, and a complicated tympanum showing Jesus standing on the devil, spearing him in fact and 3 figures - with what looked like rabbit ears but must have been hair. There was also a ram's head (date unsure) over the top. It is all a little overwhelming when there is so much to see. It is almost as if the carver is showcasing his talents. So we stood there, marvelling at it in excitement, and a woman (I can't remember if she said she was the churchwarden or vicar) came along. She seemed rightly proud of the door and gave us an information leaflet.
We decided that, although R had been sure there had been beakheads, perhaps she had got muddled with somewhere else. But as she was reading about the north doorway, she read on and spluttered in excitement that there was also a south door! Not believing our luck, we hurried round the side of the church and were amazed to see a second equally elaborate doorway, with carved arches and tympanum, this one even more complicated. It was apparently, the coronation of the Virgin and there she was with the figures of the evangelists (their animal forms) and a house (for good measure). And more importantly - there were the beakheads! Around the archway were some delightfully comic beakheads, clutching the archway in their mouths for all eternity, including a wide-faced horse, a boar(?) with little teeth and a hare. Fabulous. The "hinge" design up the sides of the door was just the same as the one at South Cerney, also in Gloucestershire - it must surely be the same carver. This sort of thing is exciting for me because how many people (except Pevsner and one or two many years ago) have gone round viewing carvings and comparing them, to the extent that they know the same person must have done their special design in more than one place? We were joking that we could set ourselves Mastermind questions on the subject (but apparently we have better things to be getting on with).
So Quenington was rather exciting and we returned to the van feeling that the day could not get any better, because one amazing door is something, but two is just fabulous. The Knights Templar ran the church so perhaps this has something to do with how ornate the doors were.
Next stop was nearby Coln St Aldwyn's where we went to see two dragon heads. You can't beat a good dragon's head and these two were some of the finest we've seen. Both had lovely toothy grins and had more detail than some, and I was rather pleased with my drawing too.
Finally we finished up at Southrop, where there was another woman who told us about the church. The font there was just inside the door and was very elaborate. It had a fancy band all around the top, which was a very complicated design with a rather pleasing "buckle" part. Below this (we read) were some figures standing on other figures and spearing them. They were the virtues conquering the vices. It was interesting but I don't care for designs with people as much as patterns, I've decided. I didn't really care for the bloodthirsty depiction of these virtues either, and it was an echo of a very unpleasant scene we had inadvertently driven through to get there. We'd been going through country lanes and the sides of the road were cluttered with stupid people waiting to watch a hunt go through. I won't rant here but you will get the point that we were not on their side. Anyway - the font seemed to echo this in tasteless violence. There was an arch inside that had a similar pattern to that at Ditteridge.
The wealth of riches in Gloucestershire (there were many places we had to leave for another day) was a bit tiring and so we headed home before the sun set.
So we set off further afield than usual, all the way out past Cirencester in Gloucestershire. It is an area we visited once before and so we were recalling the delights of Langford, Inglesham, Highworth, Ampney St Mary etc and the not so delightful drizzle in which we visited them. Gloucestershire seemingly has a wealth of things to visit and we were absolutely spoilt with what we found. It was one of those trips that was just one gasp after another. And we increasingly laugh about how probably no one else really understands our excitement. Although there are a few people who have shared or share our interests.
First stop (and what a stop), was St Swithins, Quenington, a place near where we'd been before and nearly visited, but ran out of time and energy. We were without our usual information books, but my sister remembered that Quenington had "beakheads" - the ones where animal heads grip the arch above the doorway in their beaks or mouths. Always entertaining and always worth visiting. So we found the cute old village of Quenington, complete with 15th century stone gateway, the "knight's arch" and stream. The church notice proudly declared "NORMAN DOORWAY" which boded extremely well, as when the church cares about its romanesque architecture, you can be sure they have looked after it well. (It is a Grade I listed building, I am glad to read). So we walked with anticipation up the long pathway craning a little to get the first look at the door, expecting something exciting. (It's always exciting that first glimpse...) Gasps ensued. The doorway has a wealth of excitement. It's as if the carver got carried away and did everything he could. Arch decoration, capitals with fabulous faces, flowers, interlacing patterns, and a complicated tympanum showing Jesus standing on the devil, spearing him in fact and 3 figures - with what looked like rabbit ears but must have been hair. There was also a ram's head (date unsure) over the top. It is all a little overwhelming when there is so much to see. It is almost as if the carver is showcasing his talents. So we stood there, marvelling at it in excitement, and a woman (I can't remember if she said she was the churchwarden or vicar) came along. She seemed rightly proud of the door and gave us an information leaflet.
We decided that, although R had been sure there had been beakheads, perhaps she had got muddled with somewhere else. But as she was reading about the north doorway, she read on and spluttered in excitement that there was also a south door! Not believing our luck, we hurried round the side of the church and were amazed to see a second equally elaborate doorway, with carved arches and tympanum, this one even more complicated. It was apparently, the coronation of the Virgin and there she was with the figures of the evangelists (their animal forms) and a house (for good measure). And more importantly - there were the beakheads! Around the archway were some delightfully comic beakheads, clutching the archway in their mouths for all eternity, including a wide-faced horse, a boar(?) with little teeth and a hare. Fabulous. The "hinge" design up the sides of the door was just the same as the one at South Cerney, also in Gloucestershire - it must surely be the same carver. This sort of thing is exciting for me because how many people (except Pevsner and one or two many years ago) have gone round viewing carvings and comparing them, to the extent that they know the same person must have done their special design in more than one place? We were joking that we could set ourselves Mastermind questions on the subject (but apparently we have better things to be getting on with).
So Quenington was rather exciting and we returned to the van feeling that the day could not get any better, because one amazing door is something, but two is just fabulous. The Knights Templar ran the church so perhaps this has something to do with how ornate the doors were.Next stop was nearby Coln St Aldwyn's where we went to see two dragon heads. You can't beat a good dragon's head and these two were some of the finest we've seen. Both had lovely toothy grins and had more detail than some, and I was rather pleased with my drawing too.
The wealth of riches in Gloucestershire (there were many places we had to leave for another day) was a bit tiring and so we headed home before the sun set.
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