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Back for Moor

Posted Monday, September 07, 2009

I'm rehearsing at a delightful community centre type place in Clapham and have been there fro the last week. there's a great movie theatre next door and some nice restaurants and a strange open door system. We were in the middle of the big street fight just before act 5 when a 3 year old toddled into the room and came straight to the middle of the fray. She stopped and looked around and then held her hands up to Simon who plays Lodovicio - he was brilliant ,without a second thought , he took her hand and led her back out side to her waiting mother who apologised for her wayward daughter's behaviour. Apparently the little girl told Simon a )'I'm Three and b) I'll see you next week.

So during the handkerchief scene I'll look out for this :

Othello: Fetch me the handkerchief, my mind misgves

Little girl: You can use mine Mister....it's got bogies in it tho'

Rehearsal's have been tough. Even though I vowed to keep on top of the lines in the break period , and even though I did manage to do some kind of line run every day for three or so months-that's not the same as rehearsing the play with your fellow actors. It's easy to lose the groove.

Barrie (Rutter , our director) has been very sympatico with my jitters and has spent a fair amount of time soothing us and calming us. He is also breaking in several new actors who need as much love and attention as I do - I don't quite know how he's doing it.

By the way - I'm not doing a performance of the play on the 20th of October , so Barrie is going to be doing this :

BARRIE RUTTER

ONE NIGHT STAND

FEATURING

FUNNY STORIES AND A LOAD OF POEMS.

At the Trafalgar Studios for one night only october 20. 2009

I saw it in Halifax and really enjoyed it-Barrie ,within seconds, has the audience eating out of his hands ; his natural wit and good humour really makes the evening fly by - It's a funny and strangely moving night out.

The rehearsals have been great and I've loved plugging back into the cast and hearing stories of their summer adventures - they're a good group of people and , as usual with the Northern Broadsides Theatre company -they seem to really know their stuff. So once again I feel safe to try things and to be told things without fear of embarrassment. People jump in to help or to guide without any fear whatsoever - I feel part of a team ...

Flying into week two of rehearsals and the weird thing is ,that when you're working in London -everyone just assumes you're available for meetings and stuff - 'Can you squeeze in a meeting at the end of the day?' 'Can you pop to such and such at the beginning of the day and do such and such' 'Can you meet this bloke at lunchtime?' 'Can you meet this other bloke when Desdemona's singing Willow-it's urgent'

I have to protect

myself a bit while I'm working in London because all these meetings have a negative effect-I'm sure they do. I get tired and cranky and miserable and that's a shit way to feel when you're gearing up for a London run of a difficult play.

( End of Self pep talk)

I was at a family wedding in Wolverhampton yesterday and it was brilliant! We arrived at the Jubilee Centre in Wolverhampton to find that we had been called at 1pm -even though the wedding ceremony began at two , because 'Black people are always late'. The Bride had factored in CPT (as Martin Luther King used to refer to it) -Coloured People Time...into her wedding day arrangements.

I was gobsmacked -we were there for a full hour; and don't get me wrong ,it WAS nice listening to the Christian Support Team singing a lot of hymns whilst Wolverhampton's version of Tower of Power gave it Laldi up on stage ,but it would have been nice not to have hurried.

My Brother Seymour of course showed up 40 minutes into the ceremony in a white suit ,wondering what all the fuss was about. He's too cool. He would actually be late for his own funeral - I know people would say that ,but it's true. Seymour would get up out of the casket , pour himself a brandy and coke and say 'I ain't lying in no Open Casket dressed like this -we going shoppin' -come'

The whole family was there supporting Keeley ,who is my neice, Jennifer's second eldest daughter. (phew). Keeley married her sweetheart of four years , Stephen and they were deliriously happy on the big day;both were dressed to impress like stars of the silver screen and kissed every time we tinkled our spoons against our glasses. It was a funny and emotional day.

Now I'm on the train because we're going to do a reading of all the scripts so far for Rudy's Rare Records series two - and figure out what needs to be re jigged before we start recording those bad boys. They're looking good and I'm vibrating with anticipation -can't wait to get them onto tape.

So -we have a dress rehearsal night for Othello on Thursday , which basically gives us a chance to do our costume changes and things and get timings in our head before we open proper on Friday - the official Press night is the 18th and then we're off til December 12th - as Commander Shore in Stingray used to say - 'Stand by -for -ACTION!'