Michelle and Bec contemplate script changes on the first day of rehearsal/set-up as the Jub Jub Tree waits patiently to bloom...
First day of tackling the actual show after having been so immersed in the classroom experience with the kids - I found myself missing them and had to hold back from encouraging them to come and play on the grassy set as they went past on their way to other school activities.
Great to be reflecting with the artist team on how best to incorporate the practical learning we've gained over the course of the residency into the show - and to realise how much better we "understand" our audience now than when we started. (Fantastic, really, how readily we agreed on ditching certain elements of earlier versions of the show because we've all learnt through our time in the classroom what sorts of things are more likely to entertain [or bore!] the kids.) Also,kind of challenging at times today to leave behind the headspace of lesson-planning and workshop prep etc and re-enter our theatre-makers world - but also gratifying to "feel" the melding of the two streams of the same form. Really good to have a newer member of the team - Rachel - get us to question some of the theatrical choices of the earlier production of the show - and again, on that level, finding ourselves generally in agreement on better ways to do things.
We touched briefly again on the notion that we suspect, however, that the biggest change we'll encounter this time around won't so much be the show itself as it will be the reaction to the show from the kids who been experiencing the "embedding" of the elements we've explored with them before-hand. (It will be really interesting next week, to compare their emgagement with the couple of classes that will be coming to it "cold"...)
Was struck again today just how much professional expertise we've had on tap for us in the school as, mid-rehearsal, we asked a passing staff-member to clarify a key-word signing action we wanted to use in the script: "Oh no," she said, matter-of-factly hurrying by, "that's not the sign for 'sorry', that's the sign for 'lesbian'!"
Rehearsals and set-building continue...
Great to be reflecting with the artist team on how best to incorporate the practical learning we've gained over the course of the residency into the show - and to realise how much better we "understand" our audience now than when we started. (Fantastic, really, how readily we agreed on ditching certain elements of earlier versions of the show because we've all learnt through our time in the classroom what sorts of things are more likely to entertain [or bore!] the kids.) Also,kind of challenging at times today to leave behind the headspace of lesson-planning and workshop prep etc and re-enter our theatre-makers world - but also gratifying to "feel" the melding of the two streams of the same form. Really good to have a newer member of the team - Rachel - get us to question some of the theatrical choices of the earlier production of the show - and again, on that level, finding ourselves generally in agreement on better ways to do things.
We touched briefly again on the notion that we suspect, however, that the biggest change we'll encounter this time around won't so much be the show itself as it will be the reaction to the show from the kids who been experiencing the "embedding" of the elements we've explored with them before-hand. (It will be really interesting next week, to compare their emgagement with the couple of classes that will be coming to it "cold"...)
Was struck again today just how much professional expertise we've had on tap for us in the school as, mid-rehearsal, we asked a passing staff-member to clarify a key-word signing action we wanted to use in the script: "Oh no," she said, matter-of-factly hurrying by, "that's not the sign for 'sorry', that's the sign for 'lesbian'!"
Rehearsals and set-building continue...
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