Thursday 20th June
The show is beginning to come together and all the sections were roughly put together with additional details added to make the transition from scene to scene more fluid. This is the most trying time for any director working with a big cast as you want the team to be fully focused and fairly quiet while you think and plan the next move. It is really hard to focus when in the cast as you end up chatting to the person next to you and the low din becomes a cacophony quite quickly. Stephen and Krista show great patience and slowly walk us through the show so far. The introduction of text adds some new challenges and it dawns on me that I have to start learning mine instead of just expecting it to happen. We don costume for the second half of the day and work out some detailed moves to take off our helmets, which after a while get hot and heavy for some people. At times it is obvious that this group are of mixed physical and learning ability and, at other times, it’s just like working in any university. The costumes made everyone hot and this was discomforting for some. But we all pressed on and the spirit of the team is really encouraging and we have all overcome many issues together.
Then we returned to The Waiting Room and after a long day of rehearsals we are all a little tired. The foyer of the Millennium Centre is also a tough space to work in but with a little gusto and a really supportive audience I think we pull it off. It is so easy to forget that for Danny this is his first real show because he adapts so well to it after such a long day with Frantic. It was great to see some familiar faces and wonderful to push them in the direction of Cirque Inextremiste, the pick of this years bill so far, and then read their Facebook comments. It reminds me that it’s all about celebrating human endeavour and communicating with each other as best we can.
Friday 21st June
Well dear reader this is day 12 and if you have got this far through these series of blogs … you’ve done very well. How can someone’s experience truly resonate in this form I wonder… and I also question why I post this blog when maybe just a few people will read it. But I feel I have to put this into print as today has been the final day of rehearsals and a touching penultimate episode to the Frantic residency. After a brief walk through in the performance space, Scott told us to be bold and brave in our movement. He said he liked mistakes in theatre but only when they are bold ones, when people do everything with 100% and without apology. He also said that he has never seen a company so full of love and support for each other and that we should show this in our duet work. It’s a beautiful observation and I feel close to all the people who have worked so hard on this project so far and touched that he has noticed after just a few days the warmth in the group. Tomorrow we hit the space and then perform twice to finish the Unity Festival. People have asked me what will I do when this is finished and I can’t even think beyond the shows…
Tonight’s performance of The Waiting Room was the best yet and despite feeling weary beforehand the show energised us all. It was a wonderful way to end the run and the audience were splendidly bemused, tickled and engaged! Danny was highly animated and seemed to revel in his role, so much so that he milked a round of applause from the crowd! We had a beer afterwards and watched the legendary Snooks Brothers Aquatic and laughed at the lunacy! Now as I write this I feel worn out. I have some text to go over and some choreography to put straight in my mind before sleep. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and to the premiere of this ambitious and exciting piece of work that had been expertly developed with the Frantic Assembly team. Thanks dear reader for staying with me and good night to you.
Photo: Malwina Matusiewicz
Saturday 22nd June
Well it all happened… sections edited over might, practice runs and dress rehearsal all before midday and then it was show time. A really good crowd pitched up for the 1pm showing of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger and it went well enough but we all knew it could be better. We had a long lunch break and ate some good Mexican food with Jeremy and Denni before heading back to warm up again. We ran some sections and tidied up some cues and then got into costume and headed back to the centre. The 7pm show was packed, Hairspray is on in the main auditorium and the pre-show crowd check us out before ambling off. We nail it… the opening sequences are the best we’ve performed them and it felt great. An emotional round of post show speeches was followed by a few beers and dancing to The Unlikely Lads, Fish Police and Vaguely Artistic. The Frantic Team hung out with the rest of us well into the early hours and then the cast sad the longest goodbye’s in history.
Photo: Malwina Matusiewicz
Conclusion
Unity is a great festival, there is no doubt about that, and like any festival the joy is to be as involved as possible. I think I can say that we’ve been firmly up to our ears in this years Unity and its been a joy. The opportunity to work with Hijinx to make The Waiting Room, with Ben Pettit-Wade at the helm and featuring Danny Mannings, was very special for us. Further to direct the Odyssey performance for the festival was the perfect opportunity to see an inclusive community group embrace and rise to the challenges of performing amongst the audience. The residency with Frantic Assembly has simply echoed the fact that together anything can be achieved… no matter what!
I cannot recommend the experience of being involved in Unity enough. It has been a wonderfully frantic fortnight of creativity and community and I am so grateful for this time.
See more photographs by Malwina Matusiewicz www.flickr.com/photos/malwinaewa