How to disappear… Directors Blog 1

Mon 09 Jan 2012

This is the first of a weekly blog from the YAC rehearsal room, where I shall endeavour to pass on thoughts and musings on how the show is progressing and give an insight into how we’re working. This will be the 8^th YAC show I’ve made, and will be the 4^th for the studio theatre so I’m always conscious about keeping things fresh each time. Each new project is essentially original in that it’s a different play or show, it can’t be exactly the same…but sometimes you see work by directors or companies and it feels a similar formula, the pattern has been set and it never frays far from that. Part of this problem can be with working with the same artists. Its incredibly useful to have a shorthand with working with people, an understanding where they just know, its intuitive. But its also so important to throw the doors open and invite new people in, a fresh draft never hurt anyone…

 So with this production I’m working with almost completely new people, 7 of the 8 actors haven’t performed with the YAC before and I’m pleased to be collaborating for the first time with movement director Shona Cowie, composer and musical director Nick Calpin, and designer Lucy Campbell. With these artists I want to find a new way of making work, to learn something myself and bring fresh ideas and impetus to the production. I think my work has a ‘Julian Ollive’ stamp on it, I’ve been told it does and believe there is an aesthetic that I’ve developed but its important to me that it isn’t too fixed or prescriptive. You don’t progress by just doing what you know. Its also important to keep providing opportunities for new young people to us. Auditions are strange things, for both sides, for me I have to make judgements on people very quickly. Its true you get a sense of peoples ability pretty quickly but its crucial to stay open minded and not be too rigid in your expectations, because those people might not come through the doors.

 We start rehearsals on the 18^th and work pretty intensively on it three times a week through to the production, actually with a week off in the middle this time (which is nice!) I always refer back to previous rehearsal schedules I’ve done for a barometer of how long and intensive a schedule should be. I learnt from an early show that over 10 weeks is too long, its difficult to sustain momentum and you end up losing people along the way. Its quite a long piece this one so we’ll be pushing it through to make sure we’ve got a grasp of it before going back and adding in the finer detail. This isn’t an easy thing to do, leaving parts slightly under done but a rehearsal process is about layering. Those layers can’t all be laid down at once, I’m looking for broad understanding and interpretation of character initially, along with basic blocking in the space. Then the second time through we deepen the character intentions and physicality (hopefully off book at this point), then some sound may come into the process and refining transitions between scenes. Pretty rarely do major staging changes happen after the initial work through. I go into rehearsals with a fairly clear idea of where to place things, this comes from a detailed knowledge of the performance space but also I work quite pictorially when I work through a script so see it quite clearly in my mind.

 I’ve been wanting to do this play for a while so I’ve had some time to digest it but now is the time to fix thoughts and get some detailed text work done before rehearsals start. So I better go do it…