If someone had told me 2 months ago that "And a Nightingale Sang" was going to be cancelled for a second time, I would sworn at them. But yet, here we are. It’s unprecedented in Catprint history, but these are strange times.
We did get a lot further down the path this time though. Unlike last time, where is was cancelled because I failed to cast it, this time I had a cast who stood on the precipice of starting rehearsals... who after holding their breaths waiting to start, we told no, sorry, we have had to postpone to May 2021. And what a fine cast it was too! I knew they was going to take this already great script to another level. Fingers crossed they ALL have the time and inclination to come back and do it next year because it’s going to be something special.
All the artwork for the show had been done last time, so all I had to do was update date the performance dates. So that was easy. I just have to do that again now. 10 mins max.
As rehearsals were about to start, I had actually finished all the blocking. For anyone who hasn’t been on stage, “blocking” is working out who is standing where and doing what, when people come on and off and all the actions they do on stage in direct relation to the lines of the script. It’s a fairly big task. Some directors make it up as they go along while other directors may workshop it during rehearsals. I personally like to have it all worked out in advance. I lie in bed at night and run through all the different options of who does what when, visualising it all in my head, so I can then select what I think is best, before we even start.
Notating and writing the blocking for Nightingale took me about 20 hours to complete. It was the hardest (as in most complicated) blocking I have ever done as some of the scenes have a lot of busy people doing things simultaneously. Try to imagine 7 people in a house together at the busiest time of day, each person with their own agenda, doing their own thing and interacting with everyone else who is also doing their own thing. You have to write down every move or action that each person takes in the house for a period of 30 minutes. And it has to be detailed enough that it can be repeated again, exactly the same as the first time. And it has to look perfectly natural and spontaneous too – the opposite to conceived in advance. Writing the blocking, so it doesn’t look like blocking, is an art in itself. There is no way I can wing that! Too many options. So I have to eliminate variations before I walk through the rehearsal door. That way I can tell the cast exactly what they need to do without second guessing myself. Sometimes a cast member may suggest an option I hadn’t considered and I am happy to look at the idea, so occasionally my blocking can evolve for the better and I love it when that happens. But anyway – blocking is done....
So is most of the set. (I’ll do a separate blog post on that, to show it progressing, when we start up again.)
Wardrobe has started. Can’t keep going on that until we confirm our cast again for next year.
All the music is sourced and ready to go. The play contains ten fabulous songs from the WWII era that will really help create a period atmosphere for the production.
So now I just sit and wait... until February.... and hope that next year its 3rd time lucky.
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