Let the rehearsals begin!

As I(Julia) write this blog, I am sitting up the back of the Romeo And Juliet rehearsals. We are all hot and sweaty after a massive dance number we have just rehearsed. Ed (our dashing young Romeo) has a stocking on his head. Underwear is hanging from our set washing line. Anthony (Capulet) and Huw (Tybalt) are rehearsing their scene, throwing insults at each other upon a rickety jetty 2 meters in the air. Felix (Benvolio & Paris) is noodling away on the electric accoustic guitar we’ve got in the room. Suz (Nurse), T Bone (Lady Cap), and Tilly (Juliet) are giggling over cups of deserved tea on their break. Already this production is looking to be extraordinary.

Damien Ryan (director) is just a delight to work with. He’s a fun, irreverent, light hearted guy who just loves this play and knows it inside out. Quoting our own lines before we’ve even got them down. 

This is set to be the most playful, surprising, and joyful production of Romeo and Juliet I’ve ever been in. Be sure to pester your teachers to book your school excursion. Or even come of your own accord! Trust me – you don’t want to miss it!

That’s a wrap!

Team H have just wrapped up the first leg of their tour. Now it’s Romeo And Juliet time!!

Snapshots from Team T

 Team T (aka The Fairies) have been taking some happy snaps of their time on the road. Enjoy…

Felix's new shoes! Call it method acting, he wants to walk in Macbeth's shoes. Talk about commitment!!!!

Shakespeare was the mayor of Cessnock, WOW!!! Who would have thought, we are meant to be here! Thanks Cessnock the players have had a ball.

This is a photo from Newcastle grammar. We're performing in their chapel which is cool! It Makes performing Macbeth feel more eerie and dangerous! Who knows what those supernatural beings and "evil spirits" will think when called upon during the show!

Just some crazy photos of The Fairies!

It’s Complicated

The Players are all looking forward to rehearsing Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet, which will be hitting the Sydney Opera House stage in May this year.

While preparing to play Juliet, Matilda stumbled across this image and thought it summed up her relationship with Romeo quite nicely! What do you all think?

The World’s Largest…

Team T (aka The Fairies) have taken to the road and are traveling north. They’re currently travelling through the Hunter Region and sent back this update:

Felix: So, we’re off. I’m currently sitting in the back seat of our Kia carnival while Ed is driving along the road. Teresa is reading George Orwell next to me and Suz is up the front arguing with the navman!  We are 30 km from our destination, Muswellbrook. We have had a stunning day weather wise and for me, only having lived in NSW for two years, I’m completely in awe of the beauty of this area. So green with rolling hills. You should ear Ed! He is a farmer at heart and he is in paradise! Every 10 minutes he goes “oh, wow, look at that! Now this is living!”

Anyway, gotta go. Here is a photo we just took at, get this, the World’s Largest Sundial. Yeah! It’s in Singleton. We will stop and take photos at every ‘World’s Largest Thing’ we come across. That’s a promise. Till next time. Felix.

Felix, Teresa and Ed hanging out with World's Largest Sundial

Shout Out to Trangie

Team H (aka The Forst Fourlio) wished they could have stuck around to see your CRAZY hair. Tell us all about the hairdos on parade, Trangie Central School!

Thanks for having us Trangie Central!

Postcards from Orange and Dubbo

Team H (Matilda, Huw, Julia and Anthony) have hit the road and have some tales to share.

Matilda: So we are well into our first week on the road and it’s so fun! Orange and Dubbo have been a blast. We are taking in the sights. Julia and I spent an afternoon at the Orange botanical gardens and we are hoping we will get a chance to do the Dubbo zoo!

Team H taking on Orange and Dubbo with nothing more than what's in the boot of their van!

The shows have been delightful and we have had some great questions:

Q: Why did we perform with the house lights up in the Dubbo performance centre?

A: Because the show is interactive and we want to talk to you and see you all when we are performing.

Q: Why didn’t Banquo’s son become King at the end of the play?

A: It’s a plot line that isn’t resolved in the play. The witches create the fourth apparition for Macbeth; he sees a line of kings that look like Banquo and Fleance but the play ends with Malcolm being crowned King. Banquo, Duncan and Macbeth were real people who Shakespeare used as inspiration for the play. King James liked to believe that he was descended from the real Banquo and so this would have been an in joke to the audience in Shakespeare’s day.

Also loving the Dubbo baristas and their pac-man coffee art.

Coffee art Dubbo style

Secret Diary of The Players: Part II

Eager to find out if Huw was able to learn his lines? Look no further!

Huw: So let’s talk about that weekend:
Friday afternoon is fast approaching, it is the end of two weeks of introductory workshops, on Monday I will walk into the rehearsal room expected to know those lines I have been avoiding for the past couple of months. I am determined to devote the entire weekend, starting tonight, to some intensive line learning. My fellow players seem to already be confident enough with their lines to be quoting them to each other so I know I’m going to be the odd one out if I don’t put some work in before Monday. But then…..the afternoon rolls around and talk turns to what everyone is doing that night. Turns out there is a play reading  on at the Sydney Theatre Company that a few people are going to. My thoughts turn to my determination to spend this evening learning lines, but it’s only Friday, right? I can have tonight and then get up and start fresh tomorrow morning. And it’s only a play reading, I’ll probably even get home in time to do some work tonight!

What's my line??

Ummm….no. We meet in the foyer about 8:30, and I was right, it wasn’t a big night, but I run into some old friends, made some new ones, and none of them seem very concerned about my lines, so why should I be?! So of course I don’t make it home in time to get some work done. I wake at 12:32 on Saturday afternoon to a text message from my friend, Shaun who wants to cook a roast that night and wants me to come over for dinner. Surely I can’t be expected to turn down an invitation like that, no matter how many lines I have to learn! So, naturally I accept without hesitation and drag myself out of bed (off the couch….whatever) and start work on these lines! But I’m starving so I go down the road to get some breakfast and it’s 3:00 by the time I get back (oh, how time flies) however, while I’m eating one of my fellow cast members messages me and suggests we meet to run some lines. Turns out she’s not as confident as I thought, which surprises me, ’cause she’s a real teachers pet! So I get my act together and meet her at 5:00. We’ve only got an hour because she is going to the theatre and I have to get to dinner, but surely I know most of these lines already, right. A concerted hours work will be just the refresher I need to see me through the first day of rehearsals. Finally I’m getting it done, the work I had been promising I’d do for weeks.
Contrary to what I had hoped that hour only served to remind me of the numerous scenes I didn’t even know existed, let alone knew the lines for. But it was a start, there was no question I had made a start and I headed off for dinner safe in the knowledge that all I needed was a disciplined Sunday. One disciplined Sunday and no-one would ever know.

 
So I got up early this morning. Sunday. The last day before rehearsals begin. My last chance to forge some shred of professionalism. I got up early, had a hearty and luxurious breakfast, no need to rush, there was the whole day ahead, I was committed to the long haul.
To be honest…..I can’t really tell you what I’ve done since then. The true procrastinators among you will know exactly what I mean. I have been aware all day that I had lines that needed to be learned, and that there was an impending deadline, but…..well…..there was washing that needed to be done, and groceries that needed to be bought, and parents that needed to be called, and……cricket……that needed to be watched. It’s not that I was necessarily ignoring my homework, certainly I felt that familiar creeping dread that for so much of my life has been associated with Sundays. But in the back of my mind I still had that magical time, Sunday evening, and that enchanted hour between 7:30 and 8:30 when time seems to stand still and no matter how much you’ve got due for Monday morning it seems as though you’ve got all the (Young Talent) Time in the world.
But things have changed, maybe it’s because they’re in a different timeslot, maybe it’s because Millsy just can’t weave quite the same magic that Johnny Young could, maybe it’s because they’re all rubbish, but whatever the reason it’s now well after 8:30 and my lines are still unlearnt.
Perhaps some of you are reading this having already had us perform in your school, so I can only assume that I did manage to say all the right words at the right time, and I hope that you enjoyed the show. If however, you are yet to see us, I encourage you to remember ‘Young Talent Time’ at the moment you think to ask “how do you remember your lines?”

It’s all fun and games with Team H!

Check out what Team H does when they aren’t rehearsing…

Team H hits the road!

See what happened when Team H performed for the first time…