Rehearsals, Recordings and Rentals

Another week of rehearsals; check. The show is coming along. Development is on track and we are finding some interesting and fun characters that will be a joy to present to the industry in September. Everyone is really working hard. The truth is: pressure is on! We have a lot to accomplish in the next two months! But I know everyone will deliver the goods!

This past week I spent time with my ‘Dead in Scotland’ cast mate, Barbara, going over some of the adjustments we are making to the script of ‘Dead in Scotland’ for her research project. She is producing and audio recording of the play. Meaning; in a couple of weeks we will go into the recording studio and do the show as a radio play. Although it is her project, I have found the process very interesting. Today we spent some time going over the sound effects. It really is amazing the sound effects we take for granted. For example: there is a part in the play where my character has to dig through her bag and pull out some legal papers and plop them on the table. Therefore, we will need a sound effect of me rifling through my bag and the smack the papers make when they hit the table. I was never aware of those sounds before but when you take away the visual and focus on the audio there are so many details in the sound waves! When I wrote the script I knew Barbara would be doing the recording so I purposefully kept the technical sounds to a minimum. I only had the sound of an electric kettle clicking off and the door opening and closing after some knocks. Easy right? I thought those were the only sound effects in the script. How wrong was I? There are a ton more! Tea being stirred, someone taking a sip, chairs being pulled out, footsteps here and there, and rifling through a purse! Who knew?! And we will be doing all our acting with our voices. No visual aids. So those silent stares we had during the stage show are not going to work in sound only storytelling. I’m excited to explore the differences and discover a new way of working! I’ll keep you posted!

Today a gaggle of us looked at a flat here in Glasgow. It looks doable and we have a meeting with the landlord later this week to hammer out some details. Hopefully all will go well and we can strike a deal. It would be a huge relief to get the living situation sorted out. It is a bit of a hassle to have to deal with it now. But if we can get it settled now that would be a help as the term is only going to get crazier from here on out!

This week we start work on a staged reading project to be performed later this month. We continue to rehearse the new plays from the professional playwrights and Thursday we head to the Fringe! We are scheduled to see several plays at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh over the next few weeks. So I’m bracing myself for a lot of train rides. The Fringe is a must for theatre lovers in the area and we would be daft to miss it! I'm really glad they built it into our curriculum! It will be fantastic to see the different varieties of performance offered at the Fringe. I’ll have a full report next week.

So off to bed I go because, man, there is a lot to think about!!
See ya next week!
-m

Oh! They named the baby Leo because he is a Leo! Too cute!