We’ve just completed our third week of rehearsals, and with one more week to go they just get to be more and more fun each and every time. Today we had a photographer in, snapping away, so we worked in costumes. She also took some video clips, so I’ve created a little ‘trailer’ for you to share in a little bit of the process.
As some of you are aware, this production is also the performance element of my PhD on the theory of the voice in performance. As such, the University of Queensland, School of EMSAH provides me with the venue, but everything else is up to me. So I decided that this was the time to launch my own theatre company, something I’ve been dreaming about ever since I returned to Australia in the late 1990s. Getting the team together has proved a challenge, and I am so honoured to have such a talented and dedicated group of people working with me, all passionate about making poor theatre. We are working as an Equity Co-op company, under professional conditions, just without the wage packet, sharing the profit and the joy, but not the loss (because there won’t be a loss!)
As we now move into the final week before Production Week, there are programs to be drafted and printed, chairs to be acquired for the venue, (yes, the newly refurbished Drama Studio cum Lecture Room doesn’t actually have its own chairs), and costume and set items to be finalised. Our stage manager joins us full time this week, our musician is creating the most amazing soundscape, our dramaturg is happily kicking ass with her fine-tuning, and the lighting design will take shape over this coming week.
As you can see from the video clip, Tony and I take our work – but not ourselves – seriously.
