So we began rehearsals last Monday, and I got to meet our final cast member Theo, who is playing Max. He’s lovely! We started the week off by doing a read-through of the script, tried on costumes and learned the songs that would make the show magical! Everyone has done a fantastic job on every aspect of the show, so even on day one it was so exciting that I couldn’t contain myself!!
We spent the afternoon working on act one of the show and I finally got to release my wild side! It was going to be a fun week!
It was my turn to step up on Tuesday. We started by running what we had worked on Monday, but then we moved on to routines!! It was time to see if my choreography was going to work, gulp! We started with the monster song. I felt like I had a bit of a battle to face with one cast member who said he would refuse to dance, but once he saw what was involved he was absolutely fine with it, and after a couple of run-throughs, he was almost a pro! I was so pleased that everyone could do it, and from what I could see, it all worked really well and looked good! Relief! The afternoon brought with it an attempt at act two, and we had pretty much bashed out the whole play by the end of the day! We were on fire! I went home happy and gave the casting websites a quick look. I found a short film that interested me, but I wasn’t suitable for it. They wanted someone ‘not caucasian’. No more details of what they did want, just not Caucasian. Descriptive! I found a job that sounded interesting, it was a 48 hour film challenge, making a music video. There wasn’t much detail, as the company wouldn’t find out what they would be doing until the competition started. I threw in my application and thought no more of it.
We ran through dance numbers again on Wednesday morning, making sure everyone was up to speed, and had a lovely early finish of 2pm. Before I left I received a message saying that the film people were interested in chatting to me about their project and that they would call me later. Sounded exciting! I got home just before 3pm and decided to settle down in bed to watch The Big Bang Theory. I felt I deserved it for working so hard! Unfortunately I didn’t get to watch it as I fell asleep! I woke up just in time for dinner, perfect! It was only me and Dad for dinner, and as quick eaters we finished just in time to watch ‘The Chase’. Bradley Walsh’s cheeky face popped up on screen with the four contestants behind him, and who was sitting there? Me!!! ITV hadn’t told me that I was going to be on! All of a sudden my phone went absolutely mental with people sending me text messages, Facebook notifications and Twitter updates. It was like every single person I knew happened to be watching and decided to let me know all at once. After the initial shock of seeing myself on the screen, I just settled myself down to watch properly when my phone rang. It was about the film project. Great timing!!
As much as I wanted to be part of the project, I was trying really hard to get through all of the lovely lady’s questions before I was due on screen. The tension was almost unbearable! I finished my conversation just in time! I raced back in the room and watched and cringed at myself. To be fair, I did quite well and people said I was good! Hoorah! I also gained several new Facebook friends and Twitter followers that night. The magic of television!
Thursday brought more routine work, we ran scenes of the show, and we staged the goodbye scene when Max leaves the Wild Things. I had been sent the music weeks before but hadn’t come up with a routine. But it worked out well as we came up with something as a group that is pretty emotional! If you’re coming to see the show, bring a tissue, it’s a weepie!
We did some more work on our wonderful singing on Friday, before facing the cold to appear on 3 counties radio! We went down to The Kiosk in Bedford where the radio station had been broadcasting from for their lunchtime show, with lots of local people showing off stuff and advertising. We wanted a bit of that! We wrapped our hands around some hot beverages and stood around waiting for our chance to chat to the presenter. He did a small chat with Cally, our director, and Theo, before we launched into an extract from the play to try and get some more ticket sales. Everyone at the kiosk stood in complete silence while we ‘performed’, it was fabulous! We headed back to the theatre for another afternoon of work, before I had Fame rehearsals back in Kettering. I was absolutely shattered but still had to make my way to my brothers flat as his girlfriend was having a Body Shop Party. I stuck my nose in for a few minutes, collected my mother (who had been sipping fizzy wine!) and finally got something to eat before collapsing into bed. What a week!
I still had to be up early on Saturday for the music video shoot. I received a text message on Friday night saying that we would be doing a video for a punk band. I was asked to bring office wear, ballgowns and tap shoes. I had absolutely no idea what I would be doing. It was exciting!
I eventually found the location, which was an old shoe factory (one of many in my shire). It honestly looked at as if was going to fall down. I was let in by a lady who lived there(!) and met a girl called Imogen who would also be in the video. She was a aerialist, and had brought a trapeze with her, as well as a fire hula hoop! I was immediately jealous of her. I met a few others, there was a stilt walker, a graffiti artist, and I also met the costume/make-up lady. Everyone seemed lovely, but we were still quite vague on what would be happening. It turned out that I would do a lot of sitting down that day. A couple of hours after I got there I was sat in the hair chair. After finding out that I would be a tap dancing punk, I set the lady free on my hair to do as she pleased. She decided to give me a Mohawk! A lot of pins and pain later I looked awesome!
The others got their hair wrangled into shape too and we all had brilliant individual looks. The crew kept mentioning tap dancing and panic started to set in. It looked like I would be alone. I couldn’t remember any tap moves and I hadn’t heard the song to begin thinking of what would fit. I hung around in the shadows for a bit and waited to see what would happen. Thankfully at 3pm, another girl arrived who I would be dancing with. We were given the track on CD and found a place to choreograph something. Well, I say ‘we’, I had frantically Googled tap moves to try and think of something, but Danielle, the lovely girl who I would dance with, runs her own dance school so I let her do most of the work! We came up with something pretty decent, so it was now time to wait for hair and make-up and costume. A couple of hours later I emerged from the make-up chair with a face that closely resembled David Bowie in Labyrinth. I loved it! I even had white lipstick! Amazing.
We eventually managed to wrangle some costumes together and we looked pretty cool. I wasn’t sure whether I looked entirely punk, but I could see me wearing it in the future, which slightly concerned me! We filmed our routine at about 7.15pm, and after a few takes where I forgot the routine, I managed to get a couple of good takes and I was headed back home with a Mohawk. I think I might have startled the other half with my strange look, but he didn’t mention how ridiculous it was so I think I got away with it! After a crazy week, I slept til noon on Sunday. Perfect!
Week two of rehearsals started in a jolly fashion. I had to come up with an extended routine for one piece of music on Sunday so that we could fit in something else, so I taught the new bits and it looked brilliant! We also recorded another radio segment which will be broadcast soon, I shall keep you informed! We also had my home made cakes as it was cast member Tom and producer Alex’s birthdays, and we attempted a run of the show wearing our monster heads and claws. Much hilarity ensued!
I had a late start on Tuesday which suited me just fine, I was still trying to catch up with my sleep from the weekend! We ran the show again, stopping occasionally to add in comedy spots of value that amused Cally greatly!
Cally wasn’t available to rehearse us on Wednesday so we were left in the wonderful hands of Lizzie, the assistant director. We did some butterfly work (if you come to the show you will understand!), and had lots of laughter. Almost everything that came out of anyone’s mouth turned into filthy innuendo! My poor ears were ruined! I was also incredibly hungry that day, and as I was eating so much, I became the target of a pregnancy rumour. Sigh. Actors!!
At lunch I checked my emails and had received a message from a man asking me to be in his short film. I had been recommended by Beth, the girl whose rabbit film I had done a couple of weeks previously. I jumped at the chance and was in! Acting jobs without auditions, how marvellous!
Myself and Wild Thing Beth donned our costumes later on in the day and we all made our way into town to hand out flyers. We were hoping for big crowds as Santa was turning on the Christmas tree lights, but there weren’t too many folks out, and I think we might have scared a few children instead of being nice friendly monsters. But I still had fun!
I had another late start on Thursday, and it was just me and Theo in the morning, working on our Mum/Max scenes together. The others joined us in the afternoon and we spent it working on smaller details of the show. We were also reminded that we would be leaving the rehearsal on Friday to record one of the songs to go onto a CD that will be available to buy when you come to see the show! How exciting indeed!
It was a lot of fun! It was in someone’s house, but we all did it properly, with the headphones and the big microphone, it was very good! We all recorded together before going in individually to record our solo lines. Apart from being completely flat on one note, I think I pulled it off quite well!
We headed back to the theatre for our first complete run of the show in costume and with props. We got through it, but we are awaiting feedback notes… Gulp!
I’ve had a pretty good weekend of making things, I am officially in the Christmas spirit, I have made Christmas bunting, and have my Christmas-scented candles burning! I’m just sad that I have to go to work this week, I’ve enjoyed my weekend, and who knows when I’ll get to watch Christmas films now?!?
Don’t eat all of your advent calendars at once! :)
Nxxx
For the first time in years I can actually say I don't miss rehearsals for Christmas shows.
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