Nathan Trout was the kind person that offered to do the blog this week and this time he didn't have to text it...
It's been five months now since I last offered to be guest blogger and now with Christmas looming ever closer the production looks more like an actual play than it did then, it actually has a script now for one thing.
The thing about a project like this has been the challenge of taking a classic like Dickens's A Christmas Carol and making it your own without ruining it, which I think we've managed to do in a number of ways including setting it in a timeless/modern setting rather than Victorian London and changing the characterisation of the ghosts. It's also been great fun and for me, whose not done a full Yew Tree production before, to start with devising scenes, to getting a script and casting to reading through to setting and re-setting scenes to running through the whole thing and finding ways to include all the newcomers.
The point we're now at meant that today's session entailed a full run through including a visit from a photographer, notes from the director, a second run through, this time a sort of half dress rehearsal as a number of people, of whom I cannot claim to be one, were efficient enough to remember to bring their costumes. Now that we're at a stage where we know our lines (just about), the directions have been set, extras and all, and people have managed to perform the charades scene without collapsing in fits of laughter you can start to get a full picture of how the play will actually turn out. Part of being so close to the end is that I'll be sad that it's all over, that said, I think it's going to be a treat, possibly even the best Christmas Carol since the Muppets.
It's been five months now since I last offered to be guest blogger and now with Christmas looming ever closer the production looks more like an actual play than it did then, it actually has a script now for one thing.
The thing about a project like this has been the challenge of taking a classic like Dickens's A Christmas Carol and making it your own without ruining it, which I think we've managed to do in a number of ways including setting it in a timeless/modern setting rather than Victorian London and changing the characterisation of the ghosts. It's also been great fun and for me, whose not done a full Yew Tree production before, to start with devising scenes, to getting a script and casting to reading through to setting and re-setting scenes to running through the whole thing and finding ways to include all the newcomers.
The point we're now at meant that today's session entailed a full run through including a visit from a photographer, notes from the director, a second run through, this time a sort of half dress rehearsal as a number of people, of whom I cannot claim to be one, were efficient enough to remember to bring their costumes. Now that we're at a stage where we know our lines (just about), the directions have been set, extras and all, and people have managed to perform the charades scene without collapsing in fits of laughter you can start to get a full picture of how the play will actually turn out. Part of being so close to the end is that I'll be sad that it's all over, that said, I think it's going to be a treat, possibly even the best Christmas Carol since the Muppets.
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