We have a finale - the Hunt blog to end all Hunt blogs thanks to Jeevan!
Let’s rewind to the 11th of September 2021.
Sarah uploaded the different scripts all part of this year’s Connections festival expecting us to read them, but frankly, they were all pretty long so to make my preferences, I relied purely on the short and simple synopses she’d posted a little while beforehand (a perfect example of ‘work smart, not hard’ if you ask me). If it were up to me, I would’ve had Hunt down as all three of my play choices, but sadly, that’s not how the scoring works. Knowing nothing about either other play, I complied with Sarah’s instructions and put down Variations and Like There’s No Tomorrow as my 2nd and 3rd choices, simply because one’s synopsis mentioned String Theory (finally giving me the chance to share what I’d learned from The Big Bang Theory while I wear nerdy T-Shirts) and the other preached an important message on climate change.
Okay, now skip 19 average days, and we were gifted Hunt as our play allocation! I was instantly on my knees thanking ‘a statue… not of Jesus’ for this news. Not only did Hunt have an entertaining plot, but each character had their moment to develop; the play was made up mostly of duologues with some full-cast scenes, allowing the audience to connect with each character. After a read-through of the play, I already knew which character I wanted. Or so I had thought… I had my heart set on playing Eugene, but as the days went by, I began doubting my choice. For some reason, Steve’s stupidity, immaturity and (I suppose) comedic aspects were really drawing me in, not to mention his complex relationship with Carly – something completely different to what I’m used to.
Anyway, this takes us to 30th October (I promise I won’t go over every single session) – aka. the nerve-racking, body-trembling, heart-wrenching auditions. In the end, after a lengthy conversation with my Mum and sister, I decided to audition for Eugene as my first choice, and Steve as my second. After a quick warm-up and John Broadhead strolling in fashionably late, we cracked on with the auditions. For Eugene, it entailed vlogging, being jump-scared and shouted at by a Mad Danielle and then having my phone case thrown at me (for which I made a ridiculously impressive catch), but something about his character just didn’t gel right with me. When I stepped in as Steve for Eliana’s audition for Carly, that’s when I realised he was the right part for me – there was enough there to push me beyond my comfort zone of just saying lines and avoiding physical contact. But (starting a sentence with ‘but’ – blasphemy, I know) that’s the reason I love doing Connections each year: it challenges you to do things you would never get to do in a normal Yew Tree session. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done things this past year at YT that I never thought I would do, including singing in front of people (real life people!) in the Christmas shows, but Connections is a completely different experience that I cannot recommend enough.
So, the casting came though, and I was given Steve, double-cast with Connor, with Brooke portraying the Carly to my Steve that I would get to annoy over the next 5 months. Two very weird things here: 1) I had never been double-cast before in Connections so I had no idea how this was going to work, but I can now assure you it’s been one of my favourite things – you get to see how differently they interpret the same character (not to mention you get chance to sit back, kick your legs up and relax while they take over), and 2) suddenly portraying somewhat of an on-stage love interest with Brooke, who I had never properly worked with before, was challenging, but we’ll get onto that later. By my side, I had the usual people I had come to relate with Connections over the past 5 years (Chloe, Lucy, Layla and most of all, Connor), along with quite a few participating in their first Connections.
After missing the first rehearsal for my grandma’s 80th birthday celebrations, they were soon underway, and one thing stuck out to me straight away: this cast worked so well together despite never being in the same room before – we had a mixture of Sapphire, Gold and Black company members. Rehearsals were pretty average, so I’m not going to go into full details about each one for the sake of your sanity and the fact that dinner is almost ready but we started with the full-cast, 14-page Scene 2 which was definitely one of the hardest to get right staging wise, and on a more personal note, because Steve had to do a military drill which usually ended with me smacking myself in the face. This is when I realised the difficulties of playing Steve, he was so different to my real personality, and punching in those offensive lines was going to be a struggle. Come Christmas time, we had gone through a little over half of Hunt and had just performed our Christmas shows (which went well other than an embarrassing voice crack during my song and not being confident in my lines which seems to be a reoccurring thing), but this is when Connections got complicated for me.
‘Twas four days before Christmas, and I made one of my regular trips to Leeds Hospital, which would usually be followed by a day out and Nando’s (off topic but I fully recommend their vegan Great Imitator wrap), however this time was a little different. I came out with a date mid-January for surgery.
Yep…
Anyway, I decided to enjoy Christmas with my entire family (including my cockatiel, Vincent), ignoring the struggles of the real world, and when I got back to Connections afterwards, it was decided that I would take two weeks off for recovery, and we would make suitable changes for Steve’s “acrobatic scene”. Well at least that was the plan before the surgery got cancelled the day before and rearranged for April – I know right, all these dramatics for nothing! So, this meant I could continue Connections with no trouble, and in a way, I was sort of glad.
Connections last year was an odd one with the majority of rehearsals held online, which made Hunt’s Connections week a lot more enjoyable. We began fine-tuning the play, going over scenes and characters in a lot more detail and most importantly, eating chips and gravy without a fork. This was the week following the storms (of which Steve had an interesting theory of how they are named) so my quick trips to the corner shop were less, but I still managed to drink one Lucozade a day. By this point, I had my lines somewhat learnt and my costume ready, so the full run on the Thursday went better than expected, with both Steve’s “acrobatic scene” and “awkward scene” exceeding my own expectations… but not Sarah’s – let’s just say they were a work in progress. Honestly, the hardest improvement to make was to pretend like the prop statues of St Agnes (made by the talented Sam Loynes) weighed as much as they would if they were made from stone – however, they were made from paper, so it was just as light as Tottenham Hotspur’s trophy box. Let’s talk about that awkward scene I keep mentioning. Steve and Carly’s first duologue involved Steve making some controversial comments about women and them dodging a security light (the location of which seemed to change every rehearsal). That wasn’t so bad if I’m honest. It’s the second duologue that got me; Steve continues to voice his controversial thoughts, as well as taking advantage of Carly’s vulnerability at the time by ‘leaning in for a kiss’. Now if you’ve met me, you will know that I am painfully socially awkward, so this was clearly going to be an issue. It does seem that I always end up doing something out of my comfort zone in every Connections play, for example, the twerking in Witches Can’t Be Burned (which frustratingly was cut despite me debasing myself in rehearsals many times). Well, long story short, after a quick “coffee” trip with Brooke and several insults later, I was finally comfortable enough to do the scene and by 3:50pm on the day of the first local performance (ie. 10 minutes beforehand), it was sorted… but still slightly awkward. The off-text improvisation with Brooke and Layla was one of my highlights of the week; we decided on how Steve and Carly first met (a mixture of arson and ‘microwave dinner swag’) but more interestingly, Brooke somehow came up with an S&C handshake but it did not agree with my hand-eye coordination. For the last day of Connections Week, we got to swap characters, so I took the opportunity to play Lisa, Gina and Carly, and wow Steve can be annoying sometimes, but I did realise that his friendship with Carly is one of the strongest in the group! As always, it was that time of the Connections journey where the first page of my script fell off, but that’s nothing a stapler couldn’t fix.
So, this brings us to the local performances and it turns out I had misread Sarah’s Facebook post and arrived at 12:30pm, an hour before we actually had to - I suppose arriving early runs in the family with my mum turning up 45 minutes before the shows started on three occasions! Speaking of wrong times, I apologise to anyone who read some of the Hunt posters confused about whether or not there was a performance at 1:30pm. Our first show went great, but I felt like my own performance could’ve been better, so I stepped things up in the second (a mixture of singing the Mission Impossible theme and soaking my hair under the sink); the Steve and Carly duologues were the best we had ever done them, including the awkward one – Brooke had an idea for it which we only began practising about a half hour before the show began which really took it up a level. At the 11am Sunday performance, we had a visit from Gordon Richardson, the NODA President (who I initially mistook for the mayor) who gave us some very nice feedback and who we all got a delightfully wet photo with. Then it was over to Connor, Eliana and Lucy. Being double-cast meant that when I wasn’t Steve, I was being the doorman, a member of the cast and the bullet. One of the highlights of being a member of the cast was most definitely NOT taking the washing line off in scene 11 and getting smacked around the face by underwear in the process. Now, if you saw the Black and Gold company Christmas shows, you might’ve noticed my inability to dance, failing miserably at the Cha-Cha slide (as if I had a ten-second delay on me and couldn’t tell my left from right) and ended up doing the notorious Tobey Maguire Spiderman dance, so any sort of choreographed movement was a struggle. Saying this though, after several practices in front of my bathroom mirror, it became like second nature, and I got a new profile picture out of it so I’m happy. “Was the bullet moment taken from Hamilton?” you ask. Erm… Moving on! The entire cast did so well with these shows so you should all be so proud of what you’ve achieved.
Preparations for the Sheffield performance began, and we only had two weeks to figure it out. The original plan was to have both versions of Steve and Carly on stage, and somehow have two Danielle’s as well. However, Chloe (Jo) and Nat (Jamie) weren’t able to do the Sheffield performance, so these roles were passed on to Arwen and Connor, who managed to do 5 months’ worth of work in two short weeks. Things got even more complicated when COVID struck, and we found ourselves rehearsing on Zoom once again, although undeniably I did have fun with some ridiculous backgrounds. At this point, there was one Steve and two Carlys (Brooke and Eliana), so we were going to have to figure out a way to make this work without it being clunky, but Brooke decided to step down to make it easier. Despite Chloe, Nat and Brooke not being in the Sheffield performance, they are still a massively integral part of the cast who made the show what it is. Being the slight pessimist I am, my heart instantly sunk thinking the show was cancelled when Sarah posted starting with ‘Hey Team – I am so sorry about this, but we’ve just had this message from Sheffield Theatre’, but luckily it was just about Covid testing and safety. After one museum trip out, watching someone fail at eating a pizza and some more line learning, we were finally ready for what would be our last performance of Hunt.
We’re onto the last date that I will write in this blog: 25th of March 2022 – The Sheffield Performance. I decided to catch the train with Sarah and some other members of the cast, and I spent most of the journey listening to Taylor Swift, Jónsi, Frightened Rabbit and Rascal Flatts. To begin with, we had a three-hour tech rehearsal in the Studio where we would perform later, allowing us to get used to the new space – the main difference was the slightly smaller size, and that the audience would be sat on three sides, so we had to be constantly aware of this. Staging and how we performed the bullet was all significantly changed – it was a lot to take in at first, but we had enough time to come to grips with it. Lunch was, how do I put it… interesting. We were introduced to the cast from Regent Theatre Academy from Stoke-on-Trent (which when asked where Stoke is, John replied with “on Trent”) and somehow I managed to get myself challenged to a dance battle, which I politely declined – I wouldn’t want to show them up before a performance, it could really get their spirits down. I did however let out one “dance” move which was just a teaser of what I can do so I think it must’ve scared them off since they never challenged me again (although Alice and Grace are enjoying taking the mick out of me for it). Sarah let us take a break for an hour outside, where most of us gathered near Peace Gardens, and some eventful things happened: I accepted bets from John (which he never paid up for) to run through a water fountain with Alice; we threw a zombified Squashie around for a bit while eating ice cream; me and Emma practised tornado kicks, during which I injured something very delicate. This hour we spent relaxing was definitely one of my highlights of the day! Anyway, it was time to get back to work, and we were given the opportunity to rehearse in the Crucible’s main theatre which was such an incredible experience. More things were changed, but that’s fine (he says in a Ross Geller “I’m Fine!” voice). Before we went to warm up for the show, we quickly had dinner, which if I may say, was very spicy, so I do apologise to everyone else at the table for drinking the entire jug of water. One person getting stuck in the train station later, Brooke arrived at the Crucible Theatre, and for some reason, I ended up being called a loser for directing her to the completely wrong entrance.
Finally, it was time to perform. As always, my mum was there (as well as my sister and dad), and Ella, one of my college friends, came too, but what really surprised me was when Khai showed up with her after claiming he wasn’t coming for about a week straight – talk about acting! Before our performance, we were able to watch Find A Partner by Regent Theatre Academy, which I would describe as a crossover between Squid Game and Love Island, so congrats to them for a great show. Before every show, Sarah always gets us to close our eyes, take deep breaths and imagine the performance going exactly as we want it to. Well, I can tell you that it did – every single actor on that stage gave it their all and it paid off. Performing with Eliana brought a completely different dynamic to Steve and Carly, and I had such an enjoyable time exploring this throughout the day and sharing our different ideas. I caught the train back, which involved eating a cardboard-tasting burger gummy and playing Shrek Top Trumps, which some unnamed cast member cheated in. And that was it. All of a sudden, 5 months of our life came to an end. Unfortunately for you though, this blog still hasn’t come to an end.
I’d like to give thanks to a few cast/crew members:
To Connor (whose last name is apparently Monfman according to the Sheffield programmes):
from Ceasefire Babies to Hunt, and soon to our last show together, Much Ado About Nothing, I’ve had such a blast working with you, especially being double cast. Watching your performance as Steve has made me push myself to try new things and become a better actor, and our different takes on Steve mixed with your torchography skills have been such a joy to watch.
To Brooke: working with you really has been one of my highlights of Connections this year, from hardly knowing each other in November to now, where I can’t even imagine performing Steve with someone else (even though I did). I’ve genuinely enjoyed every minute working with you, with your sass and your seal-y puns remaining unmatched, ‘obvs’. Now that’s the 10% we were talking about, so I’m going to go back to the 90% soon, but know that Hunt wouldn’t have meant the same to me if it weren’t for performing alongside and getting to know you.
To Arwen: I know our characters didn’t really interact that much during the play (other than wrestling with each other which you always made a challenge for me) but acting alongside you has been such a pleasure and especially these past 5 months, it’s been great getting to know you a bit better!
To the rest of the cast: each and every one of you is amazing, and have grown over the past 5 months, and that’s not just in acting skill. I also want to say a massive well done to those taking part in their first Connections, in particular Alice, Grace, Becca and Emma. It was genuinely lovely working with you, and I hope we get to do the same again!
To Sarah: I want to thank you for constantly pushing me throughout my 11 years at Yew Tree to become a better actor, and I do appreciate all the notes and advice you give during sessions. Every year at YT, my confidence and skill in acting grow, and I only have you to thank for that. I feel like I don’t say it often, but you’re an incredibly creative writer and director, who makes each rehearsal enjoyable!
To John: you truly are an agent of chaos (your words, not mine)! You once told me that I had set up the dominos during rehearsals and to knock them down in the performances – well one of the only reasons this was possible was because of the advice and encouragement you’ve given. There’ll be no soppy goodbye here because we still have Lamda together, so I get to enjoy your witty attitude for a little while longer.
I finally want to thank my Mum. If it weren’t for you, five years ago, I would never have taken part in my first Connections play, Ceasefire Babies, and began to take drama more seriously. The encouragement and motivation you give is completely unmatched.
I wonder if there’s any point in me continuing to write this because I’m not sure if anyone would have made it this far, but Hunt has been one of my favourite shows I’ve done at Yew Tree with one of the best casts – I’ve been smiling like a fool whilst writing this blog. Connections is a journey, and you always leave it having grown in some way – this time, for me, it’s my confidence and enjoyment of drama that’s grown. Connections is an experience that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.
See you in the next blog,
Jeevan : )
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