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And the second guest blog is from Sam W

It was without the burden of music centre or the restraint of not having a decent breakfast (for I can assure you, my Apricot Wheats were divine), that I found my way to Thornes Park this morning to visit Gold Company in rehearsal for ‘The Sea.’ After a best and worst sesh in which Grace and I relished the joys of socks, it was straight down to business: a quick warm-up which served a dual purpose, firstly to warm us up, and secondly to briefly give us the chance to explore different styles of movement – a useful thing to bear in mind when you are creating a piece where physical theatre is the primary method of communication.

Now, perhaps I was a little too quick with that last statement; another important part of ‘The Sea’ is the words, something we had to bear in mind when it came to devising for the new scenes. Being relatively new to physical theatre, the rules and principles were new to me but we talked about how our movements shouldn’t be actions which illustrate the word, rather they should add to the word to make it something more. Both the words and the movements had separate meanings and combining them bought depth and richness to the piece. Hearing it for the first time, I was rather appreciative of the descriptions, an avid fan of metaphors, which painted the picture of each moment.

I think what I enjoyed most from today’s rehearsal was the sheer quantity of dancing. I can tell you now, I have not done a polka in far too long and in such a short space of time I would describe my proficiency at the waltz as “growing exponentially.” The pace of the rather jolly polka was in sharp contrast to the very deliberate and thoughtful moments of the rest of the piece and is a definite lift before the inevitable... Oh, I can’t even say it. You will just have to come and watch it yourself. Anyhow, although it took a while to make sure we were all clapping in time and after one or two collisions (whoops, sorry Declan and whoever else I took out) the final piece was a spectacle to say the very least.

As it was my first session working on “The Sea,” there was a lot I am sure that I missed, watching back our run on Facebook afterwards, I saw things I didn’t realise were there before. From every angle, there is something different happening which creates a variety of textures and stories within it.

I am most apologetic for my quick overview of The Sea as I cannot possibly have done it justice. All that is left to say is, thanks for reaching the end and come and see the performance on the 21st June at St Austin’s Community Centre with music from Stems and lots of really great people.

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