Gerda, played by Natasha Davidson, stands and sings:
…And the minutes pass
And the hours pass
And the days pass by…
These words ring out around the rehearsal room; our time in this stage of the process is quickly drawing to a close. How fast the minutes, the hours, the days have passed…! A Christmas show at the New Vic typically has a four week rehearsal period. This journey takes us from the initial read through, where all the building come together to hear the words spoken aloud for the first time, through to the final rehearsal week run through, which takes place tomorrow morning!
Where has all that time gone? All those minutes, hours, days?
I can tell you exactly where; for every day there is a plan / rehearsal call sent out to the cast. Theresa sets out a clear schedule and vision for the company’s journey from page to stage. Meticulously allocating time for each moment, sharing the hours available between scene work, choreography and music. This week a large proportion of our time has been allotted to running scenes and sections together; individual scenes will never be performed in isolation again once we move into the theatre. Now we must focus on how this story moves; how it passes from one moment to another. We must begin now to tell our story, for in a weeks’ time we will have an audience to share it with. Theresa alongside the rest of the creative team watch the final rehearsal runs to monitor how this story is unfolding before our eyes and whether we can tighten the clarity of our storytelling or be more economical in the way in which our story is being told.
It goes without saying that there is a sense of admiration and excitement as we sew the pieces of the puzzle together. Next week…we begin our technical rehearsals in the auditorium…but more on that in my next blog, we have a few more hours of work to do in the rehearsal room before then.
Thanks for reading.
Bryn Holding
Assistant Director on The Snow Queen