Rehearsal #2 - Act One

I was very nervous for this rehearsal - it was my first experience of being a director. Me, in charge of actors, telling them what to do in order to get across a playwrights' words and intentions. Intimidating to say the least - my major obstacle I'm facing throughout this process is self-doubt. I don't see myself as authoratitive, have never thought myself as a theatrical creative, so suddenly wondered why on earth I'd decided to take control of an entire play.

The start of the rehearsal was rather shakey - one actor was half an hour late, and I wasn't sure how to begin the session. With only three characters involved in Act One, I couldn't think of a suitable workshop or warmup to do, nor did I have the confidence to take charge straight away. We spent the first half hour (whilst waiting for the other actor) looking through Abi's set designs and getting a bit of a feel for how the stage will be laid out. This did help me ease into the session, and I know that next week I'll be able to walk in with more confidence and awareness of what I'm doing. This is something I definitely need to work on - the reassurance of myself in the role of director, and an awareness of my ability.

The rehearsal went as well as I could have hoped. I'd planned to cover the first 33 pages - quite an ambitious feat, ending just a few pages shy of curtain down. Yet as soon as the actors stepped onto our minimally laid out space, I knew exactly where I wanted them and what I wanted them to do. Once they were in front of me, the script came alive and I could see it as the final production already. Straight away, I felt more able to direct them - I had no hesitations about stopping them mid-sentence and rearranging them, moving their heads, altering the emotions. And, what impressed me most, was that they responded and dutifully continued according to my direction. I know that is what an actor is supposed to do, but when presented with coursemates I'd had some reservations again about my authority. I needn't have worried as they're all working as professionals, and were able to take on board my directions without question.

We got through all 33 pages, and were even able to do a dry-run at the end of the session. Seeing my ideas combined with the beginnings of Abi's set was very encouraging; it worked, it flowed, and it had the emotional intensity that the script requires. The speedbump of my own doubt is almost cleared, and next week is set to be promising too.

Why direct LBiA?

I'd never read the play before the summer, when Abi expressed her love for it as a text. I dutifully bought myself a copy, and read it in almost one train ride to London. I thought it was fantastic - the wealth of words, the action, and simplicity of living, the reality of people. This was a play about life, without being cheesy. It was gritty, set at a difficult time, but easily transferable to current day. And it appeared straightforward - extensive stage directions mean the scene is set in your  minds-eye whether or not you see it translated on stage.

Director Richard Baron spoke of this in an interview with Alison Reeves, Educational Officer of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in 2005. Baron stated that "It’s a three act piece with good curtain lines and full of pregnant moments. It will be about relishing the theatricality of it as well as the exuberance of it"1, expressing the way in which the play is theatrical within itself, not requiring much additional direction.

This theatricality comes out in the way in which the production "replac[es] stage-sets of Belgravia mansions with a drab Midlands flat, and smart upper-class remarks with the angry anti-establishment rants of its hero, Jimmy Porter."2  (Lawson 2006). By harnessing the historical importance of the play's creation, regardless of the current age or manner in which it is being produced, a director can remind the audience of the importance of Jimmy's words, the anger and frustration within him, and the lack of compassion from society at large.

The importance of the setting of LBiA is being taken up by Abi for her project - focusing on her response to the space, and the way in which she is interpreting it. Through her research into the origins of the word 'anger', she found that it derived from the Norse word for 'narrow', and thus began creating a narrow stage set. Katie Mitchell wrote that "Building a complete picture of the place or places in which the action of the play occurs helps the actor enter and believe in the world in which their character exists."3 (2008, p.20), and in our case also allows the actors to feel physically a sense of confinement and frustration within close proximity to one another.

There is a lot involved in directing a play, especially one as complex and psychological as Look Back in Anger. However, Abi and I work well together - she being the very creative one, myself being more academic in my approach - and so compliment one another. I know that in a few weeks' time I will lead a workshop and she will take notes, so we make sure we're trying out each other's strengths and building on our weaknesses. It's going to be a good learning experience, and hopefully a successful production.






(1) Lyceum Education Department (2005) Look Back in Anger: Resource Pack, Edinburgh: Royal Lyceum Theatre Company [Available at: http://site.iugaza.edu.ps/ahallaq/files/2011/03/Look-Back-in-Anger-Resource-Pack.pdf]

(2) Lawson, M. (2006) 'Fifty Years of Anger', The Guardian, 31 March, [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2006/mar/31/theatre2 (accessed: 4 March 2013)

(3) Mitchell, K. (2008) The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre, Routledge

Jimmy's emotions

This clip from the 1989 television version sees Kenneth Brannagh as Jimmy, in probably his most vulnerable speech. Whilst in my production I'm looking for a colder, darker, more angry response, you cannot fault Brannagh's depths of emotions that grow throughout the monologue. It is important in this scene to see Jimmy once again as that vulnerable little boy. However, I feel it becomes more powerful if he is almost unable to fully express his emotions, and rather maintains that bitter, twisted nature that his past has created in him.

Rehearsal Schedule

Currently looking very neat and organised - I've no doubt that soon there will be scribbles and changes to it. But for now, I can see the process mapped out, and it looks good.

Rehearsal #1 - Readthrough

I was really nervous about the first rehearsal. Abi had asked me how I wanted to structure it, and I had no idea - so we decided she'd run a short warmup workshop with them (being the more creative out of the two of us), and then we'd go straight into a dry read through of the play, with me taking notes along the way. This turned out to be ideally as to my great annoyance, a meeting I was in overran making me 10minutes late - not a good start for one of the directors.
However, when I arrived they were just about to start reading, so it was an ideal time for me to become engaged. It couldn't have gone any better. Hearing our chosen actors read out the words reaffirmed our casting decisions (which I'd been nervous about too), and put me right at ease. My copy of the script is completely covered in annotations and post-it notes, and already from just one rehearsal I'm starting to see it in my head.
We're working in a slightly different way to other directors - as Abi's focusing her study on space, she's the one who is largely deciding the size and shape of the stage, and the way in which the space is dressed. My interest is in the actors, and the way in which the characters are portrayed. This works very well, harnessing our strengths and complimenting one another's work without getting in each other's way.
So, one read through down, now it's time to start planning the rest of the rehearsals. With the Easter holidays taken into consideration, there are 6 rehearsals scheduled, equalling 18hours - for a one-night show, I'm fairly confident that this will be enough time. We shall see further down the line, but for now, I'm learning, growing, and gaining confidence.

Moving forward

We have a cast list! Four auditions were held, we saw eight people, and had five characters to cast.
It wasn't easy - having two co-directors can be tricky if you have different ideas. For Abi and I, it was the opposite. We'd not fully discussed the atmosphere that we wanted yet, and so each had a different gut feeling during the auditions.
The character of Jimmy was particularly difficult, as the play rests on him and his attitudes throughout the story. One auditionee was cold, calculating, and inherently bitter. The other had a lot of physical presence, a playful yet cruel approach, and was very outwardly angry. They'd produce very different atmospheres on stage, one being a lot darker than the other. At times like this, there is always the risk of disagreements and problems surrounding creative differences. Luckily, Abi and I work very differently but in a wholly complimentary way, and thus following a (45minute) discussion, we were able to come to an agreement. It was about which actor could provide the most accurate depiction of our Jimmy, closely looking at character descriptions, and the reactions of the other characters on stage.
Eventually, we managed to get through all my notes (of which I had made any, Abi preferring to just watch and absorb), and we have a cast. Five very strong actors, and those who didn't get a place have asked to join our production team which has gone from one to four in a matter of hours.
This has also made the entire process far more real. It's bizarre to think that on Tuesday we're having our first readthrough, and all of a sudden I'm directing a play. Not just an extract - the full play, set to take just over an hour, to be performed in just under three months.
Bring it on.

I Love You//I Hate You - audition game

The I Love You//I Hate You game aims to focus actors on their energy and the way in which they express different intensities of emotion. Standing 10 paces apart, they either evoke love or hate. Starting at 0-1 energy, with each step the line "I love/hate you" gets more intense, until they're face to face with their partner at level 10. The important thing I found was that at level 10, love and hate look almost the same. It is a physical, gut response that can be incredibly aggressive.

In the foreground, Luke (Colonel Redfern) and Abi (director) almost have the same physical reaction - Abi moves towards Luke, and Luke moves away from Abi, but they both throw their arms up and their faces become distorted with shouting.