Onwards unto the breach…

Well well! If it isn’t the latest blog post of a rather busy man! Apologies for my absence, there. It’s hardly the Huffington Post is it? But the upside to this is that there is a whole mess of goodies for you to enjoy!

So… what have you missed? At first I thought not much. Part of the reason that I allowed for a pause in the blog is that it would seemed to have been more of the same thing. More nitty gritty rehearsals, more details, but I thought that would make for less than interesting reading. So instead you’ve got a bumper edition right here.

First thing that happened I suppose, is that we filmed our Chilli Monologues. Steve, Rory, Leigh, Tom (the gent playing Cecil) and I all munched on some hot chillies before rehearsal and recited a bit of the bard. Rory was fine. Leigh was very composed. I ended up having a couple actually. But here’s the thing. Steve bought a punnet of unmarked, unidentified chillies of different sizes, colours and (presumably) strengths. I had several chillies with no complaint. Then Tom had a chilli and was clearly uncomfortable. Then Steve… poor Steve. He had a choice of a green and a red, and the poor man chose red. And… well see for yourself:

All in all, we did okay… but poor old Steve did suffer.

And rehearsals continued, with slowly adding costumes and props. Leigh’s weapons are great, and now we are properly kitted out. We’re hiring the rapiers from a company, so when we finally got those, we absolutely exhausted our wrists practicing with them. To be fair, it wasn’t quite as exhausting as when we were trying to use wooden Katanas for the purpose, but none the less they are heavier in the hilt. And they look great!

And I actually missed a couple of key rehearsals, sadly, as I had not one but two weddings to attend, one of which in Edinburgh. My one solace in that fact (apart from the joys of seeing my some of my favourite people happily married) was that I discovered something that has evaded me my entire life… The Kilt! Natasha (of Giggle Loop) finally married here towering Scottish fiancé Ross and for the purpose, they requested that i wear a kilt. At first I was extremely trepidatious! And the stags were insistent on a lack of underwear! But I have to say, Kilt’s f**king rock! They’re warm, they’re elegant and you look like a gaelic warrior! And they are so ridiculously comfortable! Pyjama comfortable. It’s essentially a warm wooden blanket wrapped around your middrift and warm woollen socks. The only parts that’re really exposed are your knees… unless you go a little over the top while dancing…

And while I was away at the second wedding (my cousin Emma), Southside were very, very busy. While I was dancing to the Macarena, Southside had got in to the venue and started building the stage. I joined them on the first and third days, but the second was clearly a doozy, as evidence in this fabulous bit of time-lapse:

We had to have a couple of run-throughs in the space to get used to it all, of course. And there were long periods of hanging around, but we got it done. And we had two dress rehearsals. One had a couple of fluffs (first night jitters, darling), but the second went splendidly. And everyone looks great in their costumes. Even Alfie, who was a little nervous about performing in a dress and make-up, seems to be enjoying it. And the zombie make-up is really unnerving! They have blackened teeth, but then they forget this fact, smile amicably and then scare the life out of me!

The only thing that could stop me at this point is simply… the common cold. Yup, I have the plague. I’m sure in a couple of months time, all this shall blow over and life will be back to normal, but as it is, I have to time my meals and my medicine quite carefully to make sure I have maximum energy and minimum lethargy for the shows. Lots of Lemsip! Thank god for Lemsip. The real downside from this, however, has been that I have been missing out on all the socialising! After the build last Sunday, everyone went out for a meal and I had to go to bed. But actually, one thing that the build does nicely is that it really helps build camaraderie with the cast.

But my sniffles are nothing compared to some of the other casualties, and there were some casualties. One of our afflicted, Scott, has become rather ill and can no longer perform. And likewise, Rachel, a rather key zombie that gets rather clobbered throughout the play, has had a bit of an injury. She has “popped her rib”! I know right? According to her osteopath she has gotten her rib cage all manner of screwed up. But bizarrely, it wasn’t my punching her in the face with a sword hilt that did it, nor when Chris whacks her with a sword hilt, nor even when she hits the dirt after getting hit in the face with various sword hilts. Bizarrely, she got all out of place just from painting the set wall. She spent most of the day I missed reaching up to paint the wall, and apparently it was the straw that broke the zombie’s ribs!

But she is muddling through, because as old Shakerags once said, “the show must go on”. And before I sign off, I’ll just check in with how I’m planning on playing the man and how the improv plays in to it. That was, after all, the intention of this blog that then got distracted with the fine trimmings (and when people are crafting swords and giant doors, they get quite distracting). I must confess, I stopped reading biographies and accounts and whatnot, because there are so many conspiracy throeries and interpretations out there that I found myself getting “head-y”. This, in improv, is how we like to describe those moments when your head is muddled with “what you should do” rather than focusing on living in the present moment. So instead, I am allowing what research I have done to inform the character that is in the script, rather than the history books. And funnily enough, I’ve just been focusing on emphasising one intention (fear for the failing legacy, namely John Rice), one word for each line (if necessary) and often doing a very simple exercise that I used way back at the audition, namely playing with the status of Shakespeare for each line. This making the difference between standing up to Bacon, or deferring to him, for instance.

And that’s it really. Tonight is the opening night! And I cannot wait to get on with it! And its been fun blogging about it as I go, even if it has been read by approximately five people. My great surprise is that some of those five are members of the original cast. Indeed, before the final Dress Rehearsal, we were read a message from John Heimbach himself! And it turns out he’s been reading this blog! The author for God’s sake! And it seems he has plans for William Shakespeare’s Land of The Dead, for which I am very excited! Indeed, if you are reading this John, I would like to offer my help if I can provide it with anything you have planned for the future! Your play has facilitated a very good time for me, so let me know if ever I can help.

It’s been a very fulfilling experience. And I would most definitely be auditioning for Southside Players’ next play, The Importance Of Being Earnest, if I were not so exhausted. My schedule just won’t allow it, no matter how much I would like to have a go at a bit of Oscar Wilde! But I have honestly felt inspired by the ingenuity of the company. Everyone mucks in and brings their own specific abilities and talents to the fore. I feel I have made new friends and found a whole new lexicon of experience to take with me in to the future. Plus, I got to be in a badass play with zombies and sword fights. And I got to play the lead. I still find that surprising, especially when considering the ability of the other cast members!