I am very lucky to have a company of actors who remain calm and polite in the face of more props than have ever been summoned together in a small theatre. They really are one of the most supportive and engaged companies I have directed. Towards the end of week three, I became completely obsessed with the idea of smell and cooking in the tiny Bush space and started introducing things like toast and freshly-made coffee. It may well be time to rationalise, as we start to do our run-throughs of the play in week four. The propping endurance of stage management is incredible. Hats off to Angela and Charlotte for making, sourcing and borrowing everything we need. I reckon that APOLOGIA has more props than the last three plays I've directed added together.
The discoveries of Week Three are all about language. Until this play runs at speed, it will not work at all. Everyone is hooked on running lines. Each break we have (for tea, for lunch) the actors assemble to run Alexi's overlapping sections of text, lifting the writing to a break-neck speed. It's exciting to get the occasional taste of pace. Our late afternoons have concentrated on the third scene of the play. This is a two-hander and, although not without its staging challenges, it has been great to focus down to a two-handed scene towards the end of each rehearsing day.
I plan to run about five times this week, and we are scheduled to 'dry-tech' on Saturday. In our case, this will involve teching action without lights and sound and but with props and food. The big excitement of this week will be Wednesday, when everyone will work an afternoon and evening session (we normally rehearse 10 - 6pm). This is so that we can try a Chinese meal, instead of pretending with breakfast cereals. I suspect that once we exchange bran flakes for beef in oyster sauce we will mess up our staging somewhat. We can but try and see...