During the first week of rehearsals for ‘The Aliens’ we have been engaged in two main lines of work- most of the second half of the week has been occupied by sketching out our production, discovering how the play and the writing moved from line to line and scene to scene. I’ve been very excited by the play itself as the director, Peter Gill, and the actors – Ralf Little, Mackenzie Crook and Olly Alexander – have engaged with it. It is extremely rewarding to work on: funny, sad and completely engaging. Annie Baker, our playwright, has been in rehearsals since day two having flown over from America, and has been brilliant at supporting what Peter and the actors are doing.
The other work has been in making a context for our text – discussing and developing a set of references for the world of the play. This process has taken us from Whitman to The Big Lebowski, and, alongside accent and music work, has been helping us in our attempt to get to the heart of what Annie has written.
Getting to work with Peter Gill is an extraordinary privilege for me, and as his assistant I am having a fantastic time watching him work with the actors. It’s also wonderful having three such talented people playing the parts. I haven’t assisted on a production before, and I feel very lucky to have the chance to be involved with ‘The Aliens’.
