Tom Bridges
The first show in a run inevitably means a long day for everyone. This is usually opened with a furious flurry of messages first thing in the morning as everyone realises that teleporters still haven't been invented yet and we need to get to the theatre. As anyone who has ever had to do anything to a time constraint knows this is now when you have a flat tyre /the trains are under 6 feet of water /there is a giant lizard monster outside the front door. Some days we seem doomed never to get in on time, but once everyone is together and in the space the work begins.
As Joe and Alex are with us through the creation/rehearsal process we all know (roughly) the music and tech cues. But there is always the nail biting process of throwing it all together. The physical sequences usually get first priority in tech runs, as they’ll often have been rehearsed in a myriad of spaces that aren’t the venue this will mean tweaks and changes: for example during one fight sequence we had to ensure to be set far enough upstage so that Alistair didn’t destroy a Par Can by kicking it to death. Give yourself ten points if you can work out how that’s even possible.
Remaining as calm as possible while Joe and Alex work their magic at this point is always quite hard; we get quite excitable once given a stage to jump around on, but we do our best. We find an order of priority rather than a straight tech run helps because then we’re not snookered if we faff for too long with the first job on the list (quite a possibility given a propensity for inserting last minute jokes), and less important dialogue bits can always be done out of the way while focusing etc gets done. Sometimes if we get practice sorted quickly and we’re being well behaved we’re even allowed to touch the equipment– I even borrowed Joe’s Leatherman to cut some gels to size once. The advantage to not having anything in terms of set or props is that once we’re set up we can keep running sections over and over to get lighting and music timings down to razor sharpness, which ultimately is what makes the difference between a bunch of guys shouting a lot and a slick looking production.
Once everything is done the only important job left is dinner. As this always feels like a long day pushing for too hard and too long only makes us full of hate, so pausing for long enough to refuel makes us more productive. Heretical Productions has never got anything done while hangry. Filling ourselves up with sausage rolls, coffee and Tangfastics is somewhat of a recognised tradition – although recently fruit was brought in and everyone sat in bemused but approving silence enjoying this ‘healthy’ treat.
Bar a lot of jumping and stretching to get ourselves physically warmed up that about takes us up to the first show. It’s a funny process to suddenly go from the relaxed tea drinking of the rehearsal room to the serious voice filled performance space, but we’ve avoided any murders so far.
As Joe and Alex are with us through the creation/rehearsal process we all know (roughly) the music and tech cues. But there is always the nail biting process of throwing it all together. The physical sequences usually get first priority in tech runs, as they’ll often have been rehearsed in a myriad of spaces that aren’t the venue this will mean tweaks and changes: for example during one fight sequence we had to ensure to be set far enough upstage so that Alistair didn’t destroy a Par Can by kicking it to death. Give yourself ten points if you can work out how that’s even possible.
Remaining as calm as possible while Joe and Alex work their magic at this point is always quite hard; we get quite excitable once given a stage to jump around on, but we do our best. We find an order of priority rather than a straight tech run helps because then we’re not snookered if we faff for too long with the first job on the list (quite a possibility given a propensity for inserting last minute jokes), and less important dialogue bits can always be done out of the way while focusing etc gets done. Sometimes if we get practice sorted quickly and we’re being well behaved we’re even allowed to touch the equipment– I even borrowed Joe’s Leatherman to cut some gels to size once. The advantage to not having anything in terms of set or props is that once we’re set up we can keep running sections over and over to get lighting and music timings down to razor sharpness, which ultimately is what makes the difference between a bunch of guys shouting a lot and a slick looking production.
Once everything is done the only important job left is dinner. As this always feels like a long day pushing for too hard and too long only makes us full of hate, so pausing for long enough to refuel makes us more productive. Heretical Productions has never got anything done while hangry. Filling ourselves up with sausage rolls, coffee and Tangfastics is somewhat of a recognised tradition – although recently fruit was brought in and everyone sat in bemused but approving silence enjoying this ‘healthy’ treat.
Bar a lot of jumping and stretching to get ourselves physically warmed up that about takes us up to the first show. It’s a funny process to suddenly go from the relaxed tea drinking of the rehearsal room to the serious voice filled performance space, but we’ve avoided any murders so far.