First night read-through

Ok, so let's give the blogging thing a try, shall we?

So, Noises Off, the name of our show, is a play-within-a-play. In our show, we are playing actors that are rehearsing/performing their own show called Nothing On. So, for example, I will be playing Garry (the actor) in Noises Off, who is in turn, playing Roger (Garry's role) in Nothing On (the name of their show). Get that? Probably not.

Last night was the first rehearsal which was just a read-through. We all received our scripts, met each other, and then sat around a table and simply read the script. Simply may not be the right word because things start getting really crazy after the first act with all that's going on.

So, I've wanted to be in this show pretty much since the first time I saw it and I'm super excited that I finally get a chance to perform it live. It seemed that most of the other actors felt the same way. However, that being said, this is probably going to be a ridiculously hard show to learn. You see, the first act of Noises Off is a rehearsal of Nothing On the night before it opens. Easy so far. For act two of Noises Off, the set turns around completely and the audience watches from a backstage perspective. It is set about month after Nothing On opened, and they are performing act one (again) on the road. So for act two, we will be performing Nothing On on our backstage as we did in act one of Noises Off. All the while, there is a lot of goings on backstage of Nothing On (on stage of Noises Off). For act three, the set turns around again and the audience gets to watch act one of Nothing On again, this time knowing all the madness that can happen backstage.

(The next section can adequately be called the shout-out section). As I said before, I am playing Garry who is playing Roger. There is also Frederick who is playing Philip played by Joe Shepherd. Belinda who is playing Flavia played by Kellye Mitchell. Brooke who is playing Vicki played by Britt Byrd. Dotty who is playing Mrs. Clackett played by Carol Griffin. Selsdon who is playing a burglar played by Joe Brennan. That covers the cast of Nothing On. There is also Lloyd, the director of Nothing On, played by Alan Lee. Tim, the stage manager of Nothing On, played by, Jeremy Maxwell. Poppy, the assistant stage manager of Nothing On, played by Maggie Pitt. For the REAL crew of the show there is our director, Patrick Kramer; our stage manager, Matt Grimes; and our assistant stage manager, Beth Henderson.

We also got to see the (mostly finished) set. There are still a few things missing, but all the basic structures were there. Let me say, that this is a rare luxury. Usually in a show, for the first couple of weeks, you get to rehearse on a bare stage with tape or chairs marking various doors or set pieces. Since this show has two levels and something like eight doors, having the set there from day one is going to be a HUGE benefit.

The show is going to be hilarious, as it should be. I was cracking up last night just reading it around the table with the cast. I was a bit self-conscience last night about my British accent. We're all required to have an accent for the entire show. I feel like mine is OK, but there are probably definitely some places where it needs work.

Last night when I got home, I got to work highlighting my script. Now generally, you can go to town with a single highlighter marking all your lines and you are fine. For this show, I decided to try three different colors of highlighter. I am using one color for Garry's lines, a second color for Roger's lines, and another color for all the stage directions, which is pretty much all of act two. It took forever to actually do. I'll let you know if it was worth. I'm sure I'll know fairly quickly.

That was about it from last night. From here on out, we rehearse every night Monday through Friday until we open which should be both fun and grueling. Sorry for the extra long length of this post. I am just going to chalk it up to being the first one. They're going to have to be shorter if I want to keep this up.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Feel free to comment.