Week 5
Rehearsals for the show started on Monday at Norwich Arts Centre, David and I spent all day going through the script, making a few changes along the way. It was amazing working in the space and exploring stage entrances and exits, trying out the kudu horn which was great. I felt we had achieved a lot today and considering we have another 14 days to go I do feel confidant we will achieve the final goal.
I was able to sing the new songs I hope to include in the show to David and I loved his input and felt he respected my vision. So all in all day one has been good, I have emailed all practitioners involved with the latest rehearsals dates and encouraged them to pop over to see and feel the work in progress. This we hope will help and inspire the sounds and visuals needed to give the show the maximum strength it deserves.
On Thursday we invited practitioners to come and share the space of the opening of Kure Kure. David thought would give those involved an idea of what could be achieved in the show. In attendance was project manager Daisy, prop maker Steve, Script writer Bel, Sound John and myself and David. Having worked on bits of the show in the morning in full costume we were ready to share the performance with our small invited audience. Feedback was positive although in some cases everyone felt we could add certain parts to the story. In some cases it was a matter of too many cooks. I had been worried about remembering my lines but David explained how moving around and changing spaces around the stage would naturally allow easy flow and cues for memorising lines.
What a mixture of emotion today as I found out Moyses was no longer able to do the lighting, - a nightmare! Have put the word out and fingers crossed the right person will come along. My website has now been updated and shows images and write up of the show in progress including the weekly blog!
We hope people will visit the site and find out about the show in development and finally touring.
This week I have been making contacts in Zimbabwe and America telling key people about the show and feeding on the excitement. I am in the process of following up these links and hoping to access some images which will either be part of the development stages or tour. Today is Sunday and I've received an email to say my DNA sample has arrived at the lab and I should hear in the next two or four weeks! Two will be even better.
Week 6
Monday I worked on the editing with Scott and Richard at West Anglia College. We managed to sync the music and visuals for the first half, we are still waiting for images for the Zimbabwe archive and University of Rochester in the USA which will be added to the visuals.
For lunch we decided to head to Norwich market and utilise the time speaking to traders, a couple even agreed to be recorded talking about their stall. Not quite what we needed but it was genuine banter captured with stall holders.
Wednesday work started with Choreographer, Vicki sent her assistant Tina to come and spend the day supporting me with choreography. I picked her up from the station and after we got to the Arts Centre we started looking at the show and her input was just what was needed
Today it was just myself and David at the rehearsals and we have really started incorporating what Tina brought to the space yesterday, the script is starting to take shape and I realise days are short but feeling determined more than before to performing this show to my invited audience.
Oh man I am so tired, everyone seems to the working full on, rehearsals went well today but as we start linking the jigsaw there seems to be not much time left which means we will have to use the weekend we had set aside leading up to the show in three week’s time. I am absolutely in my element when we are in rehearsals and I am loving the process. But it’s trying to balance everything else around me, the most important thing is that I am determined.