Not Yours, Mine R&D Day 1

Hi, Cat here! Producer and 'multi-role female' in our latest show Not Yours, Mine written and directed by Rachel McMurray.

So, after months and months of having my producer hat on: dealing with Arts Council applications, presentations, meetings, scheduling etc... we're finally here, at our first day of rehearsals! And boy did it feel good to get stuck into the creative side of this project. As much as I love the organisational side of my role as producer, there's nothing quite like being an actor/theatre-maker jumping headfirst into a brand new project; its scary and exhilarating in equal measure.

So, what did Day 1 look like?

We started with some icebreakers and get-to-know-yous with our cast (where I confessed I had slightly webbed feet... maybe not the best thing to share on the first day!) We then had a chat about the script and the actors had a chance to ask Rachel any questions about our characters and the story.

We then put the show straight on its feet with an instinct run. It gave us actors the impetus to make bold character choices, lose any inhibitions we may have had and just go for it, rather than overthink those character choices.

As there is a sizeable physical theatre element to this piece, we then started to work on all of the scenes where physical theatre choreography was necessary. Working through this first meant that we could start to get the movements into our muscle memory, in preparation for the sharing in a week's time. We used various devising techniques to piece the movement sequences together creating dynamic, story-led physical theatre.

By the end of the day, the majority of all of those scenes were well rehearsed and the movements flowing and slick. But the big question? Will we still remember all of this by tomorrow?

Watch out for the next blog post to find out...!