3felt it was effective, and today Richard has been sweating over the copy – on his 5th draft by the time I left for home.
Bob Frith's VEIL BLOG OCTOBER 2007
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31.10
Our technical workshopping began today. The set has been put together in a simple way with some basic lighting. We looked at the stage measurements to see which of the marginal venues (sizewise) could be adapted to, and which venues we just couldn’t squeeze into no matter what. In the end it looks as if two shows will have to be pulled from the schedule. Why it’s impossible to know these things until we get to this stage is often hard for outsiders to understand. With most venues it's immediately obvious if the show will fit or not - but a few are always too close to call. The size of the set (which was planned and measured exactly some months ago) is only the first part of the equation. Entrances and exits need to be worked out; backstage and wing corridors; off-stage lighting requirements; changing and storage space……
The winged bull looks good; the painted backdrop we’re not so sure about. The backlighting looks fine, but the paint reduces the light penetration substantially; also it’s beginning to crack slightly.
But it feels great to finally be engaging with the set physically; moving around it and sensing its presence and potential.
28.10
The rain clears and I walk the dog. Blue skies - in fact the classic Miyazaki sky that always makes me feel especially good. Re-reading my last blog I realise that I haven't fully explained the limited choices left to us. All things being equal we would certainly re-advertise and start again looking for that wonderful performer with a Middle Eastern background. But the actual situation is that take away Christmas and we've only 8 weeks left until rehearsal - simply not enough time to go through the process again and expect anyone to be available. Plus two of those weeks are technical workshopping weeks; yet another week takes Alison away again, once more working on 'In the Shadow of Trees', and we've still a mountain of things still to make for the production.
26.10
It should have been straightforward. After Monday’s audition Alison and I made up our minds quickly, notified the successful candidates – and the unsuccessful ones too.
Most replied immediately, overjoyed and excited by the job offer. Many of the unsuccessful candidates replied too, graciously wishing us luck for the production. But by Thursday evening we still hadn’t heard back from the last candidate – the person that we had held auditions over to Monday for. After a few emails, and telephone messages we heard back – sorry, but for personal reasons they can’t accept the job.
So, we’re wondering what to do now. We did audition some extremely good performers, people we would be pleased to have in the company. But we’ve really made a big effort to seek out people from a Middle Eastern cultural background, and here we had less choice. What we have to weigh up is – just how important is it for us to take someone because they may offer important cultural insights to the rehearsal process; against taking the best possible performer?
19.10
Auditions for Veil should have finished last night, but we’ve one last performer to see on Monday before we can make a final decision. The standard was generally high, and it was particularly reassuring to discover some excellent male mask performers as this is the area we’ve had most trouble recruiting for in the recent past. The audition pieces were simple – but revealing enough to give Alison and myself the confidence that we could find performers capable of creating a clear narrative to their role and performance.
We're looking for male and female performers to tour with the show. Ability to perform in a mask is probably the key thing, but puppetry experience is useful too - as is knowing what touring means, the late nights, early starts, long journeys together in the van... For Veil we also want some members of the team with a Muslim and, ideally, Middle Eastern cultural background.
We used our old favourite audition soundtrack – Epic by Meredith Monk as the first piece. It never fails. For the second piece we used another Monk track for the male performers, and Little Star by Stina Nordenstam for the women. The Nordenstam turned out to be unexpectedly difficult for almost everybody. We hope to use it in Veil but time after time it refused to take off. I was beginning to think that it was going to be unusable when one of the women took it and created a really witty and quite wonderful audition piece that knocked me sideways. Funny thing auditions…
14.10
It's ironic that, since we heard the news that Veil has been given a Grants for the Arts award, work on the show has almost stopped. When our first application was turned down 6 months ago we offered 'In The Shadow of Trees' to promoters who had booked Veil so as to not leave them without a show. This week is when Veil was originally planned to start touring, with a production week at The Dukes in Lancaster. Instead 'ISOT' has taken its place - rehearsing and otherwise preparing for that has meant Veil has been packed away and our space given over to 'ISOT'.
We also prepared ourselves for failure in other ways. I committed most of last week to working with Mishimou, a promising young company with creative, but few other, resources.
But now we'll start getting back into working on Veil. Tomorrow auditions start (4 days of them) to find 4 performers - 2 male; 2 female. Tess Hills will take on the Tour Manager role, and Julie Parker the Technical Manager work. Julie will start getting things ready for technical rehearsals the week after next - trying out film and video ideas; looking at the staging; getting an overview of lighting and sound requirements. Katherina will be back then too, working on costumes in the main. We're hoping to start looking at some of the masks and puppets too, but we're really behind schedule on these. Alison will need to continue some work on 'ISOT' as it has yet to go to the International Mask Festival in Stourbridge, and a Christmas run at Lawrence Batley in Huddersfield - so there's particular pressure on her time.
3.10
Alison is directing a (partly) new cast for ‘In the Shadow of Trees’; Richard is juggling the management of Veil with ‘ISOT’, plus a new project being discussed with a publisher. Busy times. These other projects were brought forward because of the doubts around Veil, but now we’ve got the go-ahead we’re running parallel on three very active projects in addition to getting the first season of The Boo off the ground.
Meanwhile I’m focusing on Veil. Timetabling the technical rehearsal period; looking at who to ask to manage the tour; putting the team together to get the making jobs done on time; finagling the shrinking production budget….and, in between, getting on with making jobs.
READ AN INTERVIEW WITH BOB FRITH ABOUT VEIL HERE.
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CONTACT BOB FRITH bob@horseandbamboo.org
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
BOB FRITH: The Artistic Director of Horse + Bamboo Theatre, and writer and director of Veil. Started developing the project in December 2005, inspired by Jacques Brel's 'Regarde Bien Petit'.
KATHERINA RADEVA: The designer for Veil, which is her first commission from H+B. She is Bulgarian, based in London was shortlisted for the Linbury Design award in 2006 and devises and creates her own performance pieces.
LOZ KAYE: Musical Director, a long-term collaborator with H+B. based in Aarhus, Denmark. A specialist in writing music for theatre, and responsible for the music in most of H+B's recent touring productions.
ALISON DUDDLE: Maker and Associate Director, has worked with H+B for 7 years and will share the directing, mask and puppet-making with BOB FRITH.
ERIK KNUDSEN: A film maker from a Ghanaian/Danish background, responsible for creating the video footage and sections of Veil, with teaching commitments in Havana, Ghana - and Salford.
FALIHA KADHIM: An Iraqi painter who left Baghdad in 1992, now living in Lancashire. Advising on the Iraqi storyline and detail for Veil.
DAVID EDMUNDS: The Producer - of David Edmunds Projects - helping everyone by selling Veil to theatres throughout the UK, and supporting the artistic team.
RICHARD HALL: Executive Producer at H+B, responsible for marketing Veil and managing the tour.
HELEN JACKSON: the CEO from May 2007. GEORGE HARRIS wrote the initial grant application but left in January. ROSE CUTHBERSTON then worked as Acting CEO and did the first rewrite of the application.
RICHARD OWEN: Technical Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, who will undertake the lighting design.
FARHA PATEL, SADIA MAHMOOD, GHAZALA AHMED, TANZEELA JAVED: Advisory group with reference to islamic custom and belief.
HALIMA CASSELL, PARMINDER KAUR, GAZ KADHIM: Storyline advisors.
VEIL - THE BACKGROUND
HORSE + BAMBOO THEATRE is a touring company. Veil has been developed by H+B's Artistic Director to tour in Autumn 2007 and in 2008. Although H+B are already funded by the Arts Council, the company will also need a National Touring Grant to undertake this tour.
The story of Veil is rich and epic. It deals with the lives of two young women, caught up in the long and violent relationship between Europe and the Middle East. The 'veil' is not only the abaya of Iraqi womens dress, but also describes the lies and secrets of this history - as well as the physical screens and cloths of the staging.
