Team

With our last major block of rehearsals for this phase of R&D completed, the pressure is mounting, as it always does. R&D’s are funny because you get the time to play and try new ideas, put stuff in front of an audience, get feedback, take it away, scrap it, start again etc. but further along down the line of this phase (where we’re at now *gulp*), there’s always the blind panic of creating something with true potential to be developed. For us, this means that although a series of fresh and new ideas are great, there has to be a little more there for audiences to engage with how the show might be in the future, with how the snippet might become a whole. This is also true for programmers and venues etc. which are instrumental in being able to help keep the momentum going.

With the above in mind, the stakes this week have been high but it’s also been really exciting to have a more full creative team in the room. Predominantly, throughout our rehearsals so far, the five of us (cast) have all co-devised, co-directed and performed/puppeteered with the focus very much on creating material as an ensemble. This week has heralded the return of our brilliant Dramaturg, Gemma, which was much needed support and couldn’t have come at a better time. Today, we were also joined by Sherry, our lighting designer. Having worked with Sherry on CELL, it’s really great to have the opportunity to work with her again.

It has always been our plan to work with Gemma throughout this phase of R&D as she is instrumental in helping shape the narrative, often tricky with visual, predominantly non-verbal theatre. However, we hadn’t planned to get Sherry involved at this stage. As In Our Hands has evolved, we started to feel, however, that it would be nice to try some lighting ideas at our Mimetic showing.

In a really idiotic way, i’d forgotten what it was like to have Sherry in rehearsals with us. Not only is she going to design the lights, she needs to see us working to understand the creative choices behind the material, the constructs that we set up and use repeatedly, the set, the height of the puppets, the changing environments, changing emotions and fluctuations of the piece. All of this she does by observing and actively using her design skills to help problem solve internal issues within the material itself. It’s amazing.

Although the heat is on in terms of time, it will never cease to feel anything less than brilliant to be in a room full of people who are brilliant at what they do. We’re all different, we each have our own roles but they are never conducted alone and it is never not your problem if its something outside of that said role. That, for me, is the best way of working and although stressed and anxious about our end goal, the faith I have in our team is the ultimate reassurance.