Last week was hectic and included several skype meetings and regular phone meetings with a composer I’m writing an opera with, and my costume designer and aerial choreographer for Monkey & Crocodile. As well as a few face to face meetings with a lawyer, an accountant and a marketing expert (all for Metta).
This week has turned out no less (and arguably more) hectic with Monday cracking off with a meeting with English Touring Theatre – who are very kindly going to mentor us on out STC tour (hurrah) – followed by some epic business plan writing. To clarify – the writing of it was epic, the plan itself is…well it’s great but it’s just a business plan.
Yesterday trumped that with five meetings (Southbank Centre, Young Vic, Young Vic, Hampstead & RSC) followed by a quick trip to Argos to pick up some playground equipment for the Monkey & Crocodile R&D followed by a dinner party for the cast/creative team for that. Luckily I’d made the crumble the night before and put the slow-cooker on before the five meetings so I returned from Argos to a lovely stew that had been cooking for ten hours. And crumble for pudding. And everyone stayed the night because we were rehearsing nearby – it was like my dream of having a Theatre Commune.
Today was relatively relaxed by comparison. First day of rehearsals for the R&D. Started with acro-balance on a slide, then some juggling (got up to six apples between them…albeit very fleetingly). Then back to ours for lunch (home-made soup). Then some snake-boarding and tricycle chase sequences, then a bit of aerial work off a swing – amazingly not too cold to be working outside in a playground – crazy weather! Finally I made them do some animal character work (in the bedroom). All got a bit dark and adult. Good to know there’s some depth to this piece but maybe we’ll leave the violence out for the family version.
poppyburtonmorgan 