End of the first and into the second...

Finally I can type away on the real World Wide Web rather than tapping away on my Blackberry that is equipped with the efficiency of a 1976 calculator.

Title
Author
Copyright

Description

It comes as an embarrassment that I have to succumb to the fee of £20 to sweeten my addiction for the internet. It’s 23.06 on Monday night and rehearsals are starting at 8.30m and running right through until 6pm every day now. It does beg the question as to why and indeed, how, I am awake.

Yesterday we moved to Liberty House, student accommodation right in the centre of Glasgow from the luxury Euro Hostel just down the road. We are now located next to Merchant City and the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art and the views are sublime; row beyond of row of medieval copper spires mixed with bold modern roofs that stretch as far as the eye can see. You really can see the mix of the old and the new, and the clear transition that the city has taken into the modern generation. It does come as some comfort, however that yesterday we saw the remains of some of the tenements from the late 1800's. Earlier in the week we visited the People’s Palace in Glasgow Green, and researched the lives of Glaswegians throughout the 1900’s. The tenements were an element of life that truly fascinated me, especially after speaking with a certain gentlemen from the community who worked for the Housing Association when he moved from Sterling after University. He said tenements would be four storeys high, and hold up to 16 families, as many as 10 people living in one room that contained their kitchen, living room and bedroom. The conditions were awful and 45 families would share one squalid toilet. He mentioned that the Victorian Slums were the worst in Europe, some as bad, if not worse than those in Calcutta. It’s interesting to mention as well, that the bricks that the Lighthouse’s walls are made of are from Victorian Slums around the city. So the building contained history before it was even built; the walls are quite literally full of ghosts. As part of the same research tasks, others went off to the Mitchell Library and the current Herald offices to develop more of an understanding about the printing process.

It's been a dramatic (excuse the pun) few days. On Thursday evening I suffered an injury to my left foot. It sounds melodramatic to say "nothing happened" in answer to peoples’ concerned inquiries, but nothing really did happen. I was walking down the corridor when the sensation of a large rock filling my shoe struck me. We decided it was cramp and I laughed (whilst having that "crying inside because this is really actually quite a paralyzing-ly painful" feeling) it off, only to find ten minutes later that I had in fact lost the ability to walk. We paid a three hour visit to the Royal Infirmary's A+E and after speculation around a possible stress fracture or indeed torn ligaments, we found that I have damaged all the soft tissue in the front of my foot as a result of being "too physical." The frustration was unexplainable, but it's on the mend, and I have been getting involved in the introduction of more physical movement work as much as possible. Our movement director, Kane, joined us on Saturday and immediately threw us in at the deep end with complex lifts and trust exercises. It was reassuring to see proof of personal progression in that a year ago I would have run away screaming at the thought of being lifted 8ft in the air, but yesterday, even with an injury I fell back into the arms of the company with the enthusiasm of a five year old child consuming a giant bag of blue smarties. The exercise progressed into a random succession of people “falling” whilst the rest of the company ran to their rescue; a strangely liberating experience.

The rest of Saturday was dedicated to filling the holes in the developing script and making sure the timeline of the story is coherent. We also started to work on the relationship between mothers and daughters, father and daughter and the idea of finding love, in preparation for deeper character work during the second week. After rehearsals we went to see the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Knives in Hens by David Harrower which was directed by the Belgian director, Lies Pauwels, at the Tramway on the south side of the Clyde. The theatre is located in the former Coplawhill Glasgow Corporation Tramways depot in the Pollokshields, and boasts unique and versatile spaces that still have the tramways running under the seat. Everywhere you look in Glasgow there’s segments of history staring you in the face.

The play itself left me simultaneously exhilarated and confused. The pre-requisite with the National Theatre of Scotland is that it is hugely physical and with Pauwels directing it seems inevitable one is going to be bombarded with breathtaking movement and song. The performance was surreal, bizarre and equally alienating and ambiguous. As the young woman journeyed from ignorance to liberation, resulting from an obsession with naming her place and of those around her in the world, we watched in utter awe. It truly provided the biggest slice of food for thought available at the buffet.

And so came Sunday in all its glorious jewels of rest. We wish. Unfortunately we all harbour an insatiable appetite for knowledge and felt obliged to discover more about Glasgow. All day we gallivanted around the cobbled back streets and numerous galleries of Glasgow. The Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art on the Royal Exchange Square was astonishing, both in terms of architecture and content. One exhibition that particularly caught my eye was that of Brian Griffiths. For the British Art Show he presented two sections of a giant bear. A tent-like “head” is shown at one end of the gallery, while its body lies at the other end. Griffiths explains that the body is a ‘convoluted way of completing the head.’ The two separate sculptures are ‘parts that have not met yet;’ it is only in the memory of the imagination that they become a ‘full bear.’ Some of the staircases in the gallery itself were phenomenal; comparable to the door opening scene in Alice in Wonderland. We also paid a visit to George Square, dominated by the exquisite City Chambers building.

Then came Monday, and with it a disaster in the form of me locking myself out of my room at breakfast. Typical. The day started with an intense workout and warm-up with Kane at 8.30. To say he is physically mental is an understatement. It’s definitely a work-out worthy of army boot camp. But it’s all fun and got us ready for the rest of the day. I’d have to say today has been mentally and physically the most challenging day. We received the fifth draft of the script today, but it is indeed our first glance at the script as a whole. We read through and spent the rest of the day brainstorming ideas through devising and improvisation. The most successful being the creation of George Square. We used newspapers and 1980’s music to create the hustle and bustle of the city in a simple and effective way. Most of the work we create is through the use of newspapers, boxes and mime combined with vast soundscapes. It was great to play with the idea of tempo and how easily actors can entirely change the meaning of a given scene simply by slowing down or speeding up movements to extremes. The real challenge for us is including the entire ensemble of 40+ actors whilst still maintaining an engaging story. It’s exciting to be working on text and developing concrete ideas and to feel as if we are progressing. I am in no doubt that the final product will be an energetic and engaging spectacle. The whole company is so talented.

And now at 23.43, I shall retire to bed with an aching foot, a raging thirst and gigantic bags under my eyes. It doesn’t matter because it’s 100% worth it.