40 Dei - Tuesday March 3rd

All the girls have brought shorts today so that we can start the day with exercises. A short set of physical exercises (from a book called the Back Sufferers bible) to improve posture and some breathing exercises for freeing up the voice. We've done this from time to time over WSB's history but enthusiasm dies away pretty quickly and I end up embarrassed about enforcing a western drama school style regime on the cast if they don't want it. On the other hand its only day 2 and some voices are feeling the strain of filling quite a big space….and so far everyone likes the exercises. The afternoon gluing together of the opening scenes is a disaster. No one knows any lines, its 30 degrees inside the theatre and humid with it and it will be like that all through rehearsals. The theatre is a converted warehouse with thousands of coconut husks in the roof for accoustic purposes. No aircon, some small windows and fans. Performances of full length plays with lights most advisable during the 'winter' months, June to August!sadly plays have to be rehearsed first in the hot months!

I know in my heart that I don't want polished performances on day 2 but still I cannot help my inner self screaming 'this is going to be a disaster, oh my god I'm such a useless director etc.' The morning was great; two hours on another song, all working out a little dance for it but even that fell apart in the afternoon. At 4 pm I think the actors realise that they have a lot more lines to learn than in previous more chorus driven plays; I'm walking back to the office after rehearsals when I see that three actors are staying on to have another go at a scene, so I stay and the scene starts to take shape. Very pleased with the work ethic!