Praise for Reeling

A sell out first show, and not far off for the second, our time at 24:7 has been fantastic so far. Watching front of house staff having to find more seats to accommodate the audience was affirming to say the least. Everyone involved in 24:7 has been lovely; it's good to feel like everybody is supportive of all of the shows and the festival as a whole.

Today, Louise, Jo and myself saw The Bluest Blue and Sheepish, which were both excellent. The quality of plays is at such a high standard; I also saw Hatch yesterday which I'd highly recommend.

Tomorrow's our matinee, after which we'll be back in to watch another three plays. Particularly looking forward to seeing Make Believe.



So, now that they're starting to filter in, here's a selection of reviews for Reeling:



...a fascinating idea and a brilliantly original way for these sisters to examine their lives and reveal things that they have never previously been able to talk about.

Louise-Clare Henry is excellent as the younger sister who stayed with her mother with superb delivery of many cutting wisecracks... Joanne Smart is also good as the uptight, wary older sister...

David Chadderton, British Theatre Guide.



Reeling is a fine piece of writing

****

Natalie Anglesey, City Life




Families in crisis are nothing new in the theatre but there is a freshness to the script by Sean Gregory. Gregory handles with sensitivity the difficult subject of caring for a parent whose increasing frailty has become a burden. He is an evocative writer - using a snatch of a song to remind the sisters of their late mother...

There is a risk that the varying moods in the play could lead to a disjointed piece of work. Although the comedy -and even horror elements- are not ignored director Richard Vergette ensures that they fit seamlessly into the evolving story of the two sisters and so enhance rather than distract from their story. In a classy touch, he does not use standards on the soundtrack but original music by Josephine.

The acting is of a high standard. Although not physically similar, Henry and Smart have great chemistry that makes them convincing as sisters and so able to show the thousand nagging resentments that build up over time. Henry gives Alice an underlying vulnerability that off-sets the resentment she shows on the surface. Smart makes Jude a borderline neurotic consumed by guilt and married to a man whom she has come to loathe

The 24/7 Festival always has a gem or two that stand out from the rest of the shows and so far Reeling is the outstanding play for 2010.

****

Dave Cunningham, What's On Stage



Sales are going well for the last three shows (Friday 20th at 12.30, Saturday 31st at 6pm, Sunday 1st at 2pm).


Thanks to everyone who has been to see us, or is coming down over the next few days,

Sean

AND SO THE FESTIVAL BEGINS...

It’s been a fantastic couple of weeks for me; not only as a producer but now I have the chance to flex my performance skills. It has been a challenging rehearsal process not only because the character of Jude has a lot of emotional problems in her life, but also resisting the urge to continue with producing duties. Thankfully Richards’s advice has been a god send. “Let Sean or myself deal with anything that’s needs sorting”. Having past on the duties to Sean it wasn’t until Richard reassurance I was able to let go. Not that I don’t trust that Sean would follow through, (Sean is determined to make this show a success as much as I am) but to hear someone else say ‘its ok, we can do this’ was a relief. Therefore, I pass this advice to any future producer/performer and make sure you have a strong reliable team. I couldn’t ask for any better, than Sean, Richard, Olivia and Joel.

So, from now on I can only mostly comment on the festival from a performer’s perspective. Last night was the preview, which I thought went really well. Louise-Clare gave really good performance and she gave me something to react to, a sign of a good actor. Louise is my sister at least for this week. Josephine, the singer song writer who has provided two songs for our show, was in the audience. I was disappointed not to meet her afterward and I have now learnt the value of getting changed quickly after the show. Josephine EP was released today and ‘I think it was love’ was played on Lauren Laverne’s show, BBC6 Music this lunch time. We are so lucky to be able to promote Josephine and it would be fantastic to get some publicity for our show too. So future producers use your contacts, you never know who might be able to help.

If you’re interested in listening to Josephine’s latest tracks you can find them on her myspace page. (Check out the Link list)

Our first show is tomorrow and I’m so excited. I might be biased but if you enjoy an emotional story this is right up your street!
Thanks to the best team for getting us here.
Joanne

A Stage Manager's Perspective

Latest news: 96 tickets already sold and 2 days until the press preview!

I can't believe how fast the rehearsal process has gone; we began exactly one week ago today, and now we're preparing for our get-in and technical rehearsal at the theatre! It has been fascinating watching how Richard, Joanne and Louise have worked together to create the world of the Knowles sisters on the day of their mother's funeral. It's quite an emotional state to get into and even I start to feel quite tired after sitting watching a day's rehearsal; I can only imagine how the actresses feel!

As a first-time stage manager and never having met anyone from the production company before the first rehearsal, I was excited and apprehensive about the whole experience. Thankfully, the set stays the same throughout the whole 55 minutes so I just need to worry about the stage preset and hanging about in the wings incase of emergency! I feel like a safety net in rehearsals, there for support (or line prompts!) and occasional opinion on the action. I have certainly enjoyed the role so far!

One of the biggest practical challenges of the play is the number of cassette tapes. Yesterday I sat with Louise going through the whole script, counting how many cassettes were needed and which dates, then labeling them all up. Thankfully only 20 are actually taken out of the trunk although the crew (mainly Sean and Jo!) managed to gather about 250 which look amazing all lined up inside. A lot of time has been spent blanking the cassette tapes, since Joel will be operating the sound from the tech box, so that when the girls press play, we won't be hearing 'Christmas Hits 1992!'

Today we'll be moving the set into the venue. Joel, Sean and Alice spent the first part of the week building a wallpapered corner of the room, and the rest of the set consists of the trunk, a sofa, a standard lamp, a chair and a rather beautiful writing desk or bureau. The next focus of my job will be co-ordinating the set-up and take-down the set in the 15-minute window given by 24:7, and ensuring all the tapes are wound and placed in the correct place.

I'm excited about the next few days: please do come and watch!

The Proper Beginning

It almost feels like there's ten starting points to a play. There's the writing of the thing itself, then there's the getting it on somewhere, then there's casting it, finding a director, stage manager, set designer, rewriting, booking rehearsal spaces, and so on and so forth.

Monday, however, was the proper beginning for Reeling.

So, what did Monday bring? It was the first time everyone involved had been in a room together, and for some, it was the first time we'd met.

The read through was tricky. As the play relies on listening back to tapes, sometimes characters listening to themselves, there were these bizarre moments when Jo and Louise-Clare were left having to almost throw their voices, as they had to reply to themselves. Both were terribly good at it though, of course.

After the read through, everyone got a chance to talk about the script. This is my favourite bit, as it was with Donal Fleet last year, having everyone sit around and giving their ideas on how to develop the script. I know some writers are quite precious about their 'words', but I think several perspectives (especially from someone like Richard) can turn a reasonable piece into something much better. Having to spend five hours on the train back to Norwich yesterday, I finished the rewrite... I hope all contributions made it from my notes to the script.

After the read through, we tore straight into getting the recorded parts of the play done. Richard and Joel combined their duel director powers like something from a Japanese monster movie. It was quite strange for me, as the writer, to watch this take shape. Having written a play where taped recording would be used, I was relying on the fact that Joel would know how to put it together. And, as is so often not the case, I was right. Richard got fantastic performances out of all the actors. This is another oddity about being a writer. You put these things on paper, hoping that it's going to be somehow effecting/funny/tragic/poignant etc etc, but (at least I can't) you can never be sure. And then you have someone like Richard who, along with the actors, finds these extra layers to the words on the page, which left me asking the same question several times - 'did I really write that? And if I did, can I get away with pretending it was intentional?'

It seems a shame that Ruth was only with us for the day (though, hopefully, she'll pop down to a rehearsal or two), that Ted and David were only around for an hour or so, and that Hannah was in and out in about twenty minutes. However, their contributions are bigger than their time given.

What else did we learn? Well, we're a new theatre company, so we learnt that there are mistakes there to be made, and we are going to make some. We learnt that you should double check peoples names before putting them on anything. And we learnt that people are, in the main, superb. It's fantastic for us to have people like David, Ted, and Ruth give their time so freely.

So, next week is the eleventh beginning, when we start rehearsals proper.

Sean

Well hello.....!