Facebook and Rehearsals

As you can see from the widget on the left, we've officially joined facebook. Considering the fact we've had this blog for a while now, pretty much the entire duration of the project, I honestly don't know why we didn't set it up before. Luckily Siobhan, one of our ultra-talented cast-members, suggested we embrace modern technology last night after rehearsal. I duly embraced, and woke up to find we have something like fifteen friends. Very flattering. Judging by the fact that I've never even met some of those who have befriended us, there appears to be a good bit of interest in the project, which bodes very well.

As for rehearsal, last night saw us gather various members of the team after our much-deserved Easter break. Unfortunately, as God, the Devil and various Angels couldn't make it (what an odd sentence) we couldn't rehearse the Creation of the Universe, but we did give the Creation of Man and the Fall of Man a thorough going-over. Bridget, one of our Expositors, understudied very nicely for God and Siobhan, in addition to getting her own Angelic role spot-on multi-tasked brilliantly as another Angel (which involved having a conversation with herself) and the Devil. Gerard, our Adam, was suitably excellent as a childlike, innocent and, occasionally-terrified-at-the-prospect-of-damnation, Adam. And Will, one of our ultra-talented writers and now officially a director had at least me if not everyone else in stitches with his Kenneth Williams style 'oohhs' (which I had forgotten I'd written into the script). All in all a productive evening.

On Wednesday it's the Joseph and Mary show again, here's hoping it goes as swimmingly.

Eamon

Craven Images

Once more a frighteningly long stretch of time seems to have grown between the last post and this one. Since then, as usual, plenty has happened. Most interesting of all developments perhaps arose from the appearance of our very own Chris Jackson at the Borderlines conference in Dublin. While I was delivering an exercise in esotericism, Chris' paper on modern interpretations of the mystery plays (which made reference to this project) apparently inspired delegates from the University of Cork to stage their very own production. Very flattering news for our project. Chris also expertly plugged our performance. Remains to be seen if any of the conference delegates make the trip to Belfast for the play.

As it is currently the university's Easter break rehearsals are on a temporary hiatus (more anon). Our international cast are, at the moment, all over the world (literally) and most of the team are busy working away on essays (none of which, this time, purport to medieval drama) but plenty of preparation is being done for the big day...

Which we are now delighted to confirm will be Saturday 30th May. The performance (one night only!) will begin at 8pm, in front of the main gates at Queen's University, Belfast. We hope to gather the audience in front of the imposing educational edifice that is the university, and hopefully keep them entertained, before moving along to a number of sites on campus for each scene. The performance, we hope, will last approximately 1 hour - after which, at a location to be confirmed, we will retire for a wrap-party.

That's the housekeeping, now the fun stuff. Below is the lovely poster we've knocked together for the extravaganza. The pastel-illustration was produced by our very own Lorraine Clarke, with the text and general technical wizardry applied by Chris. Take a peek:

This poster has already begun popping up around Queen's and elsewhere. Should you feel the urge to indulge in some freelance advertising, please feel free to print said poster and paste it or pin it up in your office / shop /l ibrary etc. The image above might be a bit small for such purposes, so if you would like a larger copy please don't hesitate to email and ask.

In the last post I summarised the very enjoyable process of recruiting our cast. Since then, we assembled for our inaugural table-read, which thankfully went off without a hitch. Over an assortment of beverages alcoholic and non-, crisps and mini creme eggs, we read through the whole play (myself trying and hilariously failing to fill in for one of our female Expositors who unfortunately couldn't make it). We were very impressed with the contributions of all our cast and suitably comforted as to the viability of the project. Since then rehearsals have begun in earnest, including some rehearsal-time on-site, which despite the interruptions of children-at-play, football supporters, huskies and generally bemused passers-by worked very well. Luckily, everyone will be back again next week, at which point rehearsals will gather apace. In the meantime, we have the prospect of purchasing props to look forward to - including lab-coats, dressing-gowns, inflatable animals, toy-babies and God knows what else. Ah the theatre. Happy (belated) Easter!

Eamon