Girl X blog – part 2

Photo by Deborah Champion/ Blipfoto

It’s the end of week two in the Girl X rehearsal room, and although it may not always be as dramatically interesting as you might expect, all is going well.

We ended our first week with a read-through for the whole National Theatre of Scotland Company, which showed us that a lot of the rewrites were working very well, but we still had some issues to solve. So for Pol the weekend was spent making tweaks and changes, ready for Monday when we first met our chorus.

Meeting the community actors who are hopefully going to make up our chorus was nerve-wracking. I imagine they felt quite anxious too but I was, as they say, bricking it. These are the people to whom I have to entrust this idea that we’ve be working on for four years. These are the folk who are going to share the stage with me every night and who need to carry 50% of the show!

OK, so I know that all makes me sound a little neurotic, but this blog is meant to be giving you a behind-the-scenes peek. Needless to say, I had nothing to worry about – they all knew each other from working together on this Citizens Theatre/Scottish Opera double bill. Our first read-through together was a bit sticky at first – the style of the script can take a bit of getting used to – but by the mid-point we were galloping along. On Monday afternoon,  I knew for the first time that this was going to work.

Other events this week included the National Theatre of Scotland’s Burns Night ceilidh, which was a riot! As you can imagine, being the National Theatre of Scotland, every reading, every song and every dance was top-notch quality – no-one would’ve dared get up unless they had a CV boasting a Bafta nomination! Actually, that gives an unfair impression – it was a great night and everyone took part. It was particular fun introducing the Belgian and Aussie members of our team to the protocols of Scottish ‘social’ dancing.

The week continued with more chorus rehearsals – they might be beginning to realise how tricky speaking in unison will be – along with further script nips and tucks. We had a visit to the Citz to check out the rake on their stage – wheelchairs and sloped stages don’t always mix well – but I’m confident that there won’t be a problem with this one. (Although you might want to avoid the first few rows if you’ve still to book!)

Right, I’d better sign off now and get on with some ‘real work’. I promised more links to sites about growth attenuation and the cases that we’ve based the play on. These will come next week, or you could check the Facebook event page for Girl X.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of Ashley, who sparked this whole issue off. And to read a debate around this issue – click here.

Best,

Robert