Thursday 23 February 2017

Day Four: The End of Rehearsals

Thursday
11am - 1pm Full Rehearsal at Blackheath Halls
3.30pm - 7.30pm Full Dress Rehearsal in the space at Laban

After spending a while experimenting yesterday, we still had more of the piece to go.
The morning was a great opportunity to collaborate with the dancers and add finishing touches to the piece. This included a dancer 'tightrope' walking across the woodwind section which comes from the fool's circus act in the film. The comical moment gave us an opportunity to interact with the dancers as well as surprising tomorrow's audience!

The piece ends full of sorrow and despair, just like the movie. Both characters who connect with the main emotive violin/trumpet scene have died and our choreography of this section reflects this grief. Here is a video of the first rehearsal of this section, it is a solemn and unexpected end. 


After a final run we headed to the Laban building for a rehearsal in the Bonnie Bird Theatre. A long lunch break gave us enough time to try out tomorrow's costumes!


This rehearsal was a productive and necessary run through, especially for the dancers and those of us in the orchestra who are moving around the space. 
There were some issues when three dancers, the principal clarinet player, the tuba player and myself were marching across the space. It was difficult for the dancers to move as they wanted and keep the music in the limited light. When we got to the wings it was too dark to see our music and a post with lights on was in the way. Rather the risk a damaged instrument (or nose!) I spoke to the dancers and technicians. It wasn't possible to put a light in the wings but we moved the post a little and decided the dancers were to guide us a little more while we played. I spent this afternoon memorising this section so it should go smoothly tomorrow! 

surprise from the cello section!
We added a few smaller details, including a piccolo solo from the string section and a slightly simplified tightrope walk. 


'tightrope walk'

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