Friday, September 24, 2010

Our French adventure!

This time last week the first performance of Vanessa and Virginia had just begun. But not without difficulty. On the Thursday morning the team (Emma, Kitty, Beth, George, Luke and I) met bright and early at Gatwick's south terminal and were hit with a blow. Our flight to Marsaille had been cancelled. With this huge inconvenience and EasyJet proving to be totally unhelpful we quickly set about trying to find an alternative route to France, searching through every possibility, flights, trains, ferrys and driving. Eventually we managed to get some flights later that evening but at the expense of two of our party. Unfortunately the more expensive tickets meant that Beth and Luke were unable to join us.
So eventually at half 9pm our party of four arrived in Marsaille only to be informed that the hire care which had been promised as part of our flight deal, wasn't actually available, so tired and frustrated we clambered aboard a coach from the airport with our set, costume and cases and eventually arrived at Hotel Cardinal in Aix en Provence.

We awoke on Friday and headed off for what would prove to be a long day in the theatre. George quickly set about working with the students at the theatre and began rigging and focussing for the show. Even as early as 10am, with 9 hours till the performance time I was already aware of a swarm of butterflies in my stomach. Due to some technical complications, brilliantly handled by George, our tech was delayed and we were unable to finish a cue to cue of the show before we began.

Waiting side stage as the audience entered the space I was more nervous than I have ever been pre-show before. I think this was a combination of it being our first performance, the knowledge that we were performing to a host of renowned Woolf scholars and my own determination to do justice to the extraordinary woman I was about to play.

Despite all of this, the show went better than I could ever have hoped. Both Kitty and myself found new elements to our characters, found a new sense of play and exploration which had developed even further from the rehearsal room. It was a totally exhiliarating experience and I felt more than ever before that this woman was really coming to life. The response from our audience was overwhelming. I could never have hoped for such a positive response and it was hugely reassuring to know that all our work during rehearsals and research had been successful. Of course that isn't to say that there are still more things we can do to improve the show further, but for our premier performance and after an incredibly trying couple of days it felt like a huge success and has even opened up performance opportunities in Germany and Greece.

The rest of the weekend was spent both at the Woolf conference, hearing papers about Woolf's writing style and particular novels and walking the beautiful streets of Aix en Provence. The trip was an incredible experience and has left the whole team feeling incredibly excited about the next development of the project.

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