Freeze Frame

Blackadder rehearsals continue apace. We have some scenery and props as well as a rudimentary sound and light plot. We even have some costumes, but what we don’t have is any heating in the theatre! We did do part of one rehearsal this week in costume, so that publicity pictures could be taken and I think you can see that I am suffering for my art! A thin costume, bare legs and an icy draught are not the best conditions to rehearse in, especially when it’s a long scene where I don’t have much movement anyway. As you can imagine, heating an 18th Century theatre is not cheap these days and the trade off for being allowed to rehearse on the stage is that the auditorium will not be heated.
Thankfully, last night’s rehearsal was done in normal clothes with everyone warmly dressed. Still pretty chilly when you’re sat out front waiting for your “bit” though!
It really is coming together very well. Quite a few people are “scripts down”, even at this early stage, and there is always plenty of laughter as people become more used to delivering the lines and extracting the maximum comedic impact from them.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to have the heating on (or the weather will be a lot warmer) when we come to the actual performances, or I may have to invest in some thermal underwear!

Photo Credit - Phil Dawson. See his Flickr account for further examples of his work, including more cast and rehearsal photos.