So we have nearly come to the end of this epic run, which basically started in EDINBURGH on the 1st of August. It’s been an inspiring and emotional few months, with a great bunch of talented and passionate people. We have been up and down the UK and round in circles performing this sporadic triple bill, which has received critical acclaim where ever it goes. Hang on a minute listen to me – i’m talking as if it’s finished, we still have Ludlow, London and Wellingborough to go!
Week 7
started in Ipswich, at the infamous octagon stage! It’s a beautiful auditorium
with a very abstract shaped stage with awkward wings, but in a funny way I
quite prefer abnormal stages. Spacing
took longer than usual with a lot of changes to the pieces to make use of every
inch of the space. When we finished
spacing we were happy to find out that we had nearly sold out, this was mainly
thanks to Luke Jessop bringing the entire population of Colchester to Ipswich
to watch the show! The theatre kitchen
prepared 2 vats of pasta for us, which we enjoyed greatly and ate together in
the green room whilst playing A – Z blockbuster, after finding the famous quiz
book in the book shelf. The Show went
really well, for me Freddie’s piece felt at home with such an intimate audience
and small stage. After the show we received some amazing feedback, and
generated a lot of interest for the company!
After we had packed
up the rest of the company members left to enjoy their weekend at home. Nathan and I stayed in Ipswich, and prepared
for our 2 day residency with Breakin’ Hearts Crew in Ashford. The next morning we woke up bleary eyed at
6:30am and got on the road. We arrived
at the Royal Grammar School in Ashford, and were greeted by 8 bgirls, who were
all ready for action and very keen to create an amazing piece with us ready for
Monday’s performance at The Marlowe! To
sum up, both Nathan and I loved teaching this group, they were all very
talented in both breakin’ and Contemporary and would literally try anything!
The piece was structured and finished with time to spare, all of the group
seemed very proud of our creation!
When
Breakin’ Hearts arrived at around 5pm to get ready for the spacing they were
awe struck by the stage and the auditorium, some of them letting their nerves
kick in. We spaced their explosive
fusion piece, and ran it a few times with music. Which sounded epic on the massive PA. The piece looked great on the stage and all
of the company came into the beautiful auditorium and watched the run through.
We then started
warming up and prepping for the show ahead.
I went through some breathing techniques with the girls, to calm their
nerves and to focus their minds.
I went on
and introduced Breakin’ Hearts, and quickly realised they had their own fan club
in, judging by the screams. Their piece
went really well and made both Nathan and I very proud!
We will
definitely be staying in touch with Breakin’ Hearts, very passionate and
inspiration group of young adults! www.breakinhearts.co.uk
We went on
and smashed out Tom’s piece. Freddie’s
seemed very hard in comparison to Ipswich, the sheer size of the stage making
it aerobically challenging. This gave me
an extra adrenalin boost and Freddies’s piece went down very well, enticing a
lot of laughter from the audience!
When the
performance was over we retired to the dressing rooms and headed for our luxury
accommodation (thanks very much Marlowe Theatre). Had a cheeky drink at the bar and headed up
to our suites.
We then had a travel
day to Rhyl, we arrived after a 6 hour drive from Canterbury – Rhyl (two
opposite ends of the UK) and looked forward to our beds. We arrived at The Westminster hotel to be
greeted by one of the most migraine inducing carpets i’ve ever seen.
We went to
the local Wetherspoons for steak night and then went back to the classy hotel,
full of over 70’s on a sea side break.
When we woke up the
next day we had some ‘tasty’ breakfast and went to the theatre to get ready to
do
Class and
spacing. Rhyl Theatre is the 1st
stage this tour that is raked and we needed to adjust our balance
accordingly. So when doing class we made
sure we did each excersize facing the back as well as the front to get used to
the rake. The show went really well and
all of us adjusted to the rake and the space very well! After the show we went back to the
Westminster and prepared for our journey to chesterfield the following morning.
We all left
Rhyl at around 10:30am and embarked on our long journey to Chesterfield through
Stockport and up north. We hadn’t been
to the Pomegranate theatre since the State Of Matter tour in 2009, so memories
came flooding back when we entered the building! Once again the stage was
raked, but even more so, but due to the previous day our bodies were already
accustomed to the rake. We had a
sizeable audience and the show went really well, recieveing great feedback from
the audience!
Now we are on
our way back to the Shire looking forward to getting into my memory foam
mattress to realign my back, and some home cooked food! Hype!
I will pass
you over to Johnny Autin for the next entry! Take care people’s!
Big Love
Dan
Lowenstein x
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