The Carriageworks, Leeds

After the performance at The Carriageworks in Leeds Jez gave us a snapshot of some of the funnier parts of the show:  “The performance was quite funny today and some of the stuff we did could be put on an outtakes show! I said that Curley’s wife was ‘giving the girls and the guys the eye’, but Jess picked up on it and said ‘The girls and the guys?’ as Suzy which was fun.

Tim was watching the show from the wings and we could see him out of the corner of our eyes. Jess thought it would be funny to point towards him when Suzy jokes ‘That over there is Joan Crawford’ but she panicked and forgot the name so said ‘That over there is Judy Garland’ instead! Thankfully it made sense!

We are still really happy with the show and its great that when we occasionally do say something different from the script, we can improvise and help each other out… it’s live theatre baby!”

The Theatre, Chipping Norton

Having had a few days off, we caught up with the cast after the performance at The Theatre, Chipping Norton to find out how it was being ‘back in the saddle’!

Rob: “We’ve had a few days off so it’s nice to be back and jump into a show. The show tonight was a bit of a strange one because the stage was so small, so it had a different feel. It was nice to perform at a place I haven’t performed at before. We are staying in a really fancy hotel and I have family and friends coming to the London show tomorrow which I am looking forward to.”

Jez:  “We all travelled down separately today, I came with Fiona in the car and Rob and Jess met us half way. When we got here we did a line run and took the funny photos of the mice, which of course were completely natural, not posed!

I enjoyed the show tonight, the theatre is really nice, there are two heights, so people on the upper seats could see the projections but the people on the lower couldn’t. Tomorrow will be a toughy because we have two shows so we need to keep energy up!”

Feedback so far

We are getting to the halfway point of the UK Tour, and the feedback from audiences has been fantastic.

At each show we hand out feedback cards asking the audience to tell us what they thought of the show.  89% of those who responded described the show as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.

Lots of audience members have also been using this blog to give us their comments too, take a look at what they’ve been saying at:
http://www.mind-the-gap.org.uk/ofmiceandmen/?page_id=757

“The audience were with us 100%”

This week the cast did four performances at Arena Theatre Wolverhampton; Jez and Jess gave us their thought’s after Thursday night’s show.

Jez said: “Last night we had a great show, and afterwards we had lovely meal. I am always happy when I manage to get lasagne and garlic bread!

Before we did our show this afternoon I was enjoying myself backstage, focusing on getting into the character of George and felt quite confident.   As I exited the stage at the end of the show, I got a salute from Fiona, our tour manager, which I thought was funny because I’m into military marching and drills.  The warm up today was themed as it is St. Parick’s Day, so we swapped characters and played with Irish accents – check out the mice in their hats!”

Jess: “Arena Theatre is quite a small space, so the performances today were very intimate. We always have fun when we are performing,  although we do criticise our own performances and try to help each other out with advice and tips. I do like to be honest about the show in regards to the feeling and energy as well as our own performances, but I can say that tonight’s performance was without a doubt the best we’ve done. We did a run through of the script in preparation for the second show and I think this helped reinforce what our characters are on paper, and allowed us to play with them on stage. It all just seemed really natural and effortless. The audience were with us 100% and the comedy timing was perfect. We’re so pleased with ourselves, I’m off to get a glass of wine to celebrate…”

“A beautiful and evocative production and highly recommended” – Kate Cotton, Disability Arts Online

Read Kate Cotton’s full review for Disability Arts Online at:
http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/?location_id=1256

Square Chapel

After the performances here the cast headed just down the road to Square Chapel Centre for the Arts.  Here’s what Rob had to say: “At the end of last week we did a matinee and an evening at Square Chapel in Halifax, at first I thought it was a new place but when I got there I recognised it from when we did ‘Boo’.

We got some pictures of the bunnies in Jess’ changing room, also known as the shower cubicle!  And some of them looking out of the window.  I think that the audience were a bit quiet but that can be a good thing as it means that they are into it.

I’m looking forward to this week and the week after as I have some friends and family coming to see it.  My brother and sister-in-law are coming to Arena Theatre and then I have a big group coming to The Albany.  I hope they are not on the front row, like my sister was when she saw me in Boo, because it made me really conscious of trying not to catch her in my eye line.”

“Even by the time we’ve done our 48th show it needs to feel fresh”

Tonight will be the last show at Mind the Gap Studios for while, so we had a chat with the cast about how they are feeling about it.

Jez: “I was a bit tired today but enjoyed doing the show and Tim was happy, he just said ‘Give it all you’ve got’.  Tonight we’re going to do our last show at Mind the Gap until the 30th March, so we want we want it to be a special one.  We’ve just changed hotels so me, Rob and Jess are all in the same one so we’re looking forward to having a meal together tonight.

Jess:  I don’t want to leave here. I think I’d be quite happy doing all of our shows here as there is such a great feel to the space and always a buzz. We did benefit from the notes we were given yesterday as it has helped us realise that we must not get stuck in a rut. Even by the time we’ve done our 48th show it needs to feel fresh, so I like to try slight differences each night and if something works I’ll keep it in.

I am loving the mocumentary, although I have to be a bit of a diva and have lots of tantrums and I hope that people don’t think one day I’ll freak out like that for real… watch out boys! We had a lovely leaving do for Maria with Charli’s famous cakes and Alan singing ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles on Karaoke to see her off. Bye Maria, good luck with your new job, you’ll be greatly missed…

‘Mockumentary’

Today, the Making Theatre students have been filming a ‘mockumentary’ about the making of the show, so the actors have had the chance to send themselves up and throw lots of diva strops for the camera… which they seem to have enjoyed!

Rob:  “We had rehearsals after the show today, which was really odd because usually you have them before. It was good to get notes after being on the road just to see what Tim thought of how we’d been doing it. It just needed a few tweaks and that’s it.  Making Theatre have been following us about with cameras as they are filming us for a mockumentary which is a spoof documentary.  We had to act differently to how we would usually, like being very melodramatic and silly – everyone had a laugh.”

Jez: “I really enjoyed today. I think the mocumentary spoof was really funny. It was great that we got to mess about and not worry about being too serious. Sometimes you need that just to get out of the mundane thing of proper rehearsals. We had a recap with Tim where he gave notes and did a spot rehearsal, and we went out for a meal at the end of the day for Maria’s leaving do and I’ll miss her very much.”

Transforming the stage with Projection – William Simpson

Take a look at the blog by Projection Designer and Filmmaker, William Simpson about his approach to creating the beautiful visual design for the show:

http://blog.williamsimpson.eu/2011/02/transforming-the-stage-with-projection/

Back in Bradford

The cast have been here at Mind the Gap Studios this week for a run of performances, we took some time to catch up with them and find out how they feel about being back.

Rob said “It’s really good to be back, and nice to be in a familiar place. We all felt comfortable and it’s great to have support from the team as well as a supportive audience.  After the show the three members of cast all went bowling, and I won!  Then we had a meal and it was great because we rarely get time as just the three of us…(No offence Fiona!)”

Jess: “I was so excited the whole of last week thinking about coming back and now we’re here it’s fab!  It just feels right to be back in the space we rehearsed in for 5 weeks and spent our lunch break chatting with all of our friends. Though I was thinking it would just be our luck if the bed fell apart tonight or we all forgot our lines, but thankfully that didn’t happen. There was a great energy and Jez was practically bouncing off the walls all day, he was so glad to be back.”