It's been a completely frantic few weeks getting the show together, but we finally pulled it all together at the tech rehearsal. Admittedly the day before the show, but still better than the day after!
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| Cast shot by Christopher Reynolds (@chrisreyn59 on Instragram) |
The whole process was completely mental. Devised theatre is like nothing I've ever done before, and goes completely against how I work. I'm a geneticist, I like logical processes and knowing exactly what's happening and where I'm going. A devised ensemble circus show involves not having a bloody clue what's going on at any point until the absolute last minute, working things out as you go, and essentially a lot of chaos. Rehearsals were less what I think of as a traditional rehearsal and more playing with new techniques to see what works and who works together.
I spent a lot of my time doing things like this:
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| Lots of back-bending and chest stands. When I'm asked what I'm good at, this is what I end up doing... |
Initially my character was a bookish student, in the first scene I was meant to be having coffee with a friend but kept going back to my book, with lots of acro. For various reasons though, I ended up spending most of my time onstage as a Buff Grrl - a take on the stereotypical circus strongman. This involved a lot of posing, a lot of posturing, and some amazing costumes. Red and white striped, skintight body suits.
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| Three of us acting as Buff Grrls, holding up the teeny tiny director |
As exhausting as the whole thing was, it was still a brilliant experience. I've got a whole list of new skills - chest stands (which I discovered I could do a week before the show and then wouldn't stop doing), various assisted walkovers, better handstands than I've done in well over a decade - and I've pushed my flexibility even further with splits, backbends and chest stands. Most impressively, I based a two-high for the first time in my life (literally basing the flier for the first time at the tech rehearsal...), but haven't found any pictures of that yet.
Hopefully more pictures with me in will appear over the next few weeks, but I've pretty much exhausted my stock now.
The show may have gone well this time, but that doesn't mean the fun stops here! Next up is a scratch night on June 6th when I'll be performing solo on the trapeze. I've got a routine ready, but it needs a lot of work and I have no ideas for a costume yet. Then Circ:Us is getting a second showing at the Merchant Festival in Glasgow at the end of July. We might have the bare bones of the show from the first time round, but the plan is to make it bigger and better. My original character is being scrapped in favour of my Buff Grrl. Which means I am going to end up doing a whole load of work through the whole show, and really need to work on looking a bit more, well, buff...
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| By @chrisreyn59 |
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