Thursday 2nd April

Sometimes you work with people and its intense but you get the chance to let off steam. Other times, you don’t. The thought comes to mind as a result of persuading Fernando to come out for a beer with me tonight, even if he drank tea whilst I drank beer. But for the first time in what might be a month, I went out after rehearsals. (With the exception of F’s birthday.) It is the nature of my cast, V is a mother, A feels as though she has too much work, and Fernando has a reclusive streak, but has been a little strange for me. Twas only tonight, when I finally did go out, that I realised how hard it is not to have downtime, to not be the director for a while. I’m not sure how much more than six weeks in a row I can take being a director 6 days a week (7 this week). Not because I don’t enjoy the work, I love, but because I need to take a break, to be on the same level as everyone else, to get out of my director skin every now and again.

Anyhow. Today we were in the theatre for the first time. A theatre I knew well, fifteen years ago. Spent an hour working with V on her state of mind at the opening of 4, doing a chaotic exercise involving 20 chairs and some clothes. Think it helped. We worked on her speech for a while. Cecilia arrived with costumes. Earlier I had met with Claudia and Omar. Omar told me a long story about the witch (male) who worked on the Macbeth he was designing, who told him he was a (non practicing) witch, too. Among other prescient prophesies. Claudia had a clear plan for the lights and insisted it was all under control. All the clothes Cecilia brought except for one outfit worked. Omar thinks he has chairs and a table with concealed lights and all kind of tricks. Finally Karina arrived to say we had, as Omar had informed, got the cash from Montevideo Teatral. 85 000 pesos. About 3000UKP. Which solves any money problems.

When everyone had left I worked with Ana and Fer. Not sure what I think. In theory the bi-frontal space should work perfectly, but in practice I’m not sure. The acoustics seemed odd and everything felt out of kilter. In spite of the fact the actors are doing the scene fine. Does it work in the space? For now, I’m not sure. Time will tell.


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