Saturday 21 September 2013


"Peter" listens to notes - rehearsing Peter by Alice Birch in the Puppet Monologues 

We discovered a new puppet method this week: the person on the bum and right hand does the voice, the person on the head lipsynchs. It's playful, fairer, magical to watch. A truly democratic puppet. In reality the voice sits exactly between the body and the head so it is also more accurate to life. Thank you Trudi!

Friday 30 August 2013

The relation of the voice to the feet

There are lines that "hold" the feet, suspend them, stop them, and lines that release them. The feet can also release the voice. In The Table there is a sequence: "Is that what you want?" holds the feet "eh eh? Is it?" holds - "Well I hope so..." releases "because that's what we've got" Holds the feet. Then the feet continue, releasing the voice.

I don't know if that makes any sense but I gotta try and get this stuff down I think.
Mx

Friday 23 August 2013

THE TABLE tomorrow at The Pleasance

After one week of intense rehearsals 9.30 - 1.30 in the front room of our flat in Edinburgh Irena Stratieva debuts as Moses's feet tomorrow night Pleasance Forth, 10pm. Good Luck! Mx

Saturday 3 August 2013


Messing about in the workshop with Giulia Innocenti - Francine...

Thursday 1 August 2013

Monday 22 July 2013

Clarisse (Zweite Dame) in the first act quintet "oh die zauberflote..."- Note Papageno bottom right hand corner

Sunday 21 July 2013

MF opens - puppets good, some rain

Opening night in Bregenz - the town is overrun with people in fancy frocks and straw sun hats. Blind Summit come to visit. The show goes well.The lipsynching of the puppets to the singing is beguiling and makes me wish they were in the show more. A round of applause for Pamina and Tamino disappearing into the lake holding the flute over their head. Very grand after show party, skinny dipping in the lake at dawn, then bed for a couple of hours before setting off to Zurich and back to London.


Things I heard this week: Acting is problem solving. In acting discomfort is the comfort. If you don't trust your director you might as well not work with a director (Robert DeNiro). Everything is political (Me).

Monday 15 July 2013

Magic Flute dress rehearsal tonight

Go for a swim in the lake before breakfast. Stop at the Turkish shop on the way home to pick up milk, coffee, croissants. My job here is nearly done: tonight is the "generalprobe" on the Lake Stage. Our second audience. At Saturday's Orchestra and Piano we had 6000 teenagers as part of something called "Cross Culture Day". Audiences this size are strange. They don't really respond as one. They do Mexican waves. They come and go to the toilet. They film on their iphones. They laugh patchily. They did go quiet together at the beginning but then the coffin-lid which is supposed to close to start the opera, didn't. 

Shun-kin is on in New York in the Lincoln Festival. People seem to be enjoying it. They have sent me emails. 

And now I have to read some scripts for our "Puppet Monologues" project.

Sunday 23 June 2013

Bregenz Sunday - Day off

Breakfast on my balcony listening to "This American Life". Grey morning, just stopped raining, birds tweeting merrily and I'm looking at facebook.

THE PROBLEM OF TWO HEADS
We've spent the week wondering about the thought processes of a character that is being "ridden". Our puppets are combination of a lady riding on the back of a bird. So each puppet has two heads and one tail. The problem for the puppeteer working the head of the bird (apart from never knowing which head is being referred to when the director says "turn the head...") is how to be alive, involved in the scene, adding to the scene and yet not draw attention from the "rider" who is actually singing the libretto. What is in the minds of three giant birds carrying three opera singers who are singing about magic flutes, lusty young men and mysterious trials? It's not an everyday problem.

Thursday 20 June 2013

Bregenz - All three puppets out of action with breakages today. At first very frustrating. Then we make mock up parts - bird head, rider head, and tail on bamboos, paint them quickly in purple, blue and green, and we end up having a really productive day working on performance skills using this disconnected bird. The stage is a dome entirely covered in steps and the challenge to work on it is to separate the footwork from the puppeting. So that the puppet can move quickly in the air while the puppeteer can move safely and slowly on the hazardous stage. In the evening a storm appeared suddenly - a wind blew over one of the stunt men who was strapped into a giant "totem" - and we quickly evacuated the Seebuhne (see-stage) to continue inside. Bizarrely this evening was scheduled to rehearse the evacuation procedure so about half an hour later we all went back out into the storm to practise evacuating the stage again - doing it properly this time!

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Magic Flute rehearsals Day 8

Woke up to a heat wave: 33'C rehearsing outside this morning. Swam in the lake after lunch. This evening rehearsal was driven indoors by a storm... That's a typical Bregenz day - dress code is shorts, t-shirts, sunglasses, hats, sunscreen and waterproof jacket. We are rehearsing Magic Flute on the Seebuhne - which means Lake Stage - on the Bodensee (Lake Constance) at Bregenz. This is a huge outdoor production that they put on every year for 7000 people a night every night through August. I am directing the Dri Damen (3 ladies) who are giant puppets riding sort of dinosaur bird puppets operated by a team of ten puppeteers. The set is a sort of psychodelic island on the back of a tortoise, surrounded by 3 giant dogs. David Pountney directing, Johan Engels design, Marie-Jeanne Lecca costumes. Puppeteers and singers and stunt men are billeted around town. Some are camping. Our team of puppeteers comes from England, Spain, Switzerland, German, Brazil. 

Sunday 19 May 2013

Is Sunday the end of last week or the beginning of next week?

Weekend in London before heading abroad again. See "Table" at the National which makes me cry. Browse the second hand book stalls on the Southbank. Buy a couple of plays: Pravda. Throw stuff out: TV, video, DVD player, Digi-box, old A-Z maps, a pile of  CD's, old tennis rackets. Phone calls, meetings, lunch. Finish a book: The Caligrapher by Ed Docx. Start a blog.