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.
Sunday 23 June 2013
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.
See live webcam here: http://www.bregenzerfestspiele.com/en/webcam
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