The Reheasrsal is a very interesting idea - how did you come up with it? What was the aim behind it?
Tess Monro-Somerville: Well Ellie and I have been involved in the New Theatre for quite a while, and we knew that we wanted to do a show, but we were also in our final year, so we were limited for time to do a show and do it justice.
That was one motivation because we wanted to do a show that would be a devised piece. This would be a challenge as none of us had ever done anything like this before so that was one thing that we wanted to do and we knew that we wanted to do this for a while. But I think one of the main motivations behind doing it was, I mean, we’re theatre enthusiasts, it’s the business that we want to get into, but many a time I've sat in a theatre, sitting next to my fellow theatre goer and he’s fast asleep in the middle of what I'm considering to be a great play. We wanted to get rid of that stuffy, boring, hot, tired image that purist theatre can have. We’re influenced by things like Punch Drunk and NSDF [National Student Drama Festival], there's a great show there called Nothing, which was very immersing and they used the stage very interestingly. It was promenade as well, leading the audience round. It quite literally means that if you put something in promenade, people cannot fall asleep because they’re on their feet – you’re forcing them to be on their feet. It makes the whole experience much more engaging and immersive. It sounds like the most obvious reasons as to why you’d do theatre, but, the most important factor is to make sure the audience is engaged throughout. It’s so obvious that so many shows fail to do that all the time. That’s why the theatre has a bad reputation sometimes, because people who aren’t theatre enthusiasts are like ‘ugh I didn’t want to sit in a dark room for three hours bored’. We want to break down those stereotypes and make it more exciting for theatre enthusiasts, but also non-theatre goers. Loads of the people who weren’t involved in theatre at all who we are constantly trying to get people from outside the world of theatre to see the show and enjoy it. That’s another factor
How will the performance be set up?
TM-S: It’s going to take place in the back stage of the Nottingham New Theatre. We’ve been asked to support the New Theatre as alumni and we’re setting it in the few studio rehearsal rooms, the costume cupboard, and the corridor that connects these. It was handy once we’d come up with the concept for the rehearsal that we wanted to use a student theatre company because we had every resource at our disposal. We’ve also done this show before, in our final year of uni, we’ve had time now to develop it and make it into a show that packs a bit more punch. It’s longer now, and we’ve had time to develop the plot – as much as possible as we’re devising the piece this weekend. We’re spending 48 hours on it this weekend.
How interactive will it be? Are you prepared to improvise?
TM-S: Having had experience with this particular show, we know that every show is different for that reason. Depending on the audience, we don’t know how involved they will want to be. Sometimes we’ll stay away from it, we don’t want to alienate the audience by forcing them to contribute. We want to break down the barrier between the audience and performer, so there are moments where the cast will interact with the audience. We have a character who communicates directly with the audience and who bridges the gap between them. He’s a reference point for them if they have any questions. He refers to the audience in areas in the play, but it’s not too restrictive.
How does it feel to be able to do this in Nottingham?
TM-S: Wonderful, the New Theatre is really close to us. Ellie and I had 4 years at the theatre. We have so many friends there, and it’s the only entirely student run theatre in Britain. There are no governing bodies who run it, it’s all democratically voted in. It’s full of people who love theatre and who will be there at 4am to work on theatre. It’s a wonderfully creative space that’s very liberating. Because we’ve worked with them over the last four years, they were happy to say yes we’ve seen this show before, we want to see it again, and we can’t wait to have you back. We’re so grateful. We trust them to do a really good job.
The Rehearsal runs at the New Theatre from Wednesday 28 Jan to Saturday 31 Jan 2015
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
