A Midsummer Nights Dream

No blog, written in snatched, occasional moments without much forethought, can capture all the twists and turns and multiple challenges of this journey.  So taking it from just now - I was sitting back after rehearsal, late up again, dwelling  on all the individual personalities  that we have in this team; and then the collective commitment of them to battle through the heat and show an ever better drive and focus to get things running on stage.   Like every amateur company we will be

Participant blog So I’m in this play. It began as a series of conversations less than a year ago. Then following the nose on ideas which lead to larger meetings. Larger and LARGER. From the sitting room to the bar at NAC. (That really is larger) Then we had researchers and a division of labour happened. I ‘d hoped it wasn’t going to be quite so cut and dry and indeed a good thing is that we, the participants, can throw our pen-ny worth in as the rehearsals are cranked out and the whole fabulous

It's a bank holiday and there's not much I can do except worry.  Everyone is having a well deserved break - but it doesn't seem right - there's too much to do! 30 days before opening and the anxiety dreams are kicking in - poor Amanda has to put up with me waking up suddenly, shooting bolt upright and saying things like "The Boy Band!" or "Paint ! - where do we get paint!" or "Shit! The programme!" If I think too much about how much we need to get together in the coming month it is no wonder I

Just dashing off to our final open casting workshop - not sure of what new surprises I will find there. My mind is racing forward with late applications to supplement the schools work that has bubbled up so deliciously - that and a hundred other things that happened yesterday or this morning or recently - the newly formed migration network at Norwich Castle this morning, my buzzy lunch with Jeannette spewing out more possibilities: a songbook, a CD, an ongoing choir, another project - then I'm

Hoping for "happy surprises" was how I finished the last blog - and indeed we have had a few of them since.  It seems - and I really don't want to say this too loudly - that this production is well-starred.  Two of the biggest nuts got cracked in one go the other day. Jacqui [production manager] was on the trail of a rehearsal space - one that we can call home for the duration of the process.  She got talking to Pete who runs the Sewell Park Community College. Not only is he prepared to give us

Tuesday 7th March 3.15 pm So we are leading up to our launch on 12th March at the ever supportive Norwich Arts Centre. Before I left for 4 days of blissful forgetfulness with my lady in Amsterdam, I felt a certain relief that we now have a some key people in place - as well as the research team we have commissioned three committed writers through the UEA creative writing school,  a brilliantly bouncy musical director with  a band to back him up, two stage managers and then, finally - and

I tried last week to write this blog - made several attempts and abjectly  failed to turn it all into something neat and encompassing. Then I toyed with the idea of starting the blog with a comment on how tricky it is to write a blog about a project that is so multi-faceted and potentially expansive. And then I rejected that idea as hackneyed and lame.  But that is, in any case, what I have just done. So where do you start? Click to read on...