I loved working on Avoidance first time round when it debuted at The Kings Arms Theatre at the end of May. It's always exciting to work with a new text, watching it come to life on the stage. The rehearsal process is just as creative as the time you spend developing the words on the page. The characters spring into living, breathing people. You work through all the problems that a first-time piece of writing comes up against when you stage it in three dimensions. You discover new things about your characters and new depths to the story. And you share the fruits of your labour with an audience for the first time. It's dangerous putting yourself out there, but completely invigorating.
The second time you put on that play, the feeling is different. It's a reunion - you get back together with the little rehearsal family you've created - and something different happens. They already know the lines, they know the play and they know their characters. The characters breathe more. There's not such a fear of forgetting lines because they know that they're in there - and they know how to get themselves out of any corner they find themselves in. A second-time piece always feels more embedded, more natural, more like the words are being said for the first time again. They discover more in the text, more in the action and more in the play and that gets shared in performance.
We got together last Sunday for our first rehearsal for this run and none of us quite knew what to expect. We didn't know how much work it would take to get it back on its feet. We decided that we were just going to go for it - no messing about with line-runs - we'd just give it a go. And, it just ran. I was amazed. And it felt really fresh and exciting. There were a couple of sticky bits, of course, but everyone knew what they were doing and knew how to get out of it. It was very exciting and it reminded me about what a lovely, warm play this is. The characters felt more real, the situation felt more immediate and it really felt like the actors were listening, responding and making intellectually-driven decisions based on the action of the text. It was exciting to watch.
Second-time rehearsals are fun, exciting and new discoveries. It's about finding more, exploring more deeply and playing - because that's what plays are about, after all.
We're running Avoidance from 7-10th July as part of the marvellous (and very big!) Greater Manchester Fringe Festival, at The Kings Arms Theatre. Come along and join us.
Fri 7th July - 7pm
Sat 8th July - 2pm & 7pm
Sun 9th July - 9pm
Mon 10th July - 9pm
Tickets available here.
£10 / £8
Photos courtesy of Shay Rowan