Nearing the second round......

Hey there, Gavin here. Just trying to sort myself out before tonight's rehearsal. If all goes according to plan, we will have completed the rough blocking for the play by tonight. It'll be a late one cos we've had to combine tomorrow's rehearsal with tonight's cos Alvin dumbass Wong waited till yesterday to tell me he's got a shoot going on tomorrow. (just so you know Alvin, if you're reading this, feel free to talk shit back at me.....of course that's means you might actually have to post something here.....) After that, we'll be moving rehearsals into our tech training room so we can start experimenting with different kinds of lights.(I expect some really cool pics to come out of it) As Jia wei mentioned in an earlier post, we're attempting to do something a little different, in regards to the set and lighting design. I'll leave it to her and Mac to to explain the details (they're better at it, you see) but in a nutshell, our goal is to keep everything as practical as possible.

Whatever set or props are on stage will be there because the actors need them and no other reason. And similiarly with the lighting design, although I think I'll wait till next week before I go into that. Who knows, we may discover half way into next week that nothing works, our ideas suck and we need to change everything. So yeah, like I said, I'll wait. I love this approach though cos it kinda feels like we're taking theatre back to its basic roots, back to the old idea that all you really need to put on a show is an empty space and a couple of actors. It rare that you get the chance to do a show this way nowadays so we're all very excited about it. We hope you guys will feel the same way.

Rehearsals so far have been interesting, some good, some....not so good. But as I tell my actors, that's what rehearsals are for. Good to get all the crap out of the way now, so we can start focusing on the good stuff. Probably one of the most fun aspects, for me, in doing a play like this, is that it really feels like we're all discovering and figuring the play out together. We all kind of jumped in together at the deep end with this one. None of us was what you might call a 'Beckett expert' prior to embarking on this journey so to see these guys take to it and not allow themselves to be discouraged by it has been a major source of inspiration for me. Then again, it is early days.....

But I'm looking forward to tonight. Tonight, we'll be covering some of my favourite lines in the play. Take a look at these lines and tell me it doesn't make you go "What the fuck...." (just so you know, these lines are all from different sections)

Hamm : I'll tell you how it goes. He comes crawling on his belly -
Clov : Who?
Hamm : What?
Clov : Who do you mean, he?
Hamm : Who do I mean! Yet another.
Clov : Ah him! I wasn't sure.

and

Hamm : I want to hear the sea.
Clov : You wouldn't hear it.
Hamm : Even if you opened the window?
Clov : No.
Hamm : (violently) Then open it!

and

Clov : If I don't kill that rat he'll die.

and

Hamm : You weep, and weep, for nothing, so not to laugh, and little by little.....you begin to grieve.

What do you think? Pretty fucking trippy, eh? One of the things I love most about the approach we're taking with this play is that Beckett's dialogue is the star of the play. Like with the set and lights, the actors are only there because they need to be. (I mean, they have to be good also la but you know la what I'm trying to say)

Peace.