Stuart Mullins, Director
It's Wednesday evening and the process of making Tiny Treasures has been intense. We've made loads of discoveries; James' overall objective in the play is to hold his family together. That this will be his life forever, looking after his Mum. What an incredible realisation to have at the age of 13! Today Kevin the writer joined us and was very open to changes to the script; it's great to have him there to respond to our questions. Adam Farrell, who is playing James has been working really hard. He has over 20 pages of script to learn. Its not so much learning the words as knowing what James is doing when telling us his story. I think we've made an excellent start!
Leanne Rowley, playing "Mum"
A blog! Eeek, new to this. Bare with me readers. (I feel there should be some sort of disclosure - 'Any chaotic or rambling passages displayed within are in no way a reflection of the rehearsal period being as such'). For one thing is certain - there is a whole lot of focus going on down at ARC. But that's skipping ahead. (NB that disclosure...) Rewind a few weeks back to our development day in York where I met for the first time a group of young people who are nothing less than inspiring - they are the Young Carers Revolution. And beware, this revolution is in very good hands and is coming right for ya. Strong, witty, honest, intelligent... a few of the words that describe this group of children and young adults that not only have to deal with the struggles and challenges growing up throws at you - they do it whilst also being full time carers. A great day of playing for the first time around the text and movement and getting their initial feedback left me striding on home with one thing very clear in my mind - this play has to be done right, the characters have to be truthful, for them.
Skip ahead to Monday, first day of rehearsals and after the meet and greet we stretched and played our way into the day with a bit of yoga and some games and got down to work. By mid afternoon Adam (who's playing James, and is forbidden to talk in his native southern tongue), Stuart (our director - an advocate of ale and actioning... I'm in) and I are staring down at a floor strewn with pieces of paper outlining and picking apart Kevin Dyer's beautiful script; we'd found the facts, defined the timeline, discussed structure and began our exploration of character and family. A short break occurred when Bek popped round to show a model of the set - *Spoiler alert* - er - hello! Is that a sink you can crawl through?? And a wardrobe to climb out of?? And a whole heap of other stuff we can scramble over?? (Yeah. We got a bit excited). Wednesday we'd get to see it in full - but right then, playtime was over... we took up pencil, pulled up a pew, unleashed the script and began 'Actioning'.
So here we are - end of the third day and Section 1 has seen more action then the Avengers could ever dream of! Next up - getting it on it's feet...
Adam Ferrell, playing "James"
It’s only a few days into the rehearsal process for Tiny Treasures, and yet its feels like we’ve already covered a lot of ground! The first week has mainly seen director Stuart, fellow performer Leanne and I investigate the script and delve deep into James’ family – how they operate day-to-day, and for me especially, what drives James. That being said there’s a long way to go and I can’t wait for the challenges ahead and the chance to play about on the impressively cluttered set designed by Bek.
It’s also worth mentioning how much I enjoyed the chance to meet the guys at YCR three weeks ago. Reading the play in front of them was a nerve-wracking experience for me, especially considering they are responsible for creating the character of James! Luckily everyone was very friendly despite a fun but disastrous attempt at trying to teach the group one of my favorite drama games, ‘Schlack’.
Bring on the rest of the rehearsals!
Leanne with Bek's Set Design. Photo taken by Adam.
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