New Adventures |

As we reach week three, Jack Jones is joined by Daisy May Kemp, to give us the latest from our Swan Lake rehearsals. Daisy performed in Swan Lake in the last revival, and has experience of several of the female roles in the production as well as a family connection that goes back to the productions original cast in 1995. Her brother was original swan, Will Kemp.

Will Kemp as The Swan in 1996

Thanks again to Jack and Daisy for giving us this insight into rehearsing a "classic"

***************************************************

"I’ve just been going through the material for the act 1 Soho scene which we learnt on Saturday. Most of it is fine, but I’ve lost the keys to one mental room and unfortunately all the information of one of the duets is in it. I remember how it starts then… empty, vacant darkness, strangely reminiscent of a night out; I hadn’t been drinking had I?

The women arrived this week, and we have the full company together at last! It did feel like something was missing the past two weeks, and it feels good to have the company group together as a whole. I say that though a lot of the time we have been working separately. The men have been doing runs of acts 2 and 4 most days straight after class, whilst the women have been learning the mock ballet from act 1. I must say that one of the highlights for me in the runs is watching either Scott Ambler or Steve Kirkham play the old lady at the end who is feeding the swans and who the prince hugs with joy. They play it with such sincerity and conviction as if they were actually going to have to do it in the show! As for our concentration levels… I don’t think we’ve done too badly, but then I’m probably biased. I think at the moment everyone is just trying so hard to get all the material that things haven’t started to flay at the edges yet. Yet, of course, is a very important word in that sentence because I’ve got a feeling that once we all know what we’re doing and get more into the character work, things might start unravelling a little, and our poor directors will be left trying to pick up the threads and weave it back into something of it’s former glory.

It was great to be able to start work on the other acts this week. I’ve got nothing against swans, but when you wake up in the morning having dreamt of real swans floating down a lake feeding their cygnets, maybe it’s time to think of something else. We began learning the opening scene to the show in which all the ensemble play maids and servants of the Queen’s household. A lot of this material was passed onto us by people who had done the show before, so everyone split into tiny groups learning their pathways, and then after a while someone would shout and we’d have a go at throwing it all together. After the quite tough aerobic and technical struggle with the act 2 material, it was somewhat of a relief and a joy to only have to walk rhythmically across the stage for a while. It was also good to start seeing the story and characters come together. The end of this section is quite tricky though; Etta has warned us that it’s never been danced well enough, so we have to make sure it is this time.

We also continued learning some dances from act 3, the Spanish one in particular. We’ve been trying to set the room on fire with our hot, masculine sexuality, but I think all we’ve managed it to do so far is give it a mild carpet burn. There’s no need to worry though, by the time the show opens we’ll all be the epitome of every woman’s Latino lover fantasy. That’s if we can get that deep, gravely tone when shouting “Ole!”, otherwise from a distance we might sound like the chipmunks.

One of our company members was stricken with flu this week as well, so no doubt the apocalypse is looming. Soon our whole company will be in death throes and everything will have to be shut down as the backbone of our economy collapses and we are all reduced to tribal living. He is back with us now though, and so far no-one else seems to be ailing. Could the media have been wrong?? I’ll let you know if we are all still alive next week. Or at least if there isn’t any diary then you’ll know why"

JACK JONES

"So, rehearsal week three and the women arrive – Hoorah! We started with a meet and greet with the full company, trying to remember names and which roles everyone is playing, with so many new faces, it was Saturday before I was putting the right name to the right face… I think! After class and a gruelling set of press ups (from which I am still recovering) the men presented what they had been working on in the previous weeks - act 2 and 4. A “Tops off, bare feet” was bellowed and a sea of half naked men sweated their way through a very impressive run of the swan acts. Right women, we’ve got some work to do! So we set off learning the mock ballet, which at times felt more like a three act piece! We continued to learn material throughout the week from the royal waltz, maids and servants, dignitaries and then finally on Wednesday after patiently waiting, stretching and lots of drinking of tea, Nina Goldman and Madeline Brennen as Queen and Girlfriend made their first grand entrances! Then came social groups… This is the part of act one where the girlfriend enters to groups of gossiping dignitaries, as I am sure anyone who has ever done Swan Lake would agree, this is the most confusing and difficult part of the show to pick up. However, Etta and the dance captains did a fantastic job and after a mind-boggling afternoon we had it - even if we did all look a bit frazzled.

So, by the end of the week we had covered most of act 1 with the last afternoon learning Soho material, a fun note to wrap up with. Roll on next week…"

DAISY MAY KEMP