The second week of rehearsal is over and it has gone swimmingly(!). We have gone through the whole play and we are beginning to work off-book. We have been able to work on our lovely set this week, which has provided it's fair share of inspirations and challenges.

As we begin to block the play and introduce the many props you can really see it all taking shape. The moment you put the book down is the moment you really get a chance to play and I think we have all had an opportunity t do that this week.
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The first week of rehearsals has been fantastic. Each day brought something new. We have been working this week with the writer Andrew Holland which is such a gift for an actor as you are able to iron out any kinks in the sense of what you are saying.

On Tuesday we went to Dunwich Beach and talked to a REAL LIFE fisherman, who turned out to be my old neighbour from Leiston, Chris. He told us about what was biting and the lack of it. His ideas about the fish stocks spurred me to watc Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's fish face on 4OD, which did a pretty good job of highlighting the reasons for the decline in beach trawling, which is the type of fishing Tweedy (played by me!) and Dolphie (Mike Aherne) do. The EU quotas on fishing are nodded to in the play and I think it helps to inform our characters to understand the difficulties faced by modern fishermen.
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A blustery Monday morning, and the new cast have arrived! As each one comes through the door, the wind comes whistling into the building, which seems very apt for a show all about the stormy sea.  We welcome Mike, Laura, Lisa-Marie, Francis and Lisa, along with Andrew the writer, Ian the Designer, and Claire on costumes. This will be one of the longest Spring Tours we have produced, and this new team will be with us for 5 months! With a shorter than normal rehearsal period, we have lots of ork ahead of us before we open the play in Lowestoft in March.
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