PRIVATE RESISTANCE: Opening Night

Thursday 01 March 2012

So opening night from the perspective of the work placement woman. It's busy! What people may not consider is that things are being finished/finalised/ tweaked up until the last minute. Making sure everything is ready in time and the best it can be.

So the day goes like this:

I arrive at Sir John Mills Theatre (on time I'm pleased to say) and iron some costumes. Would they have had time to iron shirts in 1940, whilst Briton was under the occupation of Germany? Probably not but Eastern Angles actors are well looked after.

We get on the tour bus and head to Aldeburgh. On the way the exact days for the scenes in Act Two are finalised. And we flick through the programme; I am thrilled to say my name is in it!

We arrive at Aldeburgh and Naomi (Jones, The Director) gives her notes from yesterday's dress rehearsal. I finish the calendar (a focal point of the set for those of you who have not seen it) by crossing off the days to show the correct date. Very carefully and regularly checking that I'm not making any mistakes as the calendar costs £11 a sheet - A2 is an expensive size to print!

Everything is then set for a dress rehearsal, this is the first time I have seen it with full costume, lights and sound. Although I have already seen some scenes multiple times, I am still captivated and thoroughly enjoy seeing how everything has come together.

We then reset the millions of props (this is only a slight exaggeration), which seem to have been hidden far and wide by the actors, or they have taken them to use them!

Then the house is open and the audience comes eagerly in. This is the really exciting part, seeing how an audience reacts to the performance, when they laugh and what makes them sit forward in their seats, enthralled by the action. Overhearing comments afterwards they loved it, particularly the ingenious set which encapsulates the magic of theatre for me. If you've seen the show you'll know what I'm talking about, if not, better get those tickets booked to find out...

Frances Lamb, Student Design Assistant

PRIVATE RESISTANCE: Inky Fingers

Thursday 09 February 2012

It's not as easy as you might think to get a train from Cambridge to Ipswich and arrive by 10am. I am a 3^rd year drama student at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and I'm doing work experience at Eastern Angles for a module called Enterprise in the Creative Arts. And so far I've not managed to get here before half ten, silly railside fires and delayed trains meaning missing my connections.

When I arrive I disturb Sarah (the queen of the printer/photocopier I have since found out) in the office and we go on a hunt for Penny, the Stage Manager, who gives me the script to read, I don't manage to get very far as the actors are having a break and we introduce ourselves (there's another Frances, an actor in the cast, exciting stuff!) and then listening to what professional actors talk about gets far too interesting...

I have become the German printing press for the show, making notices ordering peoples deaths and ID cards splattered with swastikas. Even tea - staining maps to make them appear old. Today I did my bit for the British side, making leaflets with a printing press saying ‘Don't give up the fight for freedom'. It's a fiddly process placing tiny letters in a block and then trying to print without loosing some of the letters, they don't all seem to be the same height, and in the process getting very inky fingers, which may hang around into next week.

I've been keeping a "diary" of my time here, but I didn't think I'd be writing ‘blogging' in today's entry.

More to come.

Frances Lamb

Ageing a map with tea A Nazi ID book made from scratch