Hello!
We hope you’re enjoying the turn of season! We finally have a little time to catch you up on what we’ve been up to over the last few weeks, so here we go.
Isobel arrived in Newcastle for rehearsals on 17th February, ready for a read through with our amazing director Bella Loudon. A little disrupted by storm Eunice, all trains were cancelled, a zoom read through in Anna’s bedroom had to suffice.
Our friends in the artist development team at Sage Gateshead kindly let us use their space for our first week of rehearsals, where we spent the first week reminding ourselves of cues, melodies, characters and each other’s bad sense of humour. We also made some cuts, edits, shifted some things about, so by the end of week one we were starting to see the shape the show might take.
Making edits in the MEC, Sage Gateshead
Then, in a six hour round trip from Nottingham, our designer Erin Fleming delivered our Island - the set she has so beautifully designed. Just in time for Bella arriving in person - for week two we had a set, and a director, and a warm welcome from The Cumberland Arms, where we got straight to work and both found out we can’t jump from our knees to our feet - maybe by the end of tour?!
Isobel and Bella getting into the substance
Bella left us with lots to work on and think about, and so week three was spent making some more edits, consolidating everything, final rewrites, and lots of frantic admin bits like finding a lighting designer, a van, a wireless microphone, and most importantly some beach rocks!
Isobel examining the North-Eastern rocks
Day 1 at Foundry, Sage Gateshead
The final week of our rehearsals was a real arrival, back to Sage Gateshead where we began years ago, and kept coming back to, but this time we were in Sage Two for Foundry 2022, a residency which gave us 4 days rehearsal space, technical support and funding to bring in a team of people.
The greatest week was had - the whole team came together - we welcomed back Bella (a modest commute from Marseille!), and our long standing loyal sound engineer Rob Griffiths. We met Wissuta (Ink) Duangrsi, our lighting designer who so skilfully lit Erin’s set, and Meg Savage came in to document and photograph our dress rehearsal. Endless thanks to Sage Gateshead for this opportunity.
A dress rehearsal temporarily ground to a halt by a laptop crash…
…Technical issues and a team of worried faces…
… Aaand we’re back! Good job we didn’t panic.
After Foundry, we had a long awaited day off rehearsing, and day off each other, where we both went to the beach (different beaches) and reconnected with our loved ones.
Pure joy of a day off after a month well spent
Ready for week one of tour, we were packed, lists made, van hired, costume washed, but two positive lateral flow tests later, we had called off our Bristol dates, which have luckily been rescheduled, and resigned ourselves to resting off this dreadful virus.
Bad Timing!
A sad start for sure, we were so ready to go. But the joy of a tour is that it wasn’t the only chance and, once recovered, we’ll be on the road for our Salford shows, on 13th and 14th April. We can’t wait, and hope to catch some of you at a show along the way!
Tour Dates: Early booking really helps!
Thanks for reading - see you on the road!
I & A x