"Welcome to the Creative Age" by Mark Earls - book review

Hugh MacLeod’s recent questions for Mark Earls prompted me to buy Mark’s first book "Welcome To The Creative Age – Bananas, Business and the Death of Marketing" - the book which Hugh says changed his life.

If I was expecting to be blown away from the first page I was disappointed. Instead, Mark builds his case about creativity through the first chapter until thirty pages in he’s exploding three popular myths about the so-called creative personality (they’re not prodigies, anti-social loners or one-offs who "just know what to do") and I’m hooked.

Mark goes on to outline the history of marketing and the emergence of branding. Illustrating his points with stories about IKEA, Brian Eno, ARM and Apple, he talks about the shortcomings of brands and why advertising doesn’t work how we think it does. He touches on complexity and psychology, the War for Talent and designing great places to work. And although he cites Collins and Porras, he acknowledges the criticisms of their work.

Some great points:

• Commonsense should tell you that unless your company has at least 50% of the market, your results will be affected more by what other companies do in the marketplace than what your company does.
• We need to abandon the "Analyse - Think - Talk (Do)" paradigm and replace it with "Believe – Do – Think – Talk – Do again".

And on how advertising works:

1. "…advertising doesn’t tend to work by changing our opinions… What we think about a product tends to follow our usage behaviour, not the other way around"
2. "…the most important contribution to effective advertising is the creative contribution (John Philip Jones)… it’s novelty and not the message itself."
3. "the most likely advertising research measure to move in the real world… is… 'advertising salience' – the sense I get that this company is doing quite a bit of advertising these days, all of which knock the traditional awareness and persuasion measure into the sea (and rightly so)."

A fascinating book for anyone interested in where marketing might be heading.

Oedipus Rex: Night 4 (Saturday)

The final night of Oedipus Rex at the Leper Chapel, the last night of in situ:'s 2008 Summer Season and the end of a two-and-a-quarter-year journey for the actors.

We started back in April 2006 with a handful of sketches which we worked up into performances and linked together over four terms of work. Last year's performance was an achievement for all of us, but when we reconvened a week ago we realised there was a lot of work to do. We all knew our lines, but the people who'd watched the video of last year's performance agreed it wasn't as good as we remembered (and it was filmed on what I thought was the best night!)

This year has been very different. The read throughs early in the rehearsals told us what we knew and what we needed to learn. The performance came together quickly, but soon exceeded what we'd previously attempted - partly by knocking about 20 minutes off, although no lines were removed.

It's hot again tonight, so we again drink plenty of water. But there are no nerves - and I don't even bother with a stroll to the toilet. And yet again we manage to perform at the same level as the previous two nights.

Someone tells us after that it's the first time they'd heard chorus work like ours and understood what is being said. Others are similarly complimentary.

We leave on a high and return to Richard's for the aftershow party. There are rumours of another Shakespeare next year. The Tempest? Or Twelfth Night? Whatever, it is looking unlikely that I will be taking part, but I do have other plans.

Oedipus Rex: Night 3 (Friday)

On the way to the chapel I hear on the radio that today is the hottest day of year so far. It certainly feels like it and we're all gulping down water after our vocal warm-up. Within five minutes of completing my discourse on Chinatown and its parallels with Oedipus Rex, I'm thirsty again.

I'm surprised by the consistency we're achieving, compared to last year - and even this year's performance of The Winter's Tale. Our performance level, increased through practise early in the week and cranked up by the opening night adrenaline, seems to have stuck at around 95% of the level of that opening evening. Everyone is confident and enjoying performing. And tomorrow's the last night...

Oedipus Rex: Night 2 (Thursday)

I feel different driving to the performance tonight, but it's a while before I realise why. I think I'm starting to enjoy it. After the year putting this together and the weekend dusting it off and rehearsing, I know my lines and I know the performance. I feel confident.

Tonight we've sold thirty tickets - with walk-ups, another near sell-out. And instead of having to drag people along, the advance publicity in the local press seems to be bringing in more people we don't know, who want to see the performance of their own volition. We can't even say it's because we're doing Shakespeare this time.

The level of interest increases our desire to perform well and we come close to matching the level of the opening night. There are very few slips or missed lines and our movement as a group is again good. Somewhere we add another five minutes, as I notice I am heading for the door around 9:20pm, but the story doesn't seem to be suffering.

Remarkably, we're already halfway - only two nights left.

Oedipus Rex: Opening Night (Wednesday)

I don't feel the usual nerves, I know my lines and everyone seems confident. We've sold 30 tickets, which means we'll be very close to selling out with people paying on the door.

The usual rituals are observed: changing into costume, a trip to the toilet and a vocal warm-up. Soon director Richard Spaul is outside The Leper Chapel explaining to the audience what will happen while we're inside, ready, waiting for him to return and join us. We're blindfolded, walking slowly, groping for the door, then we're outside, spouting our various discourses which are connected in different ways to the story.

At the signal we all remove our blindfolds and head into the chapel. The audience filter in as we form a circle, ready to begin the story. The hard work we've done over the weekend pays off. The choruses are tighter and punchier. The interjections confident. Only a very occasional line goes astray, the presence of an audience causing a surge of adrenaline which is driving everyone on.

By 9:15pm we're slow-walking towards the door for the emotional finale. We've shaved over twenty minutes off the running time by speeding up some of the scene transitions and choruses, resulting in a much more satisfying presentation.

We celebrate with an aftershow curry. Looking forward to tomorrow night...

Oedipus Rex - final rehearsal

An exhausting night, topped off with a full run through.

After three days, we stagger through a flat performance and make some big mistakes, which get worse as we attempt to correct them afterwards.

The feeling after is one of anti-climax. Surely we haven't come this far to fall flat on our faces?

Oedipus Rex - third rehearsal

Knowing the text, we concentrate on tightening up some of the choruses, speeding up some of the rhythms, reducing the volume of others.

Everyone is still tired from the weekend. Tanya says she feels unwell and leaves early.

We finish off with a speed run which seems to go well. Katrina fills in for Tanya, her Russian accent owing more than a little to Robbie Coltrane's in Goldeneye.

It's difficult to know if we've gone as far as we can or if more work is needed.

With Sore feet: Oedipus Rex - second rehearsal

More active today, we do several speed runs, which cement the text more strongly and introduce some of the staging headaches.

The longer, more active day is even more tiring than the first and several sets of eyes are drooping after the traditional in situ: picnic lunch on the grass outside the Leper Chapel.

The weekend's work on the text has got it really polished, so we will spend the remaining two rehearsals on improving choruses and interjections, followed by a speed run through.

Oedipus Rex - first rehearsal

The Oedipus group reconvene after just over a year to pull the show back together. Some of us went on to work on The Winter's Tale after last year's performance, some on the Ratman project, others we've simply missed.

Everyone's worked on getting their lines back up to scratch and is looking forward to getting started. Is this how professional actors work, I wonder? They know the whole Shakespeare canon and joining a new production is simply a matter of taking the script off the mind's shelf?

Director Richard is off to a wedding this afternoon, so we've decided to start an hour early, but 9:00am on a Saturday morning isn't the problem I'd imagined. We spend the whole day on dialogue. We sit in a circle, use the script less and less, relying on others to provide missing or incorrect lines, which makes them easier to learn.

Regular tea breaks keep us concentrated, but it's tiring. After four or five read throughs we feel we've made progress, so in the early afternoon, with Everton fans already arriving to see the match at Cambridge United's Abbey Stadium over the road, we finish.

The Winter's Tale - night 6

It's the last night and I feel sad. The group has been together for nine months putting this performance together and this is our last night together performing. I am also surprisingly nervous. Perhaps it's Mark's promise to check closely my knowledge of my lines.

It goes well, though far too quickly. I even manage to nail my final speech word perfect, which has been bothering me all week. It's not the words which are so difficult with Shakespeare, just the order the come in. And that there are so many of them.

Bella and Richard throw a great party after which gives us the chance to say goodbye to each other, though most of us will see each other at the forthcoming performances of Metamorphoses and Oedipus Rex.

I can't wait.

The Winter's Tale - night 5

The inevitable happened and the arrival of Harry's baby is imminent, meaning director Richard steps into his place. This increases tension slightly as we're all wondering how it will go, though he assures us: "I think I know the lines." We run through the dance steps and lip-synching beforehand.

We all want it to go well, so we're very focused and the tension increases through the first hour. There are a few walk outs when we move back outside. One distracted me slightly, but I recovered. As usual no one else notices, Radar admitting he just listens for his cue in the last line of each speech. The rain holds off nicely, just starting to spot as we move back inside for the final two scenes.

It's getting harder to squeeze out tears in the finale. I'm tired and the tension in my head is impeding me somehow, drawing me back to reality. This changed abruptly after the end when the 88% of the audience who remained gave us an extra curtain call!

One night left now. I'll feel sad tomorrow and next week will seem quite empty. But as Richard pointed out, Oedipus Rex is coming up in a couple of weeks...

The Winter's Tale - night 4

Another sell out tonight, thanks in part to the 25 Swiss students and their teacher who formed the bulk of the hardy souls who braved the weather. The forecast had said rain would move across the Midlands and possibly reach East Anglia by the evening, but we were still disappointed when it arrived. Thankfully the CD player held out, the rain didn't get too heavy and we didn't have to opt for the unrehearsed wet-weather option.

It's always nice when someone stops to say how much they enjoyed a performance. Tonight Margaret, one of the students, tells me about similar performances she's seen in Basle and how much more she enjoyed this one!

Sometime ago I adopted a policy of going up to people whose work I like and telling them. This isn't usual in a country handicapped by the famous British Reserve, but positive feedback is important, particularly for artists who are working hard to make a name for themselves. I wasn't looking for anything myself, but over the years it has led to a brief chat with the lovely Martha Wainwright, a couple of conversations with members of now sadly defunct (I can't take the blame for that) Canadian female rock group The Organ and a friendship and opportunity to work with multi-talented singer Piney Gir.

What could happen if you told someone how much you like their work?

The Winter's Tale - night 3

I dashed home slightly early from KCUK, meaning I was able to get some tea and relax for a bit before leaving for the Leper Chapel, any tiredness disappearing as soon as soon as I left.

The director's pep talk was aimed at focusing us more on our performance and not taking too much notice of the audiences' reactions. Specifically, don't worry if they're not laughing at the jokes and applauding all the songs. It's not an indication of quality and Saturday's performance was just as good as Sunday's from his perspective.

There was a little tension around after two nights off, but it quickly evaporated once we started - until we reached the Sicilian scenes and we put it back in.

A few lines were skipped somewhere in the middle but it was hardly noticeable - certainly not to the audience, another sell out thanks to the people who turned up on the night.

The Winter's Tale - night 2

A fantastic second night thanks in a big part to a responsive audience who laughed at the jokes and applauded the music.

Perhaps we relaxed into the performance more. Buoyed by the response to the opening scene, our confidence, energy and focus all soared. Individual and chorus lines were clearer and the performance built to a wonderfully moving ending. Tanya, powerful the first night as Hermione, was explosive in the trial scene. All the actors were buzzing both during and after.

I was much happier with my own performance, only mixing up two lines and hitting most of the chorus lines.

Now with two days off before we return Wednesday evening, I have some time to polish my presentation for KCUK on Thursday.

The Winter's Tale - opening night

A good opening night, four-fifths sold out and only two walkouts, citing "claustrophobia" - which indicates the second scene works! Paul has developed an excellent performance, starting weak and transforming into a menacing jealous Leontes. The vaudevillians routines work well, although I mess up a couple of times.

I did cock up one part quite badly and froze, my mind blank, thinking the whole performance was about to collapse, but Harry stepped in quite brilliantly and picked up with his next line. And no one noticed anyway, as usual. Perhaps I will relax a bit more in subsequent performances.

I particularly enjoy Harry and Rachael's transformation - partly because it means I've just spoken my last line - which sets up a wonderfully moving ending that candlelight makes especially atmospheric.

"Go together, you precious winners all..."

The Winter's Tale - final dress rehearsal

An exciting run through this evening which came in at just over two hours.

Whatever slip-ups there may have been were barely noticeable. The music queues were almost spot on - if I can just nail a few more chorus lines...

Tickets meanwhile have been selling well even - better than Oedipus at the same time last year - and we should be close to selling out every night with the additional coverage in the Cambridge Evening News and Cambridge Crier this week.

"It is required you do awake your faith"

The Winter's Tale - penultimate rehearsal

The mood is confident at the Leper Chapel tonight. Lines are mostly learnt and we're going to concentrate on some of the transitions and choruses which have been tripping people up.

This goes well, running over the detail of some of the slightly more ragged scenes, but ultimately it's down to us to know the lines. Tanya is unfortunately sick, while Harry's baby is due today and director Richard is understudying his role. Still we manage to get a lot done and finish with a speed run through the whole thing.

This is useful as it means we get to experience the whole play again - minus the music - but it does place additional stress on the actors to get their lines out... Just as I was confident of having them all, the tension is ratchetted up another notch and they spill all over the grass leaving me grasping for the sense of the information I have to impart.

Better now than Saturday night...

"Behold, and say 'tis well"

The Winter's Tale - Term 3, week 10

The final week and we perform a full run through for the first time. It comes in at almost exactly 2 hours and shows us exactly which parts we still need to practice.

After working hard over the weekend and last couple of days, my lines are nearly there. I still have some weak points that need improving and my knowledge of the choruses will be helped by concentrating on a couple of them this coming Thursday.

Best of all, the five minute vocal warm-ups are really helping my voice - which is handy, because I have the first line.

Maybe I should to get warmed up properly before KCUK next week!

Pulling it all together

The Winter's Tale - final weekend rehearsals

A tiring weekend spent running slowly through the different scenes and then repeating them at performance pitch.

On Saturday we made it through at least halfway and it's starting to come together quite well. We can see which bits need improving and where lines need to be polished, but the overall performance is taking shape. I've missed so many weeks the choreography I came up with has slipped my mind. Fortunately, Harry isn't so forgetful.

Sunday is harder. The weeks I've missed concentrated on the second half and I'm behind. I've also neglected to learn some lines, which I'll have to focus on over the next couple of days. I'm all responsible for the songs, so as well as my lines I'm going to have to learn the music cues.

The group as a whole worked hard and remained positive. With three more rehearsals this week, it looks like we're going to get there..!

Running out of time...

The Winter's Tale - Term 3, Week 9

I looked at my diary yesterday and noticed we open a week on Saturday. The panic rises and I consider running away and hiding for three weeks.

Tonight we concentrated on scenes in which I have no lines. After missing last week's session with a heavy cold, I feel like I've got away with it.

On the other, I could do with the practice...

in situ: online

Thanks to my cold, I've spent some time finishing off the new in situ: website which is now live.

It's easier to use, with consistent navigation across all the pages and includes links to book tickets through The Junction for The Winter's Tale, Metamorphoses and Oedipus Rex.

Yet half our audience decides to attend on the day.

There'll be posters going up around Cambridge and pieces in local publications, so we're hoping for a big turnout this year.

Don't leave it too late..!

Why you need a strong finish

The Winter's Tale - Term 3, week 7

More work on the finale, which should ensure a strong finish.

Which, after all, is what you want. Whoever left a performance saying what a great middle section it had?

Wow them at the end and they'll all go home talking about it.

Flowers of spring...

The Winter's Tale - Term 3, week 6

I'm still feeling tender, but I don't want to miss another session, so I decide to take it easy this evening.

When I arrive, the Leper Chapel is filled with wonderfully fragrant flowers. With a little care, we manage to avoid them while we work while the scent and the colours change the atmosphere of the pastoral scene completely. A pity we can't do something similar for the performance.

I'm tired by the end of the evening - the first time I've done anything since the operation. Happily, it hasn't been too taxing - no choreography tonight.

How was your weekend?

I am not a brave man.

Family stories record the tears I shed whenever Andy Pandy or Robinson Crusoe ended on television. But I wasn't frightened by things that traditionally scared children my age either. I knew Dr. Who was fantasy and my childish nightmares - I later discovered - had more in common with early David Lynch films than the traditional "monsters in the cupboard" which send most children racing downstairs thirty minutes after being tucked up in bed.

No, there was only one programme that saw me in the tiny space between the wall and the sofa, refusing to watch. That was the episode of Mary, Mungo and Midge where Mary broke her arm and had to go to hospital.

Fear
Now I'm not scared of hospitals. Or doctors. Or injections. But I've never had to stay overnight in a hospital. Or undergo surgery. Or, since breaking my collarbone at the age of 18 months, have a bone reset. Obviously there are advantages to not using your bed as a trampoline and I learned that lesson early on.

Suddenly, thirty eight and a half years later, I am in an ambulance being raced to Addenbrokes Hospital with suspected appendicitis and I am feeling more than a little anxious.

Pain
There was a definite point where I realised my May Day Bank Holiday Weekend might be subject to some variability. It wasn't when the stomach cramps started - I thought that was merely some food poisoning (my sincere apologies to my 6th floor colleagues who I mentally slandered for poor hygiene because of the Chocoloate Hobnob which I mistakenly ascribed my discomfort to).

It wasn't when I was asked to move upstairs because I was keeping my partner awake through my inability to sleep.

It was probably when I collapsed on the floor of the bathroom early the following morning, awoke amid various broken household items, a doctor was called and an ambulance sent for.

In Addenbrookes Hospital there is no sofa and nowhere to hide. I have no choice but to go with the flow. Everywhere I go I answer the same questions to different people. I try to maintain my wits in an effort to avoid being subjected to a different procedure and prolonged agony. After being poked and prodded ever more intimately, I arrive in anaesthesia in late afternoon to say the same things one more time. No, I don't smoke. Yes I drink about 5-10 units a week on average. No, I don't have any alleriges. The anaesthesiologist tells me I'll be asleep within 10 seconds... and suddenly I'm waking up as I'm wheeled into Recovery, though how anyone is supposed to recover in this place which has the air of a sweatshop I have no idea. I haven't seen the inside of the theatre or even encountered the machine that goes "ping" which is slightly disappointing.

Visitors
I'm barely in the mood for visitors, but my family turn up anyway. My father attempts to give me a friendly clap on the shoulder and upends my beaker of water over the bed. Thank goodness I haven't begun filling the line of bottles next to it, I think to myself as my mother observes: "it's like being visited my M. Hulot!"

My family mistake my resignation - and the effects of anaesthetic and morphine - for bravery. My father tells me Orient beat Bristol Rovers 3-1 and furthers my incredulity with the news that Nottingham Forest have achieved automatic promotion. I should've done that away trip last season.

Parole
Two days pass in a blur. A nurse offers me a packaged sandwich which I manage to eat half of, washing it down with water. Either not eating for 24 hours has made me forget to swallow or I've been on some drug to stop me salivating. I later read that Addenbrokes food was voted 97th out of 160 similar establishments. That seems... high. I ask for all the morphine I can get. It has a strong, sweet taste and I can imagine becoming addictied to it easily.

By morning I'm ravenous but dizzy and a nurse says I have to get up. Lacking confidence, I ask for a wheelchair to visit the toilet. I improve steadily and late in the d ay I manage to shuffle slowly to the toilet under my own steam. Within 24 hours I'll be out, not because I'm recovered but because they need the bed. It'll be two weeks before I'm approaching something like normality. This leaves me with the vague feeling that I'm not so much a customer of the service as the product.

I'm still not a fan of surgery.

Straight8 Teaser

Straight8 have released a teaser for this year's competition featuring half a second from each of the 175 films submitted.

You can see a shot from my entry, "Little Russia, CB1" at 0:57, an external shot of the Moving Pictures tattoo parlour on Mill Road, Cambridge:

Please allow me to introduce myself...

I'm preparing for a couple of virtual team workshops in Prague and South Africa in the coming weeks.

Members of teams and communities need to begin to trust each other quickly. A great way to start is by learning everyone's name. Psychologists say to learn a person's name, you should use it three times in conversation as soon as you meet them. This is difficult with a roomful of people, so you need a way of making people repeat their names.

Here are some warm-up exercises I learned from the in situ: theatre group’s Learn To Act course.

Introduce Yourself
Invite the members of the group to walk around the space and introduce themselves to each other. Ask them to greet each other as they meet – "Hello, my name is Richard" – even when they meet someone for the second or third time.

No one would introduce themselves three times to the same person, but by giving the group permission to act in this way, you increase the chance of them remembering names. Lead by example and no one will question this or call it unrealistic.

Allow this exercise to run for 2-3 minutes or until everyone has met everyone else 3-4 times.

Introduction Circle
Form a circle and ask everyone to introduce themselves to the rest of the group, saying, for example, "My name is Richard."

Tell everyone to find a new place in the circle and go around the circle with everyone introducing the person to the left of them: "This is Andrew." (Tell them to check the person's name beforehand if they've forgotten!)

Tell everyone to find a new place in the circle and go around the circle with everyone introducing the person to the right of them: "This is Suzanne."

Ball Circle
Introduce a ball into the circle. Choose a person, call their name and throw them the ball. They repeat this. Continue for 2-3 minutes.

Break the circle and ask everyone to walk around the space, throwing the ball between them and calling the name of the recipient as they do. Continue for 2-3 minutes.

Simple exercises like this help to breakdown barriers from the start and encourage people to get to know each other.

Facilitators should always participate - it saves resorting to sticky labels..!

Extra lines

An extra session for the vaudevillians tonight, though one of the number is excluded through some confusion about the meaning of "next Thursday".

We go through the pastoral scene a couple of times, slowly with some direction, then running through as it will be performed. It's quite long at 20 minutes, a significant part of the play. Fortunately there's a lot of fun in it, even when it's only exposition for the audience - much raising of eye-brows and scratching of chins.

My ideas for a costume for the vaudeville Polixenes achieve... some surprise at the amount of thought I've given it.

Well, what else do people do on train journeys?!?

Complications in the Black Forest

The Winter's Tale - Term 3, Week 3

It's not only light when I arrive this evening, it's warm too. The streets are full because Cambridge United are playing their final home league game of the season and a win against rivals Torquay United will secure a play-off place for them. Two loud cheers shortly before 8:30pm indicate they may have achieved their goal.

Meanwhile, inside the Leper Chapel, another brainstorm leads us to focus on choreography this evening. "A Walk In The Black Forest" is no longer the preserve of the "vaudevillians" and has now become an ensemble piece with everybody jumping in and out at different times! It will require some work to get right, but it's shaping up to be fun.

The rest of the time is spent on the pastoral scene with Polixenes, Camillo, Perdita, Florizel and the old shepherd. It points to a lot more work needing to be done to learn lines.

Apparently part of the script is missing from the wiki, so I promise to add it.

The Method and The Tale

The Winter's Tale - Term 3, Week 2

Tonight we concentrated the part between Screaming Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You" and Bobby Darin's "Take Good Care Of My Baby".

The focus is now on creating a performance. There was a brief discussion on internalisation and Method acting and some experimentation with the game "It's Tuesday" (actors in neutral, director announces "It's Tuesday", actors respond with an extreme version of a chosen emotion). The subsequent performance was greatly improved. Still need to work on those lines though.

The wiki is working! People have accessed it and amended the text, although no one has turned up with a printed version yet. I'm planning to have a complete version which I can personalise with a format with highlights my own lines.

The lines that currently get the most laughs:

LEONTES:
A gross hag
And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd,
That wilt not stay her tongue.

ANTIGONUS:
Hang all the husbands
That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself
Hardly one subject.

Social Media Meets Experimental Theatre

The Winter's Tale Term 3, Week 1

A run through with books for timing brought us in at around 1 hour and 50 minutes, as well as showing how much more work we need to do learning lines.

Everyone is still working out of annotated books, so perhaps it's time to share the script on-line somewhere. I'll suggest starting a wiki - but I'm not going to call it that..!

Learn Your Lines!

Many people find learning lines difficult. During Oedipus and The Winter's Tale, I've found that starting sooner rather than later helps. I've learned speeches in half an hour simply by taking the time to sit down and do it. It requires discipline.

We are now at the stage where we have worked out the text we'll be using, so it's down to the actors to learn it. Here's some good advice from director Richard Spaul about learning lines:

"LEARNING LINES:
The way to make the most progress at this stage is for everyone to have learnt their lines if possible by the restart - or as near to that goal as possible. if that can be done, we can move forward very quickly - if not, things will be slowed down. So I think that should be aimed
at.

Some tips on learning lines:

1. do it regularly. Could everyone spare 20 focussed minutes a day? That's the best way of doing it and is much better than making desperate efforts to learn lots of lines suddenly. So that's what I'd recommend.

2. when I'm learning lines I make sure I understand everything and can see how one thing leads to another - if I can see how it all connects I can learn it more easily. With Shakespeare there's often a rhythm to the verse and if you can hear that it can help you to fit the words in (as people learn the words of songs along with the tune).

3. It's helpful to identify key points in a speech or scene. Once you've got those in your mind, you can start stringing stuff together.

4. Some people find it helpful to write their lines out or to make a recording of it.

5. I think it's always better to say it aloud and to act it out properly - to speak it with feeling rather than to parrot it mechanically. Preferably to a real person who's listening, if you have anyone to perform such a service for you. The most obvious people are other people in the cast, so why not collaborate on a spare evening some time? This will all help to make it stick.

But the main thing is diligence. Most people who complain of not being able to learn lines don't put enough time into it and end up rushing."

I might add Jerry Seinfeld's productivity technique - should be unbeatable..!

Paranoid Choruses

in situ: The Winter's Tale - week 8

Two weeks out and I'm itching to get back, which perhaps prompts me to return a little too early. Tonight we work on the "paranoid choruses", taking the text originally spoken by one character and attempting to present it in different way.

I foolishly agree to speak Leontes's lines (because I'm a boy - not exactly breaking the mold there) in "Too hot! Too hot!" while Rachael and Tanya interject while stood facing each other in front of me and cutting off my contact with the audience. It seems to work well from early on, though I'm starting to cough within 15 minutes and begin to lose my voice by the time we come to perform the "finished" piece. I'm relieved when we break and sit down to discuss what we'll be performing in two weeks for the work in progress showing.

The Bohemian section we did before has been extended with more introductory dialogue included, but I'm not Florizel this time around. The perils of being ill. Instead I will be Leontes in the opening section, something we haven't worked on before. This will mean reading the dialogue from books, something we haven't done before in performance.

As usual the picture isn't entirely clear what will happen in two weeks' time, but these things have a habit of being worked out satisfactorily over the weekend prior.

Seeing RED at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse

I've been stuck in the house with laryngitis and a chest infection my doctor says could be pleurisy, so I jumped at the opportunity to get out as soon as I was starting to feel better. "Jumped the gun" might be a more accurate description as I turned up on Sunday thinking it was taking place then. A smirking usher put me straight.

Run by the Film and Digital Media Exchange, presented by 4K London who have one of the first RED One cameras in the UK, this was a chance to see RED One in action, followed by a hands on
demo at Anglia Ruskin University. Having heard the latter was full up, I'd committed to leaving after the initial event, so I was a little peeved when they announced the invitation-only session was now open to all. Having said that, the pros in the audience were talking a language a little beyond my understanding. Perhaps it was just as well I didn't turn up and embarrass myself.

The demo impressed me; apparently shot in the City of London at the weekend in a variety of light conditions and with no sign of the noise I noticed in the 2K version of Blade Runner projected here before Christmas.

"The Audience are morons"

in situ: The Winter's Tale - Term 2, Week 5

I arrived this evening whereupon the whole class stopped and sang "Happy Birthday" to me. I don't think this has happened since I was six years old, so it was unexpected but very cheering.

We continued our exploration of the vaudeville style as a way to represent Bohemia, using the modern-day US-style situation comedy as a reference point.

"The form of acting American sitcoms are based on is 100 years old," director Richard told us. He further explained how you must speak slowly and clearly, accentuating dialogue with actions that literally portray what you are saying: "[it's as if] the audience are morons."

One day voice workshop with Noah Pikes

Richard our director has decided we need some help with our vocal work, so this term includes a one-day workshop with voice teacher Noah Pikes, founding member of Roy Hart Theatre.

We spend the day working on selected exercises from Noah's workshop The Whole Voice, chosen for their relevance to the scenes we've developed in the previous term and the past few weeks. I find I'm regularly tempted to locate my voice in my chest to increase the power, but Noah tries to encourage me to find something lower, in the stomach. By the end of the day, I'm starting to understand, but I doubt I'll be using that voice at any upcoming conference appearances.

I spend the following week repeating Noah's "uuuuuu-ooooooo-iiiiiiiii-eeeeeee-aaaaaaa" exercise, causing my eleven month old daughter great delight, before succumbing to laryngitis five days later.

I hope it's just coincidence.

The Winter's Tale: Term 2, Week 4

The Winter's Tale: Term 2, Week 4

More varied work on the paranoid choruses

Exit, pursued by Simon Smith and his Dancing Bear

in situ: The Winter's Tale - term 2, week 3

I wrote about our brush with Judy Garland and vaudeville last week.

This week we took a turn into Dennis Potter territory, trying out "This Year's Kisses" by Nina Simone and Alan Price's version of Randy Newman's "Simon Smith and his Dancing Bear". The latter has some particularly nice beats which a bear-suited actor can fill with a few nifty dance steps.

We spent the majority of our time focusing on the paranoia choruses which we've only fitted in at the end of previous sessions. Different partnerships came up with imaginative ideas... perhaps it's just my impatience that makes it seems things are moving slowly. It's only week 3 of nine, after all...

Exit, pursued by a bear singing Judy Garland

in situ: The Winter's Tale - term 2, week 2

I mentioned "The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert" last week. Last night I found myself lip-synching to Judy Garland. Well if it's good enough for Rufus Wainwright...

Our director is looking for ways to transition between scenes, so we are now experimenting with Judy and Johnnie Mercer singing "Friendship" (Antigonus and the bear), Bryan Ferry's version of "Jealous Guy" (Leontes), Bobby Vee's "Take Good Care of My Baby" and Screaming Jay Hawkins version of "I Put A Spell On You".

Anyone new to experimental theatre expecting something akin to Rowan Atkinson's "Alternative Car Park" is in for a surprise.

in situ: back to work on The Winter's Tale - term 2, week 1

I got off to a poor start last term, missing the first week of The Winter's Tale and then injuring my back, so this won't be as complete a record of rehearsals as I had hoped. Nonetheless, the term went well and we had something worth presenting by the end. Sadly we've lost some good actors for the new term, but the new slimmed-down group might make it easier to get to know everyone a bit better.

Throughout last term my partner kept jokingly suggesting the inclusion of song-and-dance numbers, so it is slightly unnerving to find we're exploring that territory tonight. We spend time in twos and fours teaching each other naive and simple dances which we are going to use to show the happy nature of Bohemia in contrast to the paranoia of Sicilia.

The second half of the evening we spend lip synching in pairs to Dean Martin and Peggy Lee singing "We Was". I'm happy being partnered with Rachael because she's great at letting go, but watching some of the all-male couples it soon becomes apparent the more deadpan and sincere you look, the funnier it is.

Let's hope someone finds a louder CD player for next week.

[Update]

Of course, "Non-professionals often use lip-synching as a form of musical pantomime in which the performer moves his lips to a musical recording done by someone else. This form of lip-synching is often performed by drag queens and, more recently, drag kings."

Which puts us firmly in "The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert" territory (Northern, obviously).

Nice one!