Wednesday 16 January 2008

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!

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