Well, it was sunny yesterday. Not particularly warm sunshine – it being the end of September and our little planet being farther away from our star at this time of the year – but sunny all the same.

I spent the afternoon in the company of some great young people from the Riverside Youth Theatre. I’ve got to know them well over the past year and have the pleasure of working with a small group of six of them as we rehearse Nick Dear’s Lunch in Venice.

Having spent the previous week on an in-depth script discussion and detailed read through followed by some characterisation exercises, we moved on to blocking this week.

We started by watching a slide show of the various landmarks and views of Venice and it’s culture as highlighted in the script, then worked out all the french scenes in the text and looked a little at some of the beats, then after a quick run round to inject some energy, we started the blocking process.

Normally, I have to say, I tend to use the pre-blocking method, ie: plan everything – or most of it anyway – beforehand and then just tell the actors where they’re moving, changing things as you go along if bits dont work quite as you thought they would. Certainly easier with larger casts; and for smaller less experienced ones too.

Well, with this cast and this play, I have taken the decision specifically not to do any pre-blocking at all. A first for me, since I am heavily relying on the actors to know and understand their characters and the play enough to be able improvise the blocking as we go a long: Finding out what works and what doesn’t.

After a little awkwardness to start off with (where I was seriously questioning if I’d made the right decision: having only covered the first page in the first half hour) I was pleasantly surprised to find that the whole cast took it in their stride and postively relished in the idea of being allowed to be a big part of the blocking process.

Far from the usual: “Where do you want me?” or “I don’t know where I’m supposed to be.” I was generally getting the: “I think I should be here at this point. Is that okay?”.

In fact, it very quickly got to the point of some major discussions on the characters and indeed their status in the positioning on the stage at various times.

Ben: – “I think Harley should be like sat on the other side of Bianca. He’s needs to be on the edge since he’s like really on the outside. Of the group I mean. He’s like trying to fit in but it’s only the start.”

Bianca: – “Yeah. I agree. Also means my line to Conrad makes more sense that way since I don’t have to talk across Harley.”

There were times when I was wondering who was actually directing. But it was a really great feeling! A joint ownership of the production.

Brilliant.

When we put together the first half a dozen pages we’d worked on, and ran it through to see who could remember what, each of them did remember, and it looked a fantastic. Obviously I’ll be working on honing specific detailed ‘business’ but the general positions and moves of the characters looked great.

It was a joint effort and everyone had a say. Whenever we had conflicting ideas about a certain move we invariably tried both and found out which worked and which didn’t. The end result was that everybody felt they moved ‘naturally’, and not simply because they had to.

Bloody hard work, mind!

After a couple of hours of this intense way of working, I was shattered. (Probably why I have a headache today!) We all discussed how the afternoon had gone and everyone commented on how much they felt they had really got into the play and their characters, and so quickly too.

We were all surprised; most of all me, I think. Young people need to be given much more credit and be allowed to experiment more. I can honestly say the results speak for themselves.

This is going be a good production, and we’ve only had two weeks of rehearsal!

So, more actor-led blocking next Sunday.

Lets hope the sun is shining again so we can be down in the park by the river. Being outside was quite a new expereince for us all too. Since the play takes place in a square in Venice in the heat of a summer’s day, it’s very apt that we should be blocking it by the Thames in the sunshine.

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Lunch in Venice by Nick Dear will run from 4th-6th December at the Riverside Arts Centre in Lower Sunbury. I’ll be setting up a group on facebook to help promote it.

CAST:

• Harley – Peter Williams
• Ben – Mark Forrest
• Bianca – Rianna Dearden
• Conrad – Tom Addy
• Emmy – Chloe Gay
• Vivi – Claire Leonard

(Oh, and since Vivi only appears in the last third of the play, I have asked Claire to be my Assistant Director, which has already proved to be another excellent decision!)