Page 15 ...

I was struck by how exhausted I was the moment the rehearsal finished at 7pm last night which I hope is a good sign. 

The unique quality of the physical, psychological, intellectual and emotional fatigue at the end of a day is a memorable, like-able one and, in my body, seems very specific to the rehearsal and performance experience.

I keep thinking that I should conserve some energy and not dance with everyone. I keep thinking that I must calm down a little and not be so physically animated. I keep thinking that I must talk slower when directing. But it is impossible to do anything less.

The dances are good fun; the style of the piece requires a physical animation in the direction to make it work; and the ideas come at such a fast pace that, I suppose, there is a fear that if I don't get the ideas out quick enough I may lose them.

Inspirations in the day:

• watching us all sweat buckets whilst dancing the cancan
  
• directing (but only really making small observations and adjustments) the actor playing the Beast during the sung through scene of 'The Curse in the Snowy Forest at Midnight' - he is going to be superb...
  
• the two Witches directing themselves effortlessly whilst I directed another scene
  
• the honesty of the children (but we all know children are honest!)
  
• how a pair of shoes can create, for an actor, a totally different way of being
• how everyone just loves dressing up and playing (there were costume fittings today also)

We did get to page 15 yesterday (really only page 12) which was the aim, but there are 7 to do today and 7 tomorrow if we are to get to the end of Act I by the end of the week. 

Whilst perhaps giving myself a hard time over the ridiculous nature of thinking about theatre as just pages earlier in the week - it felt like artistic betrayal - it is just a very practical form of Stanislavski's Units and Objectives: but for a director working on a Christmas show with only two weeks' rehearsal.

Crude, possibly. But practical, nonetheless.

My job is to 'complete' it, mould it together, give it clarity (so that 15,000+ people will enjoy it) whilst mustering as much artistic merit, mayhem and festive spirit as is possible.

In short: to make it and to make it work.

Our piece is set some time after The French Revolution (a loose back drop) and Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, having finished writing her world famous story of La Belle et la Bête, is about to stage it at the theatre she owns which has been disused for many years.

So, it a play-within a-play - influenced a little by Hamlet and The Seagull which is pleasing - the design concept reflecting this: four proscenium arches, a pop-up theatre approach and the illusions being created with obvious theatrical conventions.

We have decided to hide nothing: to disguise nothing.

But there is much work to be done on this front before there is coherence...

I had a great day yesterday because the actors made it work.