Woyzeck - Tumblr Posts

New year, new distractions

So I haven't written anything since school started in August, but in my defense I can say that I've been really busy these last four months.

Our group has lost three members, some to personal matters, some to job offerings elsewhere. Luckily for us, most of those people left in an early stage, and we who have stayed have really formed a close group, almost like a second family. We have watched movies, baked, partied and had sharing circles together, as well as putting on three different one- night shows, about one per month. (our christmas leave started as early as the 13th of December, and today was the first day back) Two of the shows were of the variety kind, while the last one (actually a two- nighter) was a short play made made in cooperation with the dance- course in our school. They have all been fun, but quite stressful, seeing as we have done everything by ourselves, from scriptwriting, to light and sound- desing, to directing. Each time we have been this close to nervous breakdowns and just screaming at everybody else in the group, but somehow we've pulled through. We've also been lucky enough to have people from the photography- course filming the performances, and it has been fun to watch them afterwards, and especially comparing the newer ones to the old. Even though it has only been a few months I feel like we have really gotten much better at everything involved in producing such a show. 

Anyway, what I really wanted to write about is the Big Production for this spring, and our chance to prove to everyone that we really are amazing. We were told the title of the play way back in October, and had a first read through in December, but the real work starts now. We got the second version of the script today, and looked partway through it, making a few changes on the way, but we're supposed to get at least one more version of it to be able to really start working on it. The people making the costumes, sets, make- up and lighting have also been decided on, and they have all gotten an early version of the script in order to start brainstorming. The premiere is in March, and so we have a quite busy two months ahead of us to get this done. The play in question  is actually a mix of two different things; the unfinshed play "Woyzeck" by Georg Büchner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woyzeck   http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Theatre/Woyzeck   and the opera "Carmen" by Georges Bizet  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen  http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Theatre/Carmen 

I have no idea how these two would actually fit together, but our teachers seem to have some sort of masterplan, so I guess we just have to trust them. However this turns out, it'll be an interesting thing to do, especially for one such as me, who has never done real theatre before.

Working!

Re-writes of the script have begun! We've been reading through the scripts these last couple of days, and started re-organising some of the scenes in Woyzeck today. It'sreally fun, if somewhat difficult, with people throwing ideas back and forth like mad, but we have made some progress. I think the final script will be awesome, even more so thanks to us, the actors ourselves, having a big part in how exactly it turns out. And tomorrow we are going to Vasa for a festival/meet/thing with the scenography tudents there, and will stay there until Sunday afternoon. It's quite a long way, but we'll find some way of amusing ourselves during the car ride.

Progress!

So the whole "write on tumblr more often"- thing is not going too well, partly because of the added workload, and partly because I'm just lazy :P

Work with the play is getting along pretty well, seeing as we had our first complete runthrough last saturday, and our dance teacher (who is doing the coreography for Carmen & co. and is overall very much involved in the process) said it went better than imagined. Personally I had a hard time of remembering what scene came after the one currently going on on stage, and had to consult the script several times in order to remeber when I'd be up next, not to mention that none of us actually had our real costumes or props on hand, or that the scenography is going to be built during this week. I think it went well though, and all of us left the theatre for a well deserved four days off. When we get back on friday most of the scenography is supposed to be ready, and hopefully we'll get at least some of the costumes next tuesday. Even though we've got a whole month 'till the premiere I feel like there's a thousand things we still have to take into account, but on the other hand, those of the group that have been in theatre before this say we're on a pretty good schedule, and that progress is going well. Eh, I suppose I'll just have to trust them.

I'll try to post more often as thing progress, but I can't promise anything. Here's to continued success!

Kicking into a higher gear

So, after that first complete I-don't-know-what-I'm-doing- runthrough we've been working really hard to get this thing going, with advertisement- meetings, a reporter for a local newspaper visiting us, and agreeing not to have any days off (except one!) before the premiere, and so far we've been doing OK. The group has been going through a rough patch, but being the sensible adults that we are (eh, not really), we have talked about it and everything's okay now.

Actually three of us left early today to get a flight to Sweden for entrance- exams, and one other guy is joining them tomorrow. They'll be back by saturday morning, however, and we can continue working with everyone present. The rest of us are of course going to keep going, and getting some more personal tips from our other teacher about our characters, and her vision for the play. Next week we're going to try working by the traditional "theatre hours" meaning we rehearse from about 10 am to 2 pm, have a long break, and continue from 6 to 9 pm. It will take some getting used to, but working this way will give us time to go through and fix technical issues, such as lights and props in between rehearsals, and hopefully allow us to also have a bit of a rest in the middle of the day.

So far the nervousness hasn't really made itself shown, but I'm sure that the stress will build up over the coming three weeks, and we will all be more or less nervous wrecks by the first dress rehearsal on the 17th of march, two days before the premiere.

(Pssst! Here's the official instagram for our production! http://statigr.am/woyzeck2014vnf )

The poster for our version of "Woyzeck" by Georg Büchner, including some music from the opera "Carmen", composed by Georges Bizet.

Poster made by Lauri P.

Two days?!?

So, only two days untill the premiere of "Woyzeck". We'll have our first dress rehearsal today, and the second one tomorrow. I really hope it's going to go well, seeing as there have been a few details that have been changing as late as yesterday, but all of us have been working really hard, and we're really focused. Some slight wardrobe malfunctions have happened, like buttons falling off and a couple of broken shoes, but we should be able to fix those today.

Now lunch,and then for one last runthrough before the dress rehearsal.