BEHIND THE SCENES: Staging Jason And The Argonauts And Medea At The Scoop At More London

With 'Medea' just about to open and 'Jason and the Argonauts' opening next week both at the Scoop at More London, we're busy putting the finishing touches into place.

Staging a production is an exhilarating experience and as you might imagine a lot of hard work goes into making it all happen. Steam Industry have been putting on shows at the Scoop for the last seven years and this year their two shows cover a lot of ground: ‘Jason and the Argonauts', a fun family musical, and the what-happened-next Greek tragedy ‘Medea'.

Both shows are completely free and so fundraising has to start early. The creative process started in March as work on the design began and the key logistics such as dividing the budget and organising the timetable of events are worked out.

Attention soon turns to casting, Phil Willmott the shows' director describes the process as "very complex chemistry, finding 12 people who will work together and spark off each other on stage and also work closely as an ensemble. It was a long process and we were very picky but it has all worked out brilliantly."

Rehearsals began in late June. On the first day everybody gathers together and gets to know one another: learning everyone's names is one of the hardest parts of the rehearsal process. The next move is to start work on the ‘blocking' that means giving a rough shape to the action on stage.

Working on such different productions has presented its challenges and given rise to slightly different approaches; as ‘Jason and the Argonauts' is a musical it was important for the songs and dances to be learnt very early on and of course getting to grips with the enormous puppets was essential. However, with ‘Medea' we turned our eye to the text and analysing each line to decipher its meaning was a priority.

We then began stringing all the aspects of each production together running short sections and then progressed into running the show as a whole. During the rehearsals the cast furiously learnt their lines whilst the design team roamed the streets of London buying props and collected and made costumes.  Siobhan O'Kelly, who plays Medea, describes her experience as a roller-coaster ride. "It is a real test of all your technique and creativity," she says, "you have to put everything into the character but the results have been thoroughly enjoyable." Joe Fredericks who plays Jason found rehearsals incredibly creative and organic, whilst pulling all the elements and details together to put on such an epic story in 80 minutes has proved a real challenge.

As this is an outdoor production it means that some of the rehearsals have to be done outside in the venue, which means an audience will gather even to watch those. It actually proves a helpful gauge on whether we've got the scene right - a luxury most rehearsal processes wouldn't have.

The fifth week of rehearsals, the week before the show opens, marks technical week, when the set is put up in the space, the lights are erected and programmed, and the sound checked. Technical weeks are always busy and full of problem-solving, resulting in quite a few late nights, always with pizza or biscuits to keep you going. Luckily the tech week has gone smoothly so far. The last piece of the pre-production jigsaw is the dress rehearsal when all the last minute glitches are ironed out we're all keeping our fingers crossed for a relatively stress free final few hours.

We hope that all the hard work that has gone in to these two productions will be rewarded with the audience's applause, making it all worthwhile.

'Medea' 30th July - 6th September (Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays) at 20:00
'Jason and the Argonauts' 7th August - 6th September (Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays) at 18:00
The Scoop at More London
FREE

Photograph: Sheila Burnett

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