BEHIND THE SCENES: Northern Line Production Blog #6 - Waiting...

Jonathon Collis

Sometimes, despite what we do, despite our best efforts and desperate attempts to bring things together, sometimes the show just doesn't go on.

Such was the case with our reading. While schools were closing and roads weren't gritted (they should come and shovel the excess off the streets of Barnet Council - it's turning to mud here), half of our cast were stranded in the home counties, unable to rehearse. At first it was a Wednesday morning ensemble call, then the Wednesday evening rehearsal to do script work, and then the Thursday sitzprobe. And more snow was predicted to slam the south-east and London area, making it questionable if the cast could come in over the weekend, to the show on Monday, or if an audience would make it in.

And so Thursday afternoon I received a call from the MD, who had been fielding concerns on behalf of the cast. I won't go into details - partly because I don't have all of them and partly because of an inability to separate genuine truth from depression-fuelled speculation and paranoia - but the ultimate decision was to cancel the reading and reschedule it for a later date. Phone calls were made, members of the band were paid off, and a heck of a lot of emails were sent.

The question, then, is what happens now?

Well, at the moment we're all focused on other projects. Our music director is performing in a George Gershwin themed cabaret on 7 February with Hidden Talent Productions, and from a production standpoint we here at MTC are working on our own February project, an anti-Valentine's cabaret called I Hate Love.

We've just finished confirming our cast for the cabaret (Ben Baker, Ryan E Epps, Rachel Hickson, and Jamie Lee Pike), and we'll begin rehearsals soon with music director Richard Bates, currently finishing a run on Oh No It Isn't at the Union. The setlist includes songs from a wide range of composers, from Tom Lehrer to Jonathan Larson and Leonard Bernstein to Jacques Brel. Tickets will be £8 and reservations can be made by emailing minmaytheatreco@googlemail.com.

But enough plugging. The question you're all reading this to discover is what's next with Northern Line.

Musically we're at a bit of a standstill. A lot of edits were pencilled in musically during rehearsal, and those need to be put into the official sheet before editing and revision can continue. The book, which is full of placeholder text, needs a good bit of work and will be my priMary Focus once cabaret rehearsals are up. Our performance goal, originally set optimistically for March, is looking more like it'll happen in April. Or May. The question is whether or not to try and hold a new reading before or after a full workshop period and if it's better to revise further or present with the hope of getting sponsorship over the workshop and the end of development.

Either way, time is ticking, and while we may be waiting for the underground, time waits for nobody.

 

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