BEHIND THE SCENES: Rage In Rehearsal

Craig Hepworth tells BWW:UK about the start of the rehearsal process for RAGE

The rehearsal process for any new play can always be a dynamic yet terrifying experience - from praying the cast will like the script, to hoping that you have got all the dramatic beats right and just waiting to see how much of the script is going to have to go in to rewrites...

With our last play 'M', even though it opened to rave reviews and the run was a sell-out, the rehearsal process was problematic. In fact at one point it looked like 'M' may never make it to the stage. That process was tiring and testing, from losing rehearsal time, replacing actors to rewriting the whole of Act Two weeks before we opened. It was a challenge that every one of us rose to and we pulled it off, but I don't want that to happen again!

Rage is another scary one; it's a bigger cast than we have used before (with ten of us) and it's a highly emotive piece that can't hide behind anything; the script and the actors are laid out bare for all to see; there is no middle ground, it either works or it doesn't.

With the subject matter (college campus shootings), we knew that the first rehearsal day would be very different. The cast did not pick up a script or say a line; instead the day was devoted to research and conversation, everyone gave their opinion on why they think these campus shootings happen, what's to blame, how it can be changed and of course bullying, where the cast opened up their hearts and experiences to everybody else. It was after that day I knew I had the right cast, people understood the material and were affected by it, and that's what we need.

At the end of that day we gave the cast the script and sent them off home. I waited by the phone and checked on Facebook every two minutes to see if the cast were going to say anything about the script. After a few hours the cast in usual form changed their Facebook status - "is reading the script and loves it" and so on, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

This past Sunday the cast came in and we did the first reading. Like any first reading it was...well...a bit of a mess, so we broke for lunch and decided to go again, then something strange happened.

I asked the cast to stand up and move around as they were doing the script reading, to get the blood pumping. After all, this is a piece all set in one room where these young people are on edge after surviving a shooting only moments before. From the moment the readthrough started I saw that the cast were not only standing up but physically acting it out, using objects for props and running at the piece at full force - it was incredible. During the emotional monologues that the cast have when they talk about the shooting and how they survived or who they lost, the rest of the cast were in tears. It was like we had been in rehearsals for weeks.

It's amazing to see and feel that energy; that's why I love working with the regulars at Vertigo like Rick Carter and Stuart Reeve and then throw in new actors like Graham Atkin and Danny Stewart and see how well they all come together.

It was a good start to what I hope will be a great process and even better show. I still have my concerns (but that's my job as co director and co-writer) - will the audience respond to a group of people talking about something so harrowing and uncomfortable for two hours? Will the audience get it? But after seeing the cast reactions to the material and Karl Burge's (our co- producer) face during the fantastic standing readthrough I'm starting to relax.

We do know that this process will be emotionally draining; the piece constantly pushes the actors to The Edge, keeping up that level of despair, anger, sadness and rage is a challenge, but a challenge well worth taking.

This piece is my baby, it's taken so long to get to the stage that now it's happening I need to check that every aspect is right - and as a control freak I'm in my element. Oddly enough on this piece we have a shorter rehearsal and pre-production period than normal. We usually get three months but this time (because of the dates 'M' went on, and wanting to get Rage on this year with it being the tenth anniversary of Columbine) we have found ourselves getting two and a half months, so this is a fast turnaround (why do we do this to ourselves?).

I'm now very excited about the next rehearsal and to see where the piece goes, but before the cast come back in we still have a million and one things to do. The marketing has to be finished today and sent to print ready to go out in two weeks; the website for Rage has just been launched; the tickets are set to go on sale this week and the sound design needs doing as well as planning ten video clips to be shot with the cast which will be played throughout the production...but I know that we can handle it.

And I wanted to finish this entry by saying how thrilled I am that BWW:UK have chosen to cover this. It's fantastic that a site of this size is standing behind fringe theatre and seeing its importance; after all I think some of the most exciting theatre is coming out of the fringe scene.

 

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