In the Red and Brown Water

I led the warm up this morning. I started with a name game so that all the actors got to know each others’ names. We then did the chair game to get the actors working as a team and focused, and then we finished off with ‘swish’ to get energy, focus, direction and projection working.

We read more of the play with Tarell. We are already getting into an extremely good routine of being very precise with the text’s meaning.

Tarell led the warm up games this morning. We stood in a circle and played a game in which we had to count to ten, one person at a time, and without anyone else saying it at the same time – if two people did say a number at the same time the group had to start from the beginning. We carried on until we had got to ten. He then made us repeat the exercise but this time walking anti-clockwise around the room. This makes us work as an ensemble and this is how the play works. Tarell wanted to emphasize that there is no hesitation in the play – the actors must pick up cues, explore the language be committed and focused or the play falls.

After last week everyone had a deeper shared understanding of the play which will help the actors so much in the space. We started off rehearsing Act 1 scene 1, a scene between Mama Moja and Oya before she runs her championship race. First we sat down with Adjoa [Mama Moja] and Ony [Oya] to read it through at least ten times to get all of the text precise before putting it up on its feet.

We started with a filming session with the Young Vic’s marketing manager David Roots, who is making a short video to go on youtube to help promote the show.

We began by re-enacting Act 1 scene 1 and 2 to remember what was sketched before and to add acting other colours to the skeleton framework.

We started to sketch Act 1 scene 6 at first acting around the table, line by line to make the emotions precise. This scene shows Moja die. We put the scene on its feet and Walter gave it a lot of care and attention and told Adjoa who plays Moja, to act as if death calling her was like a saviour from her pain and illness it worked brilliantly.

Due to the production meeting the day before a list of prop chairs started to appear thanks to our stage manager, Suzie, and her assistant Sarah. Walter and Miriam wanted these chairs to represent the Louisiana projects’ scenery in that most people sit on their porches.

We started today by again rehearsing Act 1 scene 4 between Oya and Shango. Walter wanted there to be sexual chemistry between the two characters, so he put the room in darkness to emulate night time and then dimmed the lights down. This gave the actors a more sexual and dangerous context to act within which is what the scene needed.

In this rehearsal we focused on scene 11. In this scene Shango leaves Oya for the army and Oya has a nervous break down witnessed by the community. Walter spoke about Lorca’s play Yerma and how the community is similar in this play.

We started as usual with a read through around the table of scene 9, exploring language, pauses, meaning and so on. Then we put the scene on its feet. This scene sees Elegba being chased by O Li Roon’s [Paul Thornley] because he stole candy from the store. Ben was at hand to handle a fight sequence between O Li Roon and Elegba to make sure Walter got the mayhem and comedy he wanted and to make sure that nobody got hurt.

Abram started with a full company call of the entire music throughout the play. He asked the actors to play instruments while they were singing through the music he had written. This helped the cast immensely because having more things to do meant they had to concentrate more and then when the instruments were taken away they sounded very in unison, precise and powerful.

We worked in the Young Vic’s main stage although the set of the show Fragments (Peter Brooke’s Beckett production) was in place. Walter directed them through the scenes although the water was not there. He wanted them to get used to the space so that come the previews they would feel confident with their surroundings.

Back at Toynebe Studios we started acting Act 2 scene 1 – a few years have passed since Act 1. In this scene Nia [Sheri-An Davis] and Shun [Camilla Beeput] dance to music choreographed by Ben, the girls and Walter. In this scene, they dance and try to intimidate Oya but she pays no notice, until they exit for the baby shower that she wishes was hers. This scene was quite challenging for Walter to direct because Elegba is now 16 years old whereas in Act 1 he was 11 and 13 years old, so he and John worked hard at making this distinction. This scene also tells the story of Oya’s desperation for a baby, irritation of life with Ogun, and hate and isolation from Nia and Shun. Walter broke this huge scene in sections and rehearsed them individually and then he put them together.

Excitement is in the air - previews are soon approaching.

Today started as a day of setting all the actors’ transitions from scene to scene in the space. Walter blocked their permanent positions because it is important everyone needs to know where there are in the scene.

We started at Toynbee studios. We finished the scene transitions up until Act 2 scene 3. We then ran the play up until Act 2 scene 3 including the previously learnt transitions.

The actors had their wardrobe fittings at the Young Vic whilst the rest of the cast rehearsed Act 2 scene 5. In this scene Shango tells Ogun that he has been having an affair with Oya. First of all, Walter asked Ashley and Javone to improvise making fun of each other. He then asked them to feed how this felt into the actual scene, but asked them to stand far apart. All of this was done to experiment in getting the right sort of tension in the scene. Then he made them rush at each other with Oya stopping them. The distance and silence between the actors in contrast to the improvised scene really made the scene dangerous and funny.

After lunch we rehearsed scene 6. This scene shows Oya desperately wanting a baby and seeking advice from a voodoo woman. Then the scene suddenly moves to a party, which had to be choreographed really heavily by Walter and Ben because there is loud music, lots of dancing, lots of splashing and important storyline.
Friday 19^th September

We rehearsed Act 2 scene 4 with Ben. This is the first time that the “double act” Nia and Shun are seen in the story of the play and alone together in rehearsals. This scene shows best-friends Nia and Shun gossiping about Oya and that they don’t like her. Walter and Ben directed them relentlessly. Walter wanted them to seem like they were always in unison. For example, he wanted them to seem like they were one brain, talking with the same speed, tones, actions in their bitchy tendencies about Oya.

We finished rehearsing the entire play today which seemed to be a huge weight off everybody’s shoulders. Everybody now knows their character’s entire journey. We left rehearsals knowing that next week there will be plenty of work to do but knowing that we have rehearsed each scene precisely and multiple times.

This is the last week of rehearsals and there is a sense of great achievement in the air. The ensemble is really working well on stage and has bonded well. We rehearsed scene 6 again.

During this time Walter ran the play and perfected the scenes over and over again and I found that the more the actors kept the tempo of the scenes the more it sounded like poetry. For example, Walter rehearsed them through the Prologue and Epilogue and when they were really focused and almost cut the ends off each others’ lines, it sounded very poetic and allowed moments of incredible visual imagery.