The next chapter - sunny Birmingham

The next frenetic period in the roller-coaster that is the 'Looking for Yoghurt' devising process is underway. Over the weekend, the members of the team flew in from various places, and on Monday we started work in the big rehearsal room at Birmingham REP.

We now have a cast in place, with a Birmingham trained actor, Danile Naddafy joining the team, and two of the actors from the workshops, Yudai and Young Ju playing the other two parts. Also involved practically for the first time is composer Ohiro Minato, and two locally based interpreters, Mera Seo and Yerang Seong. In addition we have the support now of the resources of the REP, which seem very lavish.

On Sunday, with total diregard for jetlag, we had a seven hour writer's meeting, to plan the two weeks ahead. It was a good feeling to be back together, and after the frustration of so limited a time in Okinawa, we have a schedule which should give us plenty of time for talking between the practical sessions. Our aim is simple - by the end of the two weeks we want to have our play, ready to take into rehearsals. There may well be a period of writing up, before this translates to being an actual first draft on paper - but we now know from experience that all the key decisions are best made when we are all in the same room.

On Monday all the work was around the three characters. The decisions on the synopsis were made right at the end of our workshops in Tokyo, and now that the play is cast we need to work with the actors to flesh out the three children. Certainly the first day of working on this was encouraging. daniel has leapt into the process well, and seems appropriate casting for the withdrawn Blue, while the energy of Young Ju [irrepressible and alwys so positive] and the physical fearlessness of Yudai contrast well. The actors were set the task of creating scrapbooks for their characters, and set off into Birmingham to find the perfect book. In the meantime, the writers planned the next stage.

We are working long full days, packing in the range of activities needed, and the REP has housed the company in flats in or around the theatre, which makes it all practically very easy. An invitation is being sent out to a range of people to see the work-in-progress at the end of the second week and so we will have to maintain that focus and work-rate right the way through. But as we begin, there is no sign that anyone will mind that.....