The Weekend

We worked a full day today even though it was Saturday, to make up for the Bank Holiday on Monday, which felt a little cruel considering the tough week the company has had. So in the end it became just a slighlty long morning for the actors, and the afternoon was taken up with a long writer's meeting.

In the morning we did a run, and Judy finally got to see the whole play, having missed one chance while in Casualty in Seoul! Nisha, the Programme Co-ordinator at the REP also watched, and Simon has set up his lighting desk in the auditorium, so he sat in on the run too.

The play still ran a little too long, [70 minutes] but it also ran quite smoothly, and we still look pretty much on course. The fence this time fell down when Yudai touched it, and there was a bit of a pause during the section where he clears everything up, while searching for monsters, and also while Young Ju built the tower to climb at the end, but except for those three bits we could begin to concentrate again on the acting.

Everyone seemed pleased with how it had gone, and we went together for a lunch at Woktastic, where they remembered us from October.

The writers meeting was also encouraging. We spent a long time discussing the beginning of the play, and the Brazil scene, but we were very much in agreement on most aspects, and we ahve a clear plan for what still needs doing. For me, in a project where much of the focus is often on the complication of holding all our different perspectives, what was very strong today was the other side of the eqaution. That is the fact that having Toyoko and Mijeong involved throughout the process is a fantastic resource. Anything I miss is picked up by them. Or if anything seems to be going in an unhelpful direction, they are there, watching, thinking all the time, so when there is a problem, there are many possible ideas to solve it.

It was a long meeting though, and by six o'clock we are all tired. Yudai and Young Ju have been prectising the fence business in the studio, and Yeon and Hye Jin are still painting crates and plastic when I leave for a day off which I will enjoy.