Good lord. We did that. 18 actors. 3 Factory debuts, and 4 if you count Idey. She’s nine. Nell’s daughter. I gave her a piece of paper at the start of the show, with a cue and one line on it. When it came to her cue she walked with great acuity to the stage, took her place, delivered her line without script. Then she waited to be told to leave, but her character isn’t, the scene just ends. And when her scene ended, she exited. I was waiting to say well done when she came off.
It is mildly terrifying to think that last time I met Idey was here at The Willow Globe nine years ago. I was Provost among others, Nell was Isabella. Measure for Measure. She played Isabella while heavily pregnant. That makes for some interesting things. I met her daughter in a belly. Then nine years later she did an acting for us.
One of our members today played the queen and took her daughter with her into all the scenes. She’s 18 months old, and one of the best ways to make sure she’s quiet is to have her on the breast, which helped but: “Are you going to put me in the bin?” she asked at one point, shortly after she just got bored of the whole ‘we are in a pretend world’ dynamic. “Never work with children or animals,” went the advice from the oldschoolturningtricks actor crowd. Cos the children and animals are always gonna be more interesting than someone who isn’t listening and is making clever noises with their voice.
We love children and animals at The Factory and I’m thrilled at what that little girl who was just in her own authentic world brought to the thing we were doing. And yes we care deeply about voice. But we also care deeply about meaning and not about doing things that sound or look impressive and have none. The child enhanced the show.
We’re a family. A huge huge family now, of passionate and geeky people who just… give a fuck. It is so vast to know I’m part of it, as it never ceases to challenge me. Plus friendship.
Today’s show I was feeling a bit pissed off with myself for not having been to enough sessions beforehand. But I knew I needed to be here. They trusted me with a few small parts and by halfway through I was disappointed in myself, so I made a weird strong offer at the very end on impulse for Soothsayer. It landed thank fuck. Redeemed myself. Turns out I need to have at least tried a strong offer to feel like I’ve properly done my job with The Factory. I was being too coy, lost my confidence momentarily. This is why I’m part of this group.
I’ll have to pack up and go tomorrow morning, a very different venture is in the offing for a week. It’s time to plug back in to the room before everyone goes to bed. Absolute joy.
AlBarclay 