In the morning we ran the first half. The shape is there, very rough hewn. Now we can break for Christmas.
Having no director makes interesting challenges. It’s hard to bust other actors. We do it as a matter of habit in The Factory. But “Why are you waving your arms around all over the place?” That’s fine in Factory context. Harder in others. You can’t play “don’t be a twat” with people until you’ve known them years.
I’m sure I’m guilty of all these things, but having watched loads of these shows now, things that happen include: No conflict in scenes cos everyone is trying to get on. People wandering around on the spot when monologuing. Both arms randomly slapping your side, like you never do in life. “The fish was this big” type gesture, where the script used to be, all the time. Sawing the air with your hand thus. Emphasising all the pronouns. Pointing to yourself when it’s a personal pronoun, you know, in case the audience aren’t sure who you mean by “ME”.
I suspect the next stage is to finish the first passthrough but then… discipline. Accuracy on words, and a real push to find the scenes while mining out extraneous gestures and all the little tricks and comforts that have done us so proud over however long we’ve been hacking out careers in pretending.
I drove to Rye. Dusk fell at about 3pm. I did some Christmas shopping at Jempsons, left it all in the car as it’s a cold night. Now I’m back at Bella’s with talkative cats and I’m already in bed but I’ll be up again in a moment as I want to eat something before sleep. I’m already in shutdown mode though, it has been dark so long already today. I hate the dark almost as much as I hate the cold.
I spent a little over £300 on food today for Christmas. Likely overdid the cheese. This isn’t including the booze, which I’ll get tomorrow. Or potatoes as there were none!
Got some sachets for mulling wine though and I fully intend to use them. The alcohol is cooked out, right?
AlBarclay 