Up and Lime to work in the rain, but I’ve got the clothes for this. Helen’s dad’s leather coat. He’s got to be useful for something I guess. Keeps me warm and keeps the rain off.
It’s still a lovely room to be in, I’m very lucky. And I won a day! I thought today was Thursday. It is much better knowing it is only half way through the week. We are taking shape, we really are. It’s starting to look like we know what we’re doing. Lines lines lines but it’s a modern piece and they often flow at this stage. We could hack it together tomorrow if we had a gun to our head, but we don’t want to and we won’t.
I love this small company, I’m so happy to be part of it, and the history I now have with Ellie is really quite something to know. We first collaborated in 2002. The weave of our friendship groups goes in and out of so many different parts of this ridiculous and wonderful industry intersecting in surprising places.
Tom and Sara are one example, and they are trying to make sense of a huge space with sound issues. This evening was about trying to work out if it’s worth pulling down a load of plasterboard, knowing what an absolute bastard it is to dispose of. We are going round in circles about soundproofing. Canice thought maybe we just need to hang Calico from the scaffolding, but Lou is quite right: Calico won’t stop the sound. It’s got to be serge, and then once again we are back to £3000 worth of heavy fucking wool before anyone has even put the stuff up.
Not my problem I know but I like to try and be part of the solution… But sometimes, as I told Vic during the office clearance, you have to choose your battles.
So I’m gonna put my focus back into Awaken and the filming this weekend. I can’t be everything to everyone and this is too big and expensive a problem for me to try and troubleshoot now with no money. My instinct is: try it with an audience. Build a show in the room you’ve got and see if sound is an issue. Actors can work in difficult spaces, they might have to lean into their diction. But it might be workable just as it is… Better than spending thousands on a temporary workaround. Bigger fish to fry. Keep your eyes on the prize. The walls look tidy. They just reflect sound. I’ve played worse spaces.
Paint it black. See how it goes. I’m going back to full focus on my own stuff.
