Talking Swiss

Nice view but where are we playing ?! (the gymnasium at Sarganz)

I notice I have not mentioned our shows in Switzerland: This is mainly because the Swiss did not impress me much: We arrived late in Zurich after a long drive, and had to do a get in at he Opera house, sound posh I know but we were playing the downstairs CABARET venue and poor Fillipo was only given one technician to help him out and had to do most of the lights himself. The venue itself (pics on Flikcr)
Is mainly used as a cabaret venue and although it has a stage and some lights, the fact that the audience are sat at individual small round tables and are served drinks by a flood of waiters makes for quite a different occasion than what we had to offer.
Theatre requires engagement from the audience…..language theatre even more so but when the audience is sat a tables that encourages disengagement from what is going on stage (and this does work well for lighter cabaret shows) it becomes very hard work.. The clatter of crockery and glasses does not go well with our somewhat more emotional scenes.
Therefore, I think audiences were among the least responsive so far, hard when you have a show that is actually full of laughs. The following day we drove to Sarganz Gymnasium and played a school hall (they had promised us a theatre) this left everyone with a bad taste in the mouth and we did a quick show...although some of the audience seemed to enjoy it. Then we left Switzerland..all in all , you will agree not the best experience…and we did not even get to try a Swiss fondue..

Ulm and Bayreuth

Well it couldn't have lasted... I am writting to you from Heilbronn, after two days in Ulm and Bayreuth respectively...and the audience reception has gone back to the more reserved though still poppular..this is mainly due to the somewhat large houses of young students that we are getting and so the energy is different. Ulm was a huge theater ( pictures on flickr! ) were they do Aida on one of the largest and most modenr theatres I have seen since beeing here..We had fantastic lights and about 15 technicians on call to help us out...We were in the wardrobes normally reserved for the Kammersingers( opera singers on a fixed employment ) and even got a warm up space with piano. I was looking forward to Bayreuth, a city largely know for its yearly Wagner festival : suprisingly enough most of the town seemed fairly stteped in the 70's in terms od decor, and our performance space and hotel especially seemed no exeption. Check out the pic of my room ! Audience there was also muted but they were still listening.
As Fellipo said he thought the initial " adrenalin" in the play had gone because we were settling into it,but he said that the energy was still high and the quality good.
I feel that I will have to revisit some things on stage and maybe try out new things to keep everything fresh..but that it our job...and it's not half bad..tomorrow we are off to Switzerland !!

Flickr

Hello again !

I have been told that some of you don't know how to view the pictures on FLICKR...well it's very easy: just click on ANY of the PICTURES in the Flickr frame and that will take you to my flickr photo collection!!

Keep checking as they are beeing updated regularly..

Got show in ULM tonight so

Ciao !!

Heidelberg

Yours truly in the theatre in Heidelberg!

We arrived in Heidelberg, well that is to say to the tiny village of Shriessheim outside Heidelberg, as our Hotel, which smelt like an old people’s home was located in the middle of the woods…hmm we thought…not a good start. We promptly went for lunch in the Hotel’s dubiously decorated dining/breakfast room ( very 70’s) were we dinned on fresh trout ( which was surprisingly good) in the company of several stuffed and mounted animals that looked down on us from their places on the wall.
We decided to drive in to Heidelberg with Fellipo and the set ( actually we did not have a choice if we didn’t fancy walking the 20 odd miles ). At the theatre we did a get in with the help of some of the 20odd technicians it seemed on call to help us for the nights performance. While Fellipo put them to work, the rest of us took an hour or so to explore the streets of Heidelberg which seemed a bustling town full of tourists and students. When we came back to the theatre Fellipo had set out some fantastic lights including our planet which saw the first use and it all looked great!!
We the proceeded to place our props and go though some of the songs since this was our first show since Kempten! The stage manager told us that 500 seats had been sold,out of a 600 seat house..so that was all very exiting. As far as I could tell the audience was mixed, with lots of students but also as we found out during the play a lot of French speaking people. As the play went along the laughs were much more based on the understanding of the play than the visual gags.. so that was a pleasant surprise. But the thing to remember about last night was the curtain call: 7 CURTAIN CALLS!! And standing ovations! I have never had that in my life!! What a great feeling!! Heidelberg we Love You!!!!

New pictures on Flickr !!

Hi everyone !! I am busy doing 2 show a day in munich and will catch up soon but please check out my pictures on Flickr (see the link below) since there are now too many pictures to post individually..btu you can see them all on Flickr.....

Preview Night!!

Hey all. I am sat in the hotel lobby in munich but I finally have a little time to tell you about our Sold OUT !! preview in Watford :see the above picture of the Pumphouse Theatre.
The 4th wek of rehearsal went pretty well, and very quickly. Before we even had time to say " Petit Prince" the preview was upon us: and the full house in the small and intimate pump house theatre helped make a magical perfomance. The audience was mainly a-level students but also a lot of middle to elderly french savy people wich was very refreshing.. We had to turn people away so there is already talk of us comming back there to run for a week if possible..

All of the pics from that performance are now on Flickr...check it out !!

WE ARE IN MUNICH!!

Hello all, I must let you know about the preview night another time, suffice to say that now we are in munich, just arrived and waiting in the hotel lounge.
We will go to the venue later today to check it out and then hit the town!!

The tour has started !! So here is a picture of our van ! It's in this thing that we will spend most of our time.....

La Veillee Des Abysses !!

Went to the theatre with Peter ( our director) and we saw this show that had rave reviews and I did not know quite what to expect...But it was FANTASTIC!! Amazing imagery, poetic tableau's , fantastic movement sequences, all in all an amazing night of theatre ! Better than Cirque du Soleil if only because even though it was essentially stil circus, it just didn't appear that way on stage ...I can only recommend for anyone to catch it while it's still around !!

L'etranger Confirmed !!

I am overjoyed to say that it has just been confirmed that I will be playing the lead as Meursault in the FIRST EVER adaptation for the stage of the classic philisophical novel "The Stranger " by Albert Camus. This is great news and a fantastic challenge for me as an actor!
If you do not know the novel I have as usual provided a couple of links,( even one in danish :you know who you are ... ) for you to find out about it :

http://www.camus-society.com/the-stranger-albert-camus.htm

http://www.dr.dk/kultur/Bog/Tema/vold/camus.asp

Off course this won't start until February next year and run until April!
But first off course is the little Prince!!

Petit Prince Preview Announced !

For those in London we are previewing the show at the pumphouse, watford on the 14 of October at 8pm before taking it to Germany!

To get there : The Pump House Theatre

Local board Road,Lower High Street Watford. / Watford High Street station is closest. More info on www.pumphouse.info

For tickets call 01442827934 tickets are £8/£6 concessions

Hope to see you there !!

First 2 weeks of Rehearsals

The Little Prince in rehearsals!!

Sorry about the long overdue post I have been busy with rehearsals !

Rehearsals are in Watford, which is in north London, next to the Pump House Theatre where
we will also preview the show, prior to flying out to Germany on the 16th of October!

Let me introduce you to the cast: There is Nigel, who will be playing the
Prince, Saskia who will be playing the Rose, Gregory who will be playing the King, and yours truly as The Pilot. All except Nigel will also be playing other characters from the book.

Our first day was spent on trying out different costumes and making publicity shots for the German theatres. I have uploaded a couple of pictures to give you a better idea..

Then we very much got stuck in with a reading of the play and movement exercises to get us to get a sense of togetherness as a company. This show is very much an ensemble piece and a visual one at that. This is why we spent the rest of the day playing around with flags and movement. Peter (our fantastic director) wants us to explore both the visual and poetic to create the world of the play.

We are now going into the third week,most of the lines are memorised and an initial bloking has been made for most of the play. We are quite confident that we will be able to create a magical world in which to tell the story of the little prince!!

I will attempt to take more pictures as we move towards the last week before the preview !!

I wonder if this tastes good ?

Our director showing of the feathers in his cap ?

Once again the cast blew the fuses of the theatre ,and had to work by flashlight!

Help !! Lost in the desert ! ( yours truly as the pilot)