A Gorey Discovery...

Posted by Shon Dale-Jones (Artistic Director, Hoipolloi.)

When Hoipolloi toured My Uncle Arly to the USA in March 2005 I was interested to find out how popular Edward Lear was over there. I went into a children’s bookstore to look for one of his titles, but couldn’t find one, so I asked the shop attendant whether or not they stocked any Edward Lear.

She said, “Is he the guy Edward Gorey did some illustrations for? I think he is”, and walked towards one of the bookshelves in the corner of the shop. She handed me a collection of Edward Gorey’s illustrations – which included one for Edward Lear’s, "The Jumblies."

Before I knew it I had looked through the whole book and was asking the shop attendant for more Edward Gorey. She found five or six of his titles and I spent the next hour immersed in his work.

By the time I left the USA later that month I’d bought every title I could find in every bookstore I walked into. On the plane journey home I kept returning to The Doubtful Guest and got hooked on the world of this illustrated story.

Edward Gorey’s fantastical imagination and creation of unusual and biologically questionable creatures are perfect inspiration for the theatrical world of Hoipolloi.

We are approaching the tone of the illustrations, the world of the family and their house and the magical nature of the doubtful guest itself. The more we work on it the more we find. We are continually surprised how much there is to discover through this story.

We very much look forward to our continued work on this project. We are excited by what is emerging and feel privileged to be working with such powerful and fantastic source material.

Messing around with the Doubtful Guest

Posted by: Sara Green (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

Today’s rehearsal seemed to be a little more experimental. I think that Shon must have spent some time thinking about last week over the weekend before coming in today with a few ideas in mind. This was quite refreshing as the actors were able to try out some new things without being restricted by what they did last week. This meant that some of the material that was generated today was totally crazy and wacky but it has a real energy to it and a different focus than on Friday.

We started with a warm up again, trying desperately to avoid the newly assemble dolls house, and generally warmed up our muscles after being out in the arctic London temperatures.

A brief vocal warm up followed, led by the composer and this then fuelled the next exercise which involved eerily, siren-like moans suggesting crying and weeping. Like Friday the exercise developed with the actors using their initiative and before long a little piece was emerging.

The Doubtful Guest featured this time and the characters were getting increasingly agitated by its presence. It was really interesting to explore this idea of control and disorder and the way the actors experimented with it was really incredible- contorting their bodies and using their voices and facial expressions to demonstrate their hatred for ‘it.’

The day also included a short sequence in which the family were searching for ‘it.’ This was quite military-like in style, with accompanying music to create a mood of order and control. The family searched systematically through the house and a strong rhythm was formed along with rigid movements to suggest a rigorous search. This was really interesting to watch and was the first thing that was extremely similar to Gorey’s original story.

Another successful improvisation was one centred around the Doubtful Guest as it “stared.” A little song emerged in which the chorus were extremely ensemble like, standing in a tight clump and repeating “it stared at it all.” This was textured with Ben’s constant description of what it was staring at “the floor, the door…” and was a really effective moment.

The day ended with an improvisation around the phrase “sometimes it would tear out whole chapters from books.” The actors were given complete freedom to create this moment and a total mess unfolded with people tearing and ripping through the space. Soon it became a bit more ordered and by placing Ben in a chair and him sitting extremely statically, staring and the invisible creature down stage a focal point was introduced.

The disorder and chaos around him was manic and disturbing, the actors were scraping their nails across the chairs, screaming and moving in a grotesque and horrible manner but Ben remained completely still. At last the others left, leaving Jill sitting down stage, slowly ripping up paper as the doubtful guest. This was a really poignant moment and I began to see bits of the show creeping in to the process.

I had a really enjoyable day again today, although I feel slightly more disturbed than before!

My first day in the rehearsal room...

Posted by: Sara Green (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

After working for Hoipolloi for just over two months now I have been exposed to a lot of the admin side of the company. However today was the first time that I have experiences the practical side where the shows are devised and created.

The rehearsals for The Doubtful Guest are being held in the English Touring Theatre’s rehearsal space which is on the Cut, opposite the Young Vic. So the area has a magnetic theatrical feeling to it before the rehearsals have even begun.

I somehow managed to find my way to the venue, despite boarding the wrong train, and was greeted by a group of friendly, warm and witty actors. There was a striking sense of ensemble between them from the first moment and it was obvious that they had been working together for a very long time.

The day started with a simple workshop, which I joined in with, consisting of some physical and vocal exercises. However the intensity of the process soon began to surface as they got increasingly more advanced and before long we were throwing ourselves around and moving in the most grotesquely extreme ways.

The vocal warm up started with a ditty; “I like bumble- bee, bumble –bee tuna….” which was absurdly catchy. This was soon picked up by Shôn Dale-Jones, the director (and Hoipolloi’s Artistic Director) and the first elements of devising began.

The group of actors were singing this ridiculous song accompanied by ballet style movements with intensely serious faces, getting gradually more desperate to ignore “the doubtful guest.” Shon developed the improvisation by adding lines such as “we would all sing to try and ignore it”. They would then have to respond to this, signing it over and over again to block “it” out.

I was really impressed with the way the actors responded to such an absurd stimulus and the end result was a beautifully comic little scene. The way the improvisations worked all day was similar to this format - Shon would either pick a moment from the book, or a theme or character and the actors would literally take off with physical and vocal experiments.

The work was of a really high standard and though it was obvious that none of this would feature in the show, there were some true moments of genius that resulted from the clever and comic ideas.

For example, towards the end of the day a little scene was devised where Steffi sat in a chair as the mother, weeping over her loss of control. The other actors entered and using only their physicality, demonstrated their discomfort at the situation. This developed into a short song;

“She cried all night, she cried all day
We couldn’t find the words to fill
The depth of her despair,
So the best we could do
Was just to leave her there.”

The musical element was something else which surprised me. The actors were working with a composer today who punctuated every improvisation with amazing music on the piano adding depth and attitude. But even more impressive was the high standards of the actors voices allowing them to create moods and tones to accompany the action.

The entire day was a massive learning experience for me. As an aspiring actress it was really beneficial to witness a professional devising process and, even though their were moments of hilarity involving the actors throwing themselves around, giggling and generally enjoying each others company, there was a real sense of teamwork and trust.

I really enjoyed the day and can’t wait to go back on Monday.

Preparing for the R&D period

Posted by: Sara Green (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

As Marketing and Admin Assistant my duties have varied massively from answering the phone to going out and about with leaflets. But recently I have been doing a lot of work in preparation for The Doubtful Guest and specifically to prepare for the two week research and development period that is coming up.

I never really appreciated just how much work goes into making a production before but now it is evident that without research and meticulous planning the show would never lift off the ground.

Yesterday, Steffi, [Mueller, Associate Director of Hoipolloi and the Designer of The Doubtful Guest] was using me as a model for a mask she has been making.

For those of you who don't know Gorey's original tale, it involves a strange and bizarre creature that arrives in a family's house and never, ever leaves! The mask will eventually form part of the costume for the doubtful guest themselves!

I was standing there for ages wearing the furry headpiece as she tried to work out how it would fit on all different sized heads, including my extra small one! The mask is really impressive; it was made from a plaster mould and covered in fluff - so much so that after I'd tried it on a couple of times, I was covered in fluff too.

Steffi also showed me how to make the mask by sticking loads of ripped up bits of paper delicately around the edge of the plaster mould and then building up the layers, filling the eyes and following the shape of the head. I then spent all of this morning ripping up paper and spreading glue with my fingers. It was really fun actually and although it took me up till lunch time to finish it, it was very satisfying to know that I had done something that I’d never done before! It took me back to my Art days (not that long ago actually) which was fun. Even though Steffi’s mask is much more striking I am quite proud of my first attempt and who knows, it might even appear in the show!?

Another job that I was given today was to trawl the famous Mill Road charity shops [in Cambridge] in search of some props for next week. I literally walked the entire length of the road looking for the most obscure items, such as an old fashioned comb and brush set, and some more normal requests like plates and cutlery. It didn’t help that I forgot my glasses today and so had to ask where everything was as I couldn’t see it!

But I did manage to find everything, well almost everything, and even managed to get about 10 old fashioned books for free. It must be my charm! So we now have plates, cutlery, books, umbrellas and a kettle to make tea with during rehearsals. And I got it all for less than £20. (Although I made up for that when I bought all the tea, coffee, biscuits, sugar etc to keep our energy up!)

As well as shopping and mask-making the jobs for The Doubtful Guest are endless. However I think we are just about ready to start rehearsing on Monday. It’s been really exciting to kick start the proceedings and I can’t wait to find out how these props and masks are going to feature in the show.

The Doubtful Guest begins...

Posted by: Simon Bedford (Marketing & Touring Manager, Hoipolloi)

Welcome to the new Hoipolloi Theatre blog!

This is a brand new space for the company and we'll be using it (for the time being at least) to document the creation of our brand new production, The Doubtful Guest.

Inspired by the Book of the same name by the American author/illustrator, Edward Gorey, the show will be launched on a 4-week UK tour in March 2008. It is our first new ensemble show since The Impostor back in 2006.

One of the first stages in the making of any Hoipolloi show is an early period of R&D and over the coming two weeks, The Doubtful Guest team will be down in London beginning to piece together how the show might work.

Over the next six months, we hope to bring some interesting insights into the rehearsal and development process so please keep coming back to see how the show is progressing!