Hugh Hughes In Rehearsal

Yes, at last, a joyful moment akin to the delights of the first signs of spring/a mouthful of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream/waking up and realising it is Saturday: here it is, the announcement that... Hugh is coming to a venue near you soon.

That is, it will be near if you live somewhere with a postcode beginning with a C and a B. Hugh is going to be at The Junction, Cambridge in May. So whatever you have planned on May 21st and/or 22nd, then rearrange and book tickets to see Hugh Hughes in Rehearsal.

Hugh Hughes in Rehearsal
The Junction, Cambridge
Friday 21 May: 6.30pm, 7.45pm and 9pm
Saturday 22 May: 3.30pm, 4.45pm and 6pm

Many of you will have seen Hugh's previous productions so you'll sort of know what to expect when you go to see a Hugh Hughes show. But here is where we throw a figurative spanner into the works.

There is no show.

This is Hugh Hughes in rehearsal, and it will do exactly what it says on the proverbial tin. Hugh hasn't made a new show for you. Instead, he would like to invite you into his rehearsal room to help uncover stories, people and places from his past.

Who knows where the adventure will end up...?

Come and be part of a major theatrical happening. Rarely, if ever, do audiences get to see inside the mysterious 'rehearsal room', but now's your chance.

Tickets cost just £5 for each individual session lasting an hour, or if you're really dedicated, you can pay £12 to stay for all three sessions on either day.

Tickets can be booked through The Junction's box office on 01223 511 511 or online via their website.

See you there!

One last thing from The Doubtful Guest....

Posted by Sara Green (Marketing and Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

So the spring tour of The Doubtful Guest has ended. Everyone is slowly getting back to normal and it feels as if the show was just a whirlwind of excitement that passed us by in the blink of an eye.

In an attempt to retain some of the magic, I managed to grab the composer at the last minute and ask his point of view on the show. Alexander Rudd, a hugely talented freelance composer and musician, composed and recorded all of the fabulous music in the show. Alexander was recommended to Hoipolloi after being part of a workshop with another friendly theatre company and so became involved by chance, having never actually seen a Hoipolloi show before.

However, as soon as he walked into the rehearsal room back in November, he fitted right in, with his massive smile and cheerful, jokey nature, and one of my favourite parts of the rehearsal process was learning his catchy warm up tune “I like bumble bee, bumble bee tuna…”

Apparently this is the first time Alexander has worked with a company that devises but it didn’t show at all and I was really impressed with the way he jumped straight in, creating wonderful accompaniments for the actor’s early improvisations.

Next came the awful question, “so, would you work with us again?” Luckily Alexander felt the same about fitting in and his answer was “definitely.” He loved being involved in a project from the beginning of the creative process especially because composers usually come in right at the end when the piece is already formed. He found the experience very liberating as he had the freedom to experiment and have a say in the process as it was happening.

Alexander’s main role in the rehearsal process was a mix between composer and musical director. He would lead the warm-ups and create music to go with the scene that was being devised as well as using his musical knowledge to help the actors with the singing and the timings etc. I was also interested to find out the way in which the music was created and was told that it was a definite collaboration between himself and Shôn, the music being composed as the drama was so they worked together and not separately. I think this collaboration is evident in the final production as I cannot imagine the show without the atmospheric and often mood dictating musical accompaniment.

Alexander told me that he works in many different styles, from Jazz to musical theatre. The music for The Doubtful Guest has a really eclectic feel to it with definite classical influences as well as more abstract sounds and gothic vocalisations. He feels that the music compliments the story and the design of the show, something that I would definitely agree with and he likes to think that the music is very much part of the production.

When I asked him what he thinks of the finished result, the answer that I got was simply “LOVED IT!” He added that it is rare to see something grow and to see the actors really playing with what they were developing and he feels really proud of the finished show.

Apparently the actors were brilliant to work with and open to trying different things, something that I also found when I observed the rehearsal process.

Finally I asked Alexander what his favourite bit of music is, and he actually said the same bit that I am in love with, the sleepwalking music, which is beautifully dark and magically engaging, especially paired with Steffi’s gorgeous physical representation.

So, we end this tour with a lovely chat with a wonderful composer and look forward to the autumn when The Doubtful Guest and its musical gems will return…..

Interview with Ballet Coach, Lee Fisher

Posted by Sara Green (Marketing and Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

As most of the blog entries so far have been mainly my perspective on the process I decided that it was time to get someone else’s view. Lee Fisher, the ballet coach, worked with the actors in the rehearsal room to assist with the movement in the show. I had a quick chat with him to find out what he thought of the show, the process and of course the dancing.

Firstly I asked him how he came to be involved with The Doubtful Guest and whether he had seen Hoipolloi’s work before. He hadn’t. In fact the link was through Watford Palace Theatre and a shared contact. Hoipolloi was recommended to him and Shôn invited him to come along and do a taster session with the actors.

Lee trained at the Royal Ballet School and danced with Birmingham Royal Ballet for 17 years. He retired from dancing full-time in 2005 but still makes guest appearances across the globe. This kind of work is fairly new to him, but he says that it felt organic and natural to be part of the production and looking back he said how much he enjoyed working on it.

So why does a Hoipolloi need with a ballet coach? Well, Gorey was obsessed by ballet – during one period of his life he even attended every single performance of the New York City Ballet for 23 years!

And so Lee did a bit of everything! The day would begin with an authentic ballet warm-up. They shared terminology and techniques, particularly classical form of the arms, feet and body and used ballet as the starting point for many of the exercises. The actors would then use what they felt was right for them, making it their own.

Lee stressed how ballet was explored in an almost entirely collaborative way, but there were also some structured and choreographed pieces with which Lee took the lead. So there was a nice balance between Lee instructing and the actors using the techniques in their own improvisations.

In terms of the individual actors it was interesting to hear that they all had their own particular styles, one being quite Italian, one Russian and one very English in their movements. Lee found this fascinating as well as their adaptability, creativity and willingness to try new things. This is something I found when watching rehearsals.

I then asked him what he thought of the actual story and style it was written in, and whether ballet fits in with this. He literally loves the story of the doubtful guest and apparently was laughing all day throughout the rehearsals. He also thinks that it was an inspired decision to use ballet to add another layer to the production and when he was shown the book for the first time he could see exactly how ballet would fit in. The style of the book really appeals to Lee and when I spoke to him he couldn’t wait to see the finished product.

I was pleased to hear that Lee thoroughly enjoyed working with Hoipolloi and felt proud to be part of such an exciting process but I think that it was our privilege to work with this enthusiastic and talented dancer. After seeing the show last night (which was absolutely stunning by the way!) I was so impressed by the use of movement and dance and the ballet style was clearly detectable in the performance.

I saw Lee after the show and he was very happy with the result, and couldn’t believe how far the actors had come since he worked with them! Definitely a success all round.

Driving a Doubtful Guest... to Watford

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

There are many weird and wonderful things that I've had to do during my career in marketing. When I worked at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, I dressed up as the Phantom of the Opera to promote a silent film showing with organ accompaniment. One of my first tasks at West Yorkshire Playhouse was to spend an evening in a closed public toilets underneath Millenium Square blowing up helium balloons to be handed out at the Christmas lights switch-on.

So on Friday along came another fantastical task. This time to chauffer the Doubtful Guest from a rehearsal room in Highbury to Watford Palace Theatre. The guest joined me as a passenger in the front of the car and we merrily weaved our way through London traffic up to the M1 and onto the Watford gyratory system.

I have to admit that conversation was a little sparce. The guest does like to keep its feelings to itself and it politely smiled during my rants at poor lane discipline and lorries that overtake one another on dual carriageways.

And you'd also be surprised (and probably a little disappointed) at how little attention the strange creature attracts whilst sat in the car. During the whole hour we spent together, only the youthful passengers of one other car seemed to notice it. My apologies to them that the guest decided not to wave back - it can be incredibly stubbon sometimes!

So we've reached another milestone in the production process. Today the company move from their London rehearsal room and into tech week at Watford. I can't believe that the show opens on Thursday - having been two years in the planning, this week has came round scarily quick!

More updates soon on how its all going!

SPOTTED! The Doubtful Guest

Posted by Sara Green (Marketing and Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

When we were in the Barbican for rehearsals on Friday we were astonished to bump into someone curiously familiar as we walked around the estate.

The Doubtful Guest seemed to pop its head out everywhere - round the columns, on the benches, in the bushes, at the church door and sometimes in even stranger places. I even caught it peering despondently into the library.
And by some strange coincidence we happened to be with photographer Geraint Lewis who managed to take a few shots…

Two days of madness...

Posted by Sara Green, (Marketing and Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi.)
With the focus being very much on The Doubtful Guest at the moment, it is sometimes easy to forget that the Story of a Rabbit spring tour is also almost upon us. The last couple of days were a real reminder of this. Being the only time that was relatively free in the Hoipolloi schedule, we headed over to the Junction in Cambridge for two days of Rabbit rehearsals, the first since Edinburgh and the last until Bogota.

As soon as I arrived at the rehearsal room on Monday morning, there were jobs to be done. Unloading all of the set took a long time then we had to set it up, including all of the thoroughly complicated wires and technical equipment, as well as organising cups of tea for all involved. Before we knew it lunch was upon us and we had only just erected the set.

This was a fascinating process in itself. Never having actually been backstage on this show or investigated the set I found it really interesting unpacking all of the intricate little details that make it up. It made me remember items such as the rubber gloves, the action man and even the potato, which I had completely forgotten existed! It was really different to the experience I had at the Doubtful Guest rehearsals. There the props and set were really random, thrown together for experimental purposes and then used to try out new ideas. But for Story of a Rabbit every tiny object was accounted for, down to the box of tea bags and the newspaper and train tickets that are one hundred percent genuine. Everything has its own place and the whole show is really organised. Perhaps this is down to Hugh’s meticulous planning or Aled’s careful preparation, or maybe it is because in Edinburgh you have to be organised, especially when you have a quick turn around!

After indulging Hugh in an absurd conversation about aliens which left me intrigued and, if I’m honest, a little confused, we set about preparing for a run of the show. This involved me and Ricahrd (Couldrey, the production manager) desperately putting cables into sockets and switching things on and off, me trying really hard to open up the flipchart which was being extremely stubborn and one last check to make sure everything was in place. Meanwhile Hugh was sat in the corner, peering at the video recording of himself, trying to remember exactly what he says and at what point.

I left Hugh and Aled to run the show and returned the following morning to weigh and measure the entire set and all the props and record it all onto a spreadsheet. My technical skills have never been admired and so this job took longer than expected, and several times Richard had to explain that pressing “paste” is not the same as inserting cells, the main difference being you don’t delete half of what you spent all morning doing.

However, after many cups of tea and several panics we finished and even managed to pack everything back into the van before five o’clock. I never really appreciated just how much work goes into taking a show to an international venue, and that also not all of what you would call “rehearsal” is actually running the show. Most of these two days were spent familiarising ourselves with this production and doing tasks that needed to be done. It was a great experience and even though now it is back to The Doubtful Guest, it is good to think that we also have another, equally exciting tour ahead of us…

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.