27 July 2010 by Julia Flaherty, Skills, Training and Production Coordinator
Julia has worked at Dundee Rep Theatre since 2005.
So the summer is upon us, the schools have broken up and at last the sun is shining.
Many people would think that the work of the Creative Learning Team stops when the schools break up but how wrong they would be!! In fact for us the school holidays can be a busy time and the summer is no different. Straight after the term ended we launched into our exciting project “Create In a Week” with over 65 young people descending on the building for an ambitious and exciting collaboration between the Rep, Scottish Dance Theatre and DCA.
Young people aged 11-16 came together to create and devise two performances pieces. The 11-13s produced a drama piece and the 14-16s worked in three groups to create a multi media performance with drama, dance and film. For the first time this year there was also support from a Young Tech Team who worked with Rep Staff to learn new skills in technical theatre.
The event was a huge success, and both groups presented their work with highly impressive and sophisticated performances at a sharing event here on the Dundee Rep stage.
Keep your eyes out for Create in a Week 2011 – and if you are interested in taking part please do contact us on 01382 342660
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23 July 2010 by Leila Kalbassi, Scenic Artist
After the success of Sweeney Todd, we are now in what we call ‘the maintenance period’. This is a few weeks to clean up, prepare the Paint shop for the next season, renew stocks of essential equipment and go on holiday!
I‘ve recently done some painting for the Creative Learning production ‘The Bridge’ – Nothing too fancy, a bluey texturey floor to break the flat black, this helps enhance both Lighting and Costumes.
The biggest event of coming weeks is re-painting the stage walls. For those of you who saw Sweeney Todd – you may recall all the background walls were a mouldy. Peely, white colour, dirty and aged. Traditionally these walls should all be black so we have a clean ‘black box’ for ourselves and visiting companies.
In a few weeks time I will spend a day with a heavy duty spray gun and blast black paint everywhere, putting the stage ‘back to black’. A very messy job!!
Also, we are currently gathering materials for the new look ‘Sunshine on Leith’, Cleaning up the old set and making some new pieces. This also includes re-painting the dark stoney / pebbly stage floor, on to vinyl Dance floor, making it a more efficient way to tour the show than in previous years.
Another week and we’ll be in full swing for the Autumn / Christmas season…Hopefully it’ll bring more colour than just black.
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13 July 2010 by Jemima Levick, Associate Director
Things feel very quiet for me at the moment as our actors are on a well earned holiday after Sweeney Todd. James and I are already working hard on our Autumn season, undergoing design meetings and putting creative teams together for the shows. It's looking like a very exciting and very busy season, between our revival of Sunshine on Leith (we're very excited to have such a great cast lined up!) and a somewhat smaller scale tour to community centres in Dundee of the brilliant Alan Bennett Talking Heads monlogues (although sssshh, that might still be a secret!) and the rest! We have some brilliant people coming into the Rep over the season; CATS award winners Alex Lowde and Colin Grenfell will be coming back in to create their magic in the set and lighting designs, and we're delighted to have brilliant young designer Lisa Sangster work with us for the first time.
I suppose I should be enoying the peace and quiet and preparation but what I really want is to get stuck back into it again! Never happy...
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29 April 2010 by Nils Den Hertog, Technical Manager
Well things are hotting up backstage at the Rep with not long to go until the Technical Rehearsals start for ‘Sweeney Todd’ and every department is going all out to have everything ready. The set is beginning to take shape and is already looking very impressive. The costumes are looking amazing and will cause a few raised eyebrows here and there I’m sure. In fact, I think the whole show will surprise quite a few people with the way it looks. As far as how it will sound is concerned, we don’t have any worries there I expect. Walking through some parts of the building you can hear the music and singing coming out of the rehearsal room and it’s sounding great, and that’s only with a piano, imagine what it will sound like with the full band. The cast are all really excited by the rehearsals and are looking forward to getting on stage. So it promises to be a goody and before we know it, there’ll be that big first night. Book your tickets early because if it is as good as we think it will be, tickets will be going like hot pies (of the non human variety).
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27 April 2010 by Kevin Lennon, Ensemble Member
So, week 478 of rehearsals for Sweeney Todd is in full swing. We’re nearly at the stage of running scenes together now and maybe even running the show by the end of the week. It’s epic in every sense. Songs are sounding fantastic and everyone is in good spirits. It’s a very bitty process, rehearsing this type of show and it’s quite difficult to get a sense of everything coming together when rehearsals are usually taking place in three different spaces. However, it’s very exciting when details begin to emerge and from what I’ve seen I think it’s gonna be a great show. With two weeks to go until Tech the pressure I’m sure will begin to crank up. And if we can’t stand the heat, then we’d better get out of the pie shop !
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