THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES - Post #4: Adding the audience

Now blogging: Ann Hodges, PTE Artistic Associate and director of The Hound of the Baskervilles

No account of a rehearsal process would be complete without discussing the role of the audience - who are the final, important ingredient in the creation of live theatre. At PTE, where the audience sits on three sides of the stage, the audience not only watches a play, they watch everyone else watching a play. And when something unique happens (and there always is something), you are the only ones who witness it exactly that way.

The first audience is the production staff, who come to a tech dress rehearsal. They are extremely busy noting things like hems that need shortening or paint that needs touching up. So, this first audience is often very busy and quiet. Fortunately, the belly laugh of Production Manager Wayne Buss booms through the almost-empty theatre, reassuring us that some of the comedy does indeed work.

Next, we have an ushers’ preview for the 100 or so generous people who volunteer their time to take tickets and hand out programs during the run. Then, an official Preview Performance. Both these audiences are excited to see a show before it opens, and they always give us a really good sense of how the show will play.

The actors and I listen keenly to the audience’s every sound during previews - we can hear when a comic bit works because of a laugh, but we can also hear when something doesn’t “land” or the audience becomes bored. (Many actors have also done school tours, and we refer to the “Velcro factor”:  when 300 children sitting on the gym floor become bored, they begin to fiddle with the Velcro on their shoes!  Fortunately in Hound the Velcro factor is limited to Gord’s quick costume changes.)  After each of these pre-opening audiences, we gather to note things that still need working on - because we are, after all, still in rehearsal despite performing for an audience.

Finally, we are ready to open. Opening night is very exciting and we mark it by offering little gifts or cards wishing “Break a leg”. PTE has a tradition of ordering custom-made cookies for the cast from High Tea Bakery. Opening night for Hound of the Baskervilles  was a great success, with howls of laughter and a standing ovation. It feels great to celebrate our hard work, and after the show, the party moves into the carpentry shop for a more casual celebration.

Unlike what you see in the movies, where the director hovers backstage during every performance, in reality the director’s job is complete on opening night. It’s kind of like parenting - we work together until all are ready to forge ahead on their own, then the apron strings are cut. Stage Manager Chris Pearce maintains the show and writes a Show Report listing everything from the weather (“Roads bad, lots of latecomers”), technical elements that need repair (“Garrett cleaned the fogger nozzle - best sauna fog ever”), and of course, audience reactions to certain moments (“applause for the tango”, “a raring-to-go audience”, “a cell phone went off so Toby used his flashlight gun to locate the owner”.) 

I love reading the Show Reports. They remind me that the wonderful thing about theatre is that it is a live event, and although we have built the show to be very consistent, every audience sees a unique performance. The Show Reports record these unique events, like the audience who hooted when Watson ate the styrofoam toast that shouldn’t have fallen off the plate, or the teen audience who screamed at Stapleton’s arm in the Grimpen Mire, or the audience that was quiet and attentive then burst into a Standing O at the end.

If you haven’t yet joined an audience for The Hound of the Baskervilles, I hope you will do so this weekend. So far audiences have been having a howling good time. And you never know, your reaction might even make it into the Show Report, recording forever your unique experience watching three actors playing three fellows searching for a mysterious hound out on the moor at Prairie Theatre Exchange.

The Hound of the Baskervilles run until April 26, 2015. For tickets: www.pte.mb.ca

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES - Blog Post #3

Now blogging: Ann Hodges, Director of The Hound of the Baskervilles

My sides hurt from laughing:  In the rehearsal hall with Gord, Toby and Aaron

Audiences are often amazed to discover that most professional plays are rehearsed in three and a half weeks. We work 6 days a week, which gives us 21 days. It still strikes terror into my heart when I buy a carton of milk in the first week of rehearsal and notice it expires on opening night. Yikes, really? We have to finish this show before the milk goes off?

But then again, we are all...ahem...trained professionals, and take our task very seriously. And when you are as much fun as Gord, Toby and Aaron, serious can be very funny.

Rehearsals at PTE usually start with “Meet the Donut” - an informal meet and greet (with snacks) of the entire PTE staff, production team and actors - all facing the same challenge together - that is, to create theatrical magic for the audience who will be arriving in 3.5 weeks whether we are ready or not. 

The designer (Brian Perchaluk) then does a design presentation, using a scale model of the set, and gorgeous full-colour renderings of the actors’ costumes. Most of the production staff are already building many of the items, but for the actors, it’s kind of like Christmas morning - they finally get to see what they’re going to be playing with over the next few weeks. Frankly I was surprised Gord Tanner didn’t quit on the spot when he saw how many costume changes were in store...

Next, we read the play aloud. With a play like The Hound of the Baskervilles, you can already tell then how funny it’s going to be. It’s a relief for a director to find that the actors work together as well as you hoped they would when you cast them almost a year ago. Next, the remaining PTE staff depart to go play their own parts in preparing the production, which leaves me, the actors, and two stage managers (Chris Pearce and Leslie Sidley) alone...in a room...for days....

Fortunately the staff heard very little but shrieks of laughter wafting up to the PTE offices (many of which have windows which look down into the rehearsal hall.)  In the rehearsal hall there was a constant good-willed collaboration and lots of hard work to ensure the comedy was precise, fresh and repeatable without being heavy-handed. These three actors have such an amazing chemistry together, and even the breaks found us all hysterically laughing about the most mundane things. It was exhausting, and yes, my sides often hurt.

Hound involves a lot of physical comedy, and quick costume changes, so timing is everything. A slightly late entrance may kill a laugh, so everything is plotted and planned to the milli-second backstage. During rehearsal, Chris and Leslie track all the elements the actors and I are developing so that things happen smoothly onstage and off. To help us, the production staff give us rehearsal versions of most props and costumes, such as a muslin mock-up of Cecile’s dress for Gord, or towels for the sauna scene. Having those items helped us discover some of the play’s funniest bits of physical comedy.

 

While we are working in the rehearsal hall, the production staff have been busy building Brian’s set, and constructing the costumes, hanging lights and building sound cues. Finally, all these elements converge about 1 week before opening, when the actors and I move from the rehearsal hall onto the stage.

The final week of rehearsals involves many 12-hour days as we incorporate the lighting, sound, quick changes, fog, revolve, projections -- all the elements that make the ‘magic’ onstage. Believe me, at times the magic seems quite elusive -- like when the fog seems to have a mind of its own and completely obscures the actors, or we have to do a quick change for the 15th time, or when the wrong sound cue happens, resulting in a lamb’s bleat instead of a frightening musical sting. But fortunately, this dream team of actors and production staff always chooses to chuckle and bear down, until ultimately their efforts result in a smooth integration of the work from the rehearsal hall and the technical elements onstage.

As for the director, my job is to guide and inspire and lead when it feels like we are all going to drown in a bog-like quagmire of missed cues, challenging costume changes, and headstrong fog. So, often in tech week, I will make myself a cup of tea. With milk. Which hasn’t yet reached its expiry date, meaning we still have a few more days to bring this Hound home.

HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES - Blog Post #2

Dying is easy, Comedy is hard:  Casting the Show

Casting for almost all the shows at PTE (and for most theatres in the city) takes place in the Spring. Actors refer to it (not-so-fondly) as Audition Season - a highly-pressured time when actors are busy reading all the plays that all the theatres have announced, looking at casting breakdowns, figuring out where they may fit in, and finally preparing for individual auditions. That explains why actors look a bit haggard and stressed between March and May.

Gordon Tanner,
photo by Ian McCausland

A director is also very busy during Audition Season. My job is to get to know the play as well as I possibly can before holding auditions, because the choices I make in casting can really make or break a production. There’s a saying that casting is 90% of the director’s job - this may be a bit of an exaggeration, but if a director can cast well, it sure makes things fall into place in the rehearsal hall.

Toby Hughes,
photo by Ian McCausland

The casting of The Hound of the Baskervilles -- this extremely funny re-telling of the Sherlock Holmes story by a crackerjack team of British comedy writers -- required actors with excellent comedic chops. Comedy IS hard. It requires courage, vulnerability, generosity, and a mental/verbal/physical dexterity. Comedy is also very technically complex in terms of timing, physicality, and clarity. However, it can’t be forced or ‘muscled’ -- the actor needs a lightness and technical precision to execute the scene. At the same time, the actor must be completely and totally open to anything happening, ready to respond and go with it, no matter where it may take them. Although we spend weeks rehearsing together for a precise and prepared production , that element of play and spontaneity absolutely must be present at all times.

Aaron Pridham,
photo by Ian McCausland

An excellent comic actor also has an ability to sniff out the comic potential in a script, which was something I looked for in the auditions. Anyone can read a scene in an audition. A great comic actor needs to be like the Hound with Sir Henry’s missing shoe - at the faintest whiff of a comic moment in a play, they are ready to pounce. For instance, in one scene in The Hound of the Baskervilles, the character of Stapleton finds Sir Henry and Watson on the Great Grimpen Mire - a dangerous moorland bog. Stapleton says to them “Follow my every move”, followed by stage directions which indicate simply “They follow him precisely.”  If that stage direction is ignored, it’s an ordinary bit of staging. But, a good comic actor will recognize that the playwrights have offered a little whiff of comic potential by including the word ‘precisely’. A good comic actor will sniff that out, pounce on that stage direction and start digging.

I feel like I hit the jackpot when casting The Hound of the Baskervilles. Gord Tanner, Toby Hughes and Aaron Pridham are all excellent actors with fabulous comic chops. And, as was clear to me in the auditions, when it comes to sniffing out the comic potential of this play, our three actors have excellent noses.

Next:   My sides hurt from laughing:  In the rehearsal hall with Gord, Toby and Aaron