A Director Directs

28.8.08

Here are some of the photos I promised you quite a while ago now. I have focussed this post on pics of me since the audience very rarely gets to watch the director at work. All these photos were taken during rehearsal by Chris Hopkins. I was pleasantly surprised how happy everyone looked.

Maternal Instincts.
(Neal Barber, Ellie Swann, and Laniet Swann.)

Our baby fell apart and Ellie - after taking ages to fix it again - was demonstrating how instinctual it is to hold a child after she realised she was doing it when Channel 9 were interviewing me.

Everyone's Crazy Except Me!
(Neal Barber, Paul Ellicott, and Barbara Walsh)

This was the order of the day during rehearsal - trying to give people notes whilst the rest of the cast were running around like headless chickens.

At Last!
(Neal Barber.)

I finally had the stage to myself. Afterall, it is about "me, me, me, and a little bit of me...with a side-serving of me...and a garnish of mmmmmeeeeeee!"

Look at The Passion.
(Neal Barber, Paul Ellicott, Laniet Swann, and Barbara Walsh.)

I must have been rather tense here - look at my fist! Or perhaps I was just trying to get Paul's attention which was, clearly, distracted by Laniet.

Solid in the Midst of Creation.
(Simon Ashby, Neal Barber, Wyeth Chalmers, Paul Ellicott, Ellie Swann, Laniet Swann, and Barbara Walsh.)

I just had to put this photo in. It is fantastic with Paul so solid - and in focus - in the centre with everyone else in a blurr of movement around him.

Craziness
(Simon Ashby, Neal Barber, Wyeth Chalmers, Paul Ellicott, Michaela Hunter, Ellie Swann, Laniet Swann, and Barbara Walsh.)

I just love this one for the pure manicness of it!

Photorama.

21.8.08

I thought it would be fun to give you more of a sneak peek at what lies instore...


"I am robbed, sir, and beaten." Autolycus (Michaela Hunter) pulls the wool over Clown's eyes (Alya Maclean).

"Are you so fond of your young prince as we / Do seem to be of ours?" Leontes (Paul Ellicott) spends some family time with his son, Mamillius (Laniet Swann).

"Is whispering nothing?" Leontes (Paul Ellicott) looks on jealously as Hermione (Barbara Walsh) and Polixenes (Chris Hopkins) have a wee flirt.

And lastly, just for fun. Here is a photo Chris took whilst we were messing around. I thought it was fantastically composed - even if I do have my eyes closed!

And Here are Some Photos for You.

13.8.08

Ellie is trying to keep the words from swimming around the page. It is a great idea to rehearse when you are all limber and warmed up from about 3 hours of manic dancing.

This one is of Paul (Leontes) and Ellie (Paulina) getting all warmed up for a rehearsal. At least that was the plan but we decided the rehearsal didn't go so well so went back to dancing and drinking.

Here we have Ellie looking for the tools to do something set-like. I can't actually remember when this was taken but it was when we were starting to put the set up.