Each show has its own set of challenges. Whether its simply
stamina, challenging emotions or a costume that's really difficult to get in and
out of. This year for the National Arts
Festival I will be performing in two shows (presented by Tuks Drama and The
Matchbox Theatre Collective) that we have performed in Grahamstown previously. Both shows choreographed and directed by Nicola Haskins. So
this year, instead of learning a new show, or creating something new we are
relearning work we did in the past. And I’m learning that this presents its own
challenges too.
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| A still from As Night Falls in 2011, choreographed by Nicola Haskins. |
In 2011 our cast of 8 performed the physical/dance theatre
piece AS NIGHT FALLS in Grahamstown, and again at the Krekvars Student Festival
and Aardklop. A lot has happened since 2011 and most of us can't really
remember much. That, and two of the original cast members needed to be
replaced. Watching the video of the show I started to remember pieces of the
choreography which had once been second nature. Like an amnesiac recollecting
out of place moments in their past that don’t quite complete the puzzle I would
remember flashes, not only of what I did on stage, but back stage too. Then we
started to remember all the mistakes, all the fun we had backstage, out of
breath and dying for a bottle of water that we had left in the wing opposite.
That time that my lamp broke apart on stage and the batteries rolled across the
stage, or the performance where I didn’t catch that bottle that came hurtling
at me at a not to optimal angle and I had to run clean across the stage to
catch it. That time in Grahamstown when my fascinator
fell off my head, or when audience members, ‘shocked
by our work’ walked out halfway through the show while the other half of
the audience loved it. Or during a different festival when the lighting
operator made a mistake and we did the opening scene, which is supposed to
happen in darkness with the cast creating patterns of light with head lamps,
under full lights. And I think our cast’s favourite moment, when, during the third
movement of the show the music cut out, and we carried on seamlessly...in silence.
In these rehearsals I have been surprised by how my body has
been able to remember more than my conscious mind. How, when we left the music
on there were large sections of choreography our bodies would just do
instinctively two years later.
So far the greatest challenge I have found in relearning is
how to keep my performance fresh. How not to be trapped between memories of the
past, and what we used to do and to stay present in the moment this time around. And that is one
of the beautiful and challenging things
about theatre to me. As a theatre performer you know a show backwards, forwards
and sideways before you go on stage. Most of the time you know more than just
your own part or choreography. But every night when you go on stage you need to
deliver your performance to a paying audience who is seeing the show for the
very first time, no matter if your audience is smaller than your cast. And
every performance needs to be fantastic.
