Wow, what a brilliant week of rehearsals we have had. 'Benson’s Christmas Letter' has been lost and found and lost and found so many times this week I have lost count! Teams Harry, Benson and Maurice have all been working so hard, we are finally ready and really excited to share our show.
Each day started off with a variety of different warm ups to get us ready for the day ahead. From yoga and pilates to aerobics and fun drama games, every day was something new and enjoyable to get us warmed up in this cold weather. The first three days of this week were spent altogether blocking the show and exploring the script in more detail. This was brilliant as all of the teams were able to watch the other actors explore and play with the characters. Because of this some of the brilliant ideas that were discovered in one team, could be worked into other teams shows as well. It was particularly great for Actor 2, as we have so many characters to create sometimes the other Actor 2 from a different team would have a brilliant way of getting into one of the characters, or a funny trait that helped distinguish between them all. Over these three days everyone worked really hard to ensure everything we were doing was precise especially in regards to our harmonies as some of the close three-part harmony was hard to secure once we added in accents, puppets, props and choreography (taught to us by the fabulous Oliver Roll, who was luckily on a break from performing in 'Starlight Express' in Germany), but by the end we were nailing it time and time again.
After working together for the first two weeks of rehearsals we spent Thursday working in our own teams, reworking some moments and making sure all of our transitions were on point. This was invaluable to our process as we could really work together as a team and see what was and wasn’t working. This left us in a great place as our rehearsal process was coming to a close.
Friday, the final day of rehearsals, brought the excitement of the dress rehearsal to an invited audience. It was so lovely to perform our show to some new faces who were seeing it for the first time. Team Harry were lucky enough to perform to some of the trustees and their friends and families including some of the most adorable children. They all had an absolute ball and it was clear to see that they really enjoyed the whole story especially meeting Benson and his friends. The children were actively joining in with Benson’s journey and by the end of the show were up on their feet and dancing away to ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ - what more could we have asked for!?
The dress rehearsals were incredible and all of the teams have worked so hard to produce fabulous shows that are a credit to Christmas For Kids. Now it is take our shows out on the road and spread a bit of Christmas cheer to those that might otherwise not be able to experience it!
Stacey xxx