And we begin...

Tim Barlow reads Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 30'

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

This beautiful sonnet had to be cut from the play and is sadly missed so we've taken the opportunity to bring it to you fresh from the mouth of the man who would have spoken it: Tim Barlow, who plays Tybalt.

Previews

^{Well, after long but doubtlessly necessary days of technical rehearsal, the previews have begun and cast and crew have set to tightening the bolts ready for Press Night on Tuesday the 16th March. Whilst watching some of this tech process we began to think about how the entire process of making a film is like the technical rehearsal stage in theatre. Scenes are shot in small sections over and over again and the actor doesn’t get much sense of the overall product or their overall performance until they view the film in its entirety if they decide to do so.}

^{In the theatre however, although technical rehearsal requires jumping from cue to cue and repeating very small nuggets at a time until they are perfected, this is a relatively small section of the overall process - now that the run has begun the actors get the opportunity to live the whole story within their character every night. Which is what is so exciting about theatre, that sense of live, and alive, performance.}

^{Before every show the cast are called to the stage for a ‘fight call’ in which they go over all of the fight choreography for the show. This helps the actors by improving their muscle memory of the movements and keeps the choreography fresh in their minds for the performance.}

^{Staged fights can be traced all the way back to the dawning of the human species, evolving from war dances and rituals, through genuine fights staged for the entertainment of an audience (such as the Roman Gladiator fights), into the theatrical form we recognise now. By Shakespeare’s time the idea of stage combat was already well established as is obvious from his frequent stage direction ‘They fight’.}

^{Here is a link to an interview that you might find interesting with our Fight Director Kombat Kate:}

^{http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/may/21/theatre-kombat-kate-fight-director}

Young Company Angels

An interview with our very own Angel: Charlie George about what we've been up to throughout the process and what you can expect to see soon.