Reviewing the Situation

Well, we’re nearly at the finish line, and it’s been a pretty smooth course so far. Touch wood. We opened just under two weeks ago and since then we’ve been lucky enough to be performing to a full house (or near enough) every night.

My nerves seem to have melted away and at the moment I’m just enjoying the fact that I’m in work, doing what I’ve always wanted to do. I flat out refuse to let ridiculous anxieties get in the way of that. However, this was a lesson I learned and applied AFTER press night!

Friday 20th November, a day that will live in infamy. Well, at the time it seemed like this huge hurdle to be negotiated but looking back on it from the safe distance of two weeks in the future, it was all very exciting. I was stressing about it all day Friday, wandering aimlessly around Newcastle City Centre with all manner of concerns flitting around my head. I eventually got back to the theatre in the evening, into the dressing room and walked into a positively jubilant atmosphere; everyone had exchanged good luck cards and wishing each other well. Some how I got swept along with it all. So I handed out my own good luck messages and had a word with myself. It went something like this, “Frances, this is a brilliant place to be right now, so bloody well get on with it!”

About two hours later, we’re in the bar being congratulated, the play went down a storm, the audience loved it and the atmosphere was electric. A truly triumphant night!

With press night conquered there was one final obstacle to overcome: reading the reviews!

I’ve heard many an actor say, “Oh I never read my reviews” and I would love to know the secret they hold to stopping themselves. I made the same promise at the beginning of the run because that way, I would be none the wiser and they wouldn’t affect my performance.

I did break that promise (several times over) analysing comments that at first seemed positive but after the sixth viewing started to appear like veiled criticisms. I drove myself up the wall and about nothing! The reviews were good and everyone liked the play, I didn’t have anything to worry about. I’d always known that, it just took a little while to sink in.

To be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to not read reviews but next time, what I will bare in mind, is that you’ll never be able to stop negative criticism, however well you do by your own standards, there will be someone somewhere who won’t like what you did. I suppose the trick is to always care what other people think, but not to the point where it shapes everything you do or makes you doubt yourself.

Since that point of realisation, I’ve had the time of my life and I couldn’t have dreamt up a better first job than this. The people, the theatre, the play, being on home turf, it’s all been great but I think the most important thing I’m going to take from the experience will be the lessons I’ve learned. I was lucky enough to be trusted with a difficult role. When I left drama school I wasn’t really expecting much more than '2nd hand maiden to the right' type parts for my first few jobs and I did feel a little out of my depth at times, but I worked hard and I got through it by listening to the actors with more experience and taking on board their advice, by trusting my director and by trusting my own judgement.

It really has been an incredible 6 weeks and I’m sad to be leaving Jump! behind, but, onwards and upwards! I hope that armed with my newly learned lessons and freshly acquired self belief, my second job won’t be far behind and when the reviews for that show come out, I’ll breeze calmly through the papers and let the criticism wash over me, like a passing shower.. then I’ll bloody well get on with it.

Frances

Hair Dos, Heights and Opening Nights!

Frances McNamee opens up about last minute nerves.

About three weeks ago, I was pacing up and down the Quayside with my younger brother in tow about to enter the Live Theatre building, not as a member of the theatre-going public, but for the first time as a professional actress.

During our little jaunt I’m pretty sure I broke the record for how many times one person can say “Oh my God.” (don’t think they do that one in the Guinness Book of Records though. Pity!) I still stand by those statements, I was nervous, but I realise now, 3 weeks later, that I didn’t need to be.

The cast are genuinely one of the nicest bunch of people you could hope to meet, not to mention being formidably talented, much like our director Max and writer Lisa.

In the first two weeks we blitzed through blocking the play, so last week was all about fine tuning moments that weren’t quite right and I am pleased to report, the play is in good shape and we’re all feeling relatively confident about going into tech week.

The ladies underwent a few mini makeovers this week! I myself am sporting a plumy rinse do. I must admit, I got a bit of a shock when our hairdresser Tracy started whacking this vivid purple mixture onto my head, but all is well, she did a grand job and I think it’s completely right for Greta, and not half bad for Frances either.

We finally got a chance to see the set today and had a bit of a play about on it. Neil and I have a few tricky moves on the bridge so it was good to get to grips with those. Although it’s one thing contorting yourself all over the shop in jeans and a t-shirt, it’s quite another to do it in a mini-dress that looks as though it’s been sprayed on. I need lots of practice…and some big knickers, just in case.

So opening night is just four days away. We’re easing out of the comfort of rehearsals and into the more unpredictable sphere of performance, always a nerve-racking time.
I’ll be honest, when I was at drama school, in the minutes before any one of our shows went up, I’d look around and see the cast comparing hands to see whose were shaking the most violently and I would contemplate why I, and the quivering wrecks surrounding me, would make such a masochistic career choice? Why would they, who professed to be racked with anxiety before a performance, voluntarily subject themselves to public scrutiny? In my limited experience, there is a never a clearer answer to that question than when you’re waiting in the wings, the lights go up, you’ve just been convincing yourself that you’ve forgotten ALL of your lines, then all of a sudden you’re on and you remember why you’re doing it… because it’s bloody great!

So I’m feeling good about first night this Thursday. It’s a cracking play that I feel very proud and excited to be involved in and I know come the day, half of me will be bouncing off the walls, anxious to show people what we’ve done. The other half will probably be wandering the Quayside telling my brother how nervous I am.
Nah course I won’t, I can’t wait!

Till then,

Frances

Neil Grainger talks Teesside, toughness and trains during the second week of Jump! rehearsals.

It’s my second week in Newcastle. Embarrassingly, I'm only from down the road in Middlesbrough, but having moved to London at the age of 18, I've spent so little time in the ‘Toon’ it's criminal. Also, as some of my fellow cast members keep telling me, I'm a little bit posh for a smoggy. Nonsense I tell you! Tally Ho!

I'm loving it here. The Quayside is just a beautiful sight to behold and it's great walking past it to work every day. It beats the pants off the lifeless and desolate Tees (although the Transporter Bridge is iconic and our footie team is so much better!).

Rehearsals have been gentle and a lot more fun than surely they are supposed to be whilst still being paid. Our Director and Chief, Max Roberts seems happy with the pace I am discovering my character at, though I am aware that the tech rehearsals creep up on you out of nowhere, so I'm going to do some serious swatting over this coming weekend. I've been working hard to try and find the harder side of my character, Pearce. He is a lonely, troubled figure who has clearly struggled with some sort of addiction. I strive to find the danger.

Today I sampled the Metro for the first time. Again, I hang my head with shame, that as a Northerner I know so little of this place (up to now the only time I’ve said “WHY AYE” is when spelling “YIELD”).

I went down to Northern Stage to see a performance of The Three Musketeers in French (ooh la la- get me!) and not relishing the 40 minute walk home, decided on trying out the Metro. How hard can it be? I live in London, I get the tube everyday and I've sampled both Paris and New York Metro systems, so I can do Newcastles no problem. For a kick off, it was empty. I felt like I was in a French film as I hadn't heard anyone speak English for a few hours. As I sauntered alone down the escalator I started smouldering to myself, talking incredibly basic French in my head and humming the theme of the Stella Artois adverts.

Ooh, look, proper TV screens above the escalators. We don't have them in London. This is so much better then the bloody Tube. And so much cheaper. Ok, so Haymarket to Chillingham Road. What? 24 stops? Are you kidding?!
I realise now, having applied my commuter head to the situation, that the train I was looking at was going the opposite direction to the one I needed to go, but I couldn't see this because there are “NO METRO MAPS ON THE PLATFORM!!!” If it was not for helpful strangers pointing me in the direction of Monument I would have gone home via Whitley Bay, though I suppose the scenery might have been nice.

I do like the trains though. Although they are a little dirty and look like they are sponsored by Morrisons, “THEY WORK “ and that is pretty much all I care about. My general blood pressure would be much lower if the London Underground was efficient and dirty, rather than sparkling clean and so erratic that you want to kick your own head in. My personal favourite part of the journey though was the no nonsense approach to train safety, and in particular the fact that you can open the doors before the train fully comes to a stop. I don't need to wait. I laugh in the face of gravity. I am a man with no fear. Perhaps I have found the danger that I have been searching for....or maybe not.

Until next time,

Neil

Three, Two, One Jump!

Two tribes go to war

Vicky Elliott, cast member of Jump!, sheds some light on what's going on behind-the-scenes.

So, the first day of rehearsals for Jump! by Lisa McGee was last Monday. I’m very lucky to be in the cast, this I know. The first day of rehearsals for any show at Live is always quite a pleasant affair. There’s a bit of a meet and greet in the morning at the very sociable hour of 11am at which tea and coffee are normally provided, sometimes even a range of pastries and biscuits (I noticed today no pastries or biscuits were forthcoming, which is fine, cos there’s a recession on and what-not and much like I imagine the spirit of the blitz to have been, I’m prepared to muck in and do my bit by foregoing the first day sweet-treats. Or perhaps it was a gentle hint for the cast to eat less sugar based snacks in the AM and shape up. I digress.)

Following the initial brew and ‘actory’ show off session in the foyer we proceed upstairs to the luxury, post-refurb rehearsal space and sit round in a cilvilised semi-circle and read the play. The play: a sort of Tarantino on Tyneside stroke of genius by writer Lisa McGee, of course the play was originally written and based in Northern Ireland, but the relocation works a pure belter, not only cos we have a great deal in common with our Celtic cousins, humour and general social dissatisfaction alike, but because it’s fundamentally a bloody good story, which works anywhere and everywhere, including New York where the play was last produced.

The first read-through went very well I thought. I was very good obviously, but I suddenly became aware that everyone in the cast is hideously talented; to the point where I became both nervous and very, very excited in equal measures. The play and everyone in it are pure cushty belters.

On the evening of the first day, Live chivalrously provided a ‘social’ event to throw together the opposing creative teams of our very own Jump! cast and the RSC who are currently doing a residency with Live. The social was to comprise a quiz based on our marvelous Bard and the multiple themes of Tyneside (to give us all a look in). The Jump! cast were three sheets to the wind; having been for a session of scran and cider at nearby glorious watering hole The Waterline. Upon arrival, there seemed to be no room at the inn, once the RSC had downed German towels in the Undercroft. We were, unashamedly, shoehorned into the neighbouring theatre bar, a space normally reserved for writers. Our only option was joining forces against our common enemy so we formed a super team; it was Jump! against the world. As the quiz wore on, it became a quiz of the obvious, as the sweet tang of success dripped from our triumphant and talented gums, we knew that even as they minced out, pink bobble hat and pashmena in hand, we had defeated them in a University Challenge style bout of wit and intellect. It bodes well for us as a theatrical company.

And on the subject of the jibes regarding our oversized team, we may have been eleven strong, in a quiz where the restriction was a max of six, but we were golfing with a serious handicap considering we were packing two foreigners (northern Irish writer Lisa and cast member Bronagh – pronounced bro-na –exotic isn’t it?) a smoggy and a makem. I think we did marvelously in the face of huge adversity.

Kudos must be paid to Jim Kitson who seems to know a bit about everything. Without him we would be nothing.

In a bit,

Vicky Elliott ov 'the toon'