We’re thrilled to be able to bring you a series of glimpses into the journey of Zoe Cooper’s Northanger Abbey. Assistant Director Namoo Chae Lee (also OT Resident Assistant Director) has been documenting the various stages it takes to get a production like this onto the OT stage in a trilogy of blogs that we’re delighted to share with you.
Here is the final instalment of the Northanger Abbey journey and we hope you enjoy the read.
Journey to the Orange Tree Theatre
Week 3
2nd Jan All back from Christmas! We reviewed what we’d done before the break, then moved on to more scenes in Bath.
4th Jan The first costume fitting and a rehearsal photo shoot with photographer Pamela Raith. Then we moved on to the country dancing with Jonnie (movement director).
5th Jan Worked on the Northanger Abbey scene, the title act.
6th Jan Worked mainly on the scenes with Iz and Cath.
Week4
8th Jan The grass carpet has arrived, but it looks bulky! What do we do with that?
9th Jan Zoe (Cooper – our wonderful writer) is back in the rehearsal room! Kept on with scenes!
10th Jan Another costume fitting- we powered through to the end of the day, reaching the end of the script.
11th Jan The first run of the whole play with the presence of the whole creatives and OT staff. The total run time was 2 hours and 30 minutes without an intermission. The decision was made to cut the grass carpet…
12th Jan Zoe is back with some cuts of the script. Another goodbye to the lute and the bed! The bed will be back when the show arrives in Keswick!
13th Jan Working on the cuts!
Week5
15th Jan Another run. This time it was 2 hours in total!
16th Jan More notes from Tessa and focused work on Act 4.
17th Jan First day in the theatre – it’s all pink and chandeliers! The actors look AMAZING in their costumes. Fixing some bits of the prologue till the first carriage scene.
18th Jan Tech work till the end of the first half. So, the tech looks like this: The designer (Hannah Sibai) and the movement director (Jonnie Riordan) sitting on each side of the director (Tessa Walker), kept reviewing the scenes with the director, when Holly Khan (sound designer), Matt Haskins (light designer), Gabriel (light technician) and Jeanette (Deputy Stage Manager) worked on the cues at the tech desk. Jenny (company stage manager) ran the tech, Jamie (assistant stage manager) got the props ready behind the stage, and Anna (Costume Supervisor) constantly sewed something at the side of the stage. I am moving around constantly trying to make sure no seats have any view issues!
19th Jan Resume the tech from the second half of the show.
20th Jan Finished the tech for the last scene and did our first dress rehearsal. Then straight to our first preview!
22nd Jan Second day of the previews. Start the day with a note session from Tessa in the morning. Discussed changing the character of Ellie, to make her more of a camp, gothic, ludicrous and spooky girl!
23rd Jan Jigging around with scripts again! The actors are so quick at learning them. And another fully packed tech with detailed time limits for individual scenes. The final preview!
24th Jan Final tech session -and then… the press night in front of a fully packed audience.
