The Chicken Shed Diaries #3: Flashing Back and Forth

Last week I had the pleasure of seeing Chicken Shed's first off-book rehearsal at the Kelvin Studios. It was my first interaction following my self-imposed distancing of the project and to see what progress the talented bunch of individuals (pictured below) had done so far with my first ever play.

Left to Right; Richard Jones (Director), Dean Bentley-Hawkins (Danny),
Anna Charlett (Karen), Alex Needham (Miles) and Josh Cooper (Simon).

Before I sat down to watch the action unfold it occurred to me that the last and only time the play had been performed was over 18 months ago when the play made its debut as a rehearsed reading in November 2009. (For those unfamiliar with the term 'rehearsed reading' this is basically a play rehearsed within a short period of time leading up to a performance where scripts are still used by actors but the play has been blocked and may have elements of costume and props and some set to give a general feeling of how it may look as a fully fledged piece).

The reading was actually cast four months before at a rehearsed reading 'launch night' at the Kelvin Players' studios, the theatre group I love and have been a member of for the last 4 years. My cast consisted of Josh Cooper, Alex Needham, Mat Rees and Megan Wiley; four members of Kelvin who are very highly thought of for their acting talent and professionalism. The large GULP that resonated from my throat could be heard for miles around and many believe was the reason for a mild earthquake in Lincolnshire; I realised I hadn't even written the thing yet. I just had the bare bones.  

Luckily I love a bit of pressure and not wanting this opportunity to be wasted the script was ready on time. Now all I had to do was fool the cast into thinking I knew what I was doing. You see, I don't consider myself a director. Not yet anyway. In fact at that point I didn't consider myself a writer really. However, being the control-freak that I am I knew that if I was going to write a play and it was going to be performed I had to be in control of everything! 

Come the rehearsal day, the evening of which would be the performance, I was really quite scared. The cast and I convened in my front room and began rehearsing; we blocked, we had a cup of tea, we rehearsed, we had a muffin, we blocked some more...there may have even been some Jaffa cakes on the go. I can't really remember and I'll be honest in saying that the rehearsal at my house was a bit of a blur. Suddenly it dawned on me that within a few hours I would be showing people something that I had written. It's safe to say I panicked a little. My mind was so focussed on self-deprecating remarks toward my own writing as the rehearsal continued that I almost forgot to direct the thing. 

By the time we ran through Chicken Shed the final time before the actual performance I had just about got to grips with the fact that a play that I had written would be performed to an audience shortly and that I would just have to deal with it. Suddenly I thought of lots of little script tweaks and points of direction for the actors that I hadn't given them before...and we had no time to run through any of it again.

Come the performance however, my actors did me proud and took on board all of my last-minute comments. I stood at the back of the audience, buttock-clenchingly cueing the music I had chosen for the opening scene as the action began to unfold. And so we flash forward to present day where I was helping out the cast by cueing all of the music for the rehearsal, though there were no nerves this time. I had already gone through the rehearsed reading performance and I knew that it worked as a piece of theatre.

I wish I could offer more of a specific analysis but obviously I don't want to give the full plot away. However, as I watched I thought back to how different this well rehearsed piece of theatre was to the original rehearsed reading and, as happy as I was with the performance I had directed, just how well the cast and Richard had done at developing the play across the last couple of months of rehearsals.  

The relationships between characters were more well-rounded and believable using the most subtle of mannerisms to create fresh dynamics. I found it easy making direct comparisons between my version as half of the original cast, in Josh and Alex, had successfully auditioned for the roles. The boyhood and adult relationships between their two characters had evolved to produce some genuinely touching and (intended) awkward moments that were more pronounced due to the much longer rehearsal period than that of the rehearsed reading.

I was also happy from a writer's perspective as in seeing Dean and Anna's performances, not being members of the original rehearsed reading cast, I have seen delivered completely different but massively impressive performances. It has given me confidence that the characters have enough personality to be brought to life by a variety of talented actors all with different acting styles. I believe the knowledge that a piece of writing is accessible to various actors and audiences is a very important contributor to a writer's self-esteem and it makes me very happy that my writing has been placed in such trusted hands.

I learned a great deal as a writer from having my play performed as a rehearsed reading and advise any writer who is wondering if their idea works to start by getting in touch with a local theatre company as having actors at your disposal to help see how the finished product will look is of huge benefit. Even if you're writing for television, film or radio a rehearsed reading can give you a great amount of feedback before you submit your piece to production companies.

For me, the rehearsed reading performance showed me that Chicken Shed works as a piece of theatre and seeing the performance helped me to analyse my own style of writing. Having the deadline of a performance date was also extremely helpful in ensuring the piece was finished. I find it helps if you know you'd be letting people down if you didn't have the script and it makes you want to write as best you can as you know people are going to be seeing it.

The Chicken Shed Reunited is part of a double bill of new writing at the Kelvin Players Studio on Gloucester Road Bristol. Click here for more info and to book tickets.