Second Week of Rehearsals

The week starts off badly because, unfortunately, Michelle has had to go back to London due to a family crisis and is therefore unable to be at rehearsal on the Monday.

The rest of the company have a discussion about acting, which John McArdle describes as ‘refreshing’. The emphasis is on acting ‘in the moment’ which is all about being so secure with the lines and the character that the actor responds to each line fed to him as though he’d just heard it for the first time.

Some of the actors are feeling anxious at the sight of a new script I’ve produced over the weekend, because they've already started learning the lines. About eight pages have been shaved off the previous draft in the pursuit of ‘leanness’.

I’m asked to read in for Michelle on the first day as the script is intensely scutinised once more, with the actors invited to comment on the changes. David talks about the collaborative process and his role as inspirational leader.



The fight-director, Terry King, (King of Combat according to the actors) comes to advise on a slap and a minor scuffle that feature in the play.









In the 'Circle of Trust’ on Tuesday there’s a rapid learning of lines, where the rule is if you make a mistake, you go back to the beginning!

A chunk of Wednesday morning is spent planning the filming at the Heritage Centre, which we need to produce footage that can be cut in with achive footage for the show. We gain an insight into David the TV/film director.

In the absence of the students who will play the camera crew in the play itself, David assumes the role of extremely irritating PA and succeeds in upstaging everybody.

I go off at lunchtime to have a rash checked out at the medical centre and am diagnosed with shingles. I pack up in a panic and head off home, upset and angry. It feels like I’ve been dealt a cruel blow and that my involvement with the show has been abruptly curtailed.

Week One of Rehearsals

Memorable moments include . . .

David Thackers’ pep talk on the first morning about everyone aiming to achieve his/her PB (Personal Best)

A Meet and Greet session where we are all introduced around the circle and I discover later that I have my cardigan on inside out.

Michelle Collins handing round the jelly babies.

Thrills up my spine as the actors read the first scene – it works!

Lots of laughter in the rehearsal room at the first read-through.

A few weary tears shed at the end of day two when it becomes obvious that the play is too long.

Chatting with Kenneth Alan Taylor (who is in The Price) in the foyer about his time as a panto dame in Oldham.

Football banter around the table first thing in the mornings.

Colin Connor’s almost perfect Fred Dibnah voice.

The ASM’s dad showing Huw Higginson how to do magic tricks.

Working long days and having production and script meetings at lunch-times and after the actors have gone home.

The three actors playing ‘Dad’s Army (Fred’s mates) christening themselves, ‘The Three MustGetBeers’ and other members of the cast at various times calling them ‘the three witches’, ‘the three stooges’, ‘the tin man, the lion and the scarecrow’ .

Health bars I’d made for the cast (Rabbit Bars according to Huw) somehow ending up on the set!

David prepares me for mixed reaction to the play and quotes William Blake -
‘The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way’.

Having loads of rewrites to do over the weekend - pruning an already pruned play.

A new Fred, film-footage and fear

After a great deal of searching, we find a new Fred. Thank goodness!
Colin Connor is eager to research his role thoroughly so I spend some of this week helping him to get up to speed.

I also spend a morning with film-maker, Nick Wilding, going through his thousands of hours of Fred footage to find additional clips of film for the show.

The fifth draft of the script (fifth draft since the workshop that is - can it be a whole year ago?), is printed, bound and sent out to the actors.

This morning I meet with David Thacker and Joe Stathers-Tracey, who is in charge of projection. The meeting about film-footage is a difficult one but ends well in that David proposes an 'arty' take on the film content. The prospect of the footage fusing with the play, rather than being rolled out as documentary gluing the scenes together, becomes an exciting prospect.

Tonight I attend the Press/Guest Night of The Price at the Octagon and, as well as enjoying the superb production, am left wondering how the hell my play can follow the genius that is Arthur Miller.

Reality kicks in and I know that over the weekend I have to prepare properly for rehearsals which begin on Monday. Healthy food has to be bought, clothes have to be got ready, fear has to be allayed.

The White Card Meeting and Bleak News

The designer for the show, James Cotterill, has come up from London with the white card model of the set. We meet at the Octagon with David Thacker and Production Manager, Olly Seviour, to discuss the design before the whole production team files into the room. There's about a dozen people ranging from carpenter to sound engineer and it's quite daunting to explain the concept of the play to them. At the same time, it's exciting to think that between them all they will realise the technical and visual side of the show.



David T has a quiet word with me to explain that the actor playing Fred has had to withdraw from the production due to ill-health. It's bleak news indeed, especially at this stage in the proceedings. The search is on for another Fred . . .

Fred Footage

I go over to Leeds to meet up with film-maker David Hall and his editor, Pascale. We spend a happy afternoon in the editing suite, sifting through many miles of footage that David has shot of Fred over the years. We are searching for specific moments of film and iconic images that will form part of the production, anchoring the story in the real-world and gluing the scenes of the play together.

Workshop Week

Five amazing days with the whole cast and director in the Lab at the Octagon -

DAY 1
It's great to see all the cast assembled for the first time. They sit around the table taking turns to read through the script word by word, line by line and not in the characters that they will play in the production. David instructs me not to say anything. In fact I am to be treated as though I am not in the room. This is to enable the cast to comment freely and to allow me to hear the script afresh. It has to stand on its own two feet without the writer defending it. It does stands up pretty well but I spot some yawning gaps and a few places where the dialogue is over-written.

DAY 2
More of the same. I find it incredibly difficult to keep quiet but realise what an invaluable process this is, allowing the script to be scutinised in every detail almost as if it were an A Level text.
A number of key questions are raised and several inconsistencies come to light. Towards the end of the day I am allowed to speak and answer some of the major queries the actors have about their characters. I am particularly concerned that Huw Higginson is not happy about how his two roles merge in the current version of the script.

DAY 3
A trip for us all to Fred's garden in Radcliffe Road during the morning. A couple of TV crews follow us around and John Branwell and Michelle Collins appear on the local evening news talking about the play. It's great pre-publicity for the show. In the afternoon the script is subjected to a radical cutting/editing operation where scenes are sliced, pruned and welded back together again. David reckons we need to lose about 20 pages of script. I find this really hard because some of my favourite scenes and in my opinion, some of the best lines in the play, get the chop.



DAY 4
The Lab is transformed into the Octagon stage and we work with a substitute set made up of chairs and tables to get the feel of the space and how we might use it within the actual production. It becomes obvious that the set has to almost replicate Fred's actual garden and the work the men do there has to be as authentic as possible. There is even talk of using a real steam engine! I learn to become more objective about the script and even suggest some cuts myself.

I re-jig the script overnight and present the new draft the following morning.

DAY 5
Poor Huw Higginson falls ill during rehearsals and is taken off to hospital for observation. If you are reading this Huw, you'll be pleased to know that in your absence most of the nagging questions you had about your (dual) role have been ironed out! Sheila Dibnah joins us for the whole day and sees the re-vamped script on it's feet. As well as offering some inside knowledge, she also performs an improv with John McArdle. Sheila is very moved by the new version of the play and is not the only one in tears at the end!



As a result of this intensive week the script is quite a bit thinner, I know that its time-line needs a radical re-think and it has become abundantly clear that the design element and the work element of the play have to be carefully co-ordinated and fed into the script.

I've found this part of the process illuminating, inspiring and exhausting.
Time for a rest over Christmas before another draft of the script is due in the New Year.

Intensive Script Development

I am having the best creative time of my entire life as David and I spend a couple of full days at the Octagon bouncing around ideas for the workshop draft of the script.

He floats a wild idea that I take up and run with. It looks like it will be feasible for the same actor to play Mr TV and Isambard Kingdom Brunel after all because we have discovered artistic connections between them. But if we are to forge stronger links in Fred's mind about these two characters, there is some restructuring of the play to be done.

During these development sessions David frequently refers to other plays and playwrights and obviously wants me to aim for the highest possible standards.
It's thrilling to hear him talk of his work with Arthur Miller, particularly about developing Millers' play 'Broken Glass'. I'm not sure that me having the same initials cuts it really!

We have a couple of prolonged discussions about stage directions and the slash(/) used to indicate overlapping dialogue but we never come close to anything that can be described as a disagreement and seem to be very much on the same wavelength.

I come away with masses of notes in my script, a head buzzing with ideas, a heart full of gratitude and optimism.

David says we are 'cooking on gas'.