PHHEEEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!!

Well it's going to take a couple of early nights for me to recover from the marathon that was the Sunday rehearsal. We hacked our way through the second half of the show and managed to get a good idea of how it all looks.
Depressingly, it revealed the multitude of little bits and pieces that need serious attention. As time runs out Miss. Bicknell and I are rapidly running out of nails to chew on!
However, a big round of applause must surely go to the THIMUN students who made the supreme effort of coming in for the rehearsal. they literally flew in from Europe at 7am and came to school and worked til 4pm. Ladies and gentlemen we salute you! I hope the pizza helped to ease the pain (i know it did for me. Yum!)
well lets not get too relaxed because we've got another sunday rehearsal in 2 weeks time. Hopefully we'll be in good enough shape to run both acts without stopping (too much!) and have some funky lighting in place too.

False Alarm!!!

As you were everybody! I just heard that Mr. Megson is not as badly injured as was reported. So cancel the flowers! However, we have enlisted the help of Mr. Lewis and Mr. Crombie to ably assist Mr. Megson with the set building. Good luck gentlemen!

A Lot of Hard Work Ahead!

Hi everybody,
This is really a reminder to everyone involved that we have a very busy schedule over the next few days.
Don't forget that there is a rehearsal on Wednesday (not Thursday!) and a big all day rehearsal on Sunday. You are arranging your own transport to and from Equine park so you'd better let us know soon if you are having difficulties and we'll see if you can get a lift with someone.
Get some good sleep and LEARN YOUR LINES!!!

Disaster Strikes!!!!!

I'm sorry to have to report something terrible. Over the week-end, Mr. Megson sustained a terrible injury while playing football. He'll be off his feet for a long time and it all sounds very painful. Post your get well messages here. Alternatively I'm sure the main office can pass along any cards or messages you might have. Get well soon Mr. Megson!!!!

However, this does put us in a sticky situation. Mr.Megson was the chief architect for the Production Design and was to get to work on a number things to bring the set to life (see model pics below!). Now we have a huge gap to fill. I'm hoping that Mr. Megson will be given bionic implants and he'll be better than ever. But reality dictates that we may have to rethink some of the more ambitious ideas!!!!

I'll keep you posted!

Production Design Takes off!

Set designer extraordinaire Mr. Megson has completed what he calls a "rough" model of the set for R&J.
I don't know about you but it looks anything but rough.




















Mr. Megson has captured the dimensions of the Main Stage brilliantly.
He has also taken his inspiration from a famous artist who uses the arches and the colour scheme you can see in his work.
Next time you see Mr. Megson ask him about it and find out the name of the famous artist (cos I can never remember! Carolco, I think.... or maybe that was the name of the brand of colouring pencils he uses!!) let me know if you find out!


















From this angle it really feels like you're standing in the wings waiting to make an entrance...



















....and this is what the view will be like from the lighting box!

Meanwhile backstage......

As much as shifting the heavy steel deck was to create the set, we've got just as big a job now in clearing the mess created when the new Drama studio was made. This is just some of the "equipment" lying around backstage.

This, believe it or not, is our 'peop' collection and it's waiting for it's new home to be built. i'm very excited about this and i'll keep you informed once work actually starts!

But for now we have to put up with the costumes being put wherever we can find a space for them! This used to be a lighting store room!

Elsewhere, other work has also been sneakily happening. For example, we noe have two extra dimmer packs which means we can now have 48 lights on at the same time!

Naturally, 48 lights require 48 plugs! I hope we've got enough fuses!

Things are taking shape

Welcome back all. I hope Santa brought you your hearts desire. I wish I could say that Santa delivered the set for R&J but unfortunately seeing as Santa doesn't actually exist (sorry for any shattered illusions) Mr Megson, myself and men from the maintenance team had to undertake the backbreaking task of assembling the staging for the show. Mr Megson will now take on the task of decorating the set. We'll have some pretty amazing background design work taking place over the coming weeks. Watch this space for more "sneak peaks"

Boy was this stuff heavy!

But I think the effort was worthwhile. We'll be able to do some interesting things with this!

The following pictures are of the view Juliet will have from her balcony (so what? I can see the Petronas Towers from my bedroom window!)

Lets hope Sarah's got a good head for heights.

Here we have a view from the lighting box. I think it more clearly shows the multiple levels we have to work with. The idea is to suggest steps and streets in Verona. of course we need to tidy it up a bit and paint everything the same colour! but i think overall it's quite an impressive concept.

And this final shot is straight down the barrel of the follow spot. What a view!