Romeo & Juliet: Rehearsal Diary
Week Three
Due to the length of the rehearsal period and the tight schedule, the company have been
rehearsing six days a week but although the beginning of the third week was greeted with
rain clouds and tube delays everyone still arrived eager to get stuck in. We continued to
work through the play, readdressing certain bits and adding to and refining earlier versions
of the scenes. By Wednesday afternoon we were ready to run sections of the play, allowing
everyone to get a feel for the flow of the production, and an idea of how the story
progresses from each scene to the next. There was a real sense of excitement within the
company as it all started to fall into place. It was also the first time most people had seen
parts of the production they did not appear in, giving them an opportunity to understand
Romeo & Juliet in its entirety and admire the work of fellow cast members.
The most exciting visitor of the week was fight director Kevin McCurdy, who came in on
Tuesday to choreograph all the ‘action’ sequences. With Kevin in charge everyone got a
chance to flex their muscles and throw themselves - and each other - about a bit. Safety is
paramount in any show with weapons, fights and falls; particularly as the actors have to
repeat these risky sequences night after night. It is important for the welfare of both the
actors, and the audience that they feel comfortable with each other and controlled on
stage. Kevin would occasionally drop in terrifying facts or statistics to keep everyone on
their toes and grounded in reality.
Once again, there was a steady flow of props and costume into the rehearsal room, with
the cast enjoying all the shiny new toys to play with and clothes to dress up in. What were
mere ideas and possibilities in earlier rehearsals became reality and were played out,
removed from or cemented into scenes. Stage management had their hands full, splitting
their time between making props, or dashing about all over the place to source them. The
production meeting on Thursday was another opportunity for the whole Romeo & Juliet
team to gather and discuss progress, as well as apportion time and resources to anything
still needing attention.
Towards the end of the week, Tom (Sound Designer) returned with a few roughly edited
tracks to practice some of the sections set to music - allowing the actors to place their
scenes in time with the songs. As the blocking for these sections is so tight it is important
the cast commit it to memory and feel confident in the choreography. We also had a visit
from Dylan to film the trailer - forcing Daniel (Romeo) and Catrin (Juliet) to try out their
screen acting for a day. Meanwhile, Robert took some time with individual actors to check
their progress and address any concerns they had. With so many comings and goings, the
rehearsal room was a hive of activity and, with excitement mounting amongst the company
going into the final week, everyone left for the weekend with a head full of notes and a
real spring in their step.