The Read Through and Design Presentation!

The first day back after the Easter break, the first rehearsal and read through of the script and the time - finally - for myself and Oliver to reveal and present the set and costume designs to the full cast. At 2pm the cast, crew and production team congregated in the Studio Theatre of the acting block, ready and waiting to begin. We started with Kenneth Robertson, our director, giving a talk about the concept and setting of the piece, explaining our idea's of WHY to set it during the Greek 1970's at the time of the Military Coup and how it tied into the idea of repression and arranged marriage.

 

From there, Oliver took the floor and presented the set design. It was very well recieved and all of the actors are incredibly excited to see it brought to life.

 

Then, it was my turn to present the costumes. Some of the actors, in their initial fitting, had been able to see some of their designs but this was their first time seeing all of them, and all together. I took them through the costumes by scene, as I had designed them with a brief idea of why they were designed to look the way they were. It was an incredible and rewarding experience to see the actors excitement and appreciation of their costumes, (though nerve wracking as their is always the worry that someone wont like what you have designed for them) but they were all incredibly well recieved!
From there, Oliver brought in the designs for the Mechanicals, and Bottom as the Ass.

 

After the designs were all presented and the actors had had the opportunity to ask any questions, the read through began. I have been in on read throughs before but only for amateur productions, so it was incredibly insightful to see one led by a professional director.

Kenneth had the actors read through the script as written - taking almost two hours. He then gave the actors a break for refreshments before going back through the script and announcing the cuts. This was a very interesting and actually incredibly practical way of making sure that the cuts wanted are the right ones, or if and where more need to be added as you get a propper sense, hearing it read, of where the dialogues and monologues begin to lag, or the story to stall.

 

By the time the cuts were done it was after 5 and time for everyone to go home. An interesting point had been brought up though during the read through - when Ken had announced for the benefit of the band when they would be entering and exiting, he gave a brief desciption of what he thought he might like them to wear. I had initially thought of the band as looking like a traditional Greek band, but Ken described tail coats and suits. This has led to a dilema, as I do not think that tailcoats will look appropriate with the other costumes and setting, and will not aid in getting the Greek setting across. I have therefore decided to do two sets of designs tonight - one of the tailcoat concept, and the other of the more traditional Greek band though very smart, and see tomorrow which Ken prefers before taking the designs to my supervisor.