The other side of The Giant Olive
Well, I have emerged the other side of my performances at The Giant Olive with my big rug. It was a long day with a tech start at 11 am. So we had a good lunch at a fantastic place serving real homecooked Turkish food to keep going through the evening for the 6pm and 8pm shows. A great distraction to stop me from reworking my soundtrack ad infinitum, making a new costume or dwelling too much on all the possible variants of the piece.
It was great to meet Angela Woodhouse whose work I have admired at Burton Taylor theatre and to meet dancer/creator Henrietta Hale who also performed with Ben Ash as Dog Kennel Hill Project
Unfortunately I could not see the works – just experience them from the little back stage room – an absolute and absorbed hush so I didn’t dare move and creak the floorboards in Angela Woodhouse and Henrietta Hale’s – ‘I will take you with me‘ and snippets of bangs, rhythmical word play and loud audience laughs in ‘Exorcism in the usual off-centre quarter of the way back’ with Henrietta Hale and Ben Ash. I’d love to see their work -seems clever, funny, precise and absurd. (which made me feel quite inadequate)
Having felt thoroughly defeated, disappointed and depressed by my piece in the 6pm show, I was, thank goodness, much happier with my performance in the 8pm show. Was it the audience?(nature and quantity) was it having a second chance? was it the playful and vibrant Adriana Pegorer and Caroline Waters making us all laugh backstage with their flashing? was it Donald Hutera reminding me to take a proper bow? Whatever, all the anxiety and despondency lifted. Still plenty to do to rework/refine ‘Tuning’ but at least there is some hope.
Grateful to Efthymios Chatzigiannis for creating soundtrack for me to use and abuse and to Paul MacKilligin for all the support on the day. Thanks also to Yael Karavan for initial rug explorations, Malcolm, Flavia, Anne and Lizie for feedback during rehearsals and to Pegasus Theatre and Russell at Oxford Brookes for crucial practice space.