Sheet Music - All Down Piccadilly

Here's the sheet music for all you sight readers.  We will be singing the first chorus reprise.

Pleurisy - Lung Infection To Avoid

Ella has a bout of pleurisy, and boy does it sound unpleasant. Let's all agree not to go down with that ailment, shall we?

Brooks - Boys Only!

Lancelot is a member of an exclusive gentlemen's club called Brooks.  This private club membership is a clear marker of class, and places him in the upper echelons of London society.  His relationship with Jean also brands him a Stage Door Johnny...

RADA

In 1909 RADA was a brand new idea - theatre training?  You can TEACH this stuff?  The Tree School was only five years old, but was supported by many important cultural figures.

http://www.rada.ac.uk/about-rada/brief-history

The Perse

The school Ella attends has now become a day school, admitting boys and girls from the Cambridge area. At over 400 years old, it is the oldest secondary school in Cambridge.

The Perse Upper School: Upper School for students aged 11 to 18

Sargasso Sea

This map gives a sense of location for the Sargasso sea.  Incidentally, the stories of ships being pulled down are generally considered apocyrphal, but there are unusual currents and weeds.

Jean's Convent

Here;s a good large picture of the building which housed the convent school Ella attends.

St. Ives, Roseau, Dominica | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - Project Gutenberg

Hey! Have you always promised yourself you would read the classics, if you only had something to motivate you? Take this as the time to finally read that Jane Eyre everyone's been talking about. Available as a free download from Project Gutenberg, so all it will cost you is time and all you risk is losing yourself in a good book....

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - Project Gutenberg

Forgotten Outpost - MUST READ

This essay offers specific information on the social world of Jean Rhys' childhood in Dominica, including crucial background on cultural events, media, politics and religion.  An excellent resource!

Paddington Station, 1912

This is a few years later, but can give a sense of place to the train scene.

Video of All Down Piccadilly - solo version

This medley video features "All Down Piccadilly" sung as a solo starting at 1:09.  Enjoy!

Cafe Le Dome

Cafe Le Dome was a demi-monde hangout where Ford Madox Ford regularly held court.

Second Night

After two nights of auditions, I am amazed at how my visual notions of the show are already kaleidoscoping with each prospective cast member.  Usually I have a firmer set of requirements and have a necessarily narrower focus by the time I am reading actors.  The creation aspects of this show require me to stay very loose and flexible when it comes to building the company.  Instead of looking for the right person, in many cases I am looking for the right company member, which means I am looking for a team.  Until callbacks, I am sitting alone in the house imagining teams of people, most of whom I met once for less than ten minutes.  This is a strange process.  But I am very thankful for the quality of performers who were attracted to this script.  It bodes well for an exciting process. 

Speaking of thankfulness, the intrepid producers are already up to their elbows in organizing and setting up the process for me and my merry band of lunatics.  Last night they had the chance to be in the audition hall, which was nice as it can be a bit lonely in the house by myself.  I hope the additional creative team members ease the tension and nerves for the actors coming in. 

Saturday promises to be a long and exciting day.  Just looking at the list I get jittery from all the caffeine I plan to consume while I meet so many new people.  Incidentally, if you are reading this and planning to crash, I recommend coming in the afternoon.  

Chorus Girl

Fun fact!  After the breakup with Lancelot, Ella joins the cast of Our Miss Gibbs, a show famous for it's unlikely number Moonstruck performed in Pierrot costumes.

Starting Now

First night of auditions down, and I am already sloppy with thanking the great folks who are coming out for this show.  Sitting behind the oversized tech table out in the house, I feel a little silly removed from the action, but it is a treat to be able to give actors the full stage deck to play.  I can also start to imagine the world a bit clearer as I start to see different possibilities with each audition. Happy times.

I'd also like to give a round of applause to the AIR CONDITIONER that makes working in the Mainstage space such a blessed relief in these puppy days of summer.  I expect that being able to breathe the cool air has to have a bracing effect on the auditioning actors - I've held auditions in the muggity-mug of Toronto summers before, and the heat can produce a languid torpor that actors have to deal with in addition to the not-inconsiderable stress of performing on demand.  Stay hydrated, people!

The evening was rounded out by a fun game of "what is that piece of furniture underneath that giant stack of other furniture?" on the second floor as the intrepid producers and I start to suss out the stock pieces for the set.  I am "doing" the set, and am quite committed to using as much stock as we can. The space is a cramped and crowded room full of old trunks and boxes.  Hey!  Why don't we just perform it in the second floor furniture storage?  Nah, the sightlines are terrible. 

One sleep then more auditions!

Just who IS Ford Madox Ford anyway?

Here's his Wikipedia entry, for a start.  Interesting note: He apparently changed his name to repeat the Ford part on purpose.  Always sounded silly to me, but hey, live and let live.

Still, brilliant man.  Shame about the adultery.

All Down Piccadilly dilly dilly dilly....

Here's an Edwardian musical number that MAY show up in Act I of After Mrs Rochester....

You’ve heard of me, of course,
  I’m London’s latest whim!
I’ve made a hit, in fact I’m It,
  Or rather, I am Him.
The girls all chase me round;
  I’ve not an hour to spare.
And when I wish to be alone
They ring me up by telephone,
“O naughty one, Mayfair.”

Chorus.    “O naughty one, Mayfair.”

Smith.     And ladies whisper, “Are you there?”
O naughty, naughty one, Mayfair!”

            All down Piccadilly, dilly, dilly, dilly,
  Round by the Park,
You’ll see ladies running after little Willie,
  Till it gets dark.
I just simply shilly-shally, shally-shilly,
  I’m fancy free –
So, though they try to win and woo me,
Though in thousands they pursue me,
  They can’t catch me!

Chorus.    All down Piccadilly, etc.

Smith.     With Lady Vere de Vere
  I’m quite a household pet,
I’ve been pursued by Ermyntrude
  And kissed by violet!
With Ethelwyn and Maud,
  I’m very much all there.
And Christabel rang up to say,
“Come round to lunch at Holloway,
O naughty one, Mayfair.”

Chorus.    “O naughty one, Mayfair.”

Smith.     Her feeding tube she wants to share
With naughty, naughty one, Mayfair!”

            All down Piccadilly, dilly, dilly, dilly,
  Round by the Park,
You’ll see ladies running after little Willie,
  Till it gets dark.
I just simply shilly-shally, shally-shilly,
  I’m fancy free –
So, even if they “Suffragette” me,
I don’t think they’ll ever get me,
  They can’t catch me!

Ford Madox Ford & Stella Bowen

This is the face of the man who launched our Jean's literary career.

















And here is the woman who shared him with Jean

And 

Dress of Fire

Breakdance

Huzzah!  I have succeeded in making a workable breakdown. It was a bigger deal than usual, since the style of the script needed special tending to find a breakdown that both made sense and was executable.  I did not find a miracle way to rehearse out of sequence, however there are a few segments that can be seen as stand-alone.  Going into auditions tomorrow knowing that I will need most of the cast for most of the rehearsals daunts me, and not for the first time I wish we were just able to be paying for everyone's time so I could make all sorts of complex demands.  The joy and agony of a community theatre is that in the best situations, everyone who comes to the table takes their seat from a personal sense of art.  This can mean you have a team who understands and embraces the project as a valuable way to spend their creative time.  But once we've all spent the time allotted for "making rent" and "feeding oneself and any other dependents", there is usually precious little time remaining for the art-making. Then trying to bring together ten people...ergh.

Someday I will wake up in the middle of the night with a brilliant way to pay everyone for their creative work as well as for their drudge tasks. It will be a complete funding model that doesn't depend on fickle governments or immovable corporations. Someday.

But I have strayed from the point: Script breakdown complete! Congratulations Me! Pat self on back and act generally self-satisfied! Bask in the moment before you shoulder down and power through the audition assessment lists and props lists and costume lists and lx lists and....and...and...

Back to the high art salt mines I go.

Walking Tour of Roseau, Dominica

This link features a 30 minute podcast in a clear Dominican accent.  Plus, it makes you want to take a walking tour of a city you may never have heard of before!

More Accent Resources

The British Library is a go-to place when researching accents, and so here's a link to their page on Carribean English.  En-joy dat wan.

Interview with Diana Athill, Jean Rhys' editor

At 3:24 she discusses editing fiction. At 5:17 she describes how she handled Jean Rhys as a difficult person.

Excerpt from all-Carribean adaptation "Sargasso"

Very interesting University production. Also useful for accent work

Wide Sargasso Sea Interpreted by Sock Puppets

A bit of fun to lighten the load

Trailer for "Wide Sargasso Sea" Film

Lives Lived

One of the pitfalls of this script is to see it as a "bio-play".  While the memories haunt Jean, they barely scratch the surface of her life.  To fill in some of the blanks, here are some sites that round out some background:

Lennox Honychurch:  This is a must see site, since it is written by a Dominican scholar and features photos of locations described in the play.

Wikipedia entry for Jean Rhys: because shorthand can be useful too.

Guardian Article: useful background and info on BBC series and Pizzichini's biography The Blue Hour (also an excellent read)

More to come as I datamine the interwebs...

Colonial Style

This house gives a sense of place to Ella's early home life.

The Cottage

This image is obviously modernized, but should give a sense of the size of Jean's cottage.

Idealized Devon

I can't resist classic railway posters.  This is the area where Jean's cottage is located, thought her squalid little bungalow would not likely have such an artistically rendered view...

The Gig

Okay, now that I have vented my creative panic, let's get down to it:  what/who is this blog for, and why should you read it...

This blog is a tool for the cast, crew, creative team of the fall 2011 production of AFTER MRS ROCHESTER and any other interested parties to track the progress of the  show as we push through the smoggy summer uncovering and shaping the production.  I  will be posting regular updates here, as well as links and dramaturgical information related to the show.  It will be a clearinghouse for the online materials we use to understand and interpret the show.  For example, before I even wrote my own first post, I put the link to Dominica Broadcasting in the links panel.  Three actors will need to have that accent. It would be MOST useful to listen to it as often as possible.  If you don't need to learn that accent, you might want to check it out so you can either sympathize or gloat.  Your choice.  But in my company, I expect sympathy,  After all, if your colleagues have to learn a Dominican accent, you know you will get a challenge or equal or greater value.  What goes around, comes around.

So I will keep building up the resources on this page and continue ranting.  Can't wait til auditions - I am getting excited to share this crazy trip with my acting company.

The Fear

As I type this brief intro to our project, I am struck with fear.  

I hear you asking already, "But what can you possibly fear, o fearless leader? You get the driver's seat, gripping the wheel as you pivot and dip through corkscrew turns and blind corners."

The thing about the driver's seat?  You have to drive the d%^m thing.  And when the vehicle in question is as beautiful, complex, technically challenging and emotionally draining as this thing of ours, I think fear is an appropriate response. 

It's cool though.  It's the good kind of rollercoaster fear, not the "about to get your limbs hacked off by a jigsaw" sort.  This is the feeling that will keep me up at night dreaming solutions.  This fear is currently motivating me to spend an inordinate amount of time deciding how best to divide the script into rehearsal segments. It will also lead me to run tight and searching auditions, knowing full well I am asking those actors to embark on a truly demanding creative journey.  This is not the "learn your lines" kind of actor challenge.  I need to build a team who will build a world. 

So fear not, gentle readers.  That's my job.