Andy's blog...

My name is Andrew Scott-Ramsay. I make up one quarter of the cast of a play titled Yellow Moon on at the Traverse Theatre. This blog entry and the play's run at the fringe are, for me, tied together by the fact that it’s the first time I have done either. So, when Helen Black, TAG theatre's administrator (Ed. I’m the marketer!), approached me to write this blog I was willing but uncertain. I’m not what you would call an avid internet user but I am online enough to, perhaps, call myself moderately internet literate. However, as mentioned, I’m very inexperienced in the art of blogging so please excuse any violations of Blog etiquette (Ed. there’s nothing to worry about…just be yourself).
Last years staging of 'Yellow Moon' was my first professional acting job, I will always have fond memories of it. So, to be asked to re-explore it for this year’s Fringe Festival was a very exciting prospect. This excitement, however, transformed itself into worry when I was told we would only be re-rehearsing it for three days.

As a result of this a lot of questions and anxious thoughts have played themselves out in my head over the last couple of months, this being the first play I have ever re-visited. Will I remember everything? Can we do it in three days? Will we lose something from not having gone through a thorough rehearsal process? Can we re-create a show with the same essence and dynamics without simply regurgitating the same 'moves' that filled it last time?

The first task was to read the script again. I did this for the first time around the start of June, as I read I was comforted both by parts that seemed to come flooding back but was also a little frightened by parts that seemed to have vanished. Over the next few weeks I read the script maybe another four or five times, the play coming back to me bit by bit.

Next, I hesitantly watched a DVD recording of the show and consulted a rehearsal diary that I had written last time around. The latter proved to be very helpful, reminding me not only of intricate technical aspects of the show but also topics that were debated during rehearsals and random thoughts that I had about the play.

As I continued along this path of re-learning I eventually got to the stage where I felt that to get a fresh feel for the show I couldn't do much more without being surrounded by the rest of the cast and director and so it was with much relief and anticipation that the first Monday of rehearsals arrived.

The three days that we had were crammed full of intensive work trying to bring the show back and also creating and exploring new avenues that had manifested themselves in the intervening period. The one thing that stood out was simply how much fun I have doing this show.

Our festival run is now underway and we already have a few shows behind us. Edinburgh is a great place to be at this time of year. There’s a real buzz to the place and it really feels like your part of something when you are here. The show feels like it’s in a good place, we are enjoying it and people still seem to enjoy watching it, I don't suppose we could ask for to much more.

Andy