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

Morning Thoughts

In my last post, I alluded to our having found all sorts of new detail in our re-rehearsals of Yellow Moon. Of course, it’s worth remembering that the reason we have the opportunity to find all this new detail, is because it’s all there in David’s script already, waiting to be discovered. That’s the pleasure of working on a script this good- there are always new things to find in it, and, hopefully, bring on to the stage.

This morning, having woken early, and lying in bed wondering whether to just get up, I was thinking vaguely about the play, and suddenly had one of these realisations that has you hitting your forehead, and thinking, how did I miss something so obvious?
I’d always assumed, without particularly reflecting on it, that when Frank is left on his own with Leila and puts on a record, his choice of song isn’t immediately significant to him. On the contrary, it now occurs to me, it’s the most evocative and personal song he could choose, and so it must be a conscious choice to put it on in the first place. Seeing Leila and Lee together reminds him of the start of his own relationship of twenty years ago, and he puts on the record because he already wants to talk to Leila about it. (He doesn’t manage to.)

This scene has one of my favourite lines in the play:
“And the girl looked at him in the dark of a bedsit somewhere just off the Great Western Road sometime in 1985 and she says:
Well you’re not lost any more.
I’ve found you.”

The image of this dark bedsit just off the Great Western Road sharply evokes a time and place I remember. For me, as for Frank, 1985 is a distant country that I once lived in, to which I’ll never return, and the memories of which can, on occasion, elicit sudden nostalgia.

Moonrise

Monday. We turn up for re-rehearsals of Yellow Moon, which we last performed in November last year. We only have a few days to get it up to speed again, so everyone’s been re-acquainting themselves with the script on their own. I’m feeling a strange blend of two different forms of excitement: 1) the “first day of rehearsals” feeling, and 2) the “the show goes up in 3 days’ time” feeling. We all have a manic glint in our eye.

Guy sensibly starts with a run of the whole thing. Let’s see what we have here. Will everything that we thought we’d got our heads back around fall to pieces once we do it in the rehearsal room? We run it and,… actually, it’s all there. Some rough edges to smooth off, certainly, but we still have a living, breathing show. Relief all round.

The next few days of work on it are good humoured and intense, the awareness of the Thursday preview focussing us on the job. It’s apparent that the time away from the piece has enabled us all to look at it with a fresh eye, and find new ideas. I can see lots of new details in the other actors’ performances, and Guy is adding to and refining the staging and our performances, adding new detail, clarifying the meaning. Liam, our new production manager and sound operator, has mastered the fiendishly complex sound cues with impressive ease. And so the show has grown and is growing, as shows do, detail by detail.We have several moments when we feel like unreliable crime-scene witnesses. “I’m sure we did it this way last time.” “No no, we did it this way. Definitely.” “No, we-“ “Let’s watch it on the DVD.” We gather round the laptop, each assuring the other how wrong they are. Liam fast-forwards to the scene, presses play. There’s no arguing with the action replay. Triumph on one side; bewildered disbelief on the other- “But I was so sure…”

And so we arrive at the preview night. On the train through we engage in typical first-night-actor-talk. “Oh, I just got a wave of nerves there.” “Yeah, me too, I had butterflies a minute ago.” “I don’t know what to eat before the show- not pizza, too heavy.” And so on. All to the good. It’s when you don’t have nerves that you’re in trouble.

And so the first performance comes. I always have a feeling on the first performance of a show that no matter how ready you are, you need to make a sort of leap across a gap, from rehearsal to performance, and land on the other side. The preview goes well, but the first official performance is the big one. It goes even better- the audience laugh in the right places, and are attentively silent in the right places, and seem very warm and smiley at the curtain call. We’ve arrived. Up and running.

and so it begins

It is with somewhat bleary eyes that I can report that the first two performances of Yellow Moon at the Fringe, have been completed successfully. Last night's preview was packed and provided fantastic encouragement for this afternoon's opening performance.

Having seen Yellow Moon quite a few times, I was surprised at how nervous I felt last night. There is quite a tangible difference in how the show feels at the Festival, compared with our last tour. Not that the production itself, is too different, but that the festival buzz just brings an excitement and a new type of audience to the piece.I'm also amazed and pleased at how much I enjoy the play afresh each time. It takes quite a lot to make me laugh out loud, but Yellow Moon has managed this quite a few times. Because the show is in the round, one of the other joys is sitting in a new position each time, as you get the chance to watch different actors from new angles - noticing movement, expressions or words that you didn't the last time. I guess that's why it feels new each time.

As we anxiously await reviews, there's still a chance to grab tickets from the Traverse. If the reviews are good, given our pre-sales it could become a hot ticket. Fingers crossed.

I'll head home soon to rest before cramming in some Festival shows on Sunday. I'll let you know if they're any good!

Hx

Good News

We heard yesterday that Yellow Moon is the biggest selling show in Traverse 2 for the festival and the second biggest selling show of the entire Traverse season so far!

Thanks to everyone who has bought tickets! We are all getting very excited now about coming to the Traverse for the Fringe. It’s all becoming very real…9 days and counting.

Hope to see you there!
Hx

FRINGE FESTIVAL LAUNCHED

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe was launched today. We can now reveal the fantastic news that Yellow Moon will appear at the Traverse Theatre from 2-26 August. Tickets are on sale online soon at the Fringe website or phone the Traverse on +44 (0) 131 228 1404 .

Unlike many shows at the Fringe, we are in the lucky position of having good reviews from our previous tour already in hand, and as such are hopeful that tickets will sell fast.

So if you haven't seen it already, go grab your tickets now before it's too late!

Hx

Sweden and nae IKEA

For the few people who don't know I went to the Svenska Teater Biennalen 2007 in Orebro, Swedens major theatre festival. I've been back over a week, spoken about it enough, so I thought I'd put something on here as well. Had a great time, met a whole load of interesting people and the only time language became an issue was when I was watching a play, even when I'd read the synopsis, it was still quite tough. I was primarily over there to deliver a seminar on Community Theatre, I also wanted to further our partnership with 'Lansteatern' (City Theatre). Seminar went ok and well attended. I'm amazed that community theatre is such a new concept in Sweden and that youth theatre is also so rare. Delighted to see that the Citizens Theatre has made such an impact at 'Lansteatern'...Tomas my new Swedish friend has a great collection of photographs from his trip to the Citizens, in a prominent place in their Green Room. Couple of highlights, a multi-cultural festival in the Orebro suburb of Vivillia (you might know it!!), great food and loads dancin'. The other highlight also involves food, the last night party where 1200 sat down to a three course meal, where inbetween courses a famous Swedish chef, not the one of Muppet fame, delivered a 20min lecture with slide show. !! I left the party at 2.30am and headed back to Scotland, slightly worse for wear, having had a interesting, valuable and amusing time....The strangest moment was meeting Helen Black at Amsterdam Airport on her return from the Middle East...It's a small world..

(Ed. We'd like to acknowledge the Scottish Arts Council's National Lottery Grant which has helped us to develop our connection with Orebro...watch this space for more details).