People

Performers, film makers, musicians, translators, design, and direction:


Leigh Kelly, Katy Jungmann, Marney Walker, Gregory Gudgeon, Jonathan Swain, Penny Dimond, Gary Merry, Kathryn Hamilton-Hall, Paloma Melis, Mirek Smeke, Chris Tranchell, Anna Pesek, Lucy Daniels, Anthony Best, Zuzana Jochman.

Departure

These jubilee celebrations are affecting my head. When we were making the poster, emailing it back and forth to Krumlov, I found it really hard to work out what accent went where. Even when I had worked out where the Czech keyboard was on the computer (system preferences : international) getting the hang of the lettering was tough. 
Once we were in the Czech republic it all became clear. All those crowns on top of the letters, lovely. Made me happy all day to see them. They are háček in Czech or carons in unicode. Sparrows in children's cartoon books. They indicate a rise in tone on the second part of the letter. 

Potentially useful in English, especially the questioning tone of Mid Atlantic pronunciation. They could spice up the radio times and bill boards with a few well chosen accents here and there. Introduce The Caron Now.
Our last day in Cesky Krumlov, twelve hours of travelling ahead. Getting on and off trains is tricky, particularly with heaps of costumes, speakers, instruments, tools and other bags. It seems to get trickier the further East you travel. By the time you get to the Czech Republic you have to make a dash across other railway tracks and clamber up dangling steps set at neck height. Makes me think that Anna K's death might have been an accident after all. A Health and Safety nightmare that somehow dredges up lost memories from my sub conscience/TV viewing past.

Some Weather

Rain

Our Bank

Sometimes an idea takes on a life of it's own. 'Our Bank' a newly composed song for our production of Jubilee, can now be heard being sung into the early hours in every bar in Cesky Krumlov.

The Inner Tent

Twelve hundred miles, twenty minutes late (not our problem, recalcitrant goat). First up on the first night of the first Souladeni Festival the New Factory swept the boards. Actually the audience sat on the stage, the show was done on the grass and around a hole that mysteriously appeared, downstage left. Bank heist, mine workings or Grand Design? Plenty of clapping, laughter and music. 

Great success, a great occasion. Pity about my grotty pic to document the finale, but you get the gist.

Pre match

The line up (without Kathryn) just before kick off outside the team HQ. Very sensible.

The actor prepares

In a brave gesture Gregory takes a dip in the water butt outside his house, claims he is looking for the other performers. Ridiculous.

Burning Set

The (now traditional) set burning ceremony has taken place. Just two hours until our first performance.

Hot

It's hot. Very hot. We are gathering at the tent, for a full day of work.

Outer Field

Early Friday morning, after an almighty downpour the tent appears. Glory. A splendid affair.

Drama

Much drama at this afternoon's rehearsal, and not all of it on the stage.
Exit pursued by a bear.

Building The Venue

For reasons too many to explain, we were called upon to help with erecting the tent last evening. This is a first for The New Factory i.e. building a venue to perform in.

Thursday

It's Thursday in most parts of the world and we are one day away from our first performance. Spirits are running high, we have all but settled on our staging, and our Czech friends have pitched in with their own eccentricities. The tent is being raised today. We only await an audience.

Wales

It's commercially driven and all pretty naff but I've been intrigued by the concept of town twinning since i was small. Over dependancy on local newspapers for information and gullibility as a child.
How many twins is each town allowed?Do they have to be balanced, size wise in some way? Why doesn't everybody choose New York? Has London got a twin town? Has the Internet and multinational companies changed the whole scope of the thing? Is it just for school trips, heads of departments and Rotary Club jollies?
Llanwrtyd Wells seems the obvious winner in this list (though Miami Beach is a sneaky choice). Not because of the continual rain and verdant hills, but that getting here we had to get off the train, travel a mile or so on an executive coach, then get on an identical train for the last leg of the journey.

La Ronde

Servant of Two Masters actually. Last night we went to the open air Rotating Theatre in the grounds of Krumlov Castle. Very risky, what with the weather, but it was a warm evening and the show was excellent. Full on action packed Commedia. Love was in the air and the auditorium moved. The performers remaining on the ground trying to catch up, enjoying the novel surroundings.
The theatre building is over fifty years old yet still functions well. Rumours are that it will have to be moved due to the UNESCO heritage status that is pickling Cesky Krumlov sometime in the nineteenth century.

A Lift

Though Chekhov's 'Lift' scenes are rightly considered difficult and usually cut, our director has insisted that we play an uncut version of the script. Spent 2 hours today working through the lift scene in Jubilee, but I'm still unsure that it's going to work. I remember a production of The Cherry Orchard in the early seventies where the essence of Chekhov's vision was laid bare by the climactic moments in the lift. I hope we can reach those heights by the end of the week.

The Stolen Gallery

A band played in our rehearsal space last night. They were great, and part of the audience camped for the night in the building. They joined us for our warm-up this morning, and proved to be better at Wah (one of our warm-up games) than most of the cast. We gained another performer today: Paloma.

The fateful adventures of the good soldier Svejk during the World War.

The rain which followed us over from Britain has only just stopped.
One cafe we have been hanging out in is the rather excellent Restaurant Svejk. A quiet, wood panelled bar in the centre of town. Large portraits of Austro Hungarian emperors and cheeky cartoons of the Good Soldier hang on the walls. The menu explains what the character represented both to the Czech people and to those opposing the war for other reasons. It started a long discussion about (Super) Mario, Brecht, Piscator and German Avant Garde theatre of the twenties. Good fun.
Memo to self; read the book when I get home.

Souladeni Festival

Starts on Thursday in this field on edge of Stare Dobrekovice, a small village about a couple of kilometres from Czesky Krumlov.
The tent people come tomorrow.

Cafe Van Gogh

After seven years the Van Gogh exhibition has been taken down. Missed it by forty minutes but the owner of the Van Gogh bar in Cesky Krumlov did invite us to the opening of the exhibition of paintings by a local artist, Jersey (?) Musil.
We were the bulk of the attendees, theatre company as rent-a-crowd. He was pleased and gave a speech explaining his work and introduced his friend, who entertained us with her clarinet solos.

Checkovian

This evening we have been writing lyrics for a short banking song that is to go smack in the middle of play. There has also been attempts to introduce horses into the show, the farm where the festival will be has several black beauties. Penny's arm visible to the right, attempted bonding.

In the barn

The (old hammer) Mill House, which seems to be the base of operations for the festival, has a lot of out-buildings, stables and a fish farm in it's grounds. On one of the walls of the barn are piles of crucifixes (crusifii ?). They are impressive. The whole place has a medieval grandeur. Dragon Flies, goats, beautiful horses, impish children, teams of cyclists, stoned locals, BMW tourers, jumping frogs, all wander past. A fabulous film location.

It's All Beginning To Add Up

Having dragged this a thousand miles across Europe I really must try to use it in the show...

The work begins

Sara will be the youngest member of our company whilst we are here. Never been that keen on workshop sessions with masks, but this seems to be working.

Tools Of The Trade

Security at UK border control is as tight as ever. Obviously our ancient adding-machine caused consternation (as did our small amplifier), however Jonathan's extensive tool kit sailed through the x-ray machine without a hitch.


Note the limited kit required to mount a full-scale production on tour.

Ahoy

After fourteen hours on a collection of European trains (and one short spurt on a bus) the delegation from the New Factory of the Eccentric Actor arrive in the Czech town of Czesky Krumlov to prepare for their performances of Jubilee by Checkov this Friday and Saturday.

Mittel European Traveller Incident (theatre)

At stations en route Gregory and Penny have taken to grabbing fellow train travellers, thrusting a bouquet of roses into their hands and then, in loud English, asking them to wave us off as if we were long lost cousins. Works fine and ensures we get decent seats on the train. Causes havoc with europe wide pre olympic security clampdown paranoia. Expect incidents with piles of suitcases and solitary chairs soon.

A Jubilee in Czech

Just picked up our brand new Czech translation by Zuzana Jochman.

Anniversary

Collected the posters from the printers. Lovely smell, glossy on card. At noon tomorrow we set off for the Czech republic. Cesky Krumlov via Bruxelless, Koln and Praha. Two days on a train across Europe with ten theatricals, must be Thursday. Got to be fun.