Into production

So here we are again. Theatre. Production week.

No matter how often I go through it, production week remains a heightened experience. The element of the unpredictable is so high, and the build-up of adrenalin so pronounced, that nothing in weeks like this looks or feels the same as at any other time.

The rehearsal period takes cast and crew through many phases. For me, though, this time just before opening divides quite clearly into two: before and after walking the space. This is particularly true when working an unfamiliar theatre. In the lead-up to getting in and feeling the space, the endless possibilities are the stuff of nightmares. Even in familiar surroundings, there is still a leap of faith in finally finding out how the space and the piece interact and change each other.

After the first encounter with the space, the gradual process of learning brings its own surprises, through get-in, technical, dress, and opening. The Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton had (maybe still has) a notorious squeaky board at one of the downstage sweet points. The guest stage at the Q Theatre in Helsinki, 'Puoli-Q', has an array of pillars that play merry hell with the sight lines. The size of the 670-seat auditorium at the Ruse Opera hits you right between the eyes.

Of these, I suspect that the last may be the closest to the experience that awaits us at the Aleksanterin teatteri in Helsinki. I have not yet walked that space, but it too has housed professional opera and therefore has appropriately sized stage and auditorium (470+). Right now, though, before stepping onto the boards and with lights-up less than a week away, looking forward to the space is like walking through fog at dusk.