On The Road

The performance at the Exeter Phoenix was wonderful, humble, slick and well-received from a paying audience... and was only the second time we'd ever run the whole piece from start to finish.

Hugh and Steve on the left of the image consulting in amongst a growing set at the Exeter Phoenix

Almost show time! Steve and Hugh consulting and completing last minute checks for the show at Exeter Phoenix

It was quite a brilliant day, a long one with many stresses, but brilliant. We began in Paignton, in the front room of my mum's house, reading through the content and checking everything. Props... check, set... check, company... check... Steve have you checked power for your amp? 'You bet' replied Steve. Sophie, have you checked... 'the lights, of course I have' replied Sophie. Jen have you checked everything else... the look said it all and no words were needed.

Yes you get the picture, we were all pretty nervous but very excited, which is a perfect mix. No nerves would have been worrying and no excitement would have been devastating, so we all took in those feelings and allowed them to prepare us in our own individual ways. Exeter Phoenix was a huge venue to open the tour with - verging on a gamble. The Phoenix has a long history of supporting developing artists within Exeter and the South West. It is a groovy, contemporary venue, with unique spaces to explore, a real home to the creative arts.

Final checks checked and we were ready to leave. I just thought I'd close down my computer and there it was... the email!! Very apologetic of course, and there is nothing anyone could have done to predict it, but the lift... yes the only lift which was essential to get me to the floor with our performance studio on, was B-R-O-K-E-N!! If we needed something to transform the nerves into fiery determination this was it - the 'show must go on' energy flowed through the company. We'd had a few hitches up to now with Sophie's lights getting broken the day before and rehearsal dates clashing with space availability, but this was problematic to say the least. Jen leapt into problem solve mode and Steve continued the polite but stern conversations on how the day would proceed with the venue whilst Sophie and Hugh did general tutting and morale boosting. Touring is difficult, it is fraught with potential for disaster - every performance is different and every venue unique - maybe that's why we do it!

So with an attitude of 'this is going to happen no matter what', we bundled into the cars and headed towards the Phoenix without knowing how we would get me onto the second floor of the building. On arrival at the Phoenix Jen's plans A, B, C...Z weren't needed as the lift was 'kind of fixed ;-)' . Did we want to risk me getting stuck in an elevator... hell yeah... a performance in a lift was slightly more intimate than I was planning, but sounded like a great idea.

Arriving safely on the second floor saw all systems go as the company erected the set. Running to and from cars (strangely the others preferring to lug set up the stairs rather than risk the lift), we transformed the space! This get in took longer than we anticipated, but it was so worth it - every piece of the set encapsulates the DIY and simplicity of the performance. I do think humble is the best word to describe YMMV - 4 friends on stage together! It's amazing what creative, skilled individuals can do with a pop-up wardrobe, a couple of stands, 4 performance lights and a bag full of random objects.

This rough and ready feel brings me back to the first, frankly still terrifying, paragraph to reflect on. I am not kidding, the performance, in front of a live paying audience, was only the second time we had run through from start to finish, the first being only an hour before... though perhaps it was exactly what the piece needed. There is a buzz phrase in theatre and academia - 'deadly theatre' from a seminal book for all first years, The Empty Space by Peter Brook. Brook warns against too much rehearsal, yes there is definitely a thing as too much rehearsing, but we didn't have such worries, in fact we were close to the other end of the spectrum.

YMMV is playful, it's creative and colourful - it's alive! I get the feeling no two shows will be remotely the same, so how do you rehearse for that? The relationship between the four of us and the trust we have in each other allows us this flexibility. Although the look in Sophie's eyes when told we only had one more rehearsal before opening was perhaps contradictory to this (Sorry Soph, but you nailed it!). We know the piece and the essence of it, staying true to it and the first performance was something we should all be happy with. It's not like there is not stuff to work on or that we performed the perfect performance, it's just for moments during the Phoenix piece we did what was needed for that audience.

Yeah, I don't really get what I mean either - there were cues missed, words changed, narratives that did not quite read as intended, but it just felt like the right way to tell our story at the right time. The Phoenix audience were great and we responded to them as they responded to us.

So the road stretches on, although this time we are closer to home in heart and distance. There is a lot of change at South Devon College including the loss of the Performing Arts department which was home to me for 2 years, and Sophie and others for far longer. Yet, it is a positive and hopeful step to take this piece back to where it began, to be welcomed in by SDC and to bring creativity, colour and expression of self into a college facing the loss of such artistic elements.