Opening Night

Last night was Little Leap Forward’s opening night at The Studio, Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

The show went very well. I watched a preview a week ago at the Boo and it’s interesting to see how much it had developed since then. The production seemed more fluid, had a faster pace, the humour and emotion came across more and the storytelling has been made more effective. Everyone I spoke to, enjoyed the production and seemed genuinely moved by the story. Especially, as it has been based on a true story. Guo Yue and Clare Farrow came up from London to see the show and I couldn’t help but wonder how he felt watching it. With the help of Vicky Bloor - Press and Marketing Officer at the Royal Exchange, we managed to get a journalist from MEN and what's on.

After the show the Horse + Bamboo Team, Guo, Clare, The Royal Exchange, Barefoot Books, the cast, associate artists and the press joined us in the studio foyer to celebrate the opening. See the photos above...

Alithea

A strange quiet calm

There is a strange quiet calm in the building today. Yesterday we packed the set in the van for the first time, negotiated Manchester’s traffic and one way systems and off loaded the set and cast at The Royal Exchange. Leaving the cast behind felt like the next chapter begins and all that we have been working on for the past year or more comes to fruition.

Opening night is tomorrow, so we will all get our glad rags on for the night and celebrate, then back to finding out whether the van fits in the nearest car park to the tour venues and other such glamorous tasks.

Despite Little Leap Forward not even opening yet my mind has for sometime been on planning the next tour in 2010.

For now however I will let excitement reign and look forward to a successful opening night.

Esther Ferry-Kennington - Producer

2 days away from our first public preview!

We’re now just 2 days away from our first public preview!

Most of the last minute work on puppets and costumes has been done and we’re starting to run the show fairly regularly now with sessions working on detail where needed. This morning we filmed the show so after lunch we’ll get to see it for the first time – always a daunting prospect.

All the cast are trying to immerse ourselves in Chinese culture. We’ve all been watching films, reading books (and in one case, eating dumplings). As well as Clare and Yue’s books I’ve been re-reading “Farewell My Concubine” by Lilian Lee which is also set in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution but from the point of view of 2 stars of Beijing opera. There are some useful (but harrowing) descriptions of Red Guards raiding people’s houses as happens in scene 7 of our story.

That’s all for now. As I may have mentioned we’re just 2 days away form our first public preview!

Mark Whitaker ( Cast member and tour manager)

2 weeks to go!

Little Leap Forward opens at The Studio, Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester in less than 2 weeks! Alison and the cast's rehearsal period is in full flow. Today Frances Merriman and Nicky Fearn were in good spirits as they are both looking forward to performing and keen to present what they've been working on to the public. Unfortunately, poor Jonny Quick ( cast member and techical manger of LLF) has been struck with a tooth absess and has been seem wondering around the Boo with his hand over his jaw. Tour manager and cast member, Mark Whitaker has been working hard today, fueled by the delicious chips, peas and gravy from next door's chippy, which is a Godsend to me and many other members of the H+B team!! I spoke to Alison yesterday about how it was all going, and she explained that she's now at the stage where they are refining the movements and timings to make sure that the story really comes through. Like the cast, she's feeling very excited about revealing this "beautiful and moving story" to the world.

I've been busy helping the Royal Exchange Education Department with the edcuation pack - which looks great and if full of stunning photos and super ideas. I've also been organising details for the press night on 28 May, phoning journalists to come and review the show, arranging catering and chasing up Horse + Bamboos invitees.

I think I've been so busy that I forgot to mention that last Friday Guo Yue and his wife Clare Farrow came to watch the Little Leap Forward rehearsals. The cast were initially a little nervous about performing in front of Yue, in particular because its his own personal story that they are telling. However, the rehearsal went very well, all benefitted from Yue and Clare's feedback and all the cast and Alison felt a sense of elation and relief afterwards.

Later in the evening Yue performed a flute concert at the Boo which was a great success. It was a sell out, and I can totally understand why he is known to many as one of the worlds greatest flute players. It's his life experience and unwavering positivity that comes across in his flute playing. His wife Clare, read out excerpts from their book Music, Food and Love and recounted stories from his childhood in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution. I've added a photo of Yue performing at the Boo with his flute made of jade behind the Little Leap Forward set.

If you'd like to get more information about Little Leap Forward click here listen to a podcast interview with Alison, Bob, Loz and Mark. And don't forget you can watch the making of Little Leap Forward on Horse + Bamboo's You Tube page and see our other productions.

Alithea

A cast member's perspective

Week One
We meet each other, discover the entire company for LLF is vegetarian and that we seem to share a fondness for silliness. We start the practical sessions - getting the group working together, sharing skills, exploring what we can do, working with the music –day two and we are comparing sore muscles and bruises from the sessions. When we arrive, all the masks, puppets, most of the props and the set are finished so we can start working with them immediately. Loz has completed 85% of the sound score and the animation is done. For the first week we do a speedy plot through of the entire show to get feel of the whole piece and to work with Loz who is only here for the first three weeks of rehearsal. Our job is to discover the action and how we tell the story – we get to end and struggle to remember what we did at the beginning. A week seems a very long time ago.

Week Two
We start at the beginning of the show again and work through scenes in more detail. We try out physical moves, work in masks a bit more and realize that we can’t see anything at all straight ahead because of the spacing of the eyes in the masks. We sweet talk Alison into widening the eyes holes just a bit to give us more vision, she does. Frances and I try out acrobatic sequences in mask (before the mask eyeholes are widened…it’s a bit scary!) We all play with the puppets to discover what they (and we) can do. Mark makes his puppets do wondrous things and gives us tips. Jonny has been designing and rigging lights and setting up sound with Loz. I wonder if he’s sleeping on set as he’s the last to leave in the evening and is always there when we arrive in the morning. The Boo is busy with the administration team upstairs, us downstairs, Bob dreaming up the next show (seemingly in the kitchen), Ali doing marketing in a room off the main rehearsal space, Loz working in the sound room (occasionally we hear him singing loudly or shouting at his synthesizer), Steff the animator coming in to see parts of the show and volunteers working in the meeting room, not to mention a stray dog waiting for its owner in the office. (Later I see Esther carrying a plastic bag to the bin, the little dog couldn’t contain itself).
The days are already going very fast.

By Nicky Fearn - Cast Member