An update from the director

It’s the end of the third week of touring and the cast have their first decent run at a venue since leaving the Royal Exchange (3 days at the Egg in Bath). That should be a welcome relief for them, and give them a chance to really enjoy the performance and worry less about the mechanics of touring.

Touring a show of the size of Little Leap Forward is a complex thing. Most shows that tour for one-nighters in different venues either tour with simple lights of their own, or have a very basic rig and minimal cues. In the way that we tell stories, lights are a hugely important part of the storytelling, and there is just no getting away from needing a rich vocabulary of lighting choices from which to draw.

Even though the lights, music and film are all programmed into and run from a mac, and venues try as closely as possible to re-create the lighting rig that we have designed, there are such huge variables in the distance of lights to the stage and in the dimmers that each venue has, that it has meant Jonny re-programming the lights for every venue we have visited. As there are about 100 separate lighting cues in the 1hr of theatre, that can take some time to re-programme. In venues where the lights are in slightly different positions, it’s not just the intensity and fade times he has to alter, but sometimes the choice of lamps, too. That makes for a really long day. But the cast are amazing and resilient, and are always so positive and focussed. It’s really a lovely team.

The great news is that the feedback has continued to be wonderful. From special needs groups to older ladies, from youth clubs to school parties, people have really engaged with the story, been moved by it and amused by it, and have sent us their thanks for having made it. And that makes you think that all the work is worth it.

After Bath the show heads back up towards home, and in just a couple of weeks it will be here at the Boo, our home space, for 3 days at the start of out Summer Puppet Festival before being packed away for next year.

Alison Duddle