A final blog entry for 2009

The last shows at the Boo were so wonderful. It was great to finish the tour here with full, enthusiastic audiences on Thursday and Friday evening. There was a really lovely atmosphere, and it was so much nicer to put the show to bed in its home space rather than at the other end of the country followed by a huge drive. Equally lovely were the school shows. We haven’t had too many school performances in the past at the Boo, but this was great – 3 full shows, all with very engaged and appreciative students. One group had previously visited during the making of the show, so they had seen the puppets and masks whilst they were being built. It makes so much sense to open up the work that we do in this way to local schools. For a creative teacher, it’s such a great resource.

The end of a tour is always a little bit sad, especially so when the performers have worked together so well. It’s great that everyone is keen to do it again next year. I think we’ve all laid a good enough foundation that the next tour can be just as much fun, and can hopefully reach some new audiences.

And now for Deep Time Cabaret……..

Audience Comments

Some audience comments from the tour;

One of the most beautiful theatrical experiences I've had. Thank you! Talking with every little bit of your body - amazing!
The Royal Exchange

Emotional, I nearly cried. Really creative and inspriring, it was a joy to watch. I really enjoyed it and would love to see some more of your work.
The Rose Theatre, Ormskirk

I absolutley loved the show! The puppets and actors were fanstastic! So emotional, but absolutely breathtaking!
Sherman Cardiff

Brilliant, inventive and sad. Should be more children's theatre like it!
Salisbury Arts Centre

Amazing movement and lyricism. Very touching.
Leeds Carriageworks

Excellent, fabulous, phenomenal! Absolutely beautiful and magic!
The Egg, Bath

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

4 stars and migraines

Well it's been quite a week for Little Leap Forward! We've already had three 4 stars reviews and one near miss. Frances, one of the performers came down with a terrible migraine last Tuesday. I've never had one but i've heard they are horrendously debilitating and this came only an hour before the show was due to start. With no under study available, this meant that there was no way they could go on with the show. Poor old Fran! I can only imagine how bad she must have been feeling. But to add even more pressure to the situation, Vicky Bloor and I had arranged for Lyn Gardner from The Guardian to travel from London to review the show at The Royal Exchange.

It was touch and go for a while and The Royal Exchange and Horse + Bamboo were contemplating the gloomy consequences of not being able to put on the show. Mark (tour manager and performer) rushed to the chemist to get Fran some medicine in order to alleviate her symptoms, I and the rest of the H+B team said a few prayers, and then by some sheer miracle Fran felt a little better and was able to perform. All I can say is - well done to Fran, who is an absolute trooper, and the rest of the cast who put on a great performance and continue to. Click on the link to read Lyn Gardner's review in The Guardian today - http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jun/04/review-little-leap-forward

Alithea - Marketing Manger at Horse + Bamboo Theatre

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

Music Update

Well we have had a week or so of rehearsals, and looked at the whole show in a rough form trying scenes out with the music I have recorded. It seems we are quite well prepared, both in terms of hitting the right mood and the right kinds of lengths of pieces. That said there have been a whole bunch of alterations, about 12 new files are lurking on my USB stick ready to go in to the mac.

The big gap going in to rehearsals was music for much of the red guard scene. Perhaps I was avoiding it having done enough sound tracks to atrocities for Horse + Bamboo: Nazis in 'Company of Angels', rape, refugees and explosions in 'Veil'... Anyway, the cast improvised some very strong scenes which proved inspiring. So the last couple of days I have been pounding away on the synth in marching rhythm and playing about with samples of snare drums and Chairman Mao speeches. We shall see if it hits the nail on the head in the course of this week.

I have also been thinking about other matters, we are planning to make podcast or at least an audio file with interviews on about Little Leap Forward. Today I have been recording Mark, Alison, Bob and myself holding forth about the show.

Loz Kaye

The First Week of Rehearsals

Whilst I've been uploading new web pages for the show onto H+B's site, the Little Leap Forward rehearsals have begun! Mark Whitaker (tour manager and performer), Jonny Quick (technical manager and performer), Frances Merriman, and Nicky Fearn are now in the building going through the first few scenes with Alison and Loz. The mood here is upbeat and there's a renewed sense of energy at the Boo. In fact as I sit here in the animation room writing this, I can hear the sound of running and stomping below me in the theatre space, which is theunmistakeble sound of the cast warming up. As the show opens at The Royal Exchange on 28 May that makes it almost five weeks before opening night.

Last week we had Steff Lee (LLF animator) at the Boo, who made a wonderful three minute film on the Making of Little Leap Forward which features one of the tracks from the music score composed by Loz Kaye, production shots, a sneak peek of the set and some of the puppets and masks that will be used for the show, plus stunning illustrations by Helen Cann from the book, Little Leap Forward - A Boy in Beijing co written by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow.

Alithea

Hi, I’m Jayne and today is my last day of a 2-week internship at Horse + BambooTheatre. What an experience! I suspected during my first visit to “the Boo” last June that the building was a place bustling with a host of various creative goings-on, with everyone involved. It was true. During the past two weeks, it seems the entire company has been literally buzzing with the thrill and excitement only the last few weeks leading to a new production can provide. Working in the shop has felt like being inside one of the special pods where the magic is made.

There seems to be both a heightened focus and increasing anticipation as the makers add those special details to each prop and puppet, and the masks and set move are finalized. Alison shopping for hair for the character “Blue” maks, Bob perfecting his calligraphy on the set of Little Leap Forward’s house, Vanessa working on meticulously cut shadow puppets and Mark finishing the hand puppets… it is such a pleasure to watch this show come together. I really look forward to reading this blog while I am back at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris, imagining how the rehearsals will coming along, the dress rehearsal, and then… opening night! I hope “Little Leap Forward” tours to France one day, but before then I just might have to make a special trip out to see the last showing at Horse + Bamboo's Puppet Festival.

Jayne

Only 2 weeks before rehearsals begin!

The workshop at Horse + Bamboo Theatre has been a hive of activity today! Alison has almost finished all the masks for the show, with just one more red guard to go. Kathy Bradley and Andrew Kim from Thingumajig Theatre have been helping with the rigging of the puppets for the school scene. Bob finished painting the set last week, which is looking fantastic and standing prominantly in the workshop as Little Leap Forward's production team soldier on with rigging, painting and carving puppets for the show.

Last week, Jayne Walling, a physical theatre student who is currently studying at the E'cole Philippe Gaulier in Paris arrived at Horse + Bamboo and is helping Alison with various production aspects of Little Leap Forward. Jane is here to learn about the process of turning a story into a mask theatre production and so far has found the experience amazing.

I had a quick chat with Alison today, who is understandably apprehensive at this stage that all the production elements will fit into place by the time rehearsals begin in just under two weeks. The biggest challenge will be getting all the precise music timings ready for the 8 May, when Guo Yue is coming to the theatre to watch a rehearsal of the show and give his feedback. This puts alot of pressure on the first few weeks of rehearsal. Despite all the usual pressures and restrictions, Alison and the rest of the team are excited about the production and happy that everything is coming together.

Alithea

The Set

It’s time to paint the set. Last week I finished scrimming – pasting muslin over the wood panels. This makes the paint hold better and less subject to scratching when, as inevitably happens, it gets moved between venues and stages. This is a feature of touring theatre – everything has to be built durably, whilst trying to balance that with the weight and size, mindful that the stage panels get carried and moved around on a daily basis. Too heavy and the cast curse the designer; too light and things wobble around on stage and get damaged – and the cast curse the designer.

So, paint to be mixed; ladders in place. Only trouble is I’ve got meetings and other jobs to fit in. It’s the first two days work to get started.

The design of the LLF set is interesting. It’s almost the perfect model set for demonstrating the range of techniques used in our work. Stage left is an area representing the hutongs, the old and characterful courtyards of old Beijing where Guo Yue grew up. This part of the stage is animated by masked performers. Stage right we have two puppet stages, one behind the other. The rear stage is used for hand puppets about a foot (30cm) high; the front stage for table top puppets about 18 inches (45cm) high. This also acts as a ultra-violet stage area for one scene. Then between the two is a screen which is used for back and front projections – both film and animation sequences and live shadow puppetry.

Now I’ve just got to go and do it…

Bob Frith (Artistic Director of Horse + Bamboo Theatre)

Set designer for Little Leap Forward

Puppets and Proofs

My entry will be a short one this week, which is probably representative of how busy we all are at the moment. It's now about 10 weeks until the show goes on tour. Over the past 2 weeks, I've been organising the print for the Little Leap Forward tour which was a lengthy process of finding good images, checking proofs over and over again, changing our minds, sending emails back and forth to the printer, things not looking right, forgetting to credit the right people etc etc. Thankfully, I signed it off today and it had better be perfect when it gets delieved here next week, thats all I can say!

There's alot of Little Leap Forward activity in the building today, there's me here in the animation room setting up a fan page on facebook that you join and keep up to date with LLF tour news. In the meeting room, Loz and Jonny are being trained by Julie Parker, a great freelance technical manager that Horse + Bamboo have worked with in the past. They are having a days training in QLab, a programme which will enable them to integrate the audio visual element of the show with sound and lighting. Loz has been working on editing down all the music he's recorded so far and is deciding on the right piece of music for one of the main scenes of the play - sorry I can't give that away!

Alison and Bob are in workshop. Bob is scrimming the set, so that it will be ready to paint and Alison is currently making 6 puppets for the "School Scene". Vanessa Card ( Puppet & Costume Maker) is in the sewing room producing some minature versions of the costumes for the puppets ( other costumes will be made by Felicia at the Royal Exchange. I have uploaded some of Alison's sketches to give you a flavour of how the costumes will look like.

That's all for today.

Alithea

Loz Kaye - Recording Session With Guo Yue.

On Tuesday it was finally time for the recording session with Yue of his contributions to the music for the show. Right from the outset when Alison, Bob and I met Yue and Clare we were all agreed that the flute playing of the Little Leap Forward character should be done be Yue. Apart from anything, despite my attempts on wind instruments on everything from the Slovak fujara to the euphonium I would not say that playing the Chinese bamboo flute is one of my skills. It seemed most fitting that it should be Yue- after all the play and book are based on his life, and Clare explained there is something very characteristic about his playing, a sense of freedom, fluidity and spontaneity that is unique.

I had been looking forward to this for a while, but was a little nervous too, we had one shot to get what the show needed. There had already been quite a lengthy exchange of emails setting out what we felt we needed for the show and how we work, and reflections from Clare and Yue. And some very helpful advice on types of flutes. He carries a case with a whole family of different sized flutes. So now it was reality rather than theory, and Yue picked me up from the station in leafy Richmond.

The destination was Chris Bemand's studio just outside Richmond which Yue describes as a 'shed'. Sure enough from the outside Chris' studio is in the backgarden of an ordinary house and does look like a rather generous sized place to store gardening equipment. But inside, Tardis like, it contains an impressive array of computers, screens, mixing equipment and so forth.

Chris and Yue work together a lot so that makes the whole process easier. We started out with coffee and tea and just chatted about music for a while. Yue's enthusiasm is infectious and he is generous with his praise. Whilst talking about some of my ideas he responded eagerly 'Very good, very good! Very beautiful!' Chris and I discussed composition, he does a lot of TV which has even stricter boundaries and requirements than theatre. We looked at one of his cartoons on Youtube, and he explained how often in animation you have to change mood second by second. I felt my 30 second blocks to fill for Little Leap Forward are positively luxurious suddenly.

Down to business, and Yue went off in to the recording booth, apparently made out of conservatory doors. The first track to lay down was the sound of a tiny little flute to represent the singing of the bird Little Cloud. In fact the flute was so tiny that it disappeared completely in to his hands while he was playing it. It was this flute that was the original inspiration for the book, so it is fitting that we include it in the soundtrack. Also Alison and I agreed that it is easier to accept a musical sound rather than a sound effect as the voice of a puppet bird. Yue produced a symphony of twitters, chirps and trills.

My only angst about this now is that it needs to be the sound that attracts the Little Leap Forward character in the show to the bird for the story to work. At the moment in the script it says 'her song is incredibly beautiful'. My heart always sinks at stage directions like that, because you have a tall order to live up to, suddenly the sound carries the full weight of the narrative. But I am always up for a challenge.

The next section threw up its own type of challenge, a sequence representing the young Little Leap Forward learning to play the flute. We discussed that we couldn't be too literal about the first stages of starting to play an instrument. Anyone who has been through that knows how excrutiating it can be! There was also the question of what the material should be, I was clear that it should be a revolutionary tune, rather than a traditional one, as this section dovetails in to filmed sequences of red guards and propaganda in the show. We hit on a structure of a tune repeated three times, starting slowly at first and rather breathily, then growing in confidence and elaboration as it went on.

Finally we recorded a sequence for the end of the show, a melody that is described as 'a song from the heart' in the script. This took a while to get to - with Yue taking various pauses to focus and get 'in to the zone' running through the music in his mind. Once the right instrument was found his playing did indeed soar freely, a sound version of all the pictures painted so vividly in the book which is the inspiration for the show. All in all, a great session, and a joy to work with such a talented artist.

Loz Kaye