Behind The Scenes Of The Secret Garden Extract From Lisa Blair Assistant Director 'The Secret Garden'

25.11.09

It's the third day of the technical rehearsals and everything has been going really well. We have been working fantastically well together and it is making the process a very enjoyable experience!
A lot of the garden scenes in the second half of the play have been worked on and they are looking utterly magical. The lighting designer has been using lots of colours and even templates (trees, leaves, patterns etc) to create a very special secret garden.

The actors are having a brilliant time on stage and are getting used to the two different revolve mechanisms that make up the stage. These revolves are fantastically imaginative and have allowed the whole company to work in wonderfully new and exciting ways. We are really making sure that the revolve moves are timed perfectly so that the scenes can flow easily into one another – just like the four seasons we have in the play.

On the musical side of things, the sound is being perfected by the fantastic sound department – all the actors are wearing radio mics which means that they can be heard really easily throughout the whole of the auditorium. It also means that their singing is heard crystal clear too. Steve Ridley, the Music Director is looking forward to tomorrow (along with everyone else!), because the orchestra/band are in rehearsals. This will be super exciting because it will be the second time that the actors have rehearsed their songs with the band and it will be the first time that they have rehearsed on stage, with the musicians and the light… So, it will certainly be a big day!!