The Courage to move

The NAC acting company and the production crew from our production of Mother Courage and her Children have been in Winnipeg for a few days now.  We are setting up the show for its run here, which opens on Thursday.

I love taking a show to a new theatre: in some ways it feels like doing the same thing over again, and in other ways it feels like an entirely new enterprise.  The set arrived last week, while we were on hiatus, and our stage manager, assistant director, and some key crew people worked for a few days before the actors’ arrival to get things set up.  It’s not quite as simple as just putting the set on the stage: every theatre auditorium is different, and every sound system and lighting grid is different.  Sound levels have to be recalibrated for the new theatre, and some lights have to be moved to accommodate the overhead grid (arrangement of “pipes” from which lighting instruments are hung).

For the acting company, the biggest differences lie in working with a new running crew (we have different techs here: lighting and sound operators, stagehands, wardrobe personnel and assistants) and in getting used to a new backstage layout.  On stage, the production looks almost exactly the same; backstage, the exits are different, the layout of the space is different, and the acoustics are different.  So we’re doing a few days of rehearsal here to adjust to everything.  Yesterday we managed to work through the entire production with full tech, including the logistics for quick changes and having the cart moved around the stage by crew who haven’t had the benefit of our three weeks’ practice on stage in Ottawa.  Today we have a media call, a review of some tricky scene and set changes, and tonight we have a dress rehearsal that will be very smooth — in contrast to the dress rehearsal in Ottawa.

Winnipeg has welcomed us all openly, and we are getting our bearings in the city.  We’re looking forward to a great run here, even though it’s February in Winnipeg.