The Bodyguard Week 3 – The First Full Run
Day 1 Monday
I’m feeling ready for another week. My body feels great after a full day of rest and I also took myself to the chiropractor this morning for some maintenance.
Today we are learning the final dance number…yippeeee. I cannot wait until all of the choreography has been learnt. Everyone is on stage for this, there are a lot of bodies but again, the energetic buzz outweighs the amount of traffic I must retain. I’m having a blast. I have a dear friend in the cast – Lachlan Martin – who is an actor in the show, we have very few moments together and are the most unlikely pair to land a show together, ( I am just under 5 foot tall and he is over 6 foot) but for this number we are on stage together and having a wonderful time! Those rare moments when you land a show with one of your ‘peoples,’ is heaven.
We finished the number…sigh of relief.
Day 2 Tuesday
Again, everyone is in the room and there’s such a great vibe. We start layering up with choreography to clean vocals and harmonies then the creatives start encouraging as much performance level as possible. It’s getting real.
I’m personally trying to lock away lyrics and harmonies with spacing and making sure I’m not repeating mistakes, creating good habits. There’s a lot of cleaning and repetition going on to build stamina as a company.
Day 3 Wednesday
Today we are staging some scenes that the ensemble play minor roles in. It was great to have some time with our director and have some fun with character work. As a swing I am just observing and taking notes and focusing on the boundaries and overall intention of the scene. This means when I’m required to go on for an ensemble member I can have the right intentions and be serving the correct focus of the scene but bring my own individuality and character to it. This was a nice light day.
Day 4 Thursday
Another day of dance. One of the BV (backing vocal) ladies is in another rehearsal for her lead covers, so this gives me a chance to start plotting her positions etc. If I’m honest I’m a bit all over the place. Coming from a dance background, sometimes it’s easier to learn lots of hectic choreography rather than little bits of specific movement here and there. However I realise I have neglected these two BV plots, and as they are first covers I’m glad this happened so I can get on top of the precision of their positions. Luckily we are working with the young actors playing Fletcher, so I’m having ample opportunity to get it in my body as we repeat for each child. Note to self ; I have a lot of holes in my plot sheets. In the afternoon we have a scheduled stagger through act one, super exciting.
The script that we are working with has had some re writes by the film writers so it’s great to see that the international creatives are as excited and intrigued as us to see it all in order. This is also when I start plotting my lead cover as it’s the first chance I’ve had to see most of the scene work that’s involved with her track. It’s a busy, exciting, productive afternoon. In the evening I did a lot of rewriting of stuff at home to make sense of my notes. The work never ends.
Day 5 Friday
I’m feeling good after doing some work at home last night, woke up feeling on top of it. I have a scheduled costume fitting first thing this morning which is always exciting but leaves me feeling overwhelmed as the ball keeps rolling and elements are being added every day, we will blink and it will be opening night…stressed !!
One of the BV ladies is again in a cover call allowing me the chance to step into her plot… gold. Then the covers of the lead female then have a makeup trial and wig fitting, so exciting. We get a sneak at the shows wig design for the ensemble… Can’t wait! We continue to run lines as we sit there, getting our hair preparation for the wigs done. I wonder aloud why we are doing this all this, so Frank our director then talks us through the filming which will take place next week for the audio visual element of the show. All the covers for the two leads are involved in the filming (hence the makeup, hair and costume day). I give myself a few moments to enjoy this process instead of worrying about all the ensemble stuff. If I don’t give myself a chance to enjoy it…what am I doing it for ?
We then move onto a run of Act 2 which was awesome – again a chance to plot covers and see the arc of the show. Our leads are seriously phenomenal. After the run I have a chat to ‘Team – Amy’ (Amy Thornton our Assistant choreographer and Amy Campbell our Australian Resident Choreographer) about a few things that I have yet to work out and my concerns heading into tech week. These ladies are so great and they too agree that we may need time to talk through some stuff. I believe keeping the lines of communication in a role like this is paramount, we are all a team as a company and as we work together we can create a and successful swing team.
Day 6 Saturday, no longer a half day, a full day !!
This morning prior to rehearsals I meet Amy Campbell for a coffee and de brief and to chat about Stage Write. Stage Write is a Theatre Swing/ Director/ Choreographer designed app to plot out shows. I recently purchased and downloaded it which means Amy and I can share info and be on the same page, also it will mean I can clean up notes etc and have them all in one place as we tour across the country. I’m excited about this, I have heard people love it and hadn’t yet had a chance to use it.
In morning rehearsals we do some notes and clean up etc before going for a run. Yay first full run of the show.
I take today to enjoy and see it as a whole and as I reflect, I am so proud to be a part of this show, it is so beautifully written and directed and I can’t wait for audiences to see the undiscovered actress that is Paulini!! I’m so looking forward to having the blessing of hearing her sing everyday too.
Gonna take some rest over the weekend (rest as in: sit at a cafe, drink coffee all day and go over stuff) as we head into filming and tech next week, 4 days left in the rehearsal studio…eeeek.
Talk next week people, keep checking in with me as we head into production week with things you would love to know.
Get lots of sleep and drink good coffee,
Warmest, Bree
You can follow Bree on Twitter: @breeadelle or Instagram: bree2410
The Bodyguard opens at Sydney Lyric Theatre on April 21 before continuing to Brisbane and Melbourne. For more information and Tickets visit: thebodyguardmusical.com.au
