Backstage blog from the Production Department

5 October 2010

Bear has just streaked past my office in that busy way that Bear does, always up to something, always with something to do, always with somewhere to go, always eager to please. Bear is Hedda’s (the Artistic Director) dog and certainly embodies the spirit of The Watermill.

I see the RSC as a champion Afghan, beautiful, expensive and requiring lots of attention. Hence a lop eared mutt of dubious origin more than embodies The Watermill.

This week our team split with one half headed up by A J (our Company Manager) busying around from place to place with the Spend Spend Spend! tour. Not long after the articulated lorry left us with the set on board, reports started to come back. Yes the set/sound/lights all went in technically and the show was well received but just as importantly for the technical team, people were pleased to have The Watermill back. It is hard work and long hours but the willing and enjoyable attitude travels with our shows and other theatres appreciate that and kindly let us, back at base, know.

Meanwhile here, Emily is leading the team, as tenaciously as Bear who continues to hover around doors until someone lets him in to get that special morsel of cat food he knows is left in a bowl. Watermill supporters, the Puxley family, the Fabers and the Hungerford Emporium have been similarly stalked for set dressings for Single Spies. But again people have contacted us to say they don’t mind having their homes stripped of possessions when it’s done in such a nice way! The show has just opened and looks magnificently opulent and, technically, another “phew” moment. Come and see the show and I’ll tell you how we achieved it in next month’s blog.

But just like Bear we can’t stop busying around; a stage is being built in the rehearsal room for the Hamlet tour, which starts next week, and in the Sackler studio the old Gulliver’s Travels furniture is transforming into Bullets and Beetroot Lips. The main workshop is concentrating on Treasure Island – the design for this has got everyone here very excited. We are like a dog with two tails!