Music, movement and magic – Week 1 of rehearsals for The Secret Adversary

16 January 2015

Hello! I’m Holly, the assistant director on The Secret Adversary. Here is my summary of week one in rehearsals.

We began on Monday morning with a ‘Meet and Greet’, involving the whole theatre, at which we democratically agreed on how to pronounce the word ‘Adversary’. One decision made… tick.

Swiftly after, it was straight to work for the company. Sarah Punshon (Director) had asked us all to bring in facts relating to the time in which our characters lived – things that they would have read about in the newspapers. The first thing we noted was how much happened in the first twenty years of the twentieth century. From inventions, to revolution, to war; it was a time of secrecy and scandal with uncertainty of what the future held.

The cast began rehearsals with musical director, Alex Silverman. We started with the opening number, ‘Look for the Silver Lining’. There was, however, no need to look for the silver lining as the cast took to the song vocally and with instruments in record time. It’s worth mentioning that most of the cast play at least two instruments in this number alone. It’s very impressive.

Added to this was the impressive 1920s-inspired choreography of Lucy Cullingford. Lucy taught the cast the Charleston, a few variations of the grapevine and the Suzie Q, to name but a few. (There were many more, the names of which escape me. Suffice to say they’re joyous.)

Next up was some magic, courtesy of John Bulleid (AKA ‘Magic John). We learnt a number of intricate tricks, none of which I can explain to you. #MagicCircle.

To complete week one, movement director John Nicholson has provided us with vital choreography to help navigate the space, clowning techniques and lessons in how to successfully fall off a chair.

I am genuinely amazed by the amount of information Sarah and the cast have absorbed this week. It is the busiest and most cheerful rehearsal room that I have ever been in. There is a very exciting combination of talent contributing to this production. It’s shaping up to be a jolly good show, dash it all!

Holly Mazur
Assistant Director