Getting Long Day's Journey Into Night ready for opening night
Assistant Director George Nichols reflects on the final few days of Long Day's Journey Into Night rehearsals:
At the time of writing, it is the day of our first preview,
after having completed our technical rehearsal and two dress rehearsals. As
this will (probably) be my last blog for this production I thought I’d talk
about how everything comes together, and talk about some of the work that goes
on in the build up to our opening night.
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| Production photography by Tim Morozzo |
The work in the auditorium begins long before the cast and
director arrive. While rehearsals are ongoing, the technical staff here set
about turning Tom Piper’s design into a reality from technical drawings and of
course, the model box. For those that don’t know a model box is a model of the
final design but at a 1/25 ratio, so is basically a much smaller version of the
set. This allows production team and the company to see what the set will
eventually look like.
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| Production photography by Tim Morozzo |
The set design is complimented by the lighting. While the
set design is likely to be fairly final going into rehearsals, the lighting
design is more flexible and created in response to not only the set and costume
design, but the action too. As BrÃd, who
plays Mary Tyrone, noted: you know things are getting serious when the
lighting designer is sitting in rehearsals. Lighting is always important, but
it has an added significance in Long Day’s Journey because of James Tyrone’s
relationship to the electric lights in his house, and also because we know from
biographies about O’Neill that he had a particular interest in theatre
lighting. Ben Ormerod’s lighting design does an excellent job of working with
the set to accentuate important elements of the play. For example, this
production plays with who you can see and when, and what members of the family
do and don’t hear of each other’s conversations. By highlighting the stairs
when someone is sat there, with a murky light, for example, Ben’s design helps
us to tell the story of the play.
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| Production photography by Tim Morozzo |
Another element that is built through rehearsals is the
sound design. In our team we have Matt Padden, who is working on the
atmospheric soundscape in the play, and Claire McKenzie, who is the composer of
the music that features in the production. This has been another quite flexible
element of the production, and something that we’ve been playing with
throughout rehearsals. Even in previews we will be tweaking what you hear when
in order to tell the story more effectively. A lot of thinking goes into when
the best time to hear a fog horn might be, or which parts of the play have
underscoring.
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| Production photography by Tim Morozzo |
These two weeks are when everything comes together, everyone
is working through the day and into the night (remind you of anything) in order
to make the production the best it can possibly be. As we move away from the
technical rehearsal and into the dresses and previews, the focus is once again
on the actors. After each run Dominic notes the cast and we work bits in the
space, tweaking things ever so slightly and then noting the effect they have on
the audience. This work is about subtle changes and little tweaks, in order
that all of the different elements of our production may be balanced perfectly.
Supported by Friends of the Citizens
By arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited
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