First Rehearsal

Hello all,

Just a reminder that our first rehearsal will be on Thursday, 22 February at the Town Hall in Islington from 6-9pm in Room 5. We will be doing some acting and voice warmups with Noel and Bruce as well as working individually and in pairs on your individual monologues.

In addition to preparing for our monologues, we will also be working together to create our final Islington V-Day Mission and discuss Vagina Warriors and ideas about how we can celebrate them in our show. Please read the information posted on our V-Day blog and look through the documents linked in that post as well to gain a background of Vagina Warriors. I will be reading one of the essays Eve wrote at our rehearsal to kick start our discussion.

Please eat prior to attending the rehearsal or bring your food with you. You will have some time at the beginning of our evening to eat your dinner, while we discuss. This will also be the plan for our second rehearsal but for our final dress rehearsal, dinner and drinks will be provided.

Tech Update: some of us met at the venue on Monday, 13 February, to discuss the layout of our show. Noel is looking into getting red fabric for both sides of the stage, to be hung from the ceiling. He is also organising lights and the sound system. Ayanna will assist Noel with lights and sound. The actors will sit in rows on each side, creating a V-Formation. Maria will be looking into music to be played prior to the show during a slide/projector presentation on the back wall of the stage. This presentation will have pictures, artwork and facts relating to our campaign and local population. Erin will provide a disc with the slide show used in her Japan show last year and we can add as we see fit. Maria is also looking into designing/creating a vagina for the entrance door into our performance room. Actors will wear black with red accents. We will discuss developing character costumes and makeup during rehearsals. Ayanna is looking into the possibility of a friend with a van helping out to pick up and return the lights and sound equipment. Any others who have a driver and large vehicle please let me know in case we need a backup. Harriet is organising the bar and refreshments for our performance, both of our partners, Ali and Ros, will be running the bar. Maria and a friend will also help out as needed.

Ticket Sales: flyers and booking forms will go out this week by email. Harriet is working on the design of the flyer. There will be a ticket sales contact (still to be confirmed) as well as two dates which we will sell tickets from the Central Library so that individuals will be able to buy tickets in person. There will be 220 seats. Each member of our V-Team will have two tickets each reserved for family/friends to purchase, the price will be a donation on a sliding scale from £5-15, using gift aid. If these tickets are not bought by 8 March, they will be available for the public to purchase. If you have more than two seats you'd like to extend to those you know, encourage your family and friends to buy tickets as soon as possible to ensure they get a seat.

Cast List Updates: There are a few women who have joined our team late and they will be taking a small speaking part in one of the lists. These updates will be finalised by our first rehearsal. I will send you an individual email if your additional speaking parts have been modified. Remember, there will be opportunity to read extra once we have decided on the v-facts we will add to our script, which will be for the second rehearsal.

V-Challenge: I want to remind each of you of the challenge I gave you at the auditions. Remember that for our final dress rehearsal you will be encouraged to share your 'challenge' with the rest of the team. The challenge is this: throughout our v-day campaign leading up to our production, reflect on your journey with v-day and why you are here to take part in our production. Write or create your own monologue to be shared with the group that comes from this reflection. This could be something you write or perform, a drawing, photo, sculpture, etc: anything that expresses your feelings, and experience with v-day or why you decided to take part in v-day. If you would like to read what I wrote last year for myself, then please visit here: I am creating something new for this year's experience and production.

You will also be encouraged to put these on display at a table at our show which will be created to show those that attend our production our journey as a team with V-Day. Erin will be taking photos throughout our rehearsals to be a part of this display, which will also include our V-Day Islington Mission and any other artifacts we feel would be helpful to share. You will not be required to put your reflections on display, but are welcome to. However, I do hope that many, if not all of you, will be able to share your 'challenge' with the rest of the team for our final rehearsal.

Rehearsals: Remember, you must attend every rehearsal to take part in the production. There are a couple of you that have already spoken to me about dates you are unable to make it and we agreed upon this prior to creating the rehearsal dates. Otherwise, I should see everyone there. Noel and Bruce will not be attending our second rehearsal but I have a couple of others that may be helping in warm-ups, this will also be the rehearsal we do the first run through of the entire script. The workshop on 17th March led by Noel and Bruce is not required, but recommended.

See you all on Thursday, and if all goes as planned, you will have received the ticket flyer and booking form prior to then to pass on to everyone you know!

Have a good week,

Kara