Henry VI rehearsals online RSC

[lynette]

Anyone else having a looksee at these? I didn't realise that the actors would be so full on even reading the scripts. Is that what it is always like? I would have thought it was damaging to the voice and also would get you stuck into one way of saying a line. Please enlighten me, guys. 
I have seen a few manifestations of this particular beauty of a play and it is really hard to make engaging. You really need the visuals to convey status and age etc. Guys in rehearsal clothes, ie their own clothes and women playing male characters makes it even trickier to work out what the hell is going on. Longing for a bit of chain mail.....

[cavocado]

I didn't know this was available and have just signed up. I'm very interested in seeing what the rehearsal process is like, so thanks for posting. I think I've only seen this play once, probably 20+ years ago, so maybe I need to re-read before watching...

[lynette]

I’m popping in and out. I have to tell you that the green room chat from Thursday is both funny and illuminating: Greg Doran explains with photos the lineage of the royals in the period of the Henry plays. Never seen it done better but even Greg is having to work very hard at it! One thing it makes clear is that the York claim is better . Shakespeare does address this and I wonder how the contemporary audience felt about it.

[cavocado]

I've watched a few short bits and am finding it really interesting. I'll look up the Thursday chat. I think this is just the kind of thing the RSC should be doing - it's a really good way of giving more insight into the process of putting on a play, as well as more background info on understanding the plays.

[danielwhit]

I tried to pay up for it yesterday but the website wasn't having it. Am I right in saying all streams are available to watch on demand for the next couple of weeks?

Seems a brilliant way to show us all much more of the rehearsal room and process. Very impressed by the concept.

[oxfordsimon]

It would have been a great project if it was leading up to a full production.

Getting an understanding of rehearsals, design, set, lighting and all the other processes would be really instructive.

But no. They get it wrong again.

Audiences are being denied a chance to see an entertaining history play with some great characters.

The RSC has theatres standing empty. It has technicians and creatives gagging to get stuck in.

Seeing behind the scenes is great. I have loved my time backstage in Stratford. But the project should have been tied to a full production.

A major lost opportunity in so many ways.

Doran must go.

[cavocado]

I agree with that, oxfordsimon. There seems no logic in just rehearsing, and no excuse for not using those theatres when others are re-opening all over the country. As one of the two highest-profile subsidised theatre companies, the RSC should be up there leading the pack, taking part in the cultural recovery process.

But, it's still an interesting process to watch for an outsider, even if weirdly abortive as a project.

I'm not a regular at Stratford, but the opportunity to watch the rehearsal process online and then go to see the result would definitely have sold me a ticket. I'd have probably stayed overnight, eaten in a restaurant or two, and maybe seen a second show while I was there. The business owners and workers of Stratford must be furious with the RSC's inertia, as well as its own employees and freelancers.

[Jan]

I don’t see why they couldn’t have run it for a while in their new outdoor theatre - they’ve got Comedy of Errors scheduled in there throughout July, August and September, surely they’ll exhaust the available audience for that ? I might have gone up there to see Henry VI Pt 1 as it is very rarely staged uncut.

[NeilVHughes]

Would also have gone to see it, the RSC have a duty to put on the rarely produced plays, a missed opportunity as this is one which is rarely produced in full and they are planning to do II and III in the near future.

[lynette]

Yep, all on the same page here. I would have liked a proper prod and outside in the new set up would have been v attractive. History in the afternoon and comedy at night..so to speak. I’m trying to quite a musical thing here, help me out.. anyway, lost opp as we say,

[lynette]

Jun 5, 2021 21:20:31 GMT danielwhit said:

I tried to pay up for it yesterday but the website wasn't having it. Am I right in saying all streams are available to watch on demand for the next couple of weeks?

Seems a brilliant way to show us all much more of the rehearsal room and process. Very impressed by the concept.

Yes it is all there if you get in. 

[Jan]

Miles Jupp no longer in the Comedy of Errors cast I see. Have they entirely re-cast it ?

[TallPaul]

Is that your Frankie Howerd impression, lynette, in A Funny Thing Happened...?