Last week we had the pleasure of being the first artists to work in the new mac building in Birmingham's Cannon Hill Park. Although the whole centre doesn't open to the public until 1st May we spent a week christening the making/rehearsal spaces at mac.
We felt very priviledged - what an incredible building!
Working with Sara Kewly, Greg Hobbs and Chris Gunter our aims were to make headway with the narrative (which was quite muddled in our outdoor showing in November), to work out if the show could work as an indoor show, and to make a 20 minute extract for BiteSize.
Quite a lot to try and achieve, but as a group of theatre makers we all like knuckling down, so by the end of the week we have concluded that: it can work indoors, we have a much stronger shaped show with clear intentions for each character that play through, and we've made our extract.
On Friday afternoon we showed the extract to 8 members of mac staff. Even in a very light rehearsal room with no design, the performacne has a very palpable atmosphere and drive. I'm really looking forward to seeing it on the stage at Warwick when we can use some theatre lighting to ramp up the atmosphere.
You can see the extract of The Woods on 6th March as part of the BiteSize Festival