The Real Thing

It's been quite a dramatic week so far. Monday and Tuesday were largely occupied with a Camp for our drama guys, centred around rehearsing for a performance coming this Saturday at Jurong Library. We're doing a sort of repeat of No Parking On Odd Days, which comprised half of our July show, but with quite a few changes in the ensemble. We're also dumbing it down somewhat, aiming for a sort of children-friendly version since we often get kids in our Library audiences.

Rehearsals continued this afternoon and we'll be putting the finishing touches to No Parking v2 on Friday afternoon. And here's the thing: wouldn't you think you'd get a bit bored of working on something like this for as long as we have? Yet I find myself utterly engrossed in every run of the piece we do, despite knowing exactly what to expect.

But there's the rub, of course. It's never the same. The differences are not necessarily particularly marked ones, and casual viewers might feel it is the same, time after time. But when you're as close to the play as we are, in a kind of absolute focus, a difference in intonation, a new rhythm to a line, a gesture that wasn't there before, a facial expression that's somehow more right than what you've become used to, and it all seems to change.

Much as I enjoy watching great acting in movies or on the telly, it seems so limited compared to the real, live, vulnerable, thing.