Globe Education Online

This is the fifth bulletin from Tim, he talks about Tech week at the Globe, opening night and press night.

Tech Week

Tech week here is different to working in a conventional theatre because there is no lighting or sound, and those are the things in technical week that usually take up all the time. Here there is a lot about the musicians, and we changed a lot of entrances and exits. It was certainly an opportunity for Thea [Sharrock, director] to redirect a few things, once she’d seen it up on stage. The actual technical aspects are fairly straightforward here, there is not an awful lot to be done, it is more a question of us getting used to the space. It is a huge leap for someone who hasn’t worked here before. I can’t really remember much else, tech week was a bit of a blur!

First Night

The first performance was just an extraordinary thing. It feels like quite a big place when you are in there and it’s empty, but when you walk on to that stage to a full audience, it closes in on you. I don’t know how many people we can get in for this because of the number of groundlings that have been lost due to the staging, but it must be over 1500, and everyone seems so close! In a normal theatre you can’t really see people’s faces, you can just sort of see smudges where their faces are. But here, you look at people and there is a person looking right back at you - everywhere, 1500 of them! It is quite an extraordinary thing, a bit of a shock, but a really nice one.

Press Night

Press night is part and parcel of the job but I get very nervous and for some reason it gives me the absolute holy terrors! I just get so frightened. You feel like your heart is going to leap out of your chest and you’d rather be anywhere else in the world! But that’s just adrenaline. On press night you get lots of people coming – friends, family, press. people who want to be impressed! So there is a funny febrile atmosphere that is different to any other night. But I think it went well, and obviously once it starts I don’t feel so nervous, it’s just the build up that’s bad. I don’t read the press particularly, but you know that the next day it’s going to be in the papers and people are going to read it.

I have a policy on reviews – if someone sends me a text to say “By the way, I think you should go out and buy the Guardian” then I will. If not, then I won’t! If I don’t hear anything from anybody then I start to worry. But they’ve been good for this one!

These comments are the actor's thoughts and ideas about the part as s / he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his / her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsals progress.

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