by Barry » Sat Jun 29, 2013 8:18 pm
Saturday 29th June
Well any interesting week......we lost our internet at work yesterday and all of us in the production office were on edge and tense. And on Thursday I was without my mobile for the whole day as the screen was replaced. And I was agitated. Of course, the millions of phone calls I thought I would have missed did not happen. How did we get so dependent on such things - terrifying, and not a good thing to witness.
The end of term feeling on the set continues, and have to keep everyone going in this last stint. We have ten weeks left, and who knows what can happen, but I keep seeing various members of the crew lurking in corners on the phone, seeing what's around. I maybe one of them. After the glut of stop motion features last year, this year is barren. Can't grumble though as nearly two years directing a big, fun series is one hell of a stint these days. and I have a wonderful roof garden to show for it.
Well I could soon have a lot of time on my hands. Not only if the series finishes but I have made the reluctant but necessary decision to leave the Garrick. It has been an almost daily part of my life for the last twelve years, and beyond, and I have so enjoyed directing plays there, and really some of my best work in any media has been there.....Quartet and Glorious I think, but the time has come to at least have a sabbatical. The Garrick is an efficient, rather amazing venue, testament to a lot of people giving so much, but it is resolutely stuck in a box, (thanks to commercial needs, audience, tradition and other more human factors) and I have never, ever been one to be in a box. I have thought outside said box since I was knee high to a grass hopper. My efforts to stimulate and excite and challenge and be innovative are not what the Garrick are about. It could be. And probably needs to be, and maybe with the new artistic director it will limp in that direction, and I will regret leaving. But if I can't contribute there's no reason for me to be there. I am not going to reproduce safe copies of other productions, nor am I going to be belittled. There are some bright sparks still there who have yet to be extinguished.......and as the theatre motto suggests, I hope the flame will still burn in their hands....as it were. I'm going crazy with metaphors here. I shall miss the place, and miss the rehearsals, the community, but I was frustrated. I'd written out the application form for the Artistic Director, and it is certainly a job that I could have done and transformed that place into something vibrant, friendly and culturally exciting - a place where people would like to be, which could equate to being profitable. This would have meant uncomfortably challenging life long habits, and 'that's the way it has always been' . Noses would have been put out of joint, as they will anyway, but there we go. But I suspect I would not even have been given a chance to put my myriad of ideas forward. I seriously thought of giving up my animation life, as the theatre would have been a full time job. I am going to do Hitchcock blonde in the studio, but where now to get my fix of directing theatre. On many occasions The Garrick has provided the artistic satisfaction that sometimes animation has not. The Garrick has the potential to be one truly amazing place, and so many people put so much effort and time and talent into it. It is an extraordinary building, with enviable facilities, full of some hard working talented people, and oh those Monday night audiences, but it is not what it could be. Yet.
So suddenly, with the series winding down, the book almost finished and the Garrick gone, my head is a huge echoing cavern. And as I am incapable of being able to sit and relax, I'm certainly ready to get fired up, as only Dr P knows how. Bring it on.
I know, I'll do a production of Twelfth Night on my new roof terrace, under the stars. Oh hang on.......