A little idea has been brewing in the lead up to our get-in at Theatre on the Square this Sunday... to grow the stage design for 'Sunday Morning.' It started on our kitchen chalk board (which usually holds the often ignored shopping list - eee)...
The wonderful Alastair Findlay, our designer, came over last night... and now it is on paper. Roll on Sunday... when there will be more... The joy of collaboration. The evolution of design.
Yesterday we brought two new friends for our lounge. Yay. and Yay. The night before last we were wondering past a shop in Parktown North for Sushi and seemingly as though through the shop window came... psst. hey psst. you. yes you. We stopped. We looked. We listened. And the next morning here they were. xx
This afternoon I had a meeting with the wonderful technical crew and the dynamic Daphne Kuhn at Old Mutual Theatre on the Square... Such inspired enthusiasm to make the work the best it can be. I am very excited for Monday a week when we get into the theatre.
Last night we did our first performance of 'Sunday Morning' to a theatre packed to the rafters with 200 odd teenage girls and boys! How scary.... as part of the St Anne's cultural week... my heart was pounding and I had to concentrate to steady my hands so as to hit 'play' properly - up in the tech box - never mind being on stage. Full of nerves for how these kids would respond to our work - which does not have them as the primary target audience... but much to our delight - they roared with laughter and rose to their feet and whooped for the wonderfully brilliant James Cuningham!
This morning as the mist rolled in and I gave a physical characterisation workshop to a group of about 19 Grade 11 drama students... it was somewhat intimidating for about 5 minutes... teenage girls are scary... and then it was a whole load of fun. 
The view from the restaurant above the stage of part of our design... A semi circle of broken newspaper trailing the front row of fab red theatre chairs. The food was amazing. The company rocked. And James was so great. Moments of play - venturing into new territory. It was such fun to be audience... Tonight is the last night... Sunday Morning at Kalk Bay. Yay. 
We arrived in Cape Town last night for the end or our Kalk Bay Theatre run of Sunday Morning... Red wine, old friends and long chats into the night... to be greeted this this morning by a glorious Cape Town winters day filled with coffee, sushi and salty air. 
Today snow fell in Joburg covering the streets and the playgrounds in a thin white blanket... I gave a workshop to the Kingsmead junior drama club... Which ended in 'musical snow flakes' as the real thing drifted gently down through the window! 
Around this time last year I was in Cape Town for a run of Dirt at the Baxter theatre... In that time we visited Janni Younge at Handspring Puppet Company... And banging away in the workshop were stax of super talented people creating the stars of the show War Horse... all headed for Toronto... If I remember rightly. And we were just in time... They were about to be packed in large crates labelled fragile and shipped off. What a luck. 
Chilling out at Arts on Main eating falafel and cheese cake and a text comes in from the oh-so brilliant Christine Skinner... We're in the Sunday Times with a lovely review. My favourite bit 'Its about moving on... recognsing the small child that was once - and sometimes still is - at our core.' Hey. Also my first photo credit... Very excited.
'Wooden Cows' ... A new story waiting in the wings. We saw these figurines in Weylandts and had to buy them for a play I wrote some years ago... that has not yet stepped out. So now they sit and look at us from the mantelpiece patiently waiting. 
The final step on the mask making journey at Helikos International Theatre School earlier this year... Larval masks. From very little to very large. A family is born. Barbara Kysela and mini Barbara Kysela. 
