Yesterday was the last day that we had in the large movement room at the RSAMD so it was one of our final chances to really get stuck into these three big boxes that we have and the different possibilities that they present. This little video shows some of the movement sequences in their basic forms as we work through them, the first is attempting to show the train that takes Mother Maria, and hundred of others, to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp and the second one is a rough draft of a sequence where Mother Maria is smothered by attempting to 'mother the whole world'. These are still in development and will of course change over time (we still have another 4 weeks of rehearsal left) but are indicative or where we are just now.
We found some really interesting information about the ceremony that Mother Maria undertook to become a nun and we have tried to bring an element of that to the piece:
Next week we shall really be focusing on the text and bringing out the different challenges that Mother Maria faces, for a woman who helped so many people it is striking how she really struggles to keep her own family together, her battles with husband Daniel are the most striking:
But for a play based in such a miserable time and place we have really been working on bringing out the joy in a number of scenes. Maria's sister, Sasha is a very optimistic person and always brings a ray of sunshine to the stage, until things get so bad that even she can't cope anymore.
Today we tried some of our movement sequences based on music written by our director Andrew McGregor, it's pretty bombastic sounding but really seems to capture the mood we're after. The music depicts Mother Maria trying to help those affected y the German occupation of Paris, but she struggles and is simply overwhelmed by the needy, and though she never gives up she decides that she needs to rest just for a couple of days, and this brings her back to her ex-husband Daniel's farm.
Today was mainly spent moving boxes! We are looking at how we can create fairly abstract movement sequences to show the outside world behind the story. The play is mainly about family and whilst the scenes reference the huge events of the time they only really work as a backdrop, through the movement sequences we hope to be able to try and give a clearer impression of this. It's early days yet, and this kind of thing can get left behind in the rehearsal room, but it's always worth a try!
Things are rolling along very well in rehearsal. Today we looked at the section where Liza becomes a nun and takes the name Mother Maria - what jokingly refer to as Liza's 'Nunification'. She was a Russian Orthodox Christian, thankfully there is a church in Glasgow so we are going to pop along and speak to the Priest there who shall hopefully give us some great insights into the religion and their way of doing things.
This photo shows Andy (Daniel - Liza's husband) and Pola (Sasha, her sister) having a little dance in the kitchen. The play is mainly seen through Daniel's eyes, and though he is powerless to stop the steam-roller that is Mother Maria, he does his best to try.
You can check out more pics from the rehearsals today here.
Today was the first day of rehearsal. We started off by looking at our set (3 large wooden boxes) and seeing what kinds of shapes we could use and we got some pretty interesting ideas. The play moves through time and space very quickly and an easily manoeuvrable set will allow us to quickly change the place of action.
We spent a lot of time today on the opening section of the play, looking at the relationships between the characters and any challenges that this brought up. It was fairly slow moving but we have the luxury of an extended rehearsal process so can spend the time on getting the details right, which is nice.
Welcome to the blog for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama's premiere production of Mother Maria by Ann-Marie Di Mambro directed by Andrew McGregor. We start rehearsals this coming week and you will be able to follow the process of the creation of the piece with thoughts from the actors, playwright and director all on this blog.
Here are the five wonderful actors who will be performing in this 1930s-40s period piece based on the unbelievable life of Mother Maria (born Maria Skobtsova)
To find out more about this extraordinary woman then please have a look at her her wikipedia page here. We have been working on the creation of this play for around 6 months and we are still finding out fascinating facts about Mother Maria and her family.
There is information about the playwright here and you can investigate the work of the director on his own website here.
