THE ORDINARY THINGS AROUND US

Simple, cheap, great rehearsal ideas

I was running rehearsals via Zoom from New Zealand on a TV series in the UK. We had 3 days of rehearsal. One big empty rehearsal room. No access to locations. Limited availability with the cast. Isn't this always the way?

So, we made best use of the ordinary things around us, to great effect.

PORTAPOTTY

There was a kitchen area in the rehearsal room. There was a front door and a flight of stairs. There was a table and there were some chairs. And there was a sizeable Portaloo/Portapotty in the warehouse space outside the main room.

We had a new young cast member who was quite shy. So, first-up we used the Portapotty as the location for an improvisation. We went into the spacious portapotty and checked it out. We looked around at what we could use in there, the mirror, handbasin, the soap, the door, the lock... And we gave our young cast member the challenge of locking himself in there, in character, and refusing to come out. The actress playing his mum and the young actor playing his bud…