June 02nd, 2016

‘The Black Hoods Cabaret’ gets a deep clean from Will
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The 3rd collaborator joined us in rehearsals today, Will Aubrey Jones, who is very familiar with the show has seen it develop over two years and witnessed many audience reactions to it. So it is very beneficial to get him involved as he observes what works best with audiences and what works least.

We began by running through the show and stopping at any point where the puppetry needed tightening up again. From performing the same show many times we had become slightly lazy/tired with some areas of puppetry and it had lost it’s precision. So we went back to the beginning blocks and found the breath, weight and focus of the puppet. This was incredibly helpful in maintaining high quality of puppetry.

Will also focused on the visuals, physical comedy, transitions and timing/pace of the piece. ‘The Black Hoods Cabaret’ is chaotic and loud however we want to make sure it has a dynamic narrative coloured with moments of both bedlam and serenity. As both myself and Peter perform and puppeteer it is difficult to see what imagery and visual we are creating. We film a lot of our rehearsals but you really can’t beat having someone else in the room to watch your work. Will was able to direct add details to the physical comedy, slapstick, quality of puppetry and use of space.

A full day of cleaning , tightening and polishing the show!