Richard II Production Blog: "What We Are Doing Is This Great Play, Now."



John Wyver has posted his latest blog on the process of bringing the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Richard II to the stage. John will be producing the live broadcast of the play into cinemas across the UK and around the world. He will also be producing twelve production video diaries - uploading one every week until the live broadcast. This week's blog focuses on the first day of rehearsals.

Rehearsals began last Tuesday in London, with cast, including David Tennant, stage managers and other members of the production team all present. John details the cast and crew meeting and getting to know one another, and Greg's icebreaking exercises and also his essential 'no phones' ground rule. Members of the production team, including set and costume designer Stephen Brimson, spoke about their visions for the production.

Greg concluded the morning's work with his own talk about the play and the context for their production and his wish to explore it, not as one element of a cycle but as a lyric tale in its own right. He drew to a close saying, “What we are doing is this great play, now.”.

The read through started after lunch and, in a fashion similar to Greg's 2008 production of Hamlet which also starred David Tennant, it involved actors reading parts that are not their own, in order to open up understanding and new meanings.

Read the full blog here by John Wyver here

View the first video production diary here:





Richard II directed by Gregory Doran stars David Tennant, Nigel Lindsay, Jane Lapotaire, Michael Pennington and Oliver Ford Davies. The play will open at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon on 10th October 2013 and will run until 16th November 2013. It will then transfer to the Barbican Theatre in London from December 9th 2013 until 25th January 2014. Currently tickets are available for both runs



Richard II will be streamed live from the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to cinemas across the UK on Wednesday 13th November and also into 1000 UK schools and venues worldwide.Visit the RSC Live From Stratford-upon-Avon site for more details


Read more about Richard II starring David Tennant on our website

And as for John's revelation of “…the fact that the actor has socks with days of the week on them – and he can only wear the ‘right’ day of the week”...who could that be...?



Photo: Graham Norton Show, BBC - 2011



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