The first read

Sunday. First read – great to hear the whole thing through with the actors and crew around the table.

Good discussion afterwards with cast and crew and creative team: Greg Clarke, Krista Berga, Tolli, Pete Nelson (who played us the ambient forest he’d created from the recording he and Nicholas took up at the pine plantation). Nigel Poulton (our fight master and movement coach) was also there; and myself, Fraser Corfield, Dave Burton (our assistant director) and Nicholas (our producer) also participating.

Good starting points on character development came up. Fraser’s observation that the 3 men have all been in nick; they’re all positioned along a continuum re the question: ‘How bad am I?’

Pete Cossar (plays Lizard, the long-term crim) asks me how dangerous Lizard is: how long has he been in prison? One long stint for murder? I reply that I think he’s a recidivist – in and out, all the time. “He’s scary, he’s fixated on one idea at a time – but he’s not that bright, Pete. Mate, you keep getting caught.” General laughter around the table. We break til the Monday evening – our next rehearsal, which is with the whole company; reading and talking again.

After the cast have left, Staycee, our SM, tells me that she has been approached by a cast member. There’s another rehearsal availability issue come up. Our Benny (the weasel character, the hyena; fast-talker; always looking to sell an idea) has been offered a week’s teaching with Queensland Theatre Company in our week 4 of rehearsals. That would be Mon – Fri, all day, that he would not be available to rehearse with us. This is the same actor who is doing the full-time 2 week workshop at LaBoite in weeks 1 and 2.

There’s no way to accommodate this.

I speak with Fraser and Nicholas and they agree with me – our hero in RISK is played by Sam Clark who is in Lieutenant of Inishmore – he’s in a show until 18 October. We can’t do evening rehearsals. Anthony (who plays Benny) has to choose between doing RISK and teaching for QTC for a week.