The Echo Chamber: getting in, getting ready

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Start of the get-in for The Echo Chamber, Chapter Arts Centre, 23rd Jan 2012.

It’s a moment I love – that first day of transition – starting the process of transferring the performance you’ve been working on into the actual space. The studio is blank, full of potential – props and set are stacked indiscriminately in piles across the floor. There’s a sense of possibility – and then we step across into the space, placing furniture, measuring, walking the diagonal, checking that everything is in the correct relationship, spiking the set once we feel confident of the placings, and trying out the sound system (there’s always a first burst of something inappropriate – in our case it was Abba. I’m sure the techies do this deliberately, as a panacea to the quiet reverence those like me feel on first day of the get-in).

It’s a time of all hands on deck, of learning new skills. Eleonora Marzani, the international intern who has been shadowing Phillip Zarrilli for the past six months, discovered unexpected talents with a drill and impromptu set making.

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Eleonora learning unexpected new skills

It’s the time for last minute script alternations and for sitting in an empty auditorium making a clean script for the designer, Ace McCarron.

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O’Reilly in the auditorium.,

It’s time to start transposing previous rehearsal spaces onto this one.

The Echo Chamber premieres:

CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE (Cardiff) 27-28 January, 2-3-4 February, 2012, 8p.m. [Market Road, Cardiff CF5 1QE: 02920 304400 http://www.chapter.org