The Seagull Effect Previews…Tonight

Funds have diminished, patience is wearing thin, pressure is piling on and exhaustion is creeping up behind us. It must be that time of year again. Pack the van. We’re headed for the Fringe.

It has been over three months since the first rehearsal of The Seagull Effect and we are previewing the show. Tonight. No one can quite work out how we got from that first rehearsal to here. It’s all a bit of a blur. This is the fourth show we are taking to the Fringe in as many years and we’re hoping that The Seagull Effect will see us through 2012 into 2013 meaning a summer outside of the rehearsal studio and away from The Fringe. For years we have wished for rain in order to make rehearsing in a black box all day more bearable. It will be nice to welcome the sun for a change.

It was with a certain amount of trepidation that we entered our final week of rehearsals and not just because there was still plenty to do in a fixed, short amount of time (all week people asked “where the hell did July go?”). It also came with the knowledge that it was our last period of devising for a while. There was this sense in the company that we needed to soak it all up.

Today there is this feeling that all that, perhaps, blissful belief that you have in the show is about to be tested. The Seagull Effect is about to fly the nest and there will be people who want us to do well, wish us to do so and others who want us to prove our worth. And I have no doubt that we will, doesn’t stop the nerves though. Our show is set on the night of the 1987 hurricane that hit Britain (think wind machines, think umbrellas) and includes Wham’s ‘You Gotta Have Faith’. As you can imagine this has inevitably become a bit of a company anthem, particularly in the last few weeks.

So along with nerves, excitement and stress let’s throw some anticipation into the mix. The Fringe is coming. Fast. I suppose I feel this way because I know just how much work goes into a successful Fringe, in many ways making the show is the easy part. I sound like a bit of a doomsayer don’t I? Complaining like this. But the truth is, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And so this evening the doors of our little drama studio will be flung open. Hopefully sunlight will stream in.