I started work on A Soldier's Tale as soon as I had finished building In Extremis and as you can read from my previous blog posts, I had a lot of trouble drawing Rosalie's false pros! I felt the whole of the Soldier's Tale experience was a lot faster than In Extremis, probably because I was working on it for three weeks, start to finish. I enjoyed this quick-paced turnaround as I had to be motivated, organised, forward-thinking and practical. I felt that Rose and I collaborated more then Rhiannon and I did, not sure why that is.
I also felt like I walked into Soldier's Tale more experienced and more knowledgeable, being able to answer Rose's queries without needing to go to John or Richard as I had some contextual knowledge of building!
The ground plan for Soldier's Tale was a bit of a nightmare. I couldn't get a concise ground plan with dimensions, even the file Kie put on my computer didn't want to open for me. I took my dimensions straight from Rose's model box, and it turned out that it was a bit off from the actual measurements of the Ocean Room. I know now that I should have done a site visit and measured the venue myself, but unfortunately time was not on my side for this production. John and I ended up working from the centre lines of the dance floor rather than off the walls. This wasn't as much of a solution as I'd hoped for, because everyone kept asking me where the projection screen was and I literally had no idea. In retrospect I suppose it's a good thing that everyone is asking me these questions, because they expect me to have the answers and be all knowing! Sadly, I wasn't in this case.
I took over ordering the timber, and Rose ordered in the poly-block. This was all we needed to order because everything else was being re-claimed. I really enjoyed working with Rose, as we'd never worked together before on anything and we didn't know each other very well beforehand, but I feel that we supported and helped each other throughout, which is a nice feeling!
I went full on with the pre-build preparation, and made sure I was there to load the van with everything we needed to take down to site. I feel that I know what is needed and I should be responsible for the logistics of the equipment.
Working away from the university had it's disadvantages. Firstly, it was absolutely freezing. It cannot have been more than 5 degrees in there at any point and I think I really suffered because of that, despite having my thermals on! There was also the difficulty of finding the Studio, and it meant that the painting was 2hrs behind schedule because Debs was unable to find it. Luckily I had been there before!
I think one of the biggest struggles to overcome was that we had a lack of help, especially in comparison to In Extremis, and we would have been in an even worse position if it wasn't for the three second years coming in and being absolute stars by helping us out! It couldn't be helped, we were building over the hand-in dates. I'm still absolutely gutted about falling ill on the fourth day of the build, especially as I missed the get in! It could not have come at a worse time.
Overall, I feel A Soldier's Tale was a success, and I have read and heard some very good reviews of the production (sadly, I couldn't make it). I felt that as I had some building knowledge, I was able to take on more of a responsible role, which has made me feel even more prepared to take on the next two productions!
