ALASDAIR SATCHEL’S WEBLOG

MY NAME is Alasdair Satchel. I'm the education officer with Mull Theatre. From July until late September I'm playing the part of the Laird of Glengirnie in Euan Martin and Dave Smith's The Accidental Death of An Accordionist, a co-production by Right Lines and Mull Theatre.

In this blog I'm going to try to give you a rough guide to the life of a theatre company as we embark on a Highland tour (with a stop off in Edinburgh for the Fringe). The Accidental Death of An Accordionist (ADOA from now on) is a murder mystery ceildih play. A fusion of many things. It's really rather silly and a whole lot of fun.

I think it's one of the largest casts I've ever been involved with as an actor. Other actors are Helen Mackay, Annie Grace, Ed Corrie, Brian Smith, Alasdair Hawthorne, Barrie Hunter and Sandy Brechin. Our director is Mark Saunders and our stage manager Brian Gorman. We're rehearsing at Mull Theatre's swanky new production centre at Druimfin, outside of Tobermory.

Tuesday 1 July 2008
Cast & crew meet and costumes and props are distributed. My God, what a lot of tartan! My God, what a lot of tartan Barrie is wearing... It's a tartan atrocity! My costume is yer classic kilt and dress jacket combo. I know that I'm going to sweat a lot on this tour already. It seems that there's more tweed in this show than the House of Lords. No wax jackets spotted yet, though.

We have some publicity photos taken – that’s me with Brian who plays Cammy, my faithful manservant. We read through the script and that goes well. We all laugh. In the right places too, which is reassuring.

Wednesday 2 July 2008
I like warm ups – exercises and games to get yourself ready for a day’s acting. Such a lovely way to start the day. We spend a bit of time warming up and then get stuck straight in to blocking the first act. Blocking is where you look at who's going to come in where, and when and what you do and all that sort of malarky, before you start to make your character come to life. It's already quite funny. The characters are really clear on the page, so they peel off well in to rehearsals.

Thursday 3 July 2008
Act 2 blocking. Getting things straight and narrow. Sorting out business and allowing the story to do its thing. Incredibly, by the end of the day the whole show is blocked, and we can start to get in to finer details here and there.
Ed, Alasdair H. and I have a go at working on a wee piece of choreography to back Annie (who plays Jean, a dour tweedie wee wifie) as she sings 'Only You' to Brian. Sandy, Mark & Annie give us a bit of help with the harmonies. I'm the squeaky tenor. At night we revel outside the new harbour building in Tobermory as it celebrates its opening by having a concert. That building likes to boogie! The Red Hot Chilli Pipers play, as do the Sorren MacLean band, who really get the crowd moving.

© Alasdair Satchel, 2008

Links

• Mull Theatre
• Right Lines