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Travelling Light’s Nick White has had the lucky job of documenting the making of Cinderella: A Fairytale. Here he tells us what the team have been getting up to over the past week (sounds like rather a lot of fun):

It’s only Tuesday and this week has been incredibly productive for moving this mouth-watering project on. Last week finished with the luxury of a whole day of rehearsals in the theatre. Rehearsals have been taking place down the road at SoundWorks, next to the Southville Centre, so for the cast and creative team to be able to test out lots of ideas in the actual performance space was incredibly fruitful. On Saturday they managed to devise nearly 20 minutes of act two while yesterday (Monday) and today they got to within a bird’s feather of the end. That is a sign of the team firing on all creative cylinders, driven on the sole purpose of getting the story finished so that they can then start rehearsing everything in order and getting ready for an audience. As Sally Cookson (director) told me yesterday lunchtime, so far they have sketched out the story in pencil. From now they need to colour it in.

I have been in a very fortunate position, documenting the making of the production with cameras in hand, snapping away at every decision made, filming the construction of the characters and interviewing the individuals involved as they experience the challenges of trying to tell such a well known fairytale in a unique and theatrical way. It gives me a highly privileged view of the creative process and, I hope, gives people like you dear reader, the opportunity to have a peak into how a professional play is made.

A very experienced, highly skilled and daring team have been assembled for this show. They care about every detail and love to laugh along the way. On Saturday, making ‘the ball’ had everyone on their knees, eyes streaming with tears of joy, pain in stomach from laughing so much. And they have made something quite outstanding. Every day they have been pushing the traditional story of Cinderella, twisting it into something new. But not totally new. It very much has its roots in the folk tale we grew up with.

The entire team all work hard. Very hard. In fact I am sure they never stop. As the design team (headed by Katie Sykes) get to grips with amendments to key costumes, Craig, Lucy and Saikat are making the most of the quiet foyer area to mark through the dance routine for the ball, choreographed with great skill by Joel Daniel.  In rehearsals Sally and the composer Benji take every coffee break to decide on how the music will inform and respond to the action while over lunch Sally and Adam Peck – the dramaturg with an infectious laugh – refine the dialogue. And what we don’t see is the small but brilliant production team who build the set, design the lights and, in the case of Production Manager Gemma Brooks, keep an eye on everyone! We’ve got a production meeting shortly at which all aspects of the show are discussed in equal measure and then we all go home, ready to fight another day tomorrow. The cast have got a dance call all day (phew!), no doubt there will be notes to further tweak the costume and, from tomorrow, we have to start making the programme! It never stops in Bristol, nor should it.

Every week we will have a new video blog, have a look at this weeks above and last weeks HERE.

WATCH THE FIRST VIDEO DIARY IN CINDERELLA BEHIND THE SCENES 1