INKBLOC Ensemble Rehearsal Diary – Week 8

Intensive rehearsals continue ahead of INKBLOC Ensemble’s debut show LEGO Beach. Here, company member Genevieve spills all the beans about the very latest INKBLOC shenanigans.

Rehearsals have gone up another level, all hands are on deck, INKBLOCers are arriving earlier and leaving later, putting their all into performances and roles! Our writers and directors have been working into the night to create an inspiring script for us to bring to life as an ensemble through intriguing characters and the heart warming friendship of three girls…and obviously not forgetting THE LEGO!!!

All the hard work has paid off, and LEGO Beach is now a formed play. It is exciting to knuckle down to the details, adding quirk and our own thumb print - which is what we wanted to do all along! Think glamorous puppet dogs, think beautiful songs, think rock and roll fish and chips…Although nothing is ever set in stone we are always adapting and changing (but that is what devising is, and we love it!!)

This week has been particularly exciting for me as my set finally arrived! 80 plastic container boxes washed up into our rehearsal room on Wednesday! Soon I think I will become a plastic box. They have added so much colour to the room creating the most adaptable Lego wall, which has influenced a lot of our choreography.

This process has been such an ‘arty treat’ for me - I’ve designed a logo, which includes our unique thumbprints, got into some absurd angles to photograph Lego for the poster and played around with colourful boxes (what a dream)!

Bold Lego colours, shiny artificial plastic and container boxes reflect our theme of bringing the unnatural to the natural world - and oh what an effect it can have! I wanted to create something large scale and colourful, but easy to tour, adaptable and fun. Waves out of plastic boxes? Never you cry? Absolutely possible we say!! We will take on anything!

How would you describe LEGO Beach in one sentence? Sometimes consumerism can take over…sometimes we need to take a step back and re-evaluate the important things in life. Our show LEGO Beach confronts this through movement, music and story telling. It is an emotional whirlwind filled with giggles.

I am so lucky to be one of the INKBLOC family, it is such a wonderful and talented group of theatre makers. I’m really looking forward to this final week, working with full energy and creativity…fuelled by lots of tea and biscuits!

Come see LEGO Beach!! We promise you will leave smelling the sea.

INKBLOC Ensemble are this year’s resident Made in Bristol company – Bristol Old Vic’s theatre training course for ages 18-25. For more information about the programme, click here.