In the Light Everything is Brighter | Rehearsal Diary - Week 1

18 Jun 2018

As intensive rehearsals heat up ahead of their debut show, WILDERBEAST's (Made in Bristol 17/18) Imogen Downes breaks down all the exciting goings on of the previous week.


The Made In Bristol rehearsal room is buzzing, because the time has finally come for this year’s company, WILDERBEAST, to start creating their show! 

After a few weeks of intense but ridiculously fun R&D, we have chosen our show idea and reached the end of our first week of full time rehearsals. The show – title to be revealed soon! – is about fear and the beasts that emerge when we confront what we’re scared of. We are particularly excited to start exploring the specific fears of the group, and the fantastical worlds and characters that can be created from them. 

We’re keen to play to our strengths and use plenty of original music throughout the piece, combined with a unique and vibrant design. During our R&D we found ourselves using lots of interesting lighting, so no doubt that will be a prominent feature of the final piece.

It was heads down and thinking caps on on Monday morning as we went straight into developing ideas for our show image and company logo. What I love about our group is how collaboratively we work; we’re all always eager to get stuck in and bounce off each other to find the best idea. The finished product is playful and a little bit odd, and we’re excited to get our poster out into the world within the next couple of weeks. It will be plastered all over our social media, so make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

The rest of the week was spent building worlds, scenes, and characters, leading up to our first sharing with the outreach team on Friday afternoon. We were really pleased with the feedback we received and the progress we made in just a few days – especially as we like to take our time when it comes to making decisions! It really feels like a narrative is starting to emerge, with certain characters and settings that we’re falling in love with.

The next few weeks are looking to be a great time of growth and creation, and although it’s early days, we’re already so excited to share our debut show!


This year's Made in Bristol company return to 1532 Performing Arts Centre to present their visceral new show 18–21 July. For more information and to book tickets, click here.