Now things were well underway. The staging was understood, music fully grasped and all were familiar with how the scene worked. In the past, this was the level of detail I was used to, but we had the luxury of two more days until the first performance.

The day started with a run through of the scene, but Kelly (director) stopped us. He took us out into the corridor for a child’s game. ‘I’m not going to tell you why you are playing it, just enjoy’. It was pirates treasure (a variant of grandmothers footsteps that I have never heard of!) we had to sneak up behind the pirate to grab his treasure, without him seeing us move. After one round, he split us in to two group, one playing the game, one watching. It seemed strange at first to watch, but it was fascinating! Every person had a different technique on how they moved their bodies, and each moved in their individual way. But there was one thing that everyone did the same – they were full of energy!

It was this level of energy that Kelly wanted us to bring into our performances. Our intentions were correct in our acting, but they were either 1. Not believable or 2. They would not travel to the audience. Using this energy would help us to over come these barriers. Dominic went on to tell us how important this energy is whenever you perform – even when you enter the room for an audition.

This got me thinking, as my character Marina is bored through most of the banquet scene. I was confused at how a character could be bored, but have energy to ensure this boredom transfers to the audience. So on my many trips on trains into London I observed people being ‘bored’ on the train. It was clear straight away that being bored did not mean they did nothing, or had no energy. People are constantly thinking, or looking at things, ‘What’s that on the seat’, ‘What a stupid advert’, ‘What are they reading’, ‘What are they wearing!’. This highlighted the importance of learning from what people do in everyday life, to observe and understand how and why they do things in certain situations.

Today was to be a busy day. We had to stage the scene in time before our first rehearsal at the Royal Opera House. I have been extremely fortunate and have been able to see some of the workings back stage as I am currently on the mentor scheme with the chorus at the opera house, but this time I was entering the stage door as an artist!

Kelly Robinson, our director, highlighted the importance of our characters. Not only who they are, but what impact they have on the story and what their role is in the drama. My character ‘Marina’ the ambassadors wife, seems like a posh lady who is there to keep the ambassador company. But this is just the surface. She is the long suffering wife of a spouse that drinks too much (she also probably has a drink problem). She has to be polite and seem interested in all events going on – but she is not, she is bored at another party counting the hours until she can go home. Towards the end of the scene, Idi Amin gets very close and proposes her to eat a flying insect. He then gets closer and says ‘ Shake, shake, shake Marina’ and grabs her from behind. The reaction is a difficult one. Not only is she disgusted at the bugs, and how close Idi Amin has got, she doesn’t want to loose face, after all she is the ambassadors wife…

When we enter the Royal Opera House for our first rehearsal in the performance area, all the cast are extremely excited! We enter the studio, which is a large empty tall space. The lighting crew are all set up awaiting to set the lighting for our scenes. The first run is done. It is clear that the space is different to what we are used to performing in, so Dominic Wheeler gave us some great tips on brightening the vowel sounds in our singing to help project further, this combined with supporting all my consonants really helped. After the day I went home, after all it is valentines day!

It was an exciting start meeting the team, and learning more about the Opera.

The libretto for the Opera of the Last King of Scotland is by Giles Foden who wrote the book but not the screen play. Stephen McNeff was originally approached about the project, about turning the fantastic story into an opera. The scene we are looking at is the dinner scene from Act 1. Idi Amin would hold huge banquets that would have a specific reason, this specific banquet was held to embarrass the Ambassador, he has ensured that his drinks are topped up, and turns up very late, to make an entrance.

Firstly the day started with music calls. Not a traditional music call as we had the composer in the room with us all day.

I had pre-conceived ideas that the composer would interject with ideas and explain why he wrote the music, explain what he wanted by writing specific things – but this was not the case. The score was in the hands of our brilliant musical director Dominic Wheeler and director Kelly Robinson. They would refer to Stephen McNeff and the ‘composer’ as if he wasn’t in the building. This isn’t too say that he didn’t have anything to add, or didn’t enlighten us. Stephen would add to the history and background to the piece to show what influenced his writing; it would give a beautiful insight into what inspired him to create the work, and the drama. The directors were the interpreters of the composers work, closely working to the score picking up all the details.

This careful attention to the score brings into question the role of the composer, and also that of the score. It really highlighted to me what great importance the score not only for music of composers such as Mozart, Puccini where the composer is dead and not available to say what he meant, but equally for those who are alive and in the room. It is still so important to fully understand and make and interpretation of the score that the composer has written. In the case of Stephen McNeff, he really gives the space for this creative thought and insight for others to see.

‘The Last King of Scotland’ is a novel written in 1998 by British journalist and writer Giles Foden best known for its film adaptation. It is a look at the life of Idi Amin through the eyes of the fictional Scottish Doctor who served him. The harrowing story has been composed as an Opera by Stephen McNeff for the main stage at the Royal Opera House. If you haven’t watched the film I strongly recommend you do so, but before eating! Its a beautifully told story which left me wanting to know more about Idi Amin’s ruling of Uganda. I think many can relate to the newly graduated Doctor not wanting to go down the traditional route of becoming a village GP, and ending up naively traveling to Uganda…

I am extremely fortunate to be apart of the Opera’s ‘Exposure’ at the Lindbury Theatre ROH2. The scenes will be staged over three nights between the 16th and 18th February and then performed the week after at Trinity Laban as part of CoLab. Tickets are available from the Royal Opera House (here); they have sold out but do keep checking for returns! We will be working with the composer himself, musical director Dominic Wheeler (newly appointed Head of Opera at the GSMD) and Kelly Robinson the Artistic Director of the Banff Centre is staging the scenes. The role of Idi Amin is to be played by Rodney Clarke.

I will be updating this regularly in the week leading up to and during the performances to document this exciting opportunity.

Initial preparations are complete and the tricky score is memorised. Now all that remains are nerves and excitement for tomorrow’s first staging rehearsal.