Hull Truck Apprentice Blog #18

The Rita cast and crew arrived at Truck on the 23rd May, and as is tradition, everyone gathered in the green room for introductions and many, many biscuits. Once that was all done and dusted, some of us then migrated to the rehearsal room for the first read-through of the script. There are only two cast members in Educating Rita – played by our fantastic Taj Atwal and Simon Armstrong – so the read-through felt much more intimate than the one we went to back in January for Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis, but I still can’t pick a favourite between the two!

Rehearsal photography for the show took place on the 2nd June, and I got to sit in and watch Taj and Simon do their thing whilst regular Hull Truck photographer Andrew Billington did his thing. I always enjoy seeing how the play grows and changes from the read-through to rehearsals and then again to the stage, so it's nice to be able to pop in every so often to get a little sneak peek of how it's all coming along. The photos came out brilliantly, and can all be found here on our Facebook page. Production photography is happening tomorrow during dress rehearsals, so keep an eye out for those popping up on our Facebook sometime next week!

And finally, saving the best until last – last week, I got to join Vicki and Joe from JayJay Media to shoot two short but sweet trailers with Taj to help promote the show. We filmed in Originals Hair Room and Hull Central Library, and I got to have a little cameo in one trailer (I don’t mean to brag, but the top of my forehead is totally going to be famous now) and learn some new boom mic operating skills for the second one, for I am a woman of many talents. Or, you know, two talents.

Educating Rita opens this Thursday at 7.30pm with a Pay What You Can night, and will be running until the 9th July. We’ve used around 900 books to decorate the set, so if that doesn’t intrigue you enough to make you come along and see it I don’t know what will. 

Until next time!