It all seems just like a dream. The "Ice Castle" has come to life and we´ve had our first four performances. It has been a long and patient journey, where I have learnt to have to let go of everything called control. Challenging, yes, very challenging for me who always wants to have control:D .On monday the 5 th of March Ane Aass and I travelled up to Selbu to do some recordings of dialogs from the "Ice-Castle" with some amateur actors from Selbu and pupils aged 12/13. Marit Dalhø met us with waffles and coffee as we arrived at Bell School and shortly the pupills age 12/13 arrive exited and full og expectations. Working with them really inspired me, such energy so much laughter and fun and Ane did an amazing job with them. We got some great takes and did some good work with the adult actors too. At that moment and in time the hours of writing and sending off applications to get money to be able to do this project finally is starting to feel worth it. " I am so lucky, so much talent and what an amazing director I get to work with. I can´t wait untill thursday" were my thoughts. Then on wednesday night I got a sad and worrying phone call. The actress who is ment to play the part as Unn is ill. What do I do? Cancell the whole thing? Puspone it once again? Find another actress on such short notice? I call Tina and Ane and Tina suggests an actress Cathrine Brun who lives in Oslo. We (Marte Huke, Ane Aass, Tina Margaretha Nilssen and me) have a meeting at "VerdensBesteStasjon" on thursday morning. We decide to carry on with a new actress, Within a couple of hours I have booked a plane for Cathrine Brun and she is on her way to Trondheim. It all seems to crazy to be true. But I trust my instinct and the pianist Tina agrees that this person is right for this part. Thursday night Cathrine gets the script and we start blocking the first sene. Intense, we have very little time, eight days to form a very difficult symbolic play with many layers. Cathrine has eight days to learn it all. Can she do it? Also willl we be able to portray this book/film for such a wide age group grownups to 12/13 years olds. Is this possible? The director says this is madness "Gale Mathias"! But I still believe that it is possible. After the first day we have done a lot of good and brave work. I love the new actress Catrine Brun, such talent, such courage and so easy and free to work with. I leave work very inspired and relieved after the first day. Tina and my instinct was right, this was a wise choice .She was made for this part. We carry on our musical and stage work at "VerdensBesteStasjon" http://www.verdensbestestasjon.no/ in Trondheim the first weekend and on monday 12th of March we load up my little blue Toyota Corola and head towards Selbu. Our first stop is the local radio NeaRadio where we do a recording of some monologs and do a short interview. Then we head out to SjøbygdaKunstnarhus where we are going to work and live together until monday the 19th of March. The week is intense with long reheartsals, but we also have a lot of fun. The "Artists in residency" is just perfect. By Selbusjøen in the middle of the woods in a beautiful little school cottage "The Ice Castle" performance starts to take shape. The surroundings are so peaceful and gives us a break from the city life we normally lead. As one of us said " Fieldtrip, girlie time and time to do the work we love, perfect!" Because of heavy rain the road closes and we are closed off from the village for two days. But, we have everything we need and are so embraced in our work, that this doesn´t effect us much. I do have a slight worry for the public who are coming to see our performances, but manage to let go of these thoughts and focus on my work as an actress and singer instead. The week flies by and the three women who I didn´t know that well from before have become lovely new friends and great colleagues. So much laughter, so much fun:-) On the saturday of our first performance we do the final touches and changes in the script. Now i just pray that the public will like it! And they do! The house is full and people love the piece. We also have a good audience on the Sunday. Monday the school kids sit totally still and follow every move we make on the stage! After the performance we talk to them and get loads of possitive feedback.We wish to take this performance to other venues such as this in Norway and who knows maybe we could take it elsewhere outside Norway with subtitles? I am so grateful and proud of this product. Such amazing music written by Eva Holm Foosnæs, Marte Huke has written an amazing script, Ane Aass has been such an inspiring director and done fantastic stage work and I have loved every minute on stage with Cathrine Brun and Tina Margaretha Nilssen. Wow, thank you so much guys! I am so so grateful.
Pictures: Kirsten Røsset, Nea Radio
