How do you re-create a frozen landscape in which breath freezes on the lips and bodies ache for the warmth of kindness?  Step outside for more than five minutes would be the current answer anywhere in the UK but here at Full Body and the Voice we’re been working to create that landscape through script,  design and music in readiness for a rehearsal process that begins next Monday. For HYPOTHERMIA,  a next Monday that has been anticipated and prepared for for a very long time…And here it comes… Real.  Exciting.  Known and unknown. All has been preparation and pregnancy-  now it’s the crucial three weeks before birth.  The hope for the collective conception that is HYPOTHERMIA is for the infant to grow into an early walker, a co-operative child,   a mild show off in adolescence and an adult who is funny,  popular,  sexy,  mysterious,  with flashes of tantalising danger yet rooted in an underlying humanity and generosity.   But that’s the usual hope…isn’t it?

I’m Vanessa Brooks and I’m the Artistic Director here at Full Body and the Voice,    I aim to give honest insight into the process for the company,  our actors and creative team, the characters,  the catastrophes,  the laughs and the moments when all is silence and individual revelation in a room populated by many.   I also aim to blog regularly throughout the rehearsal period and beyond.  Rehearsals start next Monday and virtually all elements are in place,  Ben Langford our leading FB&TV has been briefed,  has nearly learned his sung elements and has been ordered to lie in a darkened room eating spinach for three days before the going gets really busy…Kevin the Designer and Al the Stage Manager are currently seeking a blood pressure cuff circa 1935 and all fingers are crossed here for the safe transportation over ice of our actors from London and Scotland ready for the readthrough on Monday….Here we go.  We’ll keep you posted…