Designer Anna Harding talks costumes and paper

Really pleased with the way the set for Begin/End is looking, and the costumes are all sorted now.

This week I've been adjusting the 'paper coat', a very important item in the play. During the rehearsal process they have developed a whole sequence around this coat and now it has to come apart in 3 sections, but I don't want to give too much away...

Also, I have covered all the props in newspaper so they go with the 'paper coat'. The props come out of filing cabinets, they belong to Lili's memory so that is why I have chosen to cover them in paper, they are not quite real.

I'm looking forward to it all coming together for the dress on Tuesday!

You asked for more, so Begin/End writer David Lane is back with thoughts from his last few visits to the rehearsal room.

It's been amazing to see Begin/End change week by week at each of my rehearsal visits, and watch the layers of the production build little by little. Two weeks ago the scenes were being scrutinised in some detail; there were long conversation about single pages of script, thinking associatively alongside the actors, director and stage manager to draw up images, stories, and experiences that might parallel the journeys of the characters and help the performers access what Yaz and Lili are going through. Loose improvations of each section of the play were also being developed, which you can really see in the way the two performers now relate to one another physically and emothionally on stage; it's underpinned with that playful, spirited and imaginative impro work that's helped them (from my perspective at least) to take ownership of the text.

Then a week ago, the work in rehearsal was obviously getting more specific: longer sections were being built upon with movement and sound, emphasis on lines and exchanges being pinned down, and as the writer I began to take a back seat and just watch them focus on their own craft, rather than worry so much about mine. This is a lovely experinece for a writer, as you start to believe in the foundations that the script is providing and allow yourself to be surprised with where they take it. However I was soon collared by Angela to run through some of the teenage language in the piece; the actors had been on a reseach trip on a local school and spoken to the youth theatre at Half Moon, and there's been some essential updating of the vocabulary! This ear-to-the-ground stuff is great as you know you'll be giving a young audience something they recognise with a high level of detail.

And then this morning, just over three weeks in, I've been to a 'stagger-through' and the whole piece has lifted again: it flows around the space and the music, movement and performances have reached a new level - even though the actors told me there'd been several slips and director Angela had lots of notes, it was beginning to look like a complete production. The digital / video work has yet to be included, so the dress rehearsal will be the first time I see all the elements of the project combine. Seeing the play as a whole three-dimensional thing also means that little snippets of text start to stand out as not quite right; lines start to get trimmed as the silences between the actors, the space and the audience begin to speak louder than the text. This fine-tuning requires a different way of watching and listening - with earlier drafts, the overall structure and shape is what you're grappling with, wheras now you want everthing to be as precise as possible. You learn more about writing too, so this is all development time for my own practice as well.

Next time I see Begin/End will be the day before the play opens, and from what I've seen so far I think it's going to be an incredibly exciting production.

VJ artist Paul Hithersay on his experience of creating visuals for the play

This has been a very unusual challenge for me.

Creating video which has to be noticed almost subliminally/subconsciously to support the emotional feel of parts of the drama, without being a distraction from the main focus on the characters on stage is something completely new to me. Usually I make very "in yer face" VJ cuts, to go with dance and electronic music! Usually I make images to be projected on a flat screen. This is projected on to a 3D set!

The process of getting started and developing images that really support and entwine themselves with the unfolding story has been pretty tough. The starting point is always your own personal, subjective interpretation and I found the text of the play really gripping, all by itself. I struggled for a while to imagine how video would work and what techniques, especially the development of a style, to bring to it in a subtle way, that could actually add something to an already powerful drama. I found that my usual way of doing things was not going to hit the spot. I had to re-think the way I was working it.

In solving these questions and coming up with pieces of work that would answer the challenge, I have to say that Angela's [Angela Michael's, Begin/End's Director] vision, direction and support of the artistic process has been tremendous. Each stage in the development of the whole production, the set, the music, the acting, the action, the use to the stage space and of the video, has been coaxed into being by Angela's skill, experience and ability to get the very best out of people and ideas.

This is the first time I have worked with Half Moon and I am seriously humbled and impressed by the friendliness, professionalism, enthusiasm and creativity of everyone involved. Not only that, I'm really chuffed to have contributed something that people, including the playwright are pleased with. We are nearly at the end of the process now and I am surprised and delighted with what has evolved from it.

As I write, I'm looking forward to running through the next rehearsal, with all the video in almost it's final form and order.

There are a couple more days left to make final tweaks, ready to go on show and on the road which this truly excellent, truly live, truly multi-media production of a very powerful drama.

Work experience student Eva shares her thoughts from the rehearsal room

I'm Eva and I'm here at Half Moon on work experience, I have been sitting in on quite a lot of the rehearsals for Begin/End.

For as long as I can remember I have been coming to Half Moon and always enjoy seeing the plays but I never realised just how much work goes into them. I was lucky enough to sit in on the read through and see everyone's ideas for the making of the play.

The actors have to really get to know their characters family's and home lives etc. They also had to talk about what the play was really about and they did this in an exercise in which everyone had to write down as many words as they could that they thought were related to the play. These words were then spread across the floor and then put into an order of what words were important, the most important being love. I never realised that so much thought went into the planning of the play and I am really enjoying watching the play changing and improving, though it will be really weird to watch when it is finally finished.

The play's on its feet!

Welcome to the first Begin/End blog. We'll be keeping you updated with all the latest happenings from the rehearsal room and the development of this brand new play. So subscribe to our blog for this behind-the-scenes peek.

A brand new play for 14+ audiences, Begin/End is an exciting piece of drama offering a snapshot into a moment of the lives of two teenage girls, which will be touring nationally in February and March 2010, starting at Half Moon's East London venue on 3 February.

Being/End was written by David Lane over three years, but even after that the play still continues to get 'rewritten' in the rehearsal room. Lines are cut and rewritten slightly to allow for the flow of the play.

After two days of discussion about the world of the play, exploration of characters, physical exercises (I heard Bewitched's C'est La Vie ringing out of the rehearsal room this morning!) the play is 'up on it's feet', which means that a script in hand read through of the play is being done. Chris, Half Moon's director, has just popped his head around the door and reports that things are looking good. Next update will provide more in depth info about one of the componants of the production.

David Lane, Begin/End's writer on the first day of rehearsal and read through.

First rehearsal today, and the fist time I'd heard Begin/End read through since a one-day workshop as part of its development last year. The actors are great and the play seemed to read very fluidly, which was a relief! It was fascinating to hear the early contributions from Ed (music) and Paul (video) and see how far they related to my ideas about the play despite never having met either of them; there's obviously been some very hard work going on before we even got to this first day. The set looks really interesting - I won't give too much away but it's an inspired metaphor for the play's style and content and I can't wait to see how it works in performance.

There was much talk of 'layers' in the play and it was heartening to see so many people challenged by what they see as its complexity; it's always so different when you hear a play read out loud and responded to by others, and all the creative team seem excited by getting it up on its feet. The use of video and music at the level of detail Ed and Paul are working at just isn't something you really consider when writing text and I admit I was apprehensive about how it would all gel. Fortunately, it lools and sounds brilliant and will really punch up and support the play.

There have been a few little changes to the text already, tweaks and clarification but I'll be in on rehearsals once a week to see how things progress and find out what questions or discoveries the actors have got up their sleeves.