April meeting

Loads of feedback on progress on our RSC Open Stages production - it is all coming together. Liz F used a model to illustrate the proposed set design, having been inspired by the set design module from the RSC skills share day. It was brilliant, with drapes, a stage and even little props!
Dorothy gave feedback on the workshop for directors and Liz H on stage management.
Lots of help offered baking cakes and on the stall for this Saturday's cake stall in the High Street - thanks to all of you.
A gaggle of Players will be off to Wolverhampton to watch Goldthorn Theatre's "Natural Causes" in a couple of weeks. There is so much on offer at the mo it is hard to see everything, but some of us caught BROADS Agatha Christie, "The Hollow" in Broseley and enjoyed it. There is more AC on offer in a couple of months at Wolverhampton's The Grand too.
See you all at next month's meeting on May 2nd if not before.

Shakespeare Showcase

Liz Fisher reports on a visit to the RSC Regional Showcase at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford, where amateur drama groups across the region were performing.

Open Stages – a challenge!

Geoff Speechley & I really enjoyed our evening at the RSC Open Stages Regional Showcase on Sunday 25^th. We both felt it was very well worth going, as we saw the standard of other amateur companies & groups like ours, performing perhaps 10- minute extracts from their Shakespeare productions. This is what we have to aim for as we very much hope to be selected for the next Regional Showcase in the autumn.

All 12 that we saw, plus a finale choral speech, were always entertaining, always sincere, with all casts straining with concentration to give their very best performances. All were good; some were excellent. All had aspects for us to admire, whether in acting, direction, or sheer imagination of a clever new setting. Three examples perhaps show these:-

The Oxford Theatre Guild chose to present the heart-wrenching scene from Macbeth of the murder of Lady Macduff & her children, & then the news of this being brought to Macduff. They had two wonderful young children who played their parts beautifully with Lady Macduff, really struggling against their killers; their bodies remained on the stage in dimmer lights, while Macduff & Malcolm enter from another direction & hear the news from Lord Ross. As the grief struck, & the resolution to pursue revenge, the shadowy forms were very telling. The scene ended with Macbeth lit, standing still, facing the audience with his back turned on all of them.

The Gloucestershire Youth Players presented the last scene from “The Taming if the Shrew” with Katerina as a rather Amy Winehouse figure, becoming a very sad study of an abused & beaten wife with the parallel characterising of Petruchio as an abuser, both with the vulnerabilities & brittlenesses we recognise from current psychology. We thought this was a brave way to interpret the play – but neither of us really agreed with it. What we did like was the use of black & a single colour palette (shades of red) for the modern day costumes – we’ve already thought of the same idea for our whole show, & it gives a good visual impact to a short extract.

The last & most spectacular example that we both loved was Longville Little Theatre Company’s presentation on a scene from “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. The story is as complex as a Whitehall farce in terms of who loves who while secretly engaged to who else, while someone else is trying to do deals with others to deprive someone of someone else’s inheritance while plotting to trick someone into a fake lover’s tryst etc.etc., so to present this, the director set the whole thing as if it were a turn-of-the- century Hollywood film set rehearsing various scenes & then going for “Action!” They clearly wrote some dialogue around it which was very funny; the plotting was explained in rapid melodrama-style dumbshow poses with running commentary which left the audience gasping with laughter, & ended with Falstaff in a woodland scene stripping off to blend into the scenery (?) clad only in a thong with a very suggestive cuddly toy stag’s head to preserve his modesty. . . . I think Shakespeare would have approved!

So this is the challenge we are aiming at in June – presenting “Behind Every Successful Man. . .” as well as these. Geoff & I know that it will be tough, but have no doubt that we’ll make it!

March meeting

An entertaining evening hearing from participants at the recent Royal Shakespeare Company's workshop for actors. Many thanks to Richard, Liz H and Linda for bringing it to life for us. Next month, 4th April, will be the turn of those attending workshops for directors, stage managers and technicians - lots to hear about and tips to pick up.

Liz H is in charge of the rehearsed play reading on Saturday 31st March at the former WI Hall in Oldbury, with the final part of the "Norman Trilogy". Supper will be nibbles, fish and chips and a selection of puddings and cheeses with coffee to follow. BYO drinks for the meal though. Bring a friend or two and have a pleasant, relaxed and humourous evening.

The title for our June Shakespeare production was chosen by a voting system which the government could learn from! "Behind Every Successful Man....." pipped "Her Infinite Variety" to the post on the chairman's casting vote, but there is scope to slip in an alternative title, as Shakespeare did: .... or "The Bard's Birds" methinks?

Theatre visit in the offing for March and April were discussed, but several clash. BROADS "The Hollow" by Agatha Christie on Friday 30th March is a cert, as is Goldthorn's "Natural Causes" 18th to 21st April. The Belfry at Wellington's drama festival and Albrighton's "Time of my Life" sound good, if we can squeeze them in. Details will be circulated to members shortly.

Shakespeare skills exchange

Liz Fisher and Liz Herdson at The Swan Theatre

If there is one thing I learned about directing a play, yesterday, it is that my own one and only attempt at a 10 minute playlet was woefully inadequate.

Seeing a professional director at work, working with professional actors, reminds me of the day I spent assisting at the local primary school when my kids first started at school in Bridgnorth. The experienced teacher (now long since retired) would persuade a recalcitrant child by going to them, getting to their level, gently encouraging them to rejoin the group. She never stood and shouted across the room. I learned something from her and that same respect and individual concern was evident in the approach that our visiting director had to the actors. He explained that his job was to support and encourage, not to instruct.

It set the standard for the skills exchange day at Stratford and although the subsequent two sessions were very different they were both delivered with that same professionalism and courtesy.

February open meeting

Pub grub and brain strain

For the third year running we held an “everyone welcome” evening and a change from the usual format by having a light-hearted quiz. The winning team generously shared the prize around and the Broseley crowd forgave me for having a good few Bridgnorth orientated questions. Linda Povey brought a short one act play written by a friend; a good yarn with a satisfactory conclusion. Quite a big group came early to try out the Shakespeare Inn's supper menu before the meeting and that was good too.

Shakespeare Open Stages project

Tempest in a Tea Cup or The Bard's Birds

Dates for the production are planned for 8^th and 9^th, 15^th and 16^th and 22^nd and 23^rd June, subject to venues being available.

The final audition is tonight and with what I have seen, this Shakespeare lark is much livelier than one might imagine. When the director of the Cleopatra excerpt says “Think Absolutely Fabulous, with Cleopatra as wealthy Edina and her ladies in waiting characters like Patsy” it gives one a completely new perspective!

Skills exchange at the RSC

Four lucky members are attending the performers' skills exchange in a week or so and three more the workshop for directors, stage managers and technical support. How good is that? We shall return bursting with ideas, so the March meeting will be an opportunity for participants to introduce other members to what they have learned; the April meeting too if time runs out.

January meeting

All Fur Coat and no Knickers by Mike Harding

Set in the 1970's the stereotypes seem a bit dated, but our read through produced plenty of chortles. The working class Deidre Ollerenshaw is to marry the son of a wealthy businessman and councillor, but friction between and within the families and a drunken stag night puts the wedding in doubt. “All fur coat and no knickers” is the taunt of Deidre's mother at the fiancée's mother.