Another Review

This time, something unsolicited sent by a member of the audience to our box office address:

I say, a really ‘top drawer’ performance by all. Truly superb, five stars.

Review

Here's a review which was broadcast on Brooklands FM recently:

Last week at the Rhoda McGaw theatre in Woking, the Ottershaw Players took to the stage in what was really an excellent production of Oscar Wilde's "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime". Lord Arthur, who was beautifully played by Mark Holton, spends the duration of the play desperately trying to commit murder in order to fulfil a prediction. The comedy was fast and furious as one unlikely scene moved seamlessly into the next, with each new character bringing in more and more opportunities for laughter. So much so, in fact, that if I were to criticise the production at all it would be simply to say that the script was a little long, which is not the fault of the Ottershaw Players, of course, but a couple of cuts to lose about ten minutes overall would have been welcome relief from the exhausting pace of the play.

The cast of ten were superbly directed by Peter More, who had a lightness of touch essential when presenting a period comedy. The actors almost all managed to avoid the pitfalls of caricature, and played their parts with realism. There were some really lovely performances, most notably Mark Holton in the title role; Matthew Horton as his eager to please butler, Baines; Alison Byers in the delightful role of Arthur's great-aunt Clementina and finally in a small but not insignificant role, Jill Coles as Nellie the maid. But truth be told all the cast were a joy to watch, and the production team of lighting, sound, wardrobe and set builders did the Ottershaw Players proud.

The audience had a wonderful time, laughing so hard sometimes that the cast weren't always comfortable leaving long enough gaps after each Wilde witticism, so a few lines were lost amongst the guffaws! A thoroughly enjoyable evening. Thank you to the Ottershaw Players.

Kathie Williams
Brooklands FM

As you may guess, I'm pretty happy with that. I was very worried about before the show about the length of the piece, but other trusted friends have said that it was not an issue as there were no longueurs in the performance. I was also aware that there were one or two actors who were not used to 'riding the laughs'. Apart from daily notes to this effect, there's not much a director can do about this - it's solely down to the experience and awareness of the actors involved.

In any case, these are fairly minor criticisms which I am very happy to accept. I'm chuffed!

Finished!

All over. I thought I'd wait a few days before writing about the rest of the run - gain a little persepective.

Every show was received very warmly and appreciatively by the audience. Some were kind enough to say that it was the best show they've seen Ottershaw Players do. I'm not sure if that's justified (I am more proud of our 2006 production of Habeas Corpus, personally) but it's a nice comment to receive.

The reception was most gratifying. Not least because, even into production week, I wasn't 100% sure whether we had an entertaining production on our hands. I knew that the cast were perfect in their parts and that the backstage crew were giving their all to make the show a success, but I had concerns that the pace and flow of the play would be too slow and langorous.

Luckily, my fears were groundless. Audience members told me that they were gripped throughout. At the interval (one hour 10 mins into the play) my wife told me that she thought it had only been half-an-hour since the play started. Phew!

[I'm really chuffed that a member of our audience - a seasoned theatre-goer - went to see the show in the professional theatre next door on the next night. Despite being exactly the same length, the pro show was said to be overly long and boring. I won't mention the name of the show, or its stars, but that story backs up my long-held contention that there's no reason why amateur theatre should not as professional and entertaining as our paid counterparts.]

I'll be having a post-production meeting in a week or two. More updates then.

And if anyone reading this has seen (or would like to write) a review of the show, I'd be delighted to publish it (or a copy, or link) here.

Success!

Last night's show was even better than the first. The actors performed with more energy and vibrancy and continued growing in their characters and finding new ways to express the text.

For the first time since getting in to the theatre, I wasn't watching with nervousness. The show was so assured that I was able to sit back and enjoy it, along with the rest of the audience - which was much larger than before, thank heavens.

Only 2 more shows to go and we're finished... Time to enjoy it while it lasts!

First Night Nerves

I'm sitting here, just back from the pub, very pleased that the first night was exceedingly well received by a small, but select, audience (luckily many more are booked in for the last 3 nights...)

I hate this aspect of directing. I sit there watching all the tiny mistakes/missed cues/late sound cues, etc, etc, that the audience don't notice. Cringeing at the errors and wondering how that fantastic cast will get themselves out of the impossible position that they've put themselves in....

Our 'butler' has a scene where he asks the Dean of Paddington for his umbrella at a crucial stage of the action. Tonight he got confused and took the chap's brolly a page earlier than he should have done... What a to-do! Will he recover...? He did - and with a stroke of improvisational genius!

Watching them do it for an audience is both gut-wrenching and exhilarating. But overall, the fact that we held the audience, gripped, for 2.5 hours and made them laugh is everything that we could have wished for.

The audience's reaction is the reward for 3 months of hard work for the actors (plus another 2 months, or more, for the director and designers). This is the night that it all becomes "worth it".

It's Now or Never

Last night was the Dress Rehearsal and I think it went pretty well. There were a couple of fluffed lines, which the cast covered without any problems, and one or two instances of late entrances or missed cues, but these are, I think, down to First Night nerves.

I know that the performances are going to go well, though it's a huge shame that tonight's audience is so small. Only 10 people, or so! Which is very odd, considering the good numbers we have in for the rest of the run.

Here's a link to a slideshow of pictures from the dress rehearsal.

Bye-Bye Rehearsal Hall

That's it! We've had our last rehearsal before get-in. And a very productive evening it was too. We concentrated on Act 2, which needed a little more practice, and ran a few bits and pieces over again until everyone was happy with them.

Next time we run the play it will be in the theatre, on Sunday night, on an unfinished set and with partial lights and sound. The time after that is the dress rehearsal on Tuesday. I can't believe we're so close to performance week...

I'm nervous, excited, scared, apprehensive and delighted, all at the same time. I know it's going to be a great show, but I worry about how it will be received. Ah, well. There's not much I can do anymore. The show is in the hands of the actors and they will do a superb job with it, I know.

Nearly There

18 days have zoomed past since I last wrote. Last Sunday we had a full 6 hours of rehearsal, complete with full costume and most props. It was a very valuable process. Not the most fluent of run-throughs, but that was probably due to working in a different environment, with unfamiliar clothing.

One concern I do have is that, though books were put down weeks ago, there are still some actors who are having trouble with their words in places. I'm sure it will all come good before next week, but it's a little frustrating as I'd hoped to be having smooth rehearsals by now and would be able to concentrate more on the pacing of each scene (and thence the encompasing dynamic of the show).

Overall though, it was very encouraging. I know that all the actors have a good handle on their characters - some of them maybe need to relax into them a little more - but they are all bringing a huge amount of talent, insight and humour to the production.

Now - all we need is for people to buy tickets!!

Home Stretch

We've now had a "stagger" run through each half of the show. Most of the cast are now off-book, some more confidently than others, though that's not a concern to me. Once books are down, actors soon find that they know their lines better than they thought they did and confidence soon takes an upturn.

Apart from a couple of tweaks which I had known about, but left until I'd known what I wanted to do with them, the whole structure of the play is hanging together well. I know that when we get into the theatre I'm going to want to adjust the blocking slightly - mainly we'll bring most of the action more downstage to use the Rhoda's generous apron area. In our rehearsal rooms, the floor area is nowehere near as deep as the actual stage, so some adjustment is always necessary.

At this stage I start giving more and more notes. I think I mentioned before that the better rehearsals go, the more notes I give, and so as time passes we come up with more ways to improve the action and more ideas to make the whole production interesting. I hope the cast are getting used to this... I do have doubts in the back of my mind that I don't give enough praise (and specific praise) to each actor. When I'm happy with what they're doing I just sit back and enjoy the performance! I think that most of them have worked with me enough to know this though. At least, I hope so.

My only concerns now are with other aspects of the production. I really need to get started with putting the show's programme together - we're going to take head-shots and publicity photos on Sunday, so that should get me kick-started.

There's also lots of work still to do on the set. Though now my designer and set-builder are back from their family holiday, this has now got back into gear; and our redoubtable team of old reliables were happy getting on with various bits and pieces in their absence. We're keeping fingers crossed for good weather this weekend as we can only paint outside and there are about 6 12-foot flats which need a good coating of Chelsea Green.

All that is in hand at least, so all we can do now is hope that people want to come along and see our production. Apparently sales are quite a bit ahead of where they usually are at this stage, but we need to ensure that this doesn't slacken off. Nearly time to send off press-releases...

Building It Up

Now that the actors are starting to deal with their moves and lines with confidence (books down in 6 days now!) the play is really starting to take on a life of its own.

Despite my optimism of my last post (2 whole weeks ago?!?) the next 2 or 3 rehearsals were a bit flatter than I'd hoped for and I found myself unable to find ways to inject enthusiasm and dynamism into the performances.

I think that it's unsurprising in retrospect. The actors were still all very much 'on book' and struggling to remember their moves, juggle their props (sometimes literally) and handle their scripts all at once. And my higher than usual workload has meant that most evenings I'm feeling a bit drained and finding it difficult to raise my energy levels and enthusiasm for rehearsals. Not that I'm disliking the process, and I definitely think that we're heading in the right direction, but I am definitely conscious that, as Director, I need to take a lead in ensuring that the production and the actors' performances are vital and exciting.

Last night was a real turning point. We rehearsed the first section of the 2nd-half of the play. This is the point at which the pace turns up a notch and the play should become an exciting farce, rather than a gentle drawing-room comedy. This coincided with our actors finding a new confidence in acting without their scripts in hand, and delivering their lines at a good pace. Over the course of the evening we reduced the run-time for this section from 35 mins to 24 mins. Even allowing for a certain amount of starting and stopping, this is good progress.

We had a couple of people present for rehearsal for the first time and they were able to bring fresh eyes and ears to the work in progress. Their comments have pointed up some areas which we need to examine very soon. But their overall comments are along the lines of "I can't wait to see the completed show" - which is very encouraging!

The whole cast is also committed to finding and fixing problem areas in the blocking and the dialogue. And in the post-pub production meeting (attendees: the stop-out-late cast and crew reprobates club) we talked about many aspects of the production and solved at least two problems which had concerned me for some time.

I've come away from the past weekend with a renewed enthusiasm for this work.

Consolidation

We're in a period of consolidating the work we did during blocking rehearsals. Now that the actors have started learning their lines and should know the general shape of the action, we spend each rehearsal evening running sections of the play, around 10 pages at a time. This gives us a chance to make sure that the action works as blocked. It's a very valuable time, as now we discover (and re-work) places where the moves we've previously decided upon look clumsy and need changing.

It's also the time to start building in bits of 'business' and experimenting with characterisations. A couple of examples:

We'd already decided that the maid, Nellie, is attracted to all the male characters and, while we won't always see it, we know that she will flirt with them given the opportunity. So, at a point where Lord Arthur and his butler were sharing a private moment alone - one that could be misconstrued by an outsider - it was a great opportunity for Nellie to act outraged and jealous: a great performance by Jill. For all of us in the room it was a truly funny moment - and got better with repeats. Moments like this, when you know you've found a dramatic and comic moment through real character interaction, rather than slapstick, or farce, are when you know that the play should be a success (up until that point, it's just a hope, based upon expectations of the script and the fine actors that you are working with).

In another scene, things were looking a little flat. Lord Arthur was worried about having to commit a murder and sought the advice of his butler, Baines. The scene was a bit flat and lifeless until we realised that Arthur could easily be looking forward to performing his crime. With that knowledge, Arthur's actions and Baines reactions both sprung into life and gave the scene a zip which was previously missing.

The blocking rehearsals are always a bit depressing for me. It's 2 weeks of mechanical drudgery - or that's how it feels - but wholly necessary - and you wonder if the actors will spend the whole 11 weeks dropping their props and saying "errr, which line/page/scene are we on?". This week was like emerging from that dark tunnel into the bright light, knowing that rehearsals in future are going to be fun. And that, after all, is what it's all about!

Blocking

When you first rehearse a play, in the am-dram world, at least, the main task is to complete the "blocking". In general terms, this means getting the basic shape of the play ironed out, so that the actors know more or less where they will be standing at any particular time, which entrances and exits they will use, etc.

Professional companies nowadays tend, I believe, to let the blocking emerge in a gradual basis over the first half of the rehearsal period, as an organic outcome from each character's actions. Each time I direct a play, I think that I will start trying to push our little amateur company in the same sort of direction, but I never quite manage it. Apart from the time factor (we have two rehearsals a week, 2.5 hours on Tuesday and 3 hours on Sunday, whereas professional companies have a 37 or 40 hour week!) there's also an understandable reluctance on the part of amateur actors to approach rehearsals from that direction.

[One day I'd like to persuade a handful of people to take a whole week off work and we'll prepare a one-act play in that time... One day...]

So, now we've finished blocking the action for our little escapade and we have an overall structure which I think will work successfully. Now we'll spend the next 2 or 3 weeks consolidating what we've done and polishing sections (around 10 pages at a time). I'm hoping that this is where the exciting things happen. It's now that we start to put in business and really start building the characters.

Cast

In the end it was a mix of difficult and easy decisions.

There was only one person who auditioned for the lead role of Lord Arthur, and luckily he is emminently suitable for the part, so that was a shoe-in.

On the other hand, we had 12 ladies auditioning for 5 parts. And at least 5 of them put their names down for the role of Sybil. So that made a really tough choice.

With the help of my trusted advisors, though, I think we managed to choose the best candidates for each role. I certainly hope so anyway.

I've spend some time this week putting together a rehearsal schedule. It's a tricky task, trying to guess how many pages we will be able to work on each night in the early stages and splitting the text up into manageable chunks so that you don't have to call all the actors for every rehearsal. I think that I've just about managed it though.

Next big day is Sunday when we have our first read-through with the cast and we finally get down to proper rehearsals...

Halfway Hall

We had the first evening of auditions last night - the next is on Sunday.

A very good turnout - I could cast the play from those alone, if I were to choose to. But that would be unfair on the people who are coming on Sunday, so I won't!

We've even had a couple of new prospective members coming along, with at least one or two more expected at the weekend. It's very gratifying that people want to join Ottershaw Players - we've obviously got a good reputation to attract new members - but unfortunately there aren't enough parts for all the exisiting members, let alone the new folks. I hope that if people don't get a part they understand that it's nothing personal!

The hardest decisions to make when casting are having to leave out someone who is a very talented actor. Sometimes they are just not physically right for the part (too old; too young; too tall; too short; too stout; too thin) and even though you know they would give a corking performance, if only the character was different, there's just no way you can shoehorn them in. I sometimes wonder, when telling someone these reasons for not casting them, whether they really believe you, or if they think it's just an excuse.

All I do know is that on Sunday night I'm going to have some tough decisions to make...

Readthrough

Last night we had a readthrough of the play. This is for the benefit of the group membership, so that people can get an idea what the play's about and if there are any parts they would like to audition for.

From my point of view it was a great success. Around 25 people turned up - most of them to read - and the majority will be auditioning. Which is great because they all read very well and lifted the script off the page to a certain extent already. I knew that the play was amusing, but I hadn't realised that it was drop-dead funny too!

Hopefully we also have a handful of people coming along to audition who were unable to attend the reading. If so, I'm going to be slightly spoiled for choice and at least half of those who showed an interest will end up disappointed.

Ready... Steady...

Go!

Wednesday night we had our first technical crew meeting. Our fabulous stage manager hosted (thank you Lyn!) and Claire & David, our brand-new design team, showed us a model with their ideas for the set.

Our usual designer, Alan, keeps telling us that he wants to take time off from designing and building sets (though on most productions he will turn up with a fantastic idea and then build it anyway!) so this time around we've granted his wish.

Claire and David have been involved backstage with quite a few productions. Claire has wanted to do some set design for a while and the ideas she presented on Wednesday show a great flair for the job, even on a set which I asked to be very simple - just two standalone doorways and a window.

Most of the evening was spent discussing the set design and we batted around a few ideas about how it would work. Claire's going to incorporate a couple of changes - mainly simplifying the build of the window and swapping over the two entrances, from left to right and vice versa. We also discussed and settled on the colour scheme.

David has some great ideas for how to build the set and we're going to spend some time rooting around in our storage/build/rehearsal hut on Sunday to find flats which we can incorporate into the set.

Also on the agenda was wardrobe. My Mum is looking after this and already has lots of great costume ideas and has started sourcing materials and patterns.

We touched briefly on sound and lighting, but at this stage we don't have our personnel - our preferred lighting guy is happier getting involved a bit later in the process.

After 3 hours of enthusiastic and productive talk we finished up. Now we're looking forward to a reading and two audition sessions next week...

It's Official

Hurrah! The licence for the play arrived from publishers, Samuel French. Which means that we can now officially put the play on. Which is good, given the amount of pre-production work we've done so far...

I also spoke to Claire (props and design) who told me that she thought the play was "fantastic". Not that I can take any credit for the writing, but it's good that people are anticipating a funny and entertaining production already. That should really give it some positive energy.

Rolling on

What with Christmas and New Year and getting ready for this year's Farrago, I've not done as much work on the play as I'd hoped. But most of the background technical stuff is getting done.

Last night I gave copies of the script to Lisel (my assistant director), Lyn (stage manager) and Claire (props and set-design). I need to get a script to Jonathan, our lighting chap and then get a technical team meeting organised for late-January or early-February.

I'm now very happy with the poster - and all the feedback on it has been very useful and encouraging. I'm glad I spent some time doing a re-design.