Advance Notification

I am delighted to be able to announce that a series of “A Stage Further” workshops will run in May / june 2009. The issue of funding cast a shadow over these, there is a lot of uncertainty with the change to Cheshire East and West. However with a small increase in the charge (and we were always very good value) and with our usual high standard of workshop leaders we are ready to go. Look out for the leaflet / booking details.

Now for the dates and programme:-

May 9th & 10th Acting / Directing. This will be taken by Chris Monks – now resident artistic director at the Stephen Joseph Theatre – Scarborough.

May 17th NEW! Stage Management. This will be taken by Strvan Sewell who is company stage manager at the Vic Theatre Stoke.

June 13th Vocal Techniques. With Roberta Morrell. This is intended more for those groups in the operatic / musical theatre. (We plan these workshops in conjunction with N.O.D.A.)

June 14th Sound Design. This ill be taken by James Earls-Davis who has worked at the Vic Theatre Stoke as sound designer since 1985. If you came to the sound course at the Lyceum you can expect to further your knowledge and covers different aspects of sound design.

June 27th Lighting. This will be taken by Ben Willets of Q Light.co.uk. Ben has worked at The Royal Exchange, Lowry, Gateway, Bolton Octagon and is used to training with amateur groups.

I think you will agree that this is an impressive programme – don’t miss out – it really could be the last time we can get these workshops funded.

The Best Line of Defence – CHUTZPAH

From Benedict Nightingale in The Times January 29th 2009.

Years ago I saw Michael Redgrave in William Trevor’s Old Boys at the Mermaid. He couldn’t, just couldn’t, recall all his lines, so he was given a hearing aid through which he was prompted by walkie-talkie. But the system was apt to malfunction and Sir Michael equally apt to fiddle with the volume control, so there were moments when the great actor dried. I’ll never forget the stricken look in his eyes, or the sympathetic lurch in my own stomach, as he struggled to recover his nerves and words – and, believe it or not, to ignore the messages coming through from the local police radios.

Still that’s one way of trying to avoid the embarrassment that occurs when the audience hears words noisily whispered from offstage, probably by the deputy stage manager, a figure who these days usually substitutes for the old prompter. There are others Beerbohm Tree, who played Higgins in the first production of Pygmalion had scraps of paper containing his lines pinned behind the stage furniture. Nowadays actors are expected to help out forgetful colleagues, though this can lead to problems. The once famous A.E. Matthews picked up a phone, went mentally blank and handed it to the callow young actor beside him saying “It’s for you”.

So is the answer to give nervous actors an earpiece that should be now more techno-friendly that Redgrave’s? In desperation, maybe, but not if it is too visible. Not if an actor seems to be listening to it rather than reacting to the onstage dialogue. Not if it causes subtle hesitations and uncertainties.

What then is the answer, apart from bullying actors to learn their lines or, if they can’t, summoning a hypnotherapist? Bring back the professional prompter instead of using a deputy stage manager with a hundred

other tasks to keep him busy. That would have had the late Ralph Richardson’s approval. At one out of town date a prompter had twice to repeat a line Sir Ralph had forgotten. His usual chutzpah didn’t desert him. “Jolly useful chap that” Richardson told the audience – and they loved it.

Thank you Meg Cooper for spotting this piece.

And an Update on a Play that opened after this article was written.

The American actor Richard Dreyfuss (remember him in ‘Jaws’) appears in “Complicit” at the old Vic. The plays opening night had to be postponed for several weeks, allegedly because Dreyfuss was having trouble learning lines – when the play finally opened he was still wearing an earpiece for prompts. Now, I may be wrong but wasn’t that this the reason he lost his role in the musical “The Producers” London production shortly before it was due to open?

Actor in Knife Mystery.

A theatre group has denied reports of a murder plot after an actor accidentally cut his throat on stage in Vienna. Daniel Hoevels, a member of Hamburg’s Thalia theatre company, was appearing in a production of Schiller’s Mary Stuart when he put what was meant to have been a blunted props knife to his throat. But the blade was sharp and he collapsed to the floor with blood pouring from his neck. It was rumoured that a  jealous rival might have swapped the knives, but a spokesman for the Thalia said a prop manager had simply bought a new knife and forgotten to blunt it. Hoevels had to have two stitches in his neck.

A Dream Realised

A concert pianist who bequeathed his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company 25 years ago has finally had his dream of appearing in Hamlet realised. André Tchaikowsky, a polish holocust survivor who fled to Britain aged four, was a frequent visitor to Stratford-upon-Avon and hoped that his skull might feature in the RSC’s productions.  But no actor has felt comfortable using real human remains until now. Tchaikowsky’s skull stars as Yorick in the RSC’s current production of Hamlet, alongside David Tennant.

News from the Groups

Wilmslow Guild Players members Lee Tipton and Trevor Williams undertook to take part in an interview on the Canalside Community Radio which was launched recently and includes a programme about local theatre, hosted by Tony Barker who had come along to see a Wilmslow Guild Players production. Lee and Trevor were involved for nearly an hour, giving some of the history of the Players and improvising jokes and accents helping to make an entertaining programme.

Canalside Community Radio is on 102.8FM The programme on amateur ands professional theatre is every Thursday 6 to 8 pm.

Harlequin Theatre Following on from the success of last year’s event an open day was held on January 18th. Displays, demonstrations –watch part of a rehearsal – all designed to encourage new members to join.

After getting into the final three Nantwich Players were the winners in the “Visitors Choice Awards”. These were presented following a dinner at the Crewe Hall Hotel – the speech Nantwich Players presedent had prepared “just in case” was not wasted.

Club Theatre In January the Sale and Altrincham Messenger newspaper published it’s roundup of the years plays by Rick Bowen. John Banks was named best actor for his portrayal of Norman in The Dresser and Val Harris was named best director for Heroes.

Can you Help 1?

Wilmslow Guild Players would like to run a workshop in late May or early June and need a few extra people to make this viable.

This would be a 21/2 hour session on acting to be taken by Jon Kerr (Cheshire Theatre Guild Adjudicator 2008/09).

If you are interested in joining Wilmslow Guild Players (who are a most welcoming group) please phone Harry Lowe on 01625 537134 or email halowe@talktalk.net

PS I have been a participant in one of Jon’s workshops – fun – thought provoking and recommended.

Can you Help 2?

Shortly before the end of 2008 I started to look for an adjudicator for the September 2009 / June 2010 season. I have spoken at the Agm of the difficulty in finding a suitable person with the time, theatre skills and knowledge, able to give a fair and constructive appraisal of your plays.

Now well into February I have so far drawn a blank.

This is why (for the first time) I am asking you for any names of persons you consider suitable. Please don’t suggest previous adjudicators these have all been approached. You can pass on my telephone number 01606 833645 if they wish to contact me directly or I can contact anyone you suggest, if they are willing to pass on their telephone number.

I need hardly spell out the consequences if we do not get an adjudicator – no festival.

Hand Book

The handbook has been produced for the last seven or eight years in the form of a ring binder and new inserts are produced each year. This year the yearbook is produced in two volumes the main volume contains the contact information for all the committee and  member societies. The second volume will contain the historical information regarding past winners of festivals. The first volume will either have been passed to you in the last couple of weeks or is included with this newsletter.

Please keep us informed of any changes you have so that the yearbook information can be kept up to date. It is surprising how often when we investigate why a society has not received our newsletters we find the society changed their secretary and nobody told us. Don’t forget the web site is updated as soon as possible after changes are notified.

Overheard in the Play Selection Committee

No piece could be proposed that did not supply somebody with a difficulty, and on one side or the other it was a continued repetition of, “Oh no, that will never do! Let us have no ranting tragedies. Too many characters. Not a tolerable woman’s part in the play. Anything but that my dear Tom. It would be impossible to fill it up. One could not expect anybody to take such a part. Nothing but buffoonery from beginning to end. That might do, perhaps, but for the low parts. If I must give my opinion, I| have always thought it the most insipid play in the English language. I do not wish to make objections: I shall be happy to be of any use, but I think we could not choose worse”.

Where did Robin Wiseman of Bolton Little Theatre find this piece of observation? In Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.

From an article in the Little Theatre Guild newsletter.

And Finally

A very readable Christmas Pressy – a dip in and out book was “Things I Never Knew About England” by Christopher Winn. Lots of fodder for Cheshire Theatre Guild newsletters so here goes with a sample!

Dunstable Standing in the crossroads of Icknield Way (Path known as the oldest road in Britain running from Ivinghoe Beacon to Knettishall Heath) and Watling Street is the ancient town of Dunstable. The unlikely birthplace of English Theatre. Here in the 12th century Geoffrey de Gorham wrote and directed the first play ever seen in England.

While he was waiting to become a prior of St Albans, de Gorham established a school in Dunstable, where he was living. The town possessed a large colony of weavers and he decided to compose a play as a way of teaching his pupils about St Catherine, the patron saint of weavers. For costumes, he used the robes of the choristers of St Albans Abbey and, for a stage, he used the cloisters of Dunstable Priory.

The play proved such a success that others copied his example and put on the first mystery plays, telling stories from the Bible, and still performed today in places such as Chester. Thus was born the seeds of a tradition that grew into arguably the greatest theatre in the world – the theatre of Shakespeare, Dryden, Coward, Pinter, Stoppard and Ayckbourn.