Stage 2 drama – blog

“Calling Time” on the Grand Plan…

After a good spring production which emerged from many difficulties, we approached the summer of 2012 full of inspiration.  During set building and backstage work for “If I Were You”, we had talked enthusiastically about the possibility of writing and performing a tribute to Monty Python.  Over the next couple of months this developed into a grand plan to produce a big show with lots of participants.  The play was written and adapted on a local theme using lots of familiar Pythonalia and we read and refined the resulting script.  We then tried hard to gather recruits to play the parts necessary, but after a number of unsuccessful attempts a to get additional acting members, we were forced to shelve the idea for another day and perhaps look to interest another acting group in a collaboration.

So where could we go from here?  Performance dates had been set with great difficulty, and determined to use them and produce a fun show with some Christmassy elements we came up with a plan to find some short pieces which we could cast more easily. We found some great short black comedy pieces gathered into a work entitled “Calling Time” by Derek Webb.  None of us have come across Derek Webb’s work before but having read through the pieces which are all 2 handers, we could see the potential and quality of the script.  We also added in “Drinking Companion” by Alan Ayckbourn as the black comedy style seemed to fit in perfectly.

Since our performance dates were so close to the festive season we thought it would be great to have a fun Christmas trivia quiz and serve a light supper to give our audience a rounded and enjoyable evening of entertainment.  We thought that we might even sing a couple of carols if we need to clear the hall (in the event, we were dissuaded!)

As we’d hoped, we rewarded our loyal audience with some well-worth-watching drama, a delicious supper (with heart-felt thanks to the Catering Department!) and a fun quiz – and we gave a Christmas hamper to the quiz winner on each night!

Both nights were well attended – although the nearness to Christmas did impact somewhat on numbers – and generally the guests deemed the evening a success.

“If I Were You”, by Alan Ayckbourn

We finally had to admit defeat and abandon “Midsummer Mink”. The difficulties just seemed to escalate, and the more we tried to hang on, the more problems surfaced.  Finally we felt that we had to put the play permanently on the “back burner” and move on!

What we have moved on to is a superbly written modern comedy – Alan Ayckbourn’s 70th play which has some very modern and serious themes in amongst the inevitable laughs.

We hope that everyone will forgive the glitch in our programme and we aim now to reward our loyal audience with a well worth watching performance of a great play.

Please come and see it – or join the group and help out – we are really keen to welcome new members in whatever capacity!

Call the box office number to enquire about tickets – we will ring you back, and we might even be able to deliver locally by arrangement.

CALL 01278 795619 and leave a message with:

• Your Telephone number
• Your name
• How many tickets you would like
• Which night (18th or 19th May).

About the Play

“If I Were You” is Alan Ayckborn’s 70th Play.  It is typical of his style in that it combines blissfully funny comedy with some more real sad and hard hitting elements displaying human nature warts and all.

The play is set in the separate areas of the Rodales’ home including their kitchen, sitting room and bedroom. These areas also double as kitchen, bedroom and lounge showrooms in the Furniture Warehouse where Mal Rodale and his son in law Dean work.

About the Play

Mal and Jill Rodale’s marriage is on the rocks. Neglected wife Jill is bored and frumpy; Mal, her bully of a husband, adores his married daughter and is hated by his schoolboy son. Because he is the manager of a Furniture warehouse, by a typical Ayckbourn device events at work in the bedding, kitchen and lounge departments can be intercut with crises at home in the lounge, kitchen and bedroom.

Mal, a rather aggressive manager at a home-fittings store with little empathy for his staff or customers, is having an affair largely conducted during his lunch-breaks. Jill, a house-wife, who has not worked for 15 years and patently regrets it, is aware of Mal’s infidelity. When their daughter Chrissie comes to visit, Jill realises Chrissie is being physically abused by her husband Dean, who works with Mal. Meanwhile, the Rodale’s son Sam, is keen on acting and wants to appear in a Shakespearean production. Jill supports Sam despite clear opposition from Mal, who believes acting is not for men and doubts his son’s sexuality. At the end of the day, Mal and Jill go to bed.

Settling down to sleep at the end of a dreadful day, Jill mutters: “God help us”. This God presumably does and, next morning, she wakes up in Mal’s body and he in hers. While Mal’s world falls apart, Jill keeps control and insists they must maintain a façade. This is not as easy as it sounds and Sam is soon confused by his parents’ very odd behaviour. Jill goes to work and proves a far more effective manager than Mal, solving many of the problems encountered by Mal the previous day. At home, Mal – struggling with every aspect of being a woman – meets Chrissie, who reveals Dean’s abusive tendencies. He is also moved to tears when Sam performs a speech from A Midsummer Night’s Dream for him. So much so that when Dean returns and as usual boorishly interrupts, Mal punches Dean. Sam bonds with Mal when his ‘father’ (actually Jill) although he is convinced his family have been replaced by aliens.

Mal and Jill retire to bed. As they doze off they find their personalities have been swapped back again. The play ends as they fall asleep, realising that what they have experienced in the preceding 24 hours has changed their lives and things will never be the same.

Stage 2 would love to see all the members of our wonderful audience, especially after our last production (Midsummer Mink) had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. We aim to make this play twice as good to make up for the loss of the last one!

Well, Midsummer Mink was supposed to be our Autumn 2011 production, however it became clear that various problems and pressures in the lives of those involved had all conspired to slow down progress of the production.  With more and more delays and issues, it was finally decided to take the pressue off by delaying the performance and going for a Spring 2012 date instead.  By this time we feel that we should have the play polished and give our audience the enjoyable show they deserve.

There is certainly a lot to work out in order to do justice to the comedy aspects of this play and we intend to make sure we produce the play to our usual high standard.  It’s a shame that there will not now be an Autumn production, but better that than a poor performance.

One of the problems we have is that we’re such a small group and ther pressure of production tends to fall on a few people.  We would dearly love to welcome more enthusiastic players and backstage members to our ranks – and now would a great time to join.  Please do come along on a friday evening to Berrow Village Hall.  Give us a try – we’d love to see you!  It’s a very inexpensive hobby our annual subscription is currently only £10 with a small contribution of £1 each rehearsal for coffee, biscuits and hall fees.

As well as being within anyone’s means, drama has other benefits – it can give a new confidence to anyone and is challenging and above all great fun. There’s no obligation to join immediately, so you’ve nothing to lose and a lot to gain by giving us a try…. See you Friday…?

So after all the angst and some hard work from many people, we finally staged Fringe Benefits… pretty successfully too. A record number of tickets were sold and Friday and Saturday in particular packed them in.

I would personally like to say thanks to the cast for all the time put in to polish the performance during the last two weeks. The script was deceptively difficult and the blocking was typically complicated (it was a farce after all!). So well done to you all.

I must say that I found this production was very hard work, especially because we had to resolve the problem of how to stage a performance given the restrictions and lack of infrastructure in the new hall.

My most heartfelt thanks to the backstage helpers who did an enormous amount of work – you’re all heroes!

Thoughts..  (my personal opinion from a Director’s perspective)…

• The promotional efforts put in early and followed through consistently gave us a great audience.  a lot of work but a noticeable result, with many new people in the audience;
• The overall show preparation and rehearsal period was too short, putting rather too much pressure on everyone and cutting down on the fun aspect.  We could only start rehearsals proper once we were allowed back into the hall – mid February;
• The champagne draw was a big success and has now given us a mailing list which should give a great basis for promoting future productions.  I am really pleased with the idea and it was very relevant to the show.  Also it tied in perfectly with Mothers day which fell on the same weekend as the performances, so I made presentation boxes with a champagne flute filled with chocolate eggs and lots of ribbons etc.

Finally I should just add that I think everyone who put in so much effort added to the success of the performances – you should all be very proud of yourselves!

At times the production aspects felt like hell and I certainly said never again more times than I would like to remember!  Thanks to the few (you know who you are), who helped to keep me sane (well, as sane as I ever am).

Producing and directing (especially when there are major technical issues to resolve), really don’t work as a single responsibility – far too much work is involved, and I for one won’t be taking on both simultaneously again.  How lucky I am to have a supportive and technically minded Ken to help in so many ways…

Having said that, I think it needed a big push to get us going again as a group and with this production I have done my best to work with others to achieve that.  So over to someone else… yippeeee!!