Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Monday, 21 March 2011
Walked-In London
Ok this is supposed to be filed under the non-theatre news/article area of this blog but since this blog doesn't have one of those areas it is going here.
LibraryGirl and I are proud to announce the opening of our new blog Walked-In London. The whole premise is that because LibraryGirl and I love London we have begun reading books set in London to find new places to visit and experience. Also a lot of these books are titles that would normally fall under my radar, as you can imagine with the ever expanding HeadTheatre Library choosing books for me to read for fun generally ends up being quick and unadventurous, so it is a chance to experience some really good stories that may not be on the bestseller lists. Plus we will be visiting and posting photos of places found in the novels we read and even constructing some walks that you too can follow!
My first book was Mr Rinyo-Clacton's Offer by Russell Hoban and boy was it good! In fact because all you lovely people out there read headtheatre.blogspot.com (cheap plug) here is a bonus unpublished extract from my book journal review of the novel:
This book promotes the idea that life isn't perfect but is precious and not something to just dispense of... I loved reading this book I give it 4 out of 5 and look forward to re-reading it in a few years time.
Right you can find Walked-In London at walked-inlondon.blogspot.com, thats right its easily accessible at walked-inlondon.blogspot.com please make your way in an orderly fashion to the blog and let us know what you think.
Oh and I know that you all must be thinking, hey that blog looks good why is headtheatre so basic? Well I intend to amend that soon...
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Special finds in London and the battle of the Gayefs
So here we are, myself and LibraryGirl, on holiday in the garden of England quite literally a stones throw from central London. Have we crossed into the capital? Of course we have. Was it worth it? Oh most definitely. Tonight I thought I would just share with you some of the finds we have acquired for the 'Theatre From My Head' library and RTDA book list.
This lovely little selection was actually presented to me by LibraryLady, LibraryGirl's Mum, who had sourced these all in Kent and they are just wonderful. The Cowards are particularly fantastic because they seem unread. However I was instantly drawn to the Dover Thrift editions which I think have the most wonderful covers and readable print inside. These too were near mint copies and I just got stuck in, I am halfway through reading 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov and am really enjoying it. I played Gayef, the same role Stanislavski himself played in the original production I would quite happily wager that I was a better Gayef than him, when I performed it in my BA course and we went very over the top and it was all just very odd. The play itself is of course odd and full of absolutely mental situations like 50 year old women crying over cupboards! Why on earth we thought that the way we should tackle a high comedy like this by completely blowing our characters up to the level of caricatures I do not know but it was great fun. I would highly recommend 'Cherry Orchard' because it is very sad as well as very funny, there is a great pathos to the comedy within the script and it does make this a very satisfying read as well as a great play. So thank you LibraryLady for providing me with plenty of resources for RTDA. Coward is now next on my list of playwrights works to start reading.
This little lot is part one of the haul I got whilst traipsing around West London yesterday. It was a very cold day but completely worth it just for these few tomes and the goodies LibraryGirl discovered.
Noah by Andre Obey first came to my attention a few months ago when I read a review of Gielgud's performance of the play. I have been looking for it ever since and yesterday it was the first book I spotted.
Picasso at the Lapin Agile and other plays by Steve Martin. Steve Martin is someone I grew up watching in films such as Father of the Bride and Parenthood, I never really understood who or what he was until I got into Saturday Night Live and witnessed his madcap comedic style. His writing has been highly respected for many years and this will be my first chance to read one of his scripts.
Brief Lives by John Aubrey is one of those things you hear about but you don't actually know anything about. I had heard good things about this piece and the fact it is another one man show, an ongoing theme for me it seems at the moment, made me want to read it just for the audition monologues potential.
I, Fatty by Jerry Stahl. This one I could get a slap on the hand about, after all it's not a biography really, it isn't about how to perform slapstick. It is in fact a novel about the life of Fatty Arbuckle from the viewpoint of Arbuckle. It just sparked an interest in me and I hope it proves a nice break from all the theoretical and non fiction books I read about people and the world of theatre/film.
The Actors Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues. Sort of self explanatory really isn't it? Granted they are not contemporary now but still reading monologues from plays generally makes me want to see or read the whole piece and that can't be bad can it?
Educating Rita and Others by Willy Russell. More plays, always handy to have and to study.
Timberlake Wertenbaker: Plays 1
Kenneth Tynan Letters. Letters from the great theatre critic, something both LibraryGirl and I are very excited about reading.
And now for my favourite find....
This lovely little selection was actually presented to me by LibraryLady, LibraryGirl's Mum, who had sourced these all in Kent and they are just wonderful. The Cowards are particularly fantastic because they seem unread. However I was instantly drawn to the Dover Thrift editions which I think have the most wonderful covers and readable print inside. These too were near mint copies and I just got stuck in, I am halfway through reading 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov and am really enjoying it. I played Gayef, the same role Stanislavski himself played in the original production I would quite happily wager that I was a better Gayef than him, when I performed it in my BA course and we went very over the top and it was all just very odd. The play itself is of course odd and full of absolutely mental situations like 50 year old women crying over cupboards! Why on earth we thought that the way we should tackle a high comedy like this by completely blowing our characters up to the level of caricatures I do not know but it was great fun. I would highly recommend 'Cherry Orchard' because it is very sad as well as very funny, there is a great pathos to the comedy within the script and it does make this a very satisfying read as well as a great play. So thank you LibraryLady for providing me with plenty of resources for RTDA. Coward is now next on my list of playwrights works to start reading.
Noah by Andre Obey first came to my attention a few months ago when I read a review of Gielgud's performance of the play. I have been looking for it ever since and yesterday it was the first book I spotted.
Picasso at the Lapin Agile and other plays by Steve Martin. Steve Martin is someone I grew up watching in films such as Father of the Bride and Parenthood, I never really understood who or what he was until I got into Saturday Night Live and witnessed his madcap comedic style. His writing has been highly respected for many years and this will be my first chance to read one of his scripts.
Brief Lives by John Aubrey is one of those things you hear about but you don't actually know anything about. I had heard good things about this piece and the fact it is another one man show, an ongoing theme for me it seems at the moment, made me want to read it just for the audition monologues potential.
I, Fatty by Jerry Stahl. This one I could get a slap on the hand about, after all it's not a biography really, it isn't about how to perform slapstick. It is in fact a novel about the life of Fatty Arbuckle from the viewpoint of Arbuckle. It just sparked an interest in me and I hope it proves a nice break from all the theoretical and non fiction books I read about people and the world of theatre/film.
The Actors Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues. Sort of self explanatory really isn't it? Granted they are not contemporary now but still reading monologues from plays generally makes me want to see or read the whole piece and that can't be bad can it?
Educating Rita and Others by Willy Russell. More plays, always handy to have and to study.
Timberlake Wertenbaker: Plays 1
Kenneth Tynan Letters. Letters from the great theatre critic, something both LibraryGirl and I are very excited about reading.
And now for my favourite find....
Nine different souvenir brochures from various productions held in the West End over the past 25 years. I was absolutely flabbergasted to actually find these, so many times people buy them and just throw them away after they have been left to rot or gather dust in a drawer somewhere. I collect these because they show a small glimpse of the theatre of that time. Some of these are just brilliant and some are just plain disturbing, I'm looking at you 'The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus', but all have great insight and shed light on a multitude of things. Look for these to turn up in my next set of 'Theatre Programmes' articles.
LibraryGirl and I have enjoyed our holiday so far and the finds keep on coming... I am going to need a bigger library!
Monday, 28 February 2011
Just a Small One: WCTheatre The Theatre of Small Convenience *Repost and Update
The Theatre of Small Convenience
Malvern
Update:
Whilst researching for more Small Theatres for my 'Just A Small One' project I came across a CBBC video about the WCTheatre in Malvern. It is a great little piece and you can view it here.
Original Post:
Small Theatres are like wonderful little oddities, they are a novelty both in the way they are used and the utilisation of space. This tiny theatre which seats only 12, is decorated in the most elaborate and luxurious manner. It is like something from a Victorian fun fair but it is of course a Victorian Gentlemans toilet converted to theatrical use. I recommend you visit the website as it is truly a sight to behold, especially the special panoramic photo tour you can take of the interior.
For more information go here.
Some of my Dream Roles
Hello again… normal service on Theatre From My Head will now resume.
Last week I was mulling over the various roles I have played in my storied career so far and started thinking about the roles I dream of playing or playing again. I have put together a small list of roles I want to play before my days on the stage are over and those that I wish to revisit.
1. Benedick from ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.
For long time readers of ‘Theatre From My Head’ this should not really come as much surprise as this very character is one whom I have recorded myself playing and was available from my short lived pod casts. Benedick is a middle aged soldier who is afraid of his own loneliness and his feelings and when he faces the woman he loves decides to ridicule and joke with her which eventually leads to them falling out. In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ this relationship is rekindled and the spark between him and Beatrice is very much still there. The one part of this character that excites me is that he changes so quickly in one scene he is mocking love and his friend Claudio for falling for a girl when suddenly, whilst he is hiding, he overhears gossip about how Beatrice is madly in love with him which causes him to suddenly declare how much he will love her (he says he will be ‘Horribly in love with her’) and that it matters not how he has always scorned her advances and women in general. This is a man who wants to be loved and love in return without it weakening him. Benedick’s speech in Act II is one of my audition monologues and one of my favourite pieces of the Bard’s prose.
2. Man from ‘Monologue’ by Harold Pinter
Again this one is no surprise as this does still feature on the headtheatre page in pod cast form which you can listen to here. It is a performed reading, I didn’t learn the monologue and it was just a sight reading piece but I believe the power of this script still shines through. Originally a television play for the BBC it ran at approx 43 minutes long, my version runs to about 16 minutes I believe, and when reading it comes across as a very dry piece. I like to think that the real point of this piece is that the words the man doesn’t say tell us a lot more about the story than his telling ever could. I have adored this play since I was 16 and have always wanted to play the role in its entirety because it is the piece that made me impressed with Pinter’s work. I discovered Pinter in High School through the play ‘The Dumb Waiter’ but until I read this and played the part, not in full, for an audition techniques module I didn’t understand the power of Pinter’s writing.
3. Thenardier from ‘Les Miserables’
During my first year of Drama School, in fact I believe it was the first term; three of us (Kara, Michael and I) went to audition for the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ which was being put on by a local society. I remember being just terrible, actually it was well beyond terrible, for the dance part of the audition but with an adolescent dose of confidence believed I would breeze through on the singing and acting parts of the audition. I knew I was going to play Herod, I really wanted to play Judas but that’s more a ‘in my dreams’ role, I could just feel it because I knew I would blow anyone else out of the water with my characterisation and singing ability when I sang that great song ‘Master of the House’. I was perfect for Herod and nobody else was going to play it, it would be impossible to even contemplate. They started up the piano and... I came in too early, I think it was after two bars, they gave me another chance and I came in too late. I never did get to do my acting piece and never heard from that society ever again, it must be the only production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ thats ever gone without a King Herod. Now I love Thenardier because here is a character that is a grotesque, he is far from likeable, has no moral compass yet somehow he gets you to enjoy his presence on the stage. The biggest reason I want to play this is for the number ‘Dogs eat the Dogs’ which is the most perfect example of those characters in the world who take advantage of other peoples misfortunes. To play him in the West End would be perhaps my biggest dream of all as I have loved ‘Les Mis’ for years and this time… I promise to come in on time and sing it magnificently. So Sir Cameron Mackintosh are you looking for a new Thenardier once Matt Lucas has finished his run? Because I am your man!
That’s my first three choices when it comes to my dream roles. I will add more at a later date but for the moment those are the ones I am dreaming of.
Coincidentally if anyone wants to hire me for any of these three roles... or anything else then please email me... or if you have any comments to make then please feel free to leave them below.
Xtofer
Last week I was mulling over the various roles I have played in my storied career so far and started thinking about the roles I dream of playing or playing again. I have put together a small list of roles I want to play before my days on the stage are over and those that I wish to revisit.
1. Benedick from ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.
For long time readers of ‘Theatre From My Head’ this should not really come as much surprise as this very character is one whom I have recorded myself playing and was available from my short lived pod casts. Benedick is a middle aged soldier who is afraid of his own loneliness and his feelings and when he faces the woman he loves decides to ridicule and joke with her which eventually leads to them falling out. In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ this relationship is rekindled and the spark between him and Beatrice is very much still there. The one part of this character that excites me is that he changes so quickly in one scene he is mocking love and his friend Claudio for falling for a girl when suddenly, whilst he is hiding, he overhears gossip about how Beatrice is madly in love with him which causes him to suddenly declare how much he will love her (he says he will be ‘Horribly in love with her’) and that it matters not how he has always scorned her advances and women in general. This is a man who wants to be loved and love in return without it weakening him. Benedick’s speech in Act II is one of my audition monologues and one of my favourite pieces of the Bard’s prose.
2. Man from ‘Monologue’ by Harold Pinter
Again this one is no surprise as this does still feature on the headtheatre page in pod cast form which you can listen to here. It is a performed reading, I didn’t learn the monologue and it was just a sight reading piece but I believe the power of this script still shines through. Originally a television play for the BBC it ran at approx 43 minutes long, my version runs to about 16 minutes I believe, and when reading it comes across as a very dry piece. I like to think that the real point of this piece is that the words the man doesn’t say tell us a lot more about the story than his telling ever could. I have adored this play since I was 16 and have always wanted to play the role in its entirety because it is the piece that made me impressed with Pinter’s work. I discovered Pinter in High School through the play ‘The Dumb Waiter’ but until I read this and played the part, not in full, for an audition techniques module I didn’t understand the power of Pinter’s writing.
3. Thenardier from ‘Les Miserables’
During my first year of Drama School, in fact I believe it was the first term; three of us (Kara, Michael and I) went to audition for the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ which was being put on by a local society. I remember being just terrible, actually it was well beyond terrible, for the dance part of the audition but with an adolescent dose of confidence believed I would breeze through on the singing and acting parts of the audition. I knew I was going to play Herod, I really wanted to play Judas but that’s more a ‘in my dreams’ role, I could just feel it because I knew I would blow anyone else out of the water with my characterisation and singing ability when I sang that great song ‘Master of the House’. I was perfect for Herod and nobody else was going to play it, it would be impossible to even contemplate. They started up the piano and... I came in too early, I think it was after two bars, they gave me another chance and I came in too late. I never did get to do my acting piece and never heard from that society ever again, it must be the only production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ thats ever gone without a King Herod. Now I love Thenardier because here is a character that is a grotesque, he is far from likeable, has no moral compass yet somehow he gets you to enjoy his presence on the stage. The biggest reason I want to play this is for the number ‘Dogs eat the Dogs’ which is the most perfect example of those characters in the world who take advantage of other peoples misfortunes. To play him in the West End would be perhaps my biggest dream of all as I have loved ‘Les Mis’ for years and this time… I promise to come in on time and sing it magnificently. So Sir Cameron Mackintosh are you looking for a new Thenardier once Matt Lucas has finished his run? Because I am your man!
That’s my first three choices when it comes to my dream roles. I will add more at a later date but for the moment those are the ones I am dreaming of.
Coincidentally if anyone wants to hire me for any of these three roles... or anything else then please email me... or if you have any comments to make then please feel free to leave them below.
Xtofer
Monday, 21 February 2011
Approach to the Theatre's next Lesson for the RTDA
So this time I have commandeered my Dad's beloved home PC/glorified CD player to update with because I am still sans Laptop. I would have done it once again on the Kindle, because it wasn't a problem, its just that to write that relatively short update I did on Saturday took me two and a half hours. I will however be back up and running with a new Laptop very soon so updates will be quicker and more frequent.
Recently my studies for the RTDA (Room at the Top Drama Academy) have been slightly cut down hours wise due to the increasing demands on my time from work and from my Maths course. However having now completed my mulling over of 'King Lear' and finishing chapter two of 'Approach to the Theatre' I am moving on to chapter three and further analysis of text.
This book is very interesting and it has pointed me down the road of studying texts more, getting the feel of them which is something I have slowly dismissed and gotten lazy at in the past two years. According to chapter three the next move is to study the pace that is set by dramatic events and the suitability of a play from the writing. This book was printed in the mid to late 1950s so its ideas of what a suitable piece to read and put on generally is a Shakespeare or a Sheridan, which I followed for the chapter two unit, for chapter three I have decided to ignore the suggestion of something old (in relation to this book) and go for something contemporary (again in relation to this book) something that does not necessarily fit the brief given by Frances Mackenzie. I have chosen the 1972 play 'Monologue' by Harold Pinter which I am mad about, and have been since the tender age of Sixteen, because I want to give myself the impetus to really study hard to analyse the piece like I have never done so before. I find that if I give myself a real task to do then it will lead to a much better output on my part, you ask me to read a play I will do it and if I like it I will generally make my mind up on it right there and then and it gives me a blinkered outlook. I have for several years had a closed mind on Monologue, I even have proof of that. Go have a listen to my dry reading of it for my 'Radio' version (you can find it down the side of the blog or click here) because it is bad and it is one dimensional and Pinter always says more than it seems at first glance. I want to read and study Monologue to really guage its depth as a piece of Theatre and the format that Mackenzie gives, which I will go into and explain at greater length when I conclude chapter three, provides a distinct challenge to my imagination and subjectivity.
I will let you know how I get on very soon indeed...
Xtofer
Recently my studies for the RTDA (Room at the Top Drama Academy) have been slightly cut down hours wise due to the increasing demands on my time from work and from my Maths course. However having now completed my mulling over of 'King Lear' and finishing chapter two of 'Approach to the Theatre' I am moving on to chapter three and further analysis of text.
This book is very interesting and it has pointed me down the road of studying texts more, getting the feel of them which is something I have slowly dismissed and gotten lazy at in the past two years. According to chapter three the next move is to study the pace that is set by dramatic events and the suitability of a play from the writing. This book was printed in the mid to late 1950s so its ideas of what a suitable piece to read and put on generally is a Shakespeare or a Sheridan, which I followed for the chapter two unit, for chapter three I have decided to ignore the suggestion of something old (in relation to this book) and go for something contemporary (again in relation to this book) something that does not necessarily fit the brief given by Frances Mackenzie. I have chosen the 1972 play 'Monologue' by Harold Pinter which I am mad about, and have been since the tender age of Sixteen, because I want to give myself the impetus to really study hard to analyse the piece like I have never done so before. I find that if I give myself a real task to do then it will lead to a much better output on my part, you ask me to read a play I will do it and if I like it I will generally make my mind up on it right there and then and it gives me a blinkered outlook. I have for several years had a closed mind on Monologue, I even have proof of that. Go have a listen to my dry reading of it for my 'Radio' version (you can find it down the side of the blog or click here) because it is bad and it is one dimensional and Pinter always says more than it seems at first glance. I want to read and study Monologue to really guage its depth as a piece of Theatre and the format that Mackenzie gives, which I will go into and explain at greater length when I conclude chapter three, provides a distinct challenge to my imagination and subjectivity.
I will let you know how I get on very soon indeed...
Xtofer
Friday, 18 February 2011
RTDA an update and explanation
So about two weeks ago LibraryGirl's laptop finally gave up the ghost, may it rest in peace, so I have been unable to update this blog and have now resorted to writing it on my Kindle. It is a bit difficult but I have been itching to post for over a week so it was this or nothing and nothing was not an option!
So onto the RTDA and the great tome 'Approach to Theatre'. When I last left you I said I had read King Lear and let you know how I got on, well I got on . . . well. I found Lear to be a riveting tale that has a lot of potential as a farce if it wasn't so tragic. To start I have to admit I really didn't like Lear himself who acts more like a pectulant child than the King of England. He bases the division of his Kingdom on a daughters single refusal to showboat her love for him. The denouncing and demonisation of this daughter is a shocking scene akin to a public flogging. After all this when his other daughter's started mistreating him I just didn't care. He was a contemptible character and there was no tragedy for me by the end and SPOILER ALERT!!!
When his daughter he denounced at the beginning dies with him at the end I just felt like Lear got his comeuppence. In the main plotline there was no sympathy for Lear, his actions and his selfishness were his downfall and no amount of moaning was going to make him sympathetic. The illegitimate son and love triangle plotline involving Edgar and the two daughters Lear favours seems like a staple of ribald comedy that became popular in the regency period, and is still very popular today, that would be very funny if it wasn't for the underlying themes of patricide and regecide. There is my biggest problem with Lear, it is just doom and gloom throughout. King Lear does not have the morality difficulties that plagues Macbeth and it doesn't put you on the edge of your seat like Othello where you are watching and willing someone to stop that vile villain Iago. Lear is a flat play that depressed me and had no payoff at the end, I don't need a happy ending and Romeo and Juliet which had a similar ending, sorry more spoilers, at least left us with hope that the war between the families was over. Lear gives you nothing inspirational or good just bleakness.
Staging Lear at least seems cheap and simple. The settings are basically great halls and the great outdoors. A throne is pretty much all the scenery you will need so it really is a simple production and that is how I would do it. I would minimise the amount of set but have a huge throne to dwarf Lear to show how small a man he truly is. My direction for the piece would not be sympathetic to Lear I would side with the daughters initially but after act two I am not sure what I as a director could do but present the action as it comes. This play comes down to each individual audience member making their own mind up about Lear. I think to a point the daughters have a point in their quarrel with Lear but murder is never the answer. So does he deserve to die? I think a more appropriate question is how would I tackle this piece? I gave my initial ideas but I keep pondering about it, i've been pondering for four weeks, and maybe that is this play's redeeming feature for me.
So onto the RTDA and the great tome 'Approach to Theatre'. When I last left you I said I had read King Lear and let you know how I got on, well I got on . . . well. I found Lear to be a riveting tale that has a lot of potential as a farce if it wasn't so tragic. To start I have to admit I really didn't like Lear himself who acts more like a pectulant child than the King of England. He bases the division of his Kingdom on a daughters single refusal to showboat her love for him. The denouncing and demonisation of this daughter is a shocking scene akin to a public flogging. After all this when his other daughter's started mistreating him I just didn't care. He was a contemptible character and there was no tragedy for me by the end and SPOILER ALERT!!!
When his daughter he denounced at the beginning dies with him at the end I just felt like Lear got his comeuppence. In the main plotline there was no sympathy for Lear, his actions and his selfishness were his downfall and no amount of moaning was going to make him sympathetic. The illegitimate son and love triangle plotline involving Edgar and the two daughters Lear favours seems like a staple of ribald comedy that became popular in the regency period, and is still very popular today, that would be very funny if it wasn't for the underlying themes of patricide and regecide. There is my biggest problem with Lear, it is just doom and gloom throughout. King Lear does not have the morality difficulties that plagues Macbeth and it doesn't put you on the edge of your seat like Othello where you are watching and willing someone to stop that vile villain Iago. Lear is a flat play that depressed me and had no payoff at the end, I don't need a happy ending and Romeo and Juliet which had a similar ending, sorry more spoilers, at least left us with hope that the war between the families was over. Lear gives you nothing inspirational or good just bleakness.
Staging Lear at least seems cheap and simple. The settings are basically great halls and the great outdoors. A throne is pretty much all the scenery you will need so it really is a simple production and that is how I would do it. I would minimise the amount of set but have a huge throne to dwarf Lear to show how small a man he truly is. My direction for the piece would not be sympathetic to Lear I would side with the daughters initially but after act two I am not sure what I as a director could do but present the action as it comes. This play comes down to each individual audience member making their own mind up about Lear. I think to a point the daughters have a point in their quarrel with Lear but murder is never the answer. So does he deserve to die? I think a more appropriate question is how would I tackle this piece? I gave my initial ideas but I keep pondering about it, i've been pondering for four weeks, and maybe that is this play's redeeming feature for me.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
127 Hours and The Kings Speech
At the Weekend LibraryGirl and myself went to the Connaught Theatre to watch two different films with one thing in common both lead males have been nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award. They are 127 Hours and The King's Speech and both were fantastic films with brilliant performances.
127 Hours is based on the true story of Aron Ralston a climber who whilst enjoying the canyons of Utah gets his arm trapped between a canyon wall and a massive stone. His hand is crushed and he cannot move from the spot he is trapped in. Left with barely any water, hardly any food and only a cheap 'made in china' knife he tries to survive the life threatening situation he is in. As he tries to escape and begins to grasp how bad the situation is he contemplates his life and nearly gives up until he removes his arm, on the fifth day he is trapped, with the now blunt knife. He then hikes eight miles before he is finally rescued. It is a fabulous story of human resource and survival told incredibly well by Danny Boyle but realised in a virtuoso performance by Franco.
I was not surprised to read that James Franco was nominated for the Oscar after watching his performance in the Cinema, in fact after watching his performance I just decided he should get the Oscar because it just was so good. He basically did a one man play on film laying a whole character bare, a whole human life for us to gaze at. He went through so many changes in the 93 minutes of the film, which isn't something out of the ordinary but it was when you consider that this represented 127 hours of one man's life. It was mesmerising to see this cocky mountaineering guy get trapped and then have to face the realities of what his life choices had caused him as he waited to die. Franco portrayed a man who understood his situation and was dealing with it in the best way he could but he also showed the intelligence of the character who only about 24 hours into his ordeal realises the only way he can get out is to hack off his arm yet also knows he doesn't have the right tools. You saw everything that Franco was thinking, every through line, every thought was a real thought it seemed. There was no faking or falsity in the performance (there couldn't be because of the way it was shot) but it still required the great skill of a fine actor like James Franco to pull it off. 127 hours is now one of my favourite films because of the performance of Franco and the excellent source material and script co-written by Danny Boyle. Will Franco win the Oscar? Probably not because this year is Firth's year it seems and I also think that the performance Firth gave in 'The King's Speech' was just... well shall we get to that now?
The King's Speech is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best British Films in years and has rightly earned a huge amount of accolade. Charting the problems of the soon to be King George the VI this film starts with a scene based in the old Wembley Stadium where the then Duke of York stutters through a speech at the end of the year's Empire Exhibition and leads us up to his first WWII speech to the people of the UK and the British Empire. The Duke of York is played by the brilliant Colin Firth who has really hit his stride it seems recently with his performances in films. Colin Firth plays the conflicted Prince Albert who has had a stammer since his early years, which has been made worse by the need for him to speak over the radio to the people of the Empire in his role as one of the Royal Family. When his brother refuses to stop his dalliances with Mrs Wallis Simpson it becomes more obvious Albert may have to take the throne over and it is of vital importance that the King not stammer. The plot may not sound great but its the performances that make this film the sensation it is and the performance by Firth is just a beautiful thing. Essentially the role is this: a man who has to keep his life private yet remain in the public eye, must be diplomatic at all times, be a servant of the people and most of all live up to everyone's expectations no matter how big or small. It is a very large ask for anyone to do that job and to be all those things but Colin Firth portrays them all very well. His performance reminded me of what I heard Dame Judi Dench say on A:M a few weeks ago 'Someone once said to me, don't try and play all the part at once, play it a bit at a time and hopefully by the end you will have something that's whole' which I took to mean that there are many facets to a character but you should never try to do the whole character all at once. After all where does the character go in scene two if you have revealed all in scene one? Colin Firth did this perfectly, showing the insecurities and passions of a man who was not raised to be King but who became one of our greatest and taught our Queen how to be arguably the greatest monarch since Queen Victoria. Side by side there isn't much between the performances of Franco and Firth, both played real people and both showed why they are so well respected as performers. However for me the problems that Aron was facing in 127 Hours was in our faces the whole way through the film and we couldn't get away from it and so Franco had everything just hanging out there from the moment of the accident. In 'The King's Speech' because of the very nature of the subject and the character Firth played he could be more guarded and downplay the drama of the films situation. There was more depth to Firth's performance than in Franco's and that is why I believe he deserves the Oscar nod.
Both these films are phenomenal so run run run to the Cinema and don't come back until you have seen both!
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
RTDA: The Entertainer by John Osbourne presented by the BBC.
So this week my new mp3 player arrived and after spending a good few hours organising my music collection, the shows and soundtrack folder is jam packed, I started looking at my spoken word resources. Here in the UK we may have the best broadcasting organisation in the world with the BBC as they put on so many great productions and programmes both on the television and their various radio stations. Over the years I have recorded and collected a wide range of plays and programmes on the theatre always with it in mind to listen to them, much like my issues with my book collection, but now I have actually put a selection onto my mp3 with the idea of listening while I work. This week I put on a couple of programmes and plays but the big one that I had was a BBC Worldwide production of 'The Entertainer' by John Osbourne featuring Bill Nighy as Archie Rice the main character. I once tried to read 'The Entertainer' because of having read 'Look Back in Anger' and loving the characters and I found it slightly hard to follow and not very compelling. I should probably add that this was when I was 17 and really had only just been introduced to work the likes of Pinter and Osbourne so I was learning slowly. Then around the beginning of December I was looking through one of my monologue books and came across one of the Archie Rice speeches and was hooked by his laid back malice. So when I put the play on I was hoping to enjoy the whole thing.
I worked and listened and found myself sucked into this family that just exists, much like Britain after WWII the rice family just exists. It doesn't prosper and it has no future according to its main protagonists. Nighy was brilliant as Archie playing him in the first three quarters with so much charm that I believed I had the character down all wrong, that I must have misheard and misread all the information I had found about the play. Then nearer the end he becomes nastier as it transpires he has fallen for some floozy and has no interest in his wife or family any longer. By the time he puts his elderly father back on the stage you hate Archie Rice and realise that he plays the role of genial gentleman and comic 24/7 even with his immediate family just so he can get what he wants from life. I found the play very interesting and entertaining as well. I look forward to listening to more BBC productions on BBC 7 in the coming weeks.
I recommend anyone who wants to experience some of the best actors in the UK playing some fantastic roles to go straight to the BBC Radio website and check out Radio 4 and Radio 7.
I worked and listened and found myself sucked into this family that just exists, much like Britain after WWII the rice family just exists. It doesn't prosper and it has no future according to its main protagonists. Nighy was brilliant as Archie playing him in the first three quarters with so much charm that I believed I had the character down all wrong, that I must have misheard and misread all the information I had found about the play. Then nearer the end he becomes nastier as it transpires he has fallen for some floozy and has no interest in his wife or family any longer. By the time he puts his elderly father back on the stage you hate Archie Rice and realise that he plays the role of genial gentleman and comic 24/7 even with his immediate family just so he can get what he wants from life. I found the play very interesting and entertaining as well. I look forward to listening to more BBC productions on BBC 7 in the coming weeks.
I recommend anyone who wants to experience some of the best actors in the UK playing some fantastic roles to go straight to the BBC Radio website and check out Radio 4 and Radio 7.
Brimstone and Treacle still vile after all these years
On Saturday we visited London once again and on a beautiful January day we headed for, what has become my favourite part of the City, the Southbank of the Thames. On the Southbank is situated the BFI and inside there is the Mediatheque which allows you to watch free movies from the BFI collection. Inside the archives at the BFI they have a large amount of the 'Play for Today' programmes, about 60 of the original 300 broadcast, of which I have now watched a couple. I really enjoyed the first one which was 'Brassneck' by David Hare and Howard Breton and when searching through the archive noticed 'Brimstone and Treacle' and I noted it down as a future watch. I knew about it being a banned play but I just assumed that it had been banned for a mild reason, in this multimedia world of disgusting images available at the touch of a button surely a play written in the mid 1970s couldn't offend. I was wrong.
Starring Denholm Elliott, Michael Kitchen, Patricia Lawrence and Michelle Newell this play focuses on the life of a tragedy struck family and how one stranger infiltrates and takes advantage of that family.
The play begins with Martin, who refers to himself as a Demon, (Kitchen) on a London suburb street talking about sulphur and looking around for a mark. He talks to a gentleman trying to insinuate himself into the mans life asking if he remembers him, this man doesn't and rebukes Martin who quickly moves onto Mr Bates (Elliott) who walks into view and gets sucked in slightly by Martin. Martin claims to know Mr Bates which makes him ask how and he claims to have known Mr Bates' daughter which makes Bates dubious as his daughter is paraplegic due to a tragic car accident two years previous. Martin claims to have proposed to the daughter but she turned him down so he went to America and had heard nothing about what had happened to her in the meantime but that he wants to see her again despite her being disabled. Mr Bates finds this most distasteful and tries to leave Martin but Martin fakes a seizure and Bates says he will fetch the car. Mr Bates leaves. Martin has stolen his wallet though and follows him home.
When Bates gets home we meet his wife who is looking after their daughter Pattie, a brilliant performance by Michelle Newell, and she is speaking to Pattie because she believes that her daughter will eventually get better. Mr Bates has already made up his mind that his daughter no longer exists and is just a physical shell despite the fact that when they talk to her she obviously responds. Martin turns up with the wallet and sends Mr Bates into a tizzy who is infuriated that the man he tried to lose followed him but stays polite and explains the situation to his wife who talks to Martin. Martin uses his natural charm to insinuate himself into Mrs Bates confidence and she accepts him as a would have been son in law nearly instantly. Mrs Bates is flattered by the attention that Martin gives her and of the chance that she has to actually converse with someone other than her husband as she has to stay at home and look after Pattie. During a session where the three of them drink a little too much and Martin allows himself to be spoken to we find out that Mr Bates has a problem with black people and believe the Conservative Party is now too soft so he has joined the National Front. As it gets late and Martin has volunteered to help look after Pattie because of his faux love of her since she turned down his proposal he is allowed to stay in Patties old bedroom upstairs. As soon as he gets up there he starts rummaging around her underwear drawer, finding some sort of perverse pleasure from the experience. This was the first thing that made me feel slightly uneasy. Then the perversion within this play comes out as he goes to bed and uses his demonic powers to sexually abuse and arouse Pattie who is sleeping downstairs.
The next day Pattie seems a little more responsive but Mr Bates is still unconvinced and Martin is treated badly by him again. When Mr Bates goes to work Martin convinces Mrs Bates to go get her hair cut and that he can look after Pattie whilst she is out. Once she has left the house Martin rapes Pattie in one of the most chilling and disturbing scenes I have ever witnessed on film.
The rape scenes in this play are disturbing not because of the content but because of the subject, this woman is the most helpless kind of person there is. Pattie is a woman who cannot say no, who cannot make a decision and she is fully exploited and violated by this demon. Then you add in the creepiness of the lines within the text which are wonderfully performed by Kitchen. Finally to really offend your sense of propriety and decency these rapes and molestations lead to Pattie coming to and being healed of her disability. It is a sick and twisted part of a play which actually brings up some very interesting points and makes you question the motives of this demon. My favourite part of this play is when the demon/Martin confronts Mr Bates with the reality of his racism, the reality of his 'send the blacks home' attitude. What starts as a simple conversation about how the NF will send them back to Africa/Jamaica/India etc leads to Martin bringing up the one fact that I like hearing racists and people like Nick Griffin try and answer which is 'What are people who are born here? Because according to you they are not British'. Martin goes on to point out that the only logical way to get rid of them is to have another Holocaust but here in England. This causes Mr Bates to reevaluate his beliefs. It is a brilliant piece of text and it is wonderfully performed by Kitchen and Elliot, it had me completely fixed to the screen I just wish it was a theatre play so I could experience the power of those words personally.
This play is vile in the way it portrays rape against a disabled woman and I think Alisdair Milne the man who cancelled its original broadcast in 1976 put it best by saying: "nauseating" though "brilliantly made".
This piece of work made me incredibly uncomfortable but it did make me think and also question what was acceptable in the theatre. Was this a step too far? I cannot say yes and I cannot say no because I was so offended by the ideas perpetrated by the sexual scenes.
I do not know what message Dennis Potter wanted to get across because I cannot work it out. It is a piece of work I respect yet find highly offensive. I think this piece is important to watch for any drama student to understand the limitations that sometimes need to be adhered to.
Sunday, 16 January 2011
RTDA Update and Musings
Ok so another Saturday and another day out and about on the South Coast where yet again I found more tomes for my studies with the RTDA. Here is the list of purchases...
State of Revolution by Robert Bolt
Presence by David Harrower
Shakespeare - Hit or Miss? by John Gielgud
German Expressionism Five Plays by Georg Kaiser
Marat by Peter Weiss
Postwar German Theatre An Anthology of Plays printed by Macmillan
Punch at the Theatre
All in all a good little haul which was most fun gathering together.
This dance studio has produced several dvd classes worth investing in but when I saw the title of the complete beginners I was hooked. 2 Left Feet Complete Beginners looks like its exactly what someone like me who has hardly any talent needs to increase their technical base and boost their confidence. A snip at £26.99 and something which the RTDA may need to invest in for the future.
RTDA isn't going to address everything that a drama school will but there is always another way of getting round these problems you just have to be willing to look and get creative with your solutions.
As for Lear, it is there waiting and it will be done soon. Having read the background and contexts has made me mull ideas over of the staging and presentation of such a dramatic piece of work. All of this is very well and good but for me as a creative person I really cannot put together a solid vision until I have studied the content and hopefully in the next week time will become available to really crack on with Lear and Approach to Theatre.
Remember to check in throughout the week for new articles and further content from the RTDA project. I hope you have a great week and please feel free to comment.
State of Revolution by Robert Bolt
Presence by David Harrower
Shakespeare - Hit or Miss? by John Gielgud
German Expressionism Five Plays by Georg Kaiser
Marat by Peter Weiss
Postwar German Theatre An Anthology of Plays printed by Macmillan
Punch at the Theatre
All in all a good little haul which was most fun gathering together.
Musings from the Week at RTDA
So this week whilst getting drenched at work a couple of thoughts about RTDA crossed my mind, slight little things that I didn't take into account when enrolling in this course. Learning prose, verse and the intricate nuances required to properly convey emotions on stage is relatively simple with practise and study, which is of course the point of this whole exercise, compared to learning two skills that most drama academies and schools teach but for which I do not really have the facilities nor the talent to teach myself. These are 1. Dance and 2. Singing. Now my singing voice is alright and and in many ways perfect for choral singing, plus when I get round to Cicely Berry's Voice and the Actor its breathing techniques and voice control exercises will probably improve my singing voice. I just wonder how much I can learn on my own singing along to 'Starlight Express' and 'Grease 2' compared to taking lessons, however perhaps I should peruse youtube and see if anyone on there is offering free lessons or tips. Then there is the dancing, well I have two left feet and when I HAD to do dance on my BTEC ND in performing arts course I was atrocious to the point of looking like I had only had one rehearsal when performing for an audience. So in a world and industry where you are expected to sing and be able to handle simple dance moves in Street Jazz, Tap, Jazz and Classical its kind of a problem being rhythmically challenged like myself. In the past I had looked up home dance courses and they were very pricey, I think the cheapest course I found back then was around one hundred pounds so I initially ignored the idea. Then today when I searched again I found a UK based company that offered a reasonably priced course on DVD.
This dance studio has produced several dvd classes worth investing in but when I saw the title of the complete beginners I was hooked. 2 Left Feet Complete Beginners looks like its exactly what someone like me who has hardly any talent needs to increase their technical base and boost their confidence. A snip at £26.99 and something which the RTDA may need to invest in for the future.
RTDA isn't going to address everything that a drama school will but there is always another way of getting round these problems you just have to be willing to look and get creative with your solutions.
As for Lear, it is there waiting and it will be done soon. Having read the background and contexts has made me mull ideas over of the staging and presentation of such a dramatic piece of work. All of this is very well and good but for me as a creative person I really cannot put together a solid vision until I have studied the content and hopefully in the next week time will become available to really crack on with Lear and Approach to Theatre.
Remember to check in throughout the week for new articles and further content from the RTDA project. I hope you have a great week and please feel free to comment.
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Another sign of the Age of Austerity - The Castle Wellingborough Northants
The Castle Theatre Wellingborough is a community theatre in Northamptonshire. It contains a main house which seats five hundred and three audience members and an eighty nine seat studio theatre. It even contains rooms for a youth theatre group, resident artists space and an art gallery. The Castle is a pivotal part of local life in Wellingborough who use it not just as a theatre space but also as a community centre. Now the venue needs to find an organisation to take over the space before the first of February to secure the jobs of its staff, unfortunately even if The Castle does get another organisation to take it over the local council will cut its funding by ten percent in April. Considering that in 2010 this mainly amatuer and community theatre venue had such artists as Victoria Wood, Jenny Eclair and Julian Clary put on their work there and that it hosts the East Midlands Youth Theatre Festival every year this will be a terrible blow to Wellingborough. I have always had a problem with closing regional theatres and with them losing their funding and to see what this venue offers and realise that the excellent services they provide will have to be cut does make me worry about the future of regional theatre. With the rise in ticket prices for West End and big city venues run by the larger theatre groups it is more important now than ever that a cheaper option in the provinces is widely available. We all have to do our bit to dig the UK out of this black hole of debt but do we really know what the cultural and educational cost of all this cutting is going to mean to our society in twenty years time. For more information please read this article by Bernie Goodjohn of the Northants Evening Telegraph.
Monday, 10 January 2011
Yeah well the Dog ate it! Excuses to the RTDA
Ok so if this was a Monday Morning about five years ago and I was supposed to hand in or produce some work that I was meant to have done for University and I wanted to stretch my deadline I would have come up with some excuse. I think my main excuse during my college and University years was 'My Printer is playing up again/My computer crashed and wiped the work' which was true due to the strange models of printers and pc's my Dad would purchase. Today I have no excuse really for why chapter two of 'Approach to Theatre' is not completed, I started doing it but didn't finish it. I read the introduction to King Lear and a whole load of information on its historical background, context and source. I even read about where the text originates from and how the great Tragedians throughout history modified the script to solidify their performances but not a stanza of Shakespeare's verse has passed my eyes yet. This is because I was busy this weekend. Busy doing what I hear you cry? Well here is what I was busy doing.
As I mentioned on Saturday we went into the manic and heaving town centre where we added several tomes to my collection of theatre books. However two other things were picked up during this trip to the shops. One was a video game called 'Heavy Rain' and the other was a dvd boxset of that 90s Fantasy television series 'Xena'. Saturday afternoon was then spent watching a couple of episodes of Xena and then copious amounts of Heavy Rain. Now this may seem like a complete waste of time however there were lessons to be learned and I found both very helpful.
Xena the Warrior Princess is about a former Warlord named Xena who is trying to right the wrongs of all the slaughter, chaos and general misery she has rained down on the Ancient World. Along the way she meets friends such as Gabriel who joins her in her roam around Thrace and Greece (I am only up to episode four) doing good deeds and kicking evil doers behinds. Now you may ask what on earth I could possibly learn from such a fantastical piece of television but there are real lessons to be learned from material such as this. One is conviction, the actors in this show give great conviction to their lines and Lucy Lawless (Xena) plays it very straight and honest. There is a certain campness to the whole show, I love it, which would probably make most theatre goers and people who worship the method and serious acting cry for the blood of the producers actors and anyone else involved but the truth is that Xena is well acted and it is a great example of entertaining television. If as a drama student I need to remember anything its that ultimately being an actor is about being able to entertain people and Xena entertained me. Also the way it is costumed and designed is very theatrical and that instantly gives it credit to help me with my understanding of design for film, theatre and television.
Now Heavy Rain may seem like a very odd thing to be writing on a theatre blog but this piece of video gaming is amazingly theatrical. It is essentially an interactive film noir in which you control the outcome of the story and characters involved. Set in an American city somewhere in the Northeast this story revolves around a man named Ethan and his relationships which are ruined by two tragic events. Now I loved this game and LibraryGirl and myself were hooked to the screen all evening and all of Sunday nearly too which is all very good I hear you all cry but again what does it have to do with the theatre? Well Heavy Rain wasn't really animated in the conventional way that video games are done, no its characters move because they were motion captured to move that way. Their faces were motion captured in the same way that Tom Hanks was in Polar Express so what you actually are watching as you interact with this epic movie is real actors playing out a real script. What this game has shown me is the subtle nuances within facial features and movements, because of the way it was constructed I was in the game more and I felt as if the fourth wall no longer existed that I was the characters. I just admired the whole game and the acting ability put forward. The voice acting was very good as well, in recent years people have praised games such at GTA IV for the acting involved but having played both these games Heavy Rain is vastly superior. I really need to work on my facial expressions and vocal skills if I want to be a good actor and that is what I learnt from playing this game.
So yes that is why I did not do my work, that is what led to my distraction. Am I sorry? No not at all because I did learn some things and I can go back to Shakespeare now. This week I will be back on track with King Lear being analysed. This time though I won't fix myself to a two day working period. With home schooling and education you have to balance everything within your day to day life and maybe thats the biggest lesson this weekend has taught me. So keep up with me as I continue working hard at the RTDA.
As I mentioned on Saturday we went into the manic and heaving town centre where we added several tomes to my collection of theatre books. However two other things were picked up during this trip to the shops. One was a video game called 'Heavy Rain' and the other was a dvd boxset of that 90s Fantasy television series 'Xena'. Saturday afternoon was then spent watching a couple of episodes of Xena and then copious amounts of Heavy Rain. Now this may seem like a complete waste of time however there were lessons to be learned and I found both very helpful.
Xena the Warrior Princess is about a former Warlord named Xena who is trying to right the wrongs of all the slaughter, chaos and general misery she has rained down on the Ancient World. Along the way she meets friends such as Gabriel who joins her in her roam around Thrace and Greece (I am only up to episode four) doing good deeds and kicking evil doers behinds. Now you may ask what on earth I could possibly learn from such a fantastical piece of television but there are real lessons to be learned from material such as this. One is conviction, the actors in this show give great conviction to their lines and Lucy Lawless (Xena) plays it very straight and honest. There is a certain campness to the whole show, I love it, which would probably make most theatre goers and people who worship the method and serious acting cry for the blood of the producers actors and anyone else involved but the truth is that Xena is well acted and it is a great example of entertaining television. If as a drama student I need to remember anything its that ultimately being an actor is about being able to entertain people and Xena entertained me. Also the way it is costumed and designed is very theatrical and that instantly gives it credit to help me with my understanding of design for film, theatre and television.
Now Heavy Rain may seem like a very odd thing to be writing on a theatre blog but this piece of video gaming is amazingly theatrical. It is essentially an interactive film noir in which you control the outcome of the story and characters involved. Set in an American city somewhere in the Northeast this story revolves around a man named Ethan and his relationships which are ruined by two tragic events. Now I loved this game and LibraryGirl and myself were hooked to the screen all evening and all of Sunday nearly too which is all very good I hear you all cry but again what does it have to do with the theatre? Well Heavy Rain wasn't really animated in the conventional way that video games are done, no its characters move because they were motion captured to move that way. Their faces were motion captured in the same way that Tom Hanks was in Polar Express so what you actually are watching as you interact with this epic movie is real actors playing out a real script. What this game has shown me is the subtle nuances within facial features and movements, because of the way it was constructed I was in the game more and I felt as if the fourth wall no longer existed that I was the characters. I just admired the whole game and the acting ability put forward. The voice acting was very good as well, in recent years people have praised games such at GTA IV for the acting involved but having played both these games Heavy Rain is vastly superior. I really need to work on my facial expressions and vocal skills if I want to be a good actor and that is what I learnt from playing this game.
So yes that is why I did not do my work, that is what led to my distraction. Am I sorry? No not at all because I did learn some things and I can go back to Shakespeare now. This week I will be back on track with King Lear being analysed. This time though I won't fix myself to a two day working period. With home schooling and education you have to balance everything within your day to day life and maybe thats the biggest lesson this weekend has taught me. So keep up with me as I continue working hard at the RTDA.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
New Acquisitions for HeadTheatre and Room at the Top Drama Academy
Ok so today being Saturday I abandoned all hope of sanity and calmness and went shopping downtown amongst the sales crazy general public. It was manic and stressful but considering some of the gems we found today in the shops it was well worth it. Despite always telling myself to take it easy when it comes to purchasing more books it seems I never listen. Here is a list of the new additions to the RTDA Library purchased today:
Romeo and Juliet - York Notes (always handy to have)
Romeo and Juliet - Cambridge School Shakespeare
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Distinguished Company by John Gielgud (a beautiful hardcover copy)
A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
WHSmith GCSE Literature Guide to Macbeth
The Panizzi Lectures 1998 'Publishing Drama in Early Modern Europe' by Robert Chartier (this one looks fascinating)
The True Book About The Theatre by Anthony Read (as opposed to the Untrue book about Theatre)
and
The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan (I had to read this after rewatching his emotive scene when PJ gets blinded at the paintball course)
So yeah a great little haul today. Oh and of course I know Declan Donnellan and Declan Donnelly are not the same person I was just kidding, in all seriousness I saw the book in Waterstones the other day picked it up read the back and instantly wanted it so I am very happy with that purchase in particular.
Remember that on Monday RTDA and HeadTheatre will bring you chapter two of Approach to Theatre as we continue my homeschool education. Have a nice weekend.
Friday, 7 January 2011
RTDA: Chapter One of Approach to Theatre
Ok so chapter one of this book is really just an introduction to what to expect from the author and the publication. It is very well written because I get a real sense of Frances Mackenzie's voice and a genuine feeling of the type of woman she was. The chapter starts with her trying to answer the question 'What is Theatre?' which I think is a query we should always be making to challenge ourselves to work in different ways. Ms Mackenzie talks about her personal feelings as to what is the draw of the theatre and her personal background in the industry. The words and phrases she uses can sometimes sound quite matter of fact and she seems immovable on some of her beliefs, however when you read about how she worked her way up from producing in the amateur theatre to the professional industry taking all the small jobs along the way to eventually teaching production for the BDL you have to respect her. She rose to a high powered job in the theatre in an era when women as anything else apart from actors were few and far between. After introducing her credentials and feelings on the theatre she gets right into the subject of 'Finding a Producer' and starts talking about the problems involved in amateur theatre with regards to the producer role. I found this part to be very true to my personal experience within amdram and its interesting to see that even fifty years ago this was a genuine problem. Moving onto 'Training a Producer' she talks about how you can train a producer but the best ones are people with genuine underlying talent and passion. The feeling I get is that she doesn't truly believe one hundred percent that people who just fall into the role can be effective which does make me question her motives in writing this book. However near the end of page 6 you can see why she despairs so much of the people without passion or talent for the role with the cake story. I read this and couldn't believe that someone could be so foolish, but then again I have asked some stupid questions myself. Anyway this is the cake story.
'Some years ago a lady attended a course at BDL. At the end of the course she came to me full of indignation and announced "I am most dissapointed in this course"
"Oh, dear" said I "Why?"
"I came to find out what they use on the stage for cake and I asked the tutor and he said Cake!"
Nothing I could say would convince the lady that she had not been cheated'
Unbelievable isn't it that sometimes people will not accept that sometimes the simplest thing to do when recreating a scene on stage is just to make or use a real thing?
Well Chapter One didn't put me off this book, which is a good thing, and I actually feel that by following this publications course that I will either learn something new or solidify and refresh my memory from before RTDA.
Chapter two quickly follows in which we will be trying to discover what 'theatre' is by analyzing a play and starting that creative ball rolling by bouncing some ideas around. This is going to be a fun project over the weekend I can tell. Check in on Monday to find out how it went.
'Some years ago a lady attended a course at BDL. At the end of the course she came to me full of indignation and announced "I am most dissapointed in this course"
"Oh, dear" said I "Why?"
"I came to find out what they use on the stage for cake and I asked the tutor and he said Cake!"
Nothing I could say would convince the lady that she had not been cheated'
Unbelievable isn't it that sometimes people will not accept that sometimes the simplest thing to do when recreating a scene on stage is just to make or use a real thing?
Well Chapter One didn't put me off this book, which is a good thing, and I actually feel that by following this publications course that I will either learn something new or solidify and refresh my memory from before RTDA.
Chapter two quickly follows in which we will be trying to discover what 'theatre' is by analyzing a play and starting that creative ball rolling by bouncing some ideas around. This is going to be a fun project over the weekend I can tell. Check in on Monday to find out how it went.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
RTDA Term 1: Initiation and book 1. Day 1
Term 1: Initiation and book 1. Day 1
So today I began my very first day of ‘Room at the Top Drama Academy’ with my initiation and general introduction to the facilities provided by this fine establishment. After looking round the room, which took all of two seconds, I picked up the first text book of my course. I should say right now that I have not sat down and written a curriculum for this project my books are chosen for their titles and perceived content. So with that in mind here is the first title:
This is from Samuel French LTD and was printed in 1957. It cost 5 shillings brand new but according to the inner page it only cost me 99p. This book was published fifty three years ago and the author according to the book was principal of the British Drama League Training Department as well as being the writer of other such weighty tomes on the theatre as 'The Amateur Actor' and 'Little Plays of Pigwiggin'. Now my brief research on the British Drama League, from now on reffered to as BDL, has revealed that it was started in 1919 and ran as that until 1972 when it changed its name to the British Theatre Association. Now the BDL eventually dissolved in 1990 because of financial situations that I do not know about but its work in promoting a British Theatre Festival continues to this day in the form of the All-England Theatre Festival. So I am essentially reading a book that has no idea of the revolutionary changes to the theatre in the UK post 1950s for my first exploration into how to participate in our industry. I am also worried about the language in the book, having already read the first three to four pages it seems that the role of a theatre producer and director of theatre are the same thing. This may lead to some confusion for my simple country bumpkin brain but it is certainly an interesting look at the way jobs were referred to in our industry back then. Anyway more on that and chapter one tomorrow of this brilliant book including a simply brilliant story about Cake.
So today I began my very first day of ‘Room at the Top Drama Academy’ with my initiation and general introduction to the facilities provided by this fine establishment. After looking round the room, which took all of two seconds, I picked up the first text book of my course. I should say right now that I have not sat down and written a curriculum for this project my books are chosen for their titles and perceived content. So with that in mind here is the first title:
Approach to Theatre For Student Producers by Frances Mackenzie
This is from Samuel French LTD and was printed in 1957. It cost 5 shillings brand new but according to the inner page it only cost me 99p. This book was published fifty three years ago and the author according to the book was principal of the British Drama League Training Department as well as being the writer of other such weighty tomes on the theatre as 'The Amateur Actor' and 'Little Plays of Pigwiggin'. Now my brief research on the British Drama League, from now on reffered to as BDL, has revealed that it was started in 1919 and ran as that until 1972 when it changed its name to the British Theatre Association. Now the BDL eventually dissolved in 1990 because of financial situations that I do not know about but its work in promoting a British Theatre Festival continues to this day in the form of the All-England Theatre Festival. So I am essentially reading a book that has no idea of the revolutionary changes to the theatre in the UK post 1950s for my first exploration into how to participate in our industry. I am also worried about the language in the book, having already read the first three to four pages it seems that the role of a theatre producer and director of theatre are the same thing. This may lead to some confusion for my simple country bumpkin brain but it is certainly an interesting look at the way jobs were referred to in our industry back then. Anyway more on that and chapter one tomorrow of this brilliant book including a simply brilliant story about Cake.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Introduction: The Project and its Beginnings
Introduction: The Project and its Beginnings
As a graduate of drama school who is looking for a position in the world of the Theatre but I have so far found barely any work in this age of austerity. I graduated in 2007 with an Upper Second Honors degree and since then I have wanted to study further to get my Masters degree but have never had the money. However what I have accumulated over the past 8 years is a mini library of books which hold a wealth of practical knowledge, theory and plays. I also have a few multimedia items in my library that I have managed to collect over that time which are fascinating. I was looking at this little collection and conjured up this idea about how I could study Drama at home from all these books and try to use the knowledge gleaned from them to improve myself. So here we are, I am going to see what I can learn from books bought from all over the world, out of print texts and some of the bog standard theatre books you find on every drama school’s reading list. First of all to give you a real understanding of how many books there are take a gander at this pic…
Yes this is a mountain of books but I bought them all meaning to read and study them and now I will. I do not know how long this project will take and I have no idea if studying at home can truly help a wannabe actor become better and learn the skills he needs to succeed but I am going to give it a damn good try.
As a graduate of drama school who is looking for a position in the world of the Theatre but I have so far found barely any work in this age of austerity. I graduated in 2007 with an Upper Second Honors degree and since then I have wanted to study further to get my Masters degree but have never had the money. However what I have accumulated over the past 8 years is a mini library of books which hold a wealth of practical knowledge, theory and plays. I also have a few multimedia items in my library that I have managed to collect over that time which are fascinating. I was looking at this little collection and conjured up this idea about how I could study Drama at home from all these books and try to use the knowledge gleaned from them to improve myself. So here we are, I am going to see what I can learn from books bought from all over the world, out of print texts and some of the bog standard theatre books you find on every drama school’s reading list. First of all to give you a real understanding of how many books there are take a gander at this pic…
Yes this is a mountain of books but I bought them all meaning to read and study them and now I will. I do not know how long this project will take and I have no idea if studying at home can truly help a wannabe actor become better and learn the skills he needs to succeed but I am going to give it a damn good try.
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to you all! For all of you out there who have followed this blog over the past two years, thank you so much and I am sorry I abandoned the blog about five months ago. However I am now back with a brand new project for this site and will be updating at least three times a week from now on. So I hope you all continue to read the blog and enjoy your 2011 as much as I am.
Chris
Chris
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