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.



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.

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:

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.

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.

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