On this day in Theatrical history William Farren, the second, born in 1786

On this day in 1786 William Farren the second was born into an acting family. His father was an actor and his brother Percy ran a troupe in Plymouth. William Farrens father had reached the pinnacle of his career in 1784 when he played Othello at Covent Garden, he would remain at Covent Garden until his death in 1795. Farren had been left £8000, the modern equivalent is seven hundred and ninety thousand pounds, by his father and so was able to start a career on the stage without worrying about his earnings. He would join his brothers troupe in Plymouth and debut on the stage of the Theatre Royal Plymouth in 1806 in the play 'Love a la Mode' by Charles Macklin. Moving on from this debut he carved a career from himself out of playing "crusty old bachelors, jealous old husbands, stormy fathers, worrying uncles or old fops" and reached the London stage in 1818 as Sir Peter Teazle in 'School for Scandal' at Covent Garden. Farren would then flit back and forth between the companies at Covent Garden and Drury Lane, although he did have a spell as the stage manager at the Haymarket, before falling ill onstage with paralysis in 1843. His popularity dropped after he came back from his illness due to the negative effect it had on all the aspects of his acting, so he moved into actor management and took over the Strand Theatre and later the Olympic theatre. Farren passed away at his home in Brompton Square in 1861.



Book Review: A Chronicle of Small Beer

'A Chronicle of Small Beer' covers the theatrical life of a young woman who at 18 decided to pursue her dreams of being on the stage. Winifred Dolan was born in 1867, she was the niece of Alfred Austin the Poet Laureate of England after the death of Lord Tennyson, quickly showed a natural ability for performance and a passion for the theatre. From a young age she attended the theatre in Leeds seeing all the big stars touring the provinces, it inspired her to train for the stage herself.  Her career began when she joined the company of the Margate Theatre Royal in 1891and began learning her trade, she was able to move up in late 1891 to the St James's Theatre, London. Dolan's career would generally consist of mainly understudy parts but gained popularity both with her peers and the audiences and reviewers of the time. It was unfortuanate for her that she never broke out and became a leading lady but she got to do many great things in her 13 year career on the stage. I won't list them here because really you need to read the book. Her memoir  is an honest and frank appraisal of theatre at the time and her own talents mixed with some choice gossip and tales of the stars of the time. It is a fantastic little book which gives an insiders view of the London theatres of the 1890s. I really enjoyed reading it, it is a treasure trove of stories and with only 120 pages its not too long so makes for a nice light read. It was published by the STR, of whom I am a member, and continues their long run of printing interesting and varied titles on the subject of the Theatre. Rating this book out of 5 I would give it a 4.5 because I can see myself revisiting this title again and again.

If this book would interest you, and trust me if you want to read about the Victorian Theatre from a first hand account this book WILL interest you, then please purchase it straight from the STR at this link here.

7/5/1663 Charles the II is on the throne so lets party and open the Drury Lane Theatre!

Three years after the Restoration which gave King Charles II his throne and the Puritans, who had shut down all the theatres, were removed from their positions of power, the Theatre Royal, Bridges Street, was built. It was not until later that it would be known as Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was 1663 and London was at the height of its post Puritan debauchery, the banned plays were popular again and the King himself commanded performances to be put on to the delight of people all over the capital. The era gave us the still popular Restoration comedy genre which is typified by their bawdy and sexual content. The first production shown at the theatre was 'The Humorous Luietenant' by John Fletcher, a play that was debuted less than 50 years before by the last of Shakespeare's theatre company. The great diarist Samuel Pepys wrote a review of both the theatre and the production from the opening night, you can find the diary year 1663 on this page here, and was critical of the building. The building survived the Great Fire of 1666 but the previous year had been shut down due to an outbreak of the plague. After surviving the fire the theatre thrived once again until it burned down in 1672. Its replacement, the second Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, was built in 1674 and would remain for another 120 years.

On this date in 1680 Susanna Centlivre aka Susanna Carroll was born. Carroll is known to have been a contemporary of Aphra Behn and only a step behind her as the 'Second Woman of the English Stage.' It is believed that Carroll joined the Drury Lane Theatre in 1700 and in that first year the theatre produced her play 'The Perjur'd Husband' which was a risque tragedy. It was a hit which made her reputation as both a writer and an actor. Carroll wrote 19 plays and numerous poems and pressed through her writing the need for equality between men and women. She died in 1723 from a prolonged illness, she is buried in The Actors' Church, Covent Garden, London. 

February the 7th in Theatrical History

On February the 7th 1753 'The Gamester' was produced at the Drury Lane Theatre. Essentially the play is all about the downfall that can be caused by the vice of gambling. The play is currently available from Amazon as a book in a translation by W. Reeve or on http://www.gutenberg.org/ (click on the title at the beginning of the article). It was originally written by Edward Moore and ran at the Drury Lane Theatre for ten consecutive nights with Mr Garrick in the lead role.

On this date in 1812 Charles Dickens was born. Dickens is perhaps the most prolific English writer since William Shakespeare. For more information on the celebrations of Dickens's 200th birthday please follow this link.



Studio Theatre's AKA Black Boxes and why I love them.

I have been incredibly lucky in my Theatre career so far in that I have performed at some very interesting venues with a variety of different stages; The Northbrook Theatre at STAC, The Assembly Hall in Worthing, The Nightingale Theatre in Brighton and many different alternative spaces in the West Sussex area. From your normal proscenium arch setup to Promenade pieces if it can be done with a stage I have generally done it. Now many people who know me and my tastes in the Theatre, which despite rumours to the contrary they have changed over the years, would probably believe that my preference would go hand in hand with the traditional staging that you can see in nearly all the major theatres the good old fashioned Proscenium arch. Sorry to dissapoint those people but after my first experience of the West End, the moment that showed me that I wanted to be an Actor, Starlight Express wasn't just a show it was a spectacle. The staging snaked around the entire auditorium with the rollerskaters racing on it and a huge bridge that descended from what seemed to be the heavens, to a ten year old whose only experience of the theatre was the panto at the good old Connaught Theatre this was mind blowing. It was there that I realised a raised platform with an arch isn't the only way to present theatre. Then when I started learning the ropes of the theatre with the Pilgrims Drama Group in Worthing we had to create our own theatre 'area' in a church hall with no in built staging. Generally this comprised of two folding tables each side of the acting area for the 'wings' with a sheet over each table with a basic backdrop painted on. It was only when the childrens group, of which I was a member, would work with the adults group to produce the yearly pantomime. Then we would borrow a mobile stage from my Middle School as well as their lights, and using members of the church's skills we would build our own set. It was a community and those small blocks of staging were my first taste of 'treading the boards'. Then my whole outlook changed when in 1998 we got the chance to do 'Ernies Incredible Illucinations' by Ayckbourne and Mavis, who ran the drama group, taught us about Alan Ayckbourne and his theatre in the round. I was instantly fascinated by the complexity and discipline required from being seen from all angles by the audience and having to act with every part of your body. I was hooked on this new idea and over the next few years through High School drama classes and productions, Blood Wedding by Lorca in particular, due to us only really having a drama studio I got to do lots of work in that style. What I didn't know was that I was participating in what is known widely as 'Studio Theatre' and how important this would become to my future development.

In 2002 I joined the Northbrook Theatre thinking I would get to be acting in the main theatre which was a classic proscenium arch style theatre which could be turned into a huge black box. Instead I found myself rehearsing and performing in rehearsal studios before getting my first chance at working in a real black box theatre in the play 'The Last Resort' by Chris Owen. The room was tiny and cramped, it seated approx 20 people once any sparce set was placed within it. It was amazing we had to sit to one side, everytime we went onstage the audience could see, everything was stripped back and showing. The lights and speakers were very obvious and you couldn't hide them but what struck me was the versatility of the space. You could do anything in there, as it was just completely black and it opened my imaginative mind. The exploration of the space when we performed 'The Last Resort' was minimal but being on top of the audience for a first year drama student was daunting enough. Working in there cut a lot of my bad habits out quickly, fiddling hands being the crime I was chastised for the most, and by the time our second show in there was put on I was ready. 'Taking Breath' by Sarah Daniels was our piece and for it we had a pretty audacious design considering the size of the space. The stage which was approximately 12 feet across and 8ft deep was split in two with one half being the first part of the story and the second was that of the final part of the story, we had to have a piece of set representing a tree home for enviromental activists and a hospital bed. The tree home was a pallet left in the top corner of the space on which the actors playing the activists had to sit and the bed was for the lead character who falls from the tree. This of course taught me all about the importance of the luxury of space and how constraining the amount of space an actor can use is a positive thing. The last time I performed in the black box space at Northbrook was for our production of 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller. Now in this production I was very lucky in that I played two characters and in one scene I had to change costumes quickly and re-enter, now this was not just a challenge for me as an actor artistically but also logistically. There needed to be a place I could quickly change my clothes within a packed tiny little space, where the audience would not see me. They constructed next to the actors bench a tiny cubicle I could change in. A challenge met and it really inspired me to find solutions to spacial issues. The other thing that the Crucible taught me was that good design can sometimes alter percieved ideas of space. I remember when we first heard that we would all be in this tiny space doing a show we thought it couldn't work, and then when we were told it would be in the round I wasn't sure it could look clean and tidy, all those bodies in such a small space. However we ended up getting a stage which comprised of rostrum and had a good rectuangular space to play with. What happened was the claustrophobia of the space helped feed into the plays feelings of oppression and the trap that had been thrown up in the community. This was another revelation, if the play called for a small space or for a tight situation if used effectively a black box or small studio theatre can be a real boon.

In 2006 I got my first real chance at directing at the Nightingale Theatre in Brighton. Under the watchful eye of Prodigal Theatre's representative Thor and in conjunction with Lisa Perry my tutor at Northbrook I directed 'Don Juan Comes Back From the War' by Horvath. I won't go into too much detail as to what happened during this period as I have already documented it several times, however I was quite far out of my depth. The luxury however of having a beautiful space, in a luscious building within Brighton was not lost on me. I learnt more in that space about myself and directing/acting than I had done the previous 3 years of college. We used every little aspect of that space, from the bay windows to the fireplace. Every actor was on stage at all times, there were no breaks for them. We had them playing background characters to enhance the main scenes. The work produced was effective and the open to public performance went down well. It was an experience.

From then on I pretty much worked in a way that took the studio and in the round style as my main focus. It holds so many more opportunities to the performer and director who doesn't have or need an expensive set or intricate design. The final year of my BA Hons Course I was given many opportunities to direct and act and I found the studio and black box system simpler for my theatrical eye. I get it, I understood the way the mind works, how the fourth wall not being in place can truly lift a piece and allow the actors to bring the audience on a journey. When audience members can see each other across the acting space, keeping them focused on the performance is imperative and therefore everyone has to work much harder. However another thing I love about studio and black box theatres is the ability to focus on an image. My piece 'Love' which I wrote and directed in 2006 was a very simple idea and I believe verges on the line between installation art and theatre, I therefore dubbed it a piece of installation theatre (I know this is not the greatest phrase due to the lack of logic in the claim but I thought it sounded smart and good at the time) and had strict instructions regarding length of the piece and audience size. The black box and main theatre were not an option so we got a rehearsal studio and I blacked out the windows so there was no light in the room. Then we got our actress, Juline Pethig, to sit on a stepladder, which was covered by the white dress she was wearing and she held a heart shaped chocolate box. In the background there was a sinister heart beat pounding away very loudly and the bass on that track turned up. 10 audience members were brought in at a time, the lights were turned on and they were guided round the ladder and had only 30 seconds to see the piece before the light went off. When the light went off the heart sound stopped also. With no words and no action some people questioned my motives and justifications but if Samuel Beckett, and his avant garde theatre, could put on 'Breath' then my piece which was partly an homage to his artform was perfectly justifiable. It surprised my peers and tutors also who didn't believe I had that type of work in me.

My final performance at Northbrook, and a personal dream come true, was the adaptation of the Tempest that Jenna Stannard and I came up with from the original Shakespearian text and a Restoration version by Dryden. Faced with the opportunity to perform it in the traditional manor in the Northbrook Theatre, our set designer Scott Nimmo decided to put the piece in the round and create an island within the theatre space. We created an island in the Northbrook Theatre using two tonnes of sand... which blew most of our budget but I think it really helped the piece be effective. Judge for yourself.

Pictures courtesy of Kirsty Jeffery. Thanks Kirsty.

The other aspect of this was the great lack of space we had, the piece restricted where certain characters could or would go. My character Prospero would only move in his small corner of the island and it really gave us a bigger challenge. A normal set would have nullified a lot of the action in this piece and being in the round allowed us to really show off our talents.

Since leaving University and forging on with my own career I have been testing and trying my work in the round. Simply put I believe it is the most versatile work place for an actor. If you have never tried to perform in a town square in the round then you haven't had one heck of a funny experience. Last years fptheatreproductions living history piece 'The Worthing Tales' was performed in South Street in Worthing on a busy August Saturday morning. We were heckled, we were ignored, our space was walked through, we had the public come up to us during the performance and we had hundreds of spectators looking at us. It wasn't a typical piece of theatre for the town centre or even for the town but it was amazing having that public forum and was a true throwback to the days of the Medieval mystery play being done on carts in the Market place.

From left to right: Me, LibraryGirl, Charlotte Dunn, Richard Ford

However as much as I loved outside I crave a black box of my own to use and to cherish. After all with a black box you get a blank canvas, and all the basics you need to start painting the eventual masterpiece you want your work to be. That is why I love Studio/Black Box theatres, and it would take a lot to change my mind.

Xtofer

Theatre Studies Find: 1st real FIND in my textbook... THEATRON 3D Theatre Architecture Models

It is not everyday that I find a tool for theatre studies that generally blows me away. Now Theatron is one of those tools which is very exciting for its interface and depth of knowledge. This tool basically gives you a history of theatrical spaces, how they work, were developed and how they looked all in a 3D model. Now this software was developed in 2000/2001 and as such it is basic looking compared to 3D modelling that is done today on computers, however looking and studying it is still important due to the wealth of knowledge it provides. I would say that this is an excellent tool for anyone studying GCSE level Drama or History (if studying Roman and Greek architecture) or even Diploma level Theatre Students.

Check it out at http://www.theatron.org/

For more information on theatron go to http://www.theatron.co.uk/

Xtofer

My Study Text 'Theatre Studies' by Kenneth Pickering and Mark Woolgar

It takes a while to understand and really appreciate the subject you learn and to master it is near impossible, once you have your degree where do you go? Do you continue and work towards a Masters Degree? Then what? Move onto your PHD? Or do you go into the real world and leave the academic world behind? Well I chose to leave the University lifestyle and enter day to day life and consequently did what a lot of people my age did and still do, worked in a job sector completely unrelated to my degree. The result of this was that for the past 2 and a half years vital knowledge and information I pored over hungrily at College has begun to ebb away from my conciousness. This leaves me feeling a bit stupid because I did work very hard but I didn't keep it up outside of my Univeristy life and there are people who work in the Theatre Arts sector and not remembering certain things or having any knowledge of other aspects can sometimes be the difference between being taken seriously and seen as a joke. So to combat this LibraryGirl suggested I study at home a Drama Course which could easily be found in the... Library and the book we sourced together was 'Theatre Studies' by Keith Pickering and Mark Woolgar which is a book that covers all the subjects required by undergraduate and diploma courses in Theatre Arts. I have so far found it to be very helpful in its writing and exercises for reminding me how to do certain things and subjects that may have fallen to the wayside in my acting and directing technique. I am enjoying it a lot and its just nice to be learning something once again. I  feel better to be able to back up my own knowledge much like someone backing up their computer files. The biggest boon though has been some of the subjects I don't know about and resources it has thrown up for me to talk about on here. So yes there is a lot going on in 'Theatre From My Head' right now from our 'Just a Small One' series on small theatres in the UK to our 'Curtains!!! Project' so keep your eyes peeled for more updates.

Xtofer

Curtains!!! Project: A sidestep into the Old Stagers from Canterbury

The Old Stagers is an amateur Theatre Company that I have recently come across during my research into the Theatres of Canterbury for my Curtains!!! Project. One of the venues which I have looked up and researched at great length is the Theatre Royal Canterbury and whilst looking at the Times Digital Archive found reference to this group going back over a hundred years.

Formed in 1842 The Old Stagers hold a very strong claim on being the longest surviving amateur Theatre Company, originally founded by the Honorable Frederick Ponsonby it was set up to provide extra events for Canterbury's Cricket Week. According to their own website the actors were the cricket players! This of course left them little time to rehearse and on their website they talk about how they would rehearse on the green and in the tents. However reviews of these performances from 1908 onwards give these performers great respect and commend them for providing a lot of fun during the evenings before the next days cricket.

I cannot imagine a better day out really than a fine Kentish Ale in Canterbury watching the Cricket in the August Sun and then a piece of theatre in the evening. Sounds like my sort of Summers Day.

The next Canterbury Cricket Week is in August and the Old Stagers Website is advertising dates of August the 2nd until August the 7th.

For more information on Kent Cricket please go here.

For tourist information on the beautiful city of Canterbury please look here.

Xtofer

Curtains!!! Or A New Life for Old Theatres: Chatham Theatre Royal

Curtains!!! Or A New Life for Old Theatres: Chatham Theatre Royal

Before I start on my post regarding the sad story of The Theatre Royal Chatham let me give you a bit of background on what inspired this piece.

A few months ago LibraryGirl and I were spending time with her parents and we were discussing things we enjoyed about theatre and what I could write about on here. We had spent the day walking round London looking at the many different historical sites that you can find just turning a corner in that magical city and we hit upon the fact that there could be dark theatres in London which would make for an interesting subject to talk about, study and perhaps walk around. After all if a theatre cannot survive in Theatre Land then what luck does any theatre in the provinces have? We looked into the subject and came across the website of the Theatres Trust which is a fantastic resource, it led onto us finding out about Urban Exploration and rare photos of dark and abandoned theatres (and pretty much any other kind of building you care to mention) then today we were in Badger Books in Worthing and we found a book that seemed to be perfect for this little project of ours 'Curtains!!! Or A New Life For Old Theatres' a book about endangered theatres in the UK.

Curtains!!! an organisation underneath the banner of SAVE Britains Heritage was formed in the late 1970s to combat the awful statistic that of the 1000 Theatre Royals, Grands, ALhambras and Empires that had been so prevelant in the UK between 1900 and 1914 85 percent had been destroyed or badly damaged as they had been altered for other uses. It also claims that in 1982 only a tenth of the remaining 150 or so were still in use as theatres. Now inside the book it lists all sorts of fascinating information with a listing of 70 at risk theatres in which it eplains some of the history and architectual changes of the theatres along with giving their addresses and original architects information.

I googled Curtains!!! and found nothing, it seems the organisation has ceased to exist which is a real shame as another part of their organisation was a travelling exhibition that gave lectures about the situation and had many bits of history on the many venues that they wanted to save. I would assume that with the increased prominence of the Theatres Trust they either were amalgamated into the TT or were seen as surplus to requirement.

So going from the book I will be looking at what has happened in the past 30 years since it was published to the 70 endangered venues listed. So we start with the Chatham Theatre Royal.

The Chatham Theatre Royal was built in 1899 and was designed by the architect G.E. Bond who also designed many other buildings in the area including the former Chatham Town Hall, St Andrews Church, The Century Cinema in Dartford and the River Medway Conservancy Board Offices.

The Theatre Royal in Chatham could seat approximately 3000 audience members and was by all accounts a lush and luxuriant venue, something that is obvious even when you look at the highly (and upsettingly) degraded interior of this neglected venue.

Chatham Theatre Royal was a venue that had all the stars pass through it at some point, Rex Harrison, Ken Dodd, Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Norman Wisdom and Gracie Fields all graced its stage with their acts. The Theatre was so big and popular that according to local reports they had to build a brand new road just to accomodate the traffic approaching the venue. Unluckily the fact was that the Theatre Royal could not sustain its box office success and by the 1950s attendance figures had dropped to the point that they finally pulled the plug on it being a performance venue in 1955. It was then turned into several little shops on its bottom level including as a furniture shop which included displays on the stage. Then in 1960 a fire ravaged much of the stage and stalls area. In the 1980s there was a movement out to try and protect the building and revamp it as a better venue for Chatham than the considerably smaller and less grand Central Hall.

The fight to restore The Theatre Royal raged for 20 years but Curtains!!! prediction came true

'However the Theatre Royal is probably too far gone to make restoration economically feasible'

In 2002 the Theatre Royal Chatham Trust had to withdraw its support of the venue as the building was too rotten to feasibly be saved, a travesty considering the fact that it was a Grade II building. These types of building should be saved not left to rot.

There happened to be various bodies and people trying to save this once beautiful venue since the 60s before the Trust came into being in the 80s but they couldn't stop progress it seems. A beautiful old building with a heritage linked to the local area was allowed to rot so that its land could be sold off for Housing Association redevelopment in 2002. In March 2009 they demolished the theatre a sad day but unfortuanately it was necessary as it was really just a shell of former glory, a testament to past magic and variety.

The saddest part of this story for me though is the fact I have heard it so many times over and over again. Last month I spoke about my disgust at the situation regarding Farnham Rep and how wrong it was that local authorities can just say no to people who want to use purpose built venues. When a venue has a trust behind it trying to raise the money, raise its profile for the sake of saving a usable building so it can be appreciated and used by future generations and the local authority decides to ignore that fact until that building has to be knocked down, Government Protection or not, so it can sell the land on for housing developments I think its stupid. Why bother allowing a building to die slowly, why not just pull the plug? Chatham Theatre Royal was allowed to mould and fester before it was finally pulled down and that is not the way these buildings should be remembered.

It is however ironic that Chathams alternative venue with Jazz Lessons, Community Theatre and smaller scale productions is the Old Town Hall designed by Bond, his work still influences theatre in the area. At least that venue is safe.

However on the old address of the once grand theatre 102 High Street you will today find Cutting Crew Hairdresser. I think that just says it all.

Anyone who feels the same as I do should visit the Theatres Trust Website and find out how they can help save local theatres.

Pictures of the inside of the Theatre Royal were sourced from http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/ and http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/ headtheatre.blogspot.com does not condone or encourage the illegal entry of derelict or private property. It is potentially life threatening and illegal.