Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Journeys End

"It is not what it looks like...." Pascal inspects a dubious scene of moral outrage

On Saturday 24th March, the Steeple Aston Players performed the last of a three night run for my first ever full length play, Dating by the Book. Once the final curtain was pulled, the sets were dismantled and the hall went back to being an empty space, ready for the next organisation to use it. As the final light was flicked out and we left the hall pretty much as we found it ten weeks ago and there was a sense of completion. A satisfied feeling of a job well done.

The previous three nights hadn't been, of course, as stress free. Far from it. In fact the first night was pretty bad with a nervous cast forgetting lines and stage directions to the point where vast reams of dialog were left unsaid and some lines were repeated in what appeared to be a frightening never-ending-loop of the script. I should add that from the audiences point of view it probably wasn't that bad. After all they had no idea what the script contained, however, they could detect the action slowing to a dreadful snails pace as actors struggled to dig themselves out of the holes they were either planted in by others or had dug themselves.

The stuff of writers nightmares.

So what does a writer/director do at that point. Well first off, get a good breakfast, then go for a long open top drive in his sports car (don't get excited its a beat up old MX5) and then he looks at the various problems and tries to think of some solutions. After all, it's not him up on that
stage, its his actors and they are then ones taking it on the chin when things go wrong. And they take it in front of an audience that probably contains friends and family. The director? Oh he's safe in the light box, so don't feel too sorry for him.

Solutions to forgotten lines were easy. Analise why it was happening and devise a way to help the cast to remember their lines. In one case it proved advantageous to place a copy of the script inside a magazine so one actor could flick through it from time to time. That seemed to work out fine, in fact I don't think anyone in the audience noticed. Myself and the cast also worked on contingency plans to make sure that the pace did not falter even if a line was missed or forgotten. It was also recognised by one of the cast that Liz, playing Juliet, should be looked on as the main beat of the play, the drummer who keeps everything in time.


Juliet (Liz Bishop) & Tina (Deborah Dunn) discuss why most men are feckless idiots

The result was stunning. Juliet's character became unleashed and Liz threw everything she had at the performance. As a result the whole cast lifted their game and responded to her performance, and while Friday's performance wasn't perfect (again a lot of text was missed out) the pace was consistently much faster than Thursday. Saturday however rocked the audience with a combination of correctly said text and some wonderful pace. Deborah, playing Tina, started to shine on this night as her natural comic timing came to the fore. In fact everyone was up-to-speed, creating at last the version of the play I wanted to see.

I couldn't have asked for more from them. They were brilliant. The audience responded. It was great to watch, and fantastic to hear those rumbling belly laughs from the audience as the show moved with a new found confidence to it's frantic and farcical conclusion.

People often say, in these types of situations, that they couldn't have done it without their team behind them. I now know what they mean. Without the help of the Steeple Aston Players, including many of the unsung heroes that are in the background doing all those invisible jobs that desperately need doing, I wouldn't have got this show to anywhere near a performance.





And the experience it has given me is invaluable, both as a writer and a director. I now understand the craft of stage writing so much better, and perhaps also a little more about diplomacy of coaxing the best from actors under stressful situations.

I've also gained a great deal of respect for the Producers of this world. My aim was to bring this production in at a very low cost, to make sure that if it didn't make a profit, then it would at least avoid being a loss making venture. Making a loss in theatre is the equivalent of vanity publishing. If your play is not making a profit you have to consider why that's happening. In some cases it could be that you want to promote an idea or a concept that you feel is worthy, and making a loss is an okay thing to happen. In my case I was putting on a piece of pure entertainment. There's no real message in my play, but that doesn't mean the characters are uncomplicated, in fact after having lived with them for 10 weeks of rehearsals I am beginning to understand their true depth. But the play is still a farce and as such should make a profit to justify the effort.

Having spoken recently with the chairman I can reveal the play did achieve a modest profit. It attained an audience of around 75% each night and the bar profits alone were enough to cover many of the outgoing costs. In commercial terms it was a success. In experince terms it was unmissable.

I'm now ready to complete a final version of the script, which sounds odd considering I just produced the damn thing, but there was a lot to be learnt simply from listening to the audiences reaction. I now have a much better understanding of what needs to be cut, and in indeed what needs to be added. In writers terms nothing is ever really finished, I've always realised that, but now I am only just beginning to understand that the no being finished isn't always a criticism, sometimes its an opportunity to make things better.

Of everything that I have learnt over the last ten weeks, perhaps that is the most important.

Paul

Thursday, 15 March 2012

Special Offer - Stay at the Holt Hotel for less




The Holt hotel at Steeple Aston is now offering special rates to anyone wishing to stay overnight after watching Dating by the Book.

Click here for more details.

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

The Final Mile (moving from Rehearsal to Production)




It's odd (and by odd I mean screamingly worrying) that in just a week's time from today, my first full length play, Dating by the Book, is scheduled for it's technical rehearsal on the 20th March. The next day will be the dress rehearsal and then... And then... No more rehearsals. We kick the show into gear, and on the 22nd, 23rd & 24th March, show the audiences to their seats and do it for real.

Worries? I've got a few. Doubts? Uncertainties? Screaming fears that keep me awake at night? Yes I've a few of those too. Some I am still working on, others I am trusting to the talent of my assembled cast, and after that... Well, it's in the lap of the gods!

Still loads to be done. A program to be finished off. Scenery to be painted. A never ending list of props to be found. Fresh muffins to be baked (don't ask) and of course, rehearsals to attend. And if I am honest, it's the last one that holds the greater interest for me.

Odd thing about attending rehearsals to my own play is I have effectively, over the last few weeks, been watching the same thing, over and over again. Apart from the hugely narcissistic thoughts this gives me, I had expected at some point to end up being a little bored with seeing the same performance, hearing the same lines, watching the same movements each and every night for 10 weeks. And yet I love it. Back to be the narcissistic image? I don't think so and I think the answer is really in the clue to the question.

This is live theatre and even at the rehearsal stage every time a line is said, every time a movement is made, the actors have the opportunity of doing something slightly different with it. I'm not talking about a wild movement or a sudden bit of add-lib, but instead a little tweak here and there, a bit of stress on a word, a bit of spontaneous gesturing, a sudden decision to sit or stand according to how the dialog is flowing.

It's all about the cast exploring the text more and more, now that it is becoming, at least for some, like a second skin. That does lead to some problems, one particular cast member tending to change more than the 'odd word' or two on each run through of any scene, which can lead to cue-in problems for the rest of the cast. Not to mention the nightmare it creates for the prompter. In this case it's a case of more is not always good. But in general, the cast improvising their performance keeps the whole thing fresh and even after having seen it many, many times, I still find this play funny and entertaining. And if you find that statement narcissistic, then you will have to come see the play to find out you're wrong.

One week left.

Tickets can be bought on-line from -http://www.wegottickets.com/location/8595

Hope to see you all there.

Paul

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Tickets for Dating by the Book now available On-Line



Tickets for my first ever full length play, Dating by the Book, staring the Steeple Aston Players and guest starring Liz Mente Bishop, are now available to buy On-Line. Just click on one of the links below to go directly to the ticket ordering site. Doors open at 7pm and the curtain goes up at 7:30.

There will be a fifteen minute interval, during which time a licensed bar will serve wine and beer, soft drinks and tea/coffee will also be available to purchase.

See you there!





To book tickets for Thursday 22nd March, please click the link below:



Tickets now available for

Dating by the Book

from www.WeGotTickets.com



To book tickets for Friday 23nd March, please click the Link below:



Tickets now available for

Dating by the Book

from www.WeGotTickets.com




To book tickets for Saturday 24th March, please click the banner below:



Tickets now available for

Dating by the Book

from www.WeGotTickets.com





Thursday, 23 February 2012

Advertising an Event (for no money)

Now that rehearsals are going well it's time to think about selling those huge piles of tickets that I recently ordered.


The venue holds 100 people, in fact it holds 120, but we've been told to take out 20 seats to make room for a bar so we can sell some beer and wine. I've had a look at the seating plan and worked out the optimal seating arrangement, that doesn't give restrictive views of the stage, would be 88 seats.

Still, 88 tickets is a lot to get rid of, especially when the play is by an unknown playwright, and the cast only consists of 5 people. As a rule of thumb, each member of the cast can be expected to raise a certain amount of loyal supporter, so the larger the cast the better. If your play has children in it, you can expect even more loyal supporters in the way of family members being press-ganged into attending.

Given then that I only have a cast of 5 and none of them are children (the youngest is 40), then I have to get the message out to the surrounding community as clearly as possible. And because we are on a tight budget, it needs to be done as cheaply as possible.

On-line advertising is probably one of the cheapest ways to get the play to the attention of a mass audience. With this in mind I added a Sub-Domain to my already up and running writers web page, and created a simple web page for the event. This web page also contained hot links to WeGotTickets. In turn WeGotTickets also listed the event on their search engine resulting in a number of tourists buying tickets to the show. In addition to this I also promoted the play via blog posts that were echoed over various social web sites, and created a Facebook "Fan Page" which allowed me to punt the play to my friends and also to cast, and in turn, to their friends. This alone generated a number of on-line sales.

In addition to this I've also placed adverts on may free entertainment sites including Daily Info, The Oxford Times, Bicester Life and Banbury Guardian. The Banbury Guardian were also kind enough to print a press release I sent them, albeit in a much shorter form and without the photo I had hoped they might use.

Of course the biggest recourse to be exploited is the local residents of Steeple Aston (where the play will be shown) and the surrounding villages. To get at this market I printed off at home 500 leaflets (two per A4 sheet) and delivered them by hand to all the houses in the village and two villages in the near. The local villagers were also given the chance to read about it in a full page advert placed in the local magazine, The Steeple Aston Life, and on the Steeple Aston web page. I also posted on the Steeple Aston forum and promoted the play at my local church.

In addition to that I was contacted by the local hotel, The Holt Hotel, who suggested they could offer a discount to anyone wanting to stay at their hotel after watching the play. All I had to do was promote the offer on my website, no charge was made.

And if that's not enough, Liz Bishop (playing Juliet), secured two visits to Radio Oxford where she was able to promote the play live on-air.

The cost of all this publicity was as near to zero as makes no odds.

Now all I need is people to buy the tickets.

Being a Producer (The Ulitmate Background Job)

In putting on my first full length play, Dating by the Book, I decided to direct and produce it in order to get the full flavour of what it's like to actually 'put on a play'. And boy am I getting that flavour. In fact it's all I get these days. I go to sleep with it's heady taste on my mind and wake up with it still tickling my brain. As a full time job goes, this one is all consuming.

Of all the tasks, production seems to be the most time absorbent. Writing was all about free flowing creativity, directing is about bringing that work (sometimes kicking and screaming) to life, but production is somewhere in between. It's like the guy in a ship that keeps the engine Fueled-Up and ticking over, and it's someone who's not often noticed unless the engine starts to stall...

I've lost track of how many hours I've logged trying to research this or that small detail of the play, and by small I mean earth shatteringly important if I can't figure it out. For example, as the idealistic writer it seemed quite fun to describe one prop 'The Wooden Spatula of Shame' (a sort of Raspberries award for a badly written cook book) as a Wooden Spatula mounted on a Large Golden Potato. However, as a realistic producer I need to deal with emails from the prop creator saying "seriously? Does it really need to be a potato? Can't it just be a normal plinth?" To which of course the answer to questions like this should generally be "Yes".

Okay, okay. If I had a budget of thousands and a time span of months rather than weeks, then yes I might hold out for the Large Gold Potato. Not sure though it would add anything to the play, but it would at least be a nod of appreciation towards the writer, even though in this case that's me. But in the grand scheme of things, getting something done can often be better than see it fail for want of idealistic perfection.

Production is like that. It's about finding ways to make things actually happen, or rather finding people who might be able to make them happen, then finding ways to enable them towards completion. There's a lot of nodding involved, and quite a bit of "that's a great idea, but what if we did this..." going on, but ultimately it's about the end result.

If compromise is a dirty word in your world, being a producer is probably not a job you'd want to consider.

There's also a fair bit of donkey work to be done. I've just received 500 A5 flyers to publicise the play. They're going to need to be put through letterboxes in and around the venue. Guess who gets to do that? You got it, the producer. Glamours this job ain't. Once I've run the gauntlet of small dogs and cat shit covered paths, I'm back in the office to create the sound effects needed in the play. Once that's done, I'm off to a furniture shop to see what I can scrounge for the play. Then of course there is the endless search for a plastic wine bottle (please let me know if you have any idea where I can buy these) and the worries over costumes...



That's the life of a Producer. It's hard graft, but satisfying in a way only truly a eclectic job can be.

27 days to the opening night!!!!!



Paul

Thursday, 16 February 2012

Becoming Mr Benn (& how to avoid insanity at the same time)


Anyone remember Mr Benn? He used to pop into a costume shop at the start of every episode and the costume he put on would become who he was. I kinda feel a little like that at the moment, but in a positive way as I swap various hats to assume all the various roles needed to put my play, Dating by the Book, on the stage.

And boy are there a number of different roles to fulfill. Directing is the primary one, although of course I'm also trying to think like an actor. This means the director hat sits on a spindle and whirls round and round, being director then writer, as I try to figure out how to stage a play written while wearing just my writers hat. Note to writers out there, if you think writing the play is tough, you ain't seen nothing, at least not until you actually try to twin motion and dialog with people and scenery.

Ideas in isolation are fine. Putting them into practice, now that can be hard!

Outside of rehearsals I have plenty of other hats to wear; carpenter, to assemble props needed in the play; photographer to take photos of the cast; graphic designer, to take those photo's and use them to create a poster for the play, web-designer to do the same again only on the web, producer, to find all the bits and pieces each cast member requires, not to mention the set dressings (next play I write will be set on beach in a nudist camp), and publicist, to actually take the show to the people and hopefully grab an audience. There are others, but I'm saving there description for my therapist.
It really is a full time job and I didn't realise how much of my time it took up until recently when I found myself working through lunch and dinner, and into the night to get a time dependent job done! Fortunately I am not alone and the might of the Steeple Aston Players is fully behind me, allowing me to focus on the details without letting them swamp me.

Gradually, bit by bit, it's coming together. I now have tickets to sell and the actors have scenery and props to bounce off. All we need now is an audience to come and enjoy it.

I'm working on that bit....

Paul