Recording No. 1

So I did it.

I sat behind my PC, connected my microphone, fired up a new version of Audacity and recorded my part in Marlowe’s ‘Jew of Malta’.

At first I thought that this was going to be simple, but how wrong can you be? Pronunciations were one thing to get my head around… Then when I heard myself back I realised that I have a number of vocal ticks that needed addressing (popping Ps, a tendency to click my tongue just before speaking – dreadful on microphone/radio, but not too much of an issue on stage).

But the real benefit for me was as a playwright. There’s no point in giving a character dialogue if it’s going to cause the actor concerned problems getting it out of their mouth. All too often these days I’ve read works by other non-professionally produced playwrights that commit this playwright’s cardinal sin.

There is no point in typing away, reading, editing, re-reading, proof-reading and polishing unless you are actually going to print the stuff out and say it aloud. What works on the page may well work, but it’s useless unless someone is actually able to say it aloud and moreover, put emotion behind it.

I’m intending to do a few more of these, as with every line I record I learn some more about how I need to construct my dialogue.

Calling Phil!

Phil,

I need your email address! I've lost it! Help!

Broadening horizons

A few years back I discovered Project Gutenberg. This is a stunning resource to make the great works of literature that are in the public domain available as an electronic resource.

The actor/director in me loves this site as you can download everything from Shakespeare to Wilde and negate the cost of purchasing the scripts for your company.

But yesterday I discovered a ‘sister’ project in LibriVox.

Here, they are converting these public domain works into public domain audio books!

I have downloaded a couple and have now volunteered to act as a reader.

Reading other’s works enhances your own. And as a playwright it is essential to ensure that you get the spoken work right for each of your characters. This will prove to be a wonderful opportunity for me to grow as each author/playwright writes with a different voice, and this will enable me to hear it first hand as I record their works for them.

I’m really looking forward to this!

Committee meeting

Last night I was officially voted in as the Chairman of the Academy Players. I know that sounds impressive, but in truth, no one else wanted the job!

The Academy Players is the theatre club associated with the Defence Academy of the UK based in Watchfield and Shrivenham, Oxfordshire. It has an amazing theatre, with a huge stage, full runs, an auditorium that doesn’t leave your bum numb and even it’s own bar and rehearsal room.

I laid out my stall at the committee meeting, stating that I wanted to break away from the 2 productions routine that has been running for a number of years (Pantomime in January and play in May). I also showed how I wanted to train people in theatre, from directing, acting, lighting, sound etc.

All in all, it went very well. But it leaves me with a lot to do; starting with developing the rehearsal plan for the Pantomime (and I’m directing Cinderella). Looking at the diary, it looks like I’ll be putting the pantomime on 24-26 Jan 08. While that sounds like a long way off, that doesn’t leave me with a lot of time once you take Summer and Christmas leave into account (as I won’t be able to put the auditions call out until the second week of September).

Now all I have to do is convince the club to read a few of my plays so that we can put one on in the Spring (but as I have mentioned before, this club has produced Prime Directive and Mark of a Gentleman – so Denim would complete the set!).

So, onwards, upwards, bigger, better, more!

Shaping the future

I have taken to watching one of my favourite movies for the third time in one week. Why? Because I never tire of it – but more importantly I realised why I don’t tire of it: Each of the characters is rounded, three-dimensional and makes you empathise with them, regardless of if you like them or not.

I’ve taken to watching this movie to see how this was achieved, so that I can attempt to do the same with the characters in my current work in progress.

But this has caused me a problem. The themes that I am seeing does not instantly link into the direction that I am taking this play (maybe this because this current work is an out-and-out drama, and there is no protagonist that the audience will instantly like – is this a fundamental flaw?). But I can see how I can use this information to shape characters I haven’t yet developed. This has caused me to add to my ideas list.

A couple of ideas literally fell out of my brain and on to the paper. Two of them have me rather excited. To add to the worry, when my wife (the greatest first reader I could ever wish to have) saw one of the ideas, she go very excited about the prospect of that idea becoming a play. She even saw the potential for it to become a sequel (though not a dependant sequel) to one of my other plays.

I know that I have to work on this idea. I will run away with it. But what do I do about the play that I am working on?

I have posted a question on one of the writing forums that I use to see what others think, based on their own experiences. But my gut reaction is to complete the scenario that I am developing and placing it to one side – enabling me to get started on the idea I’ve just had. That way the majority of the work has been completed for my current work (after all, post scenario, all you are doing is adding the colour and dialogue – the fun bit).

What am I going to do? Do I go with my gut? Do I just get on with it and wait to do the exciting project?

I’ve been playing with this for the last two days and no ideal answer has leapt to mind. I guess this is one of the pains of being a writer.

Too much power?

Well, the calling notice has gone out. The first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Academy Players under my tenure as a Chairman is to take place on Monday evening.

I have to be formally nominated, seconded and voted in (to make everything legal) but as no one else is standing, everyone believes that the result is a forgone conclusion.

I have to outline my plans for the theatre company. This includes:

Maximising the number of productions per year (from the current two per
annum)
Formation of a reading committee
Establishing workshops
Forming
directing mentorships

But I have to guard against the fact that I am first and foremost (in this arena) a playwright that wants his plays produced.

One of the directors is keen to produce Denim for the Spring production. I will have completed The Breakfast Show before the Pantomime is performed and I know that I will be itching to have it performed.

How do I ensure that the club is there to progress involvement in theatre, not just a vehicle to promote my own plays?

As I have blogged before, I have to stand back from the reading committee I want to establish if one of my plays is being considered, but… It will look nepotistic if one of my plays is selected under my tenure as Chairman. I guess I will have to cross that bridge when I get to it.

I’ll let you know how the AGM goes.

Audition call

This Saturday I was privileged to be invited to act as a member of the audition panel for the forthcoming production of Denim at the Waterside Theatre.

I was an amazing afternoon, with a wealth of talent to choose from that all had paid considerable attention to the script. This was demonstrated in the way in which they presented the characters in their own way, rather than the way I had imagined them when writing the script. We had a rather posh Doug (where I thought he was going to be a drunken country bumpkin) a self-centred Customer #1 (where I saw him as ego-centric and dominant) and an aggressive Giles (who I thought would be tender and anxious).

At this point I have to stress that this portrayals are not incorrect. They are the perceptions of the actors concerned. And that is the joy of writing for the stage; no two performances are ever the same. Indeed, these interpretations could well make the play better than the way I envisaged it when writing.

May I just say to all those that were involved in the auditions this weekend, that it was a privilege to be invited to be part of the day. You energy and enthusiasm assures me that you are going to put together an excellent production and has renewed my desire to write and take theatre to a new audience. Thank you!

Pick a Panto

So as I mentioned, I have been made the chairman of the local theatre club. My first two jobs is to form a reading committee and select the pantomime that we intend to put on in January (given the nature of the college I’m working on, there’s not realistic way of putting the panto on in January).

This is an oddity of choice. It is essential that we have a reading committee to ensure that the play we put on is appropriate based on the acting/directing talent we have available, fits our audience demographic and promotes the unpaid professional image we want to portray. However, here I am reading loads of pantos on my own, and it will be me alone that selects the script.

While I need the reading committee, time dictates that I have to make the call on the panto to ensure that I can secure the set, builders and costumes required. For any of you that have been involved with the production size of a pantomime, you will know that these are expensive and logistically challenging shows. I have not been able to put together a panto in less than 5 months. Hence, here I am reading like a loony (and I want more time to write).

And I’ve noticed something about the pantos that I have read. They fall into three categories:

1. Professionally presented off the peg pantos. These are very prescriptive, detailing the traits that each character possesses. This makes for a huge challenge for the director, as they will have to shape their actors to fit the role. While this is admirable in plays, for panto this makes for a huge challenge as panto is often the first experience of acting for people. Indeed there is a huge pool of actors out there that only do panto.

2. Small press pantos. These work well for me. They are pantos developed by amateur groups based on their previous successes. They also tend to have what can only be described as traditional panto humour. This makes them ideal for a company such as mine, as I can adapt the character to fit the actor I cast and I can tweak the humour to fit my audience and the abilities of my on-stage cast.

3. Off the wall pantos. Much like the first category, but with themes that don’t instantly make you think ‘Pantomime’. These can work well, as I have just read “The Three Musketeers: Le Panto!” Not something that I would have automatically reached for, but it is very entertaining. But then there was “Bluebeard”. I thought we were going to be looking at a pirate themed panto (al la Treasure Island). But on no… Again these are often very prescriptive.

What has disappointed me is the level of humour in the professionally presented pantos. The gags are predictable (and I’m not talking about the traditional ‘It’s behind you’ and ‘Oh no you won’t’ routines). I hate gags where you know the punchline when someone sets up the gag.

“The Three Musketeers: Le Panto!” is going to be my second choice this year (as I intend to present 2 pantos to the committee placing arguments why I have selected on over the other). It is a well constructed panto with humour that I can just about tweak. But it’s downside is that it is very set dependant (and there are lots of them), prop heavy (and we’ll have to make most of them) and cast intensive (a panto with 14 named characters and requirement for a chorus on top).

So at the moment I’ll be suggesting a small press script for Cinderella. Not only will it be easy to sell tickets for that production (after all it’s the panto all the little girls want to see) but the characters are open enough for me to play with my cast, it’s realistic about set (although there are a lot of tumbler scenes – and I’ve just los my hoisting rig) and the humour is spot on (and can be tweaked to make it local focused).

But that said, maybe I’ll read another script in the next few days that makes me change my mind. But seeing as I am trying to get professionally produced and have made the move to self-publishing my scripts at the moment, there is something warm in me about using a small press rather than Samuel French.

Back in the Saddle

I just remembered that there was something that I had to blog about and completely forgot about it.

A few weeks ago (8 if truth were told) I moved job. This has been a little painful from the family perspective (as the family are all at home and I live away during the week – after all, I’m the one in the Navy, not my kids) but things are settling down well. Professionally, this job is amazing! Sure the hours are rather long, but you get the real sense of achieving something on a daily basis.

The joy for me is that I have worked here before. And as you might have guessed, I used to be involved in the theatre club that runs on the site. Indeed, this club has produced a couple of my plays (Prime Directive and Mark of a Gentleman).

On returning to the site, I was contacted by one of the club stalwarts and asked if I would consider taking on the role of Chairman seeing as I have been promoted. As I have mentioned I have known this club for years and I leapt at the chance for many reasons: They have a great pool of actors, the tech guys are stunning, the theatre is so well equipped (it has its own bar that runs during rehearsals) and they have a stunning annual budget.

So here I am as Chairman of my own club. I’m in the middle of choosing the panto to produce this year (and yes, I’ll be the director). More on that in another blog, as I forgot how difficult it is to choose from the wealth of scripts out there. And it also looks like a JaysPlays will be produced Spring next year. Although that sounds somewhat nepotistic, it isn’t really. There is a formal reading committee to select scripts after a couple of very poor choices ended up being produced, and I have placed in the constitution that should a JaysPlay be proffered, I cannot have any voting power in the selection of that script. Plus it wasn’t me that suggested it, but the director that put on Prime Directive.

So, there we have it. As you can see, I’m actively back with theatre, not only writing, but selecting others’ scripts, planning and directing (soon). More to follow on all topics.