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Theatrical
Diary
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A Theatre in Education TourI directed my first play in 1996 and have lost count of the number of shows I have been responsible for since then. I have never missed a single performance of a show I've directed - ever! - until the last few weeks, when not only did I miss seventeen out of nineteen performances of my latest show, I didn't even see the first. Unless you are a director yourself, you can have no idea how hard that is. The reason is that it was a Theatre in Education piece, touring primary schools in our area, and so, as a full-time teacher, there was no way I could get out of school to go with the company. Even if the Head had said it was OK, I would have felt guilty because, obviously, colleagues would have had to cover my lessons. Fortunately I have a couple of mornings a week off because I do evening community work, so I was able to go to the seventh performance! I have to say though, that I phoned one of the actors (a different one each time: I wanted honesty!) after every performance and the company manager every evening. I am the Artistic Director (plus administrator, plus secretary, plus general dogsbody) for KG Productions, a small-scale company based in South Shields on England's north east coast, and one day received an email from the Energy Conservation Officer of South Tyneside MBC to ask if we would be interested in doing a two-week tour of primary schools with a play about saving energy. Since we normally work in theatres on a percentage of the box office basis, I was more than happy to agree to a show which guaranteed us cash! I got together with Andrew (the officer concerned) and looked at the script he was asking us to perform. Oh 'eck! To begin with, it wasn't a script: it was a scenario. And it assumed six characters, all of which appeared on-stage together, so we would need six actors. Add in a stage manager/company manager/driver, and you're looking at a good few thousand pounds before you even think of time to create the script and rehearse. I asked what the budget was. Thanks goodness for acting training! I didn't fall about laughing, but kept a straight face and said that it couldn't possibly be done within that budget. However, if he could extend the budget by a wee bit, it could be done with three actors. Fine! he'd go for it. It's odd, isn't it, that, in spite of the improvement in actors' status since Shakespeare's time, people still think they're willing to work for far less than they would ever consider themselves? |
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