I can't do both!

Looking back I seem to have been in a bit of a lull seem the start of the new year - there have been one or two occasional highlights and sparks but nothing sustained. Since the building work finished I feel I have been hibernating a little and of course the weather hasn't helped.

However things are starting to pick up now and I am starting to get overlapping demands and pressures. In fact so much has the lull disappeared that I have reverted back to a schedule of my own. I suppose that was inevitable after nearly forty years of leading a timetabled life - the only difference being that this is a schedule of my own devising and that I can abandon it at a time of choosing or of necessity.

The playwriting competition, of which I am one of the readers and the chief recorder, has reached the stage where all the scripts have been read twice. We now need to decide which scripts need a third read before drawing up a long list of plays, which all have to be read again by the whole panel. I love reading plays and particularly plays which deal with issues. That sounds very worthy on reading it back to myself but it is seasoned by the fact that I like plays that make me laugh and have characters in it that actors will want to play.

I am putting together a funding application for a local society of which I am treasurer. I hadn't realised that I would have to put together a dissertation as part of the application. I had thought of filling in a form, ticking a few boxes and making sure the sums add up. The responsibility, and the prospect of failure to secure the funding,have suddenly loomed large in my life. Luckily I have friends who will help and there is a deadline.

I have been taken on by a company producing murder mystery dinners professionally and my first rehearsals and performance are in the coming fortnight. Rather nervous about the prospect as it is not my usual theatrical venture. I am very good at learning the lines and avoiding the furniture - especially after lots of rehearsals. Though these attributes are useful, thinking quickly on your feet and remaining in character seem to be even more important in the murder mystery business. Still I thoroughly enjoyed my introduction to the Ghost Walk business after expert tuition with Mark Wakeman so hopefully will find I can adapt to this new aspect of the theatrical business equally successfully. I will certainly let you know how I got on and any amusing anecdotes that may arise out of the business.

The Bench Theatre is working on its 40th Anniversary season. I was amazed to find that I was chairman in the 1975 to 1978 period. I remember being chairman but hadn't realised that it was at the same time I was recently married and trying for a family. My chairmanship finished as the firstborn arrived. Looking back from where I am now, I am impressed by the dedication, the energy and the sex drive I obviously possessed then. I still believe I possess all three attributes but their application is rather more erratic these days! It's that old joke. The woman says, "Come upstairs and make love to me". The man replies, "I can't do both!"

I am working on my personal history memoirs as I would like to present a booklet at the birthday gala on August 1st. I am still in the 1980's so need to get a move on and cover the productions in years rather than individual entries. There were four plays in 1984, one of which is being repeated this year. There were five plays in 1985 to 1987. There were five plays in 1988 and 1989. These three periods should provide the material for my next three Benchpress articles using some archive material.

I am also working on a couple of touring production ideas over which I am inordinately excited. Hopefully the spring will also see more film jobs as we approach re-registration day in April.

Future Benchpress Articles

This is the 40th anniversary season of the Bench Theatre in Havant. I have been a member now for 37 years, which is even longer than I have been married. I am loyal if nothing else!

I intend writing Benchpress articles about 1984, 1985, 1986/7, 1988 and 1989 this year as my contribution to the anniversary season. Hopefully in time to complete a booklet for presentation / sale at the Gala Evening on August 1st 2009.

Cockney Slang

In this 40^th Anniversary Season . I was going to continue my personal history of the Bench Theatre based on reminiscence and faulty memory and still have that intention. However the deadline for the first Benchpress of 2009 arrived before I expected and before I was ready.

I decided, therefore, to use this column as means of disseminating some theatrical facts and defining some theatrical terms, with which I grew up and yet somehow seem to have fallen into disuse. Elsewhere I have described the origin of the theatrical custom of not allowing whistling in the theatre. I would like to explain the term, “Green Room”, as that is from where these tales are supposedly coming. “Green Room” is one of the most used but least understood phrases in the theatre.

The phrase, “dressing room”, is fairly self-explanatory as a place where one puts on one’s costume, applies make up and gets oneself ready to perform. The dressing rooms at the Arts Centre are also provided with comfy chairs ,upon which the actors can repose, before receiving their call to go on stage. In some ways the latter action should be the function of the green room, but space doesn’t permit such a luxury at the arts centre. The dressing room can sometimes be the centre of enormous activity and therefore not the ideal spot for elderly actors “hibernating”, or “catching up on their correspondence”, in preparation for a taxing role such as Badger.

In days gone by there would be a room just off the stage, where actors could wait for their call, and this was called the “green room” The reasons for the name are lost in the mists of time but here are some possible ideas.

There is a reference in Thomas Shadwell’s play of 1678, “A True Widow”, in which there is mention of “a green room, behind the scenes”. One possible explanation is that green is a corruption of Scene Room or Screen Room, i.e. a room where the scenery was stored. It could be that these rooms were painted but why paint them green?

In December 1662 there is a description of the upper tiring room at the Cockpit being lined in green baize, presumably to stop “rich clothes” from getting dirty. It could also be that the green baize was a primitive early form of soundproofing as stage managers throughout the ages will testify, actors congregating backstage leads to idle chatter and the command, “No talking backstage!”

Another reason advanced ties in with the scenery idea, as the artificial grass (green carpet) would also have been stored there. This also fits with shrubbery or plants to be used on stage also being stored there. In Greek theatre actors retired from the bright sunlight of the stage to an area shaded by vines. Limelight in old theatres gone by would leave a greenish after-image on the actor’s retina apparently and one suggestion is that painting the room green eased those tired eyes.

Finally, I like this explanation for the term “green room” although there is no evidence to support it, (But I have never been one to let truth get in the way of a good story). In the days when the old make up was applied, it was prone to cracking unless fully dried or “cured”. The latter is an expression taken from the process of tanning leather, and another term for leather before it is cured is “green”. So the Green Room was a place where the actors could go to sit and relax while their make up was “green” and allow it to cure or set properly.

“Greengage” is Cockney slang for “Stage” – not a lotta people know tha’!

I love the website www.theatrecrafts.com/glossary

Many of the explanations outlined above are garnered from there and I have simply edited and prioritised the ones that I like personally. The term, "Green Room", though, was one I met personally when I was 16. It was used by the Bradford Playhouse to describe their acting classes for young actors and which I attended for a couple of years before joining the main company. Martin Holt was one of the leaders and a personal mentor in days gone by. I think some of the older theatrical expressions may be redundant but some have been discarded too soon as they provide a useful shorthand for some of the technical work actors do. Choreographers describing steps to dancers will use a shorthand for the moves they want rather than going into lengthy longwinded step by step breakdowns - and I think actors should be able to do the same - use an understood shorthand.

Hamlet 2010

I have started to rework Hamlet in my head as a possible production for the 2010 season. I stopped on the 2008 possibility because I didn't want to do a large scale with excellent principals but shakier acting lower down in the production. My thoughts are working on the idea of what is the smallest cast one can do Hamlet with. One obviously needs a Hamlet but it seems to me that every other part can be doubled or tripled up so that is what I am investigating. I am also working out whether the two actresses playing Ophelia and Gertrude could play male parts elsewhere - in which case couldn't more of the parts be played by women. Alternatively though why not have an all male cast as per Shakespeare's day?
I have also been thinking about "Coriolanus" because one of my favourite actors said he was interested in playing the lead. I remember seeing Ian Richardson play the part in a RSC production at Stratford or the Aldwych many moons ago in tanned body make up and a blonde wig. I think he was killed by a shield press of body length shields and being totally surrounded. Is it "Coriolanus" where Olivier was killed atop an arch several feet above the stage? He allowed himself to fall forward off the arch and two actors had to catch his ankles so he swung upside down in the archway. I think this is a story told by the young Edward Petherbridge who said it was a heavy responsibility to catch the greatest English stage actor of his and probably all time. Olivier refused a safety harness.

Three quarter profile

I tried to explain to the beautiful Julie one night backstage on "The Wind in the Willows" about three quarter profile. Trying to do it in the semi darkness of the studio was a mistake as conversing in whispers is difficult enough but Julie didn't have the slightest idea what I was on about. The strange thing was that at the next performance she shifted her position onstage in relation to me and achieved the effect I was after. I put it down to the fact that she may have not understood the theatrical jargon I was using but applied her dancer's mind to what I had identified as a problem and arrived at the solution.

Acting in a small stage makes inexperienced actors play too much to the other actors rather than to the audience. In film or television the camera would be situated so that the audience can see the actor's face. However in the theatre the audience is static in their seats and it is the actor who has to be careful to include them.

In the scene referred to in the first paragraph I was downstage of the slim svelte Julie. It was lovely getting the full effect of her performance and a more selfish actor would have settled for Julie pushing herself up against him and looking directly into his eyes. However this saintly older actor wanted the audience to see her as well. The advice goes: "If you can't see the audience, they can't see you". Some actors are timid and will actually avoid the audience at all costs and sometimes achieve this effect by turning their back on the audience or hiding upstage of larger bulkier actors like yours truly. The trick is to cheat the body position so it feels like you are standing toe to toe but to cheat the downstage foot down and out, thereby opening up the body. This is called three quarter profile and means the majority of the audience can see more of your face than just a sharp profile. Julie obviously worked out the solution because she is a dancer and opening out the body is a phrase that dancers must have in their vocabulary. Anyway the scene as the car salesman confronted Badger worked successfully every time and got big laughs because Julie's physical reaction of dejection was so comical. However I think my suggestion also made it clearer viewing for more of the audience.

Willows Review

Poop! Poop!