The start of the year has been typical of amateur theatre, as Kerry explains on page 2 - but wouldn't it be dull if things went smoothly! Let's hope it is plain sailing from here - I am sure our first season will be a great success, with everyone working together to make it so. I am looking forward to being "on stage" again after 18 months.
We are planning a One-Act season again mid-year, so let's see if we can encourage some new members to join - it is always a good opportunity for newcomers to 'have a go', with lots of parts on offer.
Trouble - and it's only the first play of the year!
If you will recall, in the last newsletter we said that the next play we were to do was titled Holiday Snap.
Due to a number of problems we had to change plays and directors. After much discussion, we finally decided on a new play and a new director. Ron Jones was going to direct a very funny play called Shut your Eyes and Think of England.
Eight weeks to go, the cast hit more problems. One of the male leads had to pull out due to work commitments. Cast and director alike asked practically every male in the theatre group (there aren't many) to do the part, but no one could be found. Last resort: choose another play.
This new play is called Don't Misunderstand Me and is about two brothers. The older brother is married and the younger is newly married. The already married brother has had an affair in New York and on the day the younger brother and his new wife are due to come over, the older brother's bit on the side comes to his house. The brothers then have to pretend the lady is the younger brother's new wife. The cast is as follows:
CAST
| CHARLES FLEMINGE |
- Ken Banks |
| MARJORY FLEMINGE |
- Christine Evans |
| ROBERT FLEMINGE |
- Tim Collins |
| JAYNIE |
- Joanne Williams |
| THE GIRL |
- Bev Backshell |
| |
| DIRECTOR |
- Ron Jones |
| PROMPT |
- Joan Fishwick |
The dates for the play are 6, 7 and 8 May at Wanneroo Civic Centre. Tickets are $9.00/$8.00 and $7.50 for group bookings.
There should be no more problems - this will definitely be the play the group will be performing. I hope everyone will be able to sell tickets to friends, relatives, neighbours and the local stray dog. Good luck!
Announcements
Michael and Glenys Vause are having a break this season. As many of you know Michael has been in charge of the sets in many of our plays and Glenys has worked hard directing some of the plays. Endeavour Theatre Company would like to thank them for all the hard work they've put in over the years. Hope you come back soon!
Howard Griffiths has now taken over set construction and will be assisted by Ron Jones. Thank you both for stepping in. Here's hoping that all your sets stay together well.
Congratulations to Ron Jones and Chantelle Shaw upon joining the committee. Let us hope that you are open to bribery and are easily blackmailed.
And a warm welcome is extended to those new members of the company: Rosanne Spain, Katherine Wainwright, Kathryn Dilizia and Joanne Williams. Welcome back also to Bev Backshell who, after a few years, has just rejoined us.
Continued from previous newsletter...
The Story of the Coal Cellar Theatre -
What May Be Achieved by an Amateur Group
by Harald Melvill (excerpt from p. 82 of "Guide to Amateur Dramatics)
At first, the larder seemed to present a definite problem, as it robbed the acting area of 12 good square feet, but by removing the door and taking out the shelves, it could be used as another entrance or exit, even though this meant that any player making a first entrance out of it, had to be in it before the curtain went across (no room for it to divide or go up). This little cubby-hole has served a number of scenic purposes, such as battlements, a cave, a chapel and a kitchen, and I have seen as many as five or six people make an exit into it, one after the other, where they have had to remain packed like sardines in a tin, until the end of the scene!
The auditorium, which is heated with electric bowl fires, seats only twenty-one, and although the first patrons sat, at floor level, on home-made benches constructed from orange boxes with planks laid across and a few cushions on top, now there are raised tiers, with tip-up seats, that were acquired from a cinema at 7s. 6d. each. When, however, the seating for the audience was raised, the stage then seemed too low and flat, so between productions it was decided to do something about this, and Mrs. Edgeley's son, Michael, who was working at the Park Lane Hotel, collected a number of champagne cases (Alas! they were empty) which are made of specially hard wood, and one weekend he and the rest of the lads in the Group set to work, and very soon there was a perfectly good raked stage, starting from a 6-inch high front. The alcove at the back, formed by the two walls, was given a one-foot high permanent rostrum floor.
On the other side of the passage from the outer door that led into the theatre, there was another cellar that was used to store coke. This, too, had to be cleaned out and the walls painted white, which with the addition of red shelves and a counter across one end, a couple of chairs and a bench, became the coffee lounge (there is no bar licence), and here one can get one of the best and cheapest cups of coffee in London, with sandwiches and home-made cakes...
I started this story by saying that this little coal-cellar theatre began with less than nothing, and this was literally true - there was no money! Mrs Edgley sent round an appeal to her friends, and their friends, and by the end of two weeks she had collected £43 with which she mad a start... and at the end of the fifth year, with all expenses settled, and debts repaid, the books showed a sum of £50 in hand.
The New Park Theatre Club is, of course, a membership theatre, with an entrance fee of 10s and an annual subscription of 12s. 6d. for acting members, and 10s entrance and 2s 6d a year for non-acting members. The seats are uniformly priced at 2s. 6d.
With very few exceptions, all the costumes used in the period plays are home-made, and the nucleus for the theatre wardrobe began with an appeal for costumes, and from bits and pieces contributed and collected by Group members. The Club was, however, very lucky in having the services of a professional designer and cutter in Miss Jean Given, who with Mrs Edgley, has made an intensive study of costume, both of them being connected in 1949 with the London Museum, which has a large costume section. Later, they both went to Berman's, the theatrical costumier, where Jean Given became cutter, and where Mrs Edgley still holds the position of librarian and costume research assistant, while Jean Given has returned to the London Museum, in their new quarters at Kensington Palace. The theatre wardrobe, which is still under her personal direction, now has such an extensive range of period, as well as modern, costumes that it is able to offer a costume hire service to other Amateur Groups, as well as for fancy-dress dances.
Until recently the scenic department was in the capable hands of Clifford Wilcox, an insurance official, who created some beautiful settings - that provided for A Cradle of Willow being especially fine. With such limited space at his disposal, he managed to make the little stage look twice the size it is.
The policy of the theatre is to produce historical, Biblical, Classical and verse plays, in an endeavour to contribute to the cultural life of the community, where so many young people are idly drifting, afraid of anything that betokens religion, yet to whom such worthwhile plays as The Boy with a Cart (Christopher Fry) can suggest religious ideals without being "pi" about it.
At Christmas, there is always a Nativity Play...My Lady's Tumbler (Ronald Duncan), Christmas in the Market Place (Henri Gheon), with a Passion Play at Easter, such as The Way of the Cross (Gheon again) or Aloes and Myrrh (Berkley G. Collins), while for any Amateur Group to have produced Murder in the Cathedral (TS Eliot) on a stage of such dimensions is surely a triumph!
By presenting the plays of Shakespeare, Shaw, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Gheon, Gittings, Eliot, Fry and Yeats, and by inviting such well-known speakers as Martin-Browne, Shaw Desmond, Martin Holmes and John Allen to lecture, and by organising voice, production and stage management classes, together with play readings, theatre and dance parties, this go-ahead little club fulfils a need for artistic creation and expression that is so much in demand these days.
To be continued in next newsletter...
|
For those Familiar with Oedipus Rex...
From the Bible to the popular song,
There's one theme that we find right along.
Of all ideals they hail as good,
The most sublime is Motherhood.
There was a man, oh, who it seems,
Once carried this ideal to extremes.
He loved his mother and she loved him,
And yet his story is rather grim.
There once lived a man named Oedipus Rex.
You may have heard about his odd complex.
His name appears in Freud's index,
'Cause he loved his mother.
His rivals used to say quite a bit,
But as a monarch he was most unfit.
But still in all they had to admit,
That he loved his mother.
Yes, he loved his mother like no other,
His daughter was his sister, his son was his brother.
One thing on which you can depend is,
He sure knew who a boy's best friend is!
When he found out what he had done,
He tore his eyes out one by one.
A tragic end to a loyal son
Who loved his mother.
So be sweet and kind to Mother,
Now and then have a chat.
Buy her panty hose, flowers or a brand new hat.
But maybe you had better let it go at that!
Or you may find yourself with quite a complex,
And you may end up like Oedipus.
I'd rather marry a duck-billed platypus,
Than end up like old Oedipus Rex.
- Author unknown.
Found on the Internet at:
http://www.albany.net/~googabu/loedipus.htm
