The Pillowman in rehearsal

Progress Blog was able to sit in on a recent rehearsal of The Pillowman.  It was held in the theatre foyer as the set build team were busy on the stage.

 The scene we watched being rehearsed was an enactment of one of the gruesome stories at the heart of the play. This one involves a girl being crucified, a scene which manages to be comic and disturbing at the same time. Lucy Daly (see here) is playing the girl and Matt Tully and Ben Lawson, who play the two detectives take on the role of her parents in this story.

Matt featured in last week's post and Ben, a fellow graduate of the Rep College, is new to Progress. He was so impressed when he read the play that he auditioned even though he is commuting from Cambridge. For the role he has had to learn to make and fly paper aeroplanes - an important life skill. He also has to throw toes (don't ask!) a skill it is rather more difficult to imagine a use for in daily life. 

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Coming up...

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh 20 - 29 May 2010

Death and The Maiden by Ariel Dorfman 5 - 10 July 2010

See www.progresstheatre.co.uk for details of all our productions and auditions.

Catching Up With The Pillowman

Intimate Exchanges is still running until 24th April so grab your last chance to see it. Our thoughts are now turning to the next production, The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh 20th - 29th May 2010.

The Pillowman is set in a totalitarian state and centres round a writer of gruesome stories. He is being interrogated by the police as several of the murders described in his stories have been carried out in real life. One of the policemen interrogating him is played by Matt Tully, a face Progress regulars may recognise. Matt was in Progress's production of Much Ado About Nothing at the end of last year where he played Benedick opposite Steph Weller's Beatrice.They are reunited in this production as Steph is co-directing.

Matt trained at East 15 Acting School and at the Rep College in Reading. His professional credits include a role in modern vampire movie Night Junkies which can be seen on Sky's Zone Horror.

If you are interested in what goes on at Progress Theatre then sign up to this blog. Enter your email in the box under ‘about us’ and click on subscribe. New postings are made weekly so you won’t be swamped with emails.

Don't forget...

Intimate Exchanges by Alan Ayckbourn is on now and runs until 24th April

Coming up...

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh 20 - 29 May 2010

See www.progresstheatre.co.uk for details of all our productions and auditions.

Auditions for The Merry Wives of Windsor

Please note that unfortunately this production has been cancelled as not enough people auditioned. I would still recommend a visit to Caversham Court, it is a beautiful spot.

With the Reading Post claiming that it is going to cost £90,000 just to draw up a plan for the repair work needed to make the Abbey Ruins safe it looks like it will be some time before Progress will be putting on another Abbey Ruins Shakespeare. However, not wanting to go another summer without an outdoor Shakespeare, Progress is presenting The Merry Wives of Windsor in the newly renovated Caversham Court Gardens.

Caversham Court gardens are on Church Street, Caversham. They were originally laid out between 1660 and 1681 as private gardens but are now owned by Reading Borough Council and are open to the public. It is a beautiful setting by the Thames and if you visit between Thursday and Sunday there is a tea kiosk selling homemade cakes for local charities - I can recommend the flapjacks. 

The Merry Wives of Windsor is directed by Anne Latto who has experience of open air Shakespeare productions. She has directed two at the Abbey Ruins, As You Like It in 2001 and The Winter's Tale in 2006. Anne describes The Merry Wives of Windsor as a "rumbustious farce" based around the efforts  of  Sir John Falstaff to win the affections (and husbands' money) of two wives. It is more accessible than some  Shakespeare plays being written mostly in prose. Falstaff first appears as a character in Henry IV and the story is that Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor very quickly after Queen Elizabeth expressed a desire to see Falstaff in love. 

If you are interested in being part of this fun production then come along to one of the auditions on Sunday 18th April - Progress Theatre, The Mount Reading 2.00 p.m. or  Wednesday 21st April - Park United Reformed Church, Palmer Park Avenue,  Wokingham Road, Reading, 7.30 p.m. You may then be asked to a call back audition on Sunday 25th April 2.00p.m. at Progress Theatre.  The performance dates are 26th to 31st July and rehearsals start on May 11th. For this production you must be 16 or older to audition. For more details contact Anne on 0118 9484454 or anne_latto@yahoo.co.uk  

If you are interested in what goes on at Progress Theatre then sign up to this blog. Enter your email in the box under ‘about us’ and click on subscribe. New postings are made weekly so you won’t be swamped with emails.

Don't forget...

Intimate Exchanges by Alan Ayckbourn is on now and runs until 24th April

Coming up...

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh 20 - 29 May 2010

See www.progresstheatre.co.uk for details of all our productions and auditions.

Intimate Exchanges with the cast

Intimate Exchanges is an exciting challenge for the cast. There are only two of them - Tonya Walton and Dan Clarke and they play two different characters each. A play with a small cast is always going to mean more lines to learn but in this case there are two whole plays to learn as during the run they are alternating A Gardener in Love with The Self Improving Woman. Keeping track of which play they are doing can be a challenge in itself.

Dan Clarke enjoyed acting while growing up but gave up the practical side of it when he moved to Reading to study film and drama at the university. He now manages a betting shop and after years of boring his friends by talking about  how much he missed acting he finally put his money where his mouth is and found his way to Progress Theatre. He played three different parts in Going Postal and was then cast in Intimate Exchanges, which is, he says completely different ...

Tonya Walton first appeared on the Progress stage in The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband in 2005. Last year she was in The Dianalogues and Popcorn.

I asked if it was difficult switching between the two characters in Intimate Exchanges.  Tonya and Dan agreed that it wasn't too hard as the characters have very different accents and personalities. What they have to be aware of is small gestures which may be a trademark of one character but they don't want to spill over into the portrayal of the other one. Tonya has a particularly interesting scene  in The Self Improving  Woman where she has to portray a fight between the two female characters - that has got to be worth the price of a ticket!

If you are interested in what goes on at Progress Theatre then sign up to this blog. Enter your email in the box under ‘about us’ and click on subscribe. New postings are made weekly so you won’t be swamped with emails.

Coming up ….

Intimate Exchanges by Alan Ayckbourn 14 - 24 April 2010

Auditions for The Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare Sunday 18 April, Progress Theatre, 2.00 p.m. and Wednesday 21 April, Park United Reformed Church, Palmer Park Avenue, 7.30 p.m. Call Back: Sunday 25th April Progress Theatre 2.00p.m. (Performance dates 26th - 31st July). Please note that for this production you must be 16 or older to audition.

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh 20 - 29 May 2010

See www.progresstheatre.co.uk for details of all our productions and auditions.