Teechers by John Godber is set in a school gym in the 1980s and set designer Aidan Moran wants to recreate the atmosphere he remembers from his own school days.
The base of the design is the floor which has to be the highly polished cross hatch design school gyms always used to have (and maybe still do). The actual stage can't be varnished so it has to be covered with hardboard which can then be painted and varnished to give the right effect.
New member Ashley Dashwood has recently moved to Reading and was looking for something to do and a way of meeting people. A friend pointed him toward Progress and on his first visit he found himself with a hammer in his hand fixing pieces of hardboard. He is going to be a great asset to the theatre!
When it is finished the set will include all the accessories you'd expect in a gym, a climbing frame fixed to the wall, ropes, long benches, big windows and a vaulting horse. The vaulting horse has a dual purpose as it will also act as a space to store props. Teechers is a classic John Godber play where 3 actors play many different roles. It is fast moving and storing the props on stage avoids interrupting the action.
To complete the school gym illusion lighting designer Martin Noble will be rigging some real fluorescent strip lights to light the set when the audience first come in. The only thing missing will be the school aroma but perhaps we should leave that to the audience's imagination.
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Coming up...
Auditions for Enjoy by Alan Bennett, Sunday 6th March 3pm & Thursday 10th March, 7.30pm Progress Theatre.
Teechers by John Godber 14th to 19th March 2011
Progress Youth Theatre Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons 4th - 9th- April 2011
See Progress Theatre website for details of all our productions and auditions.
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