Manufacturing Porn Mags

Liz Carroll, who plays one of the leading roles in Enjoy, was voted 'Wonderful Woman of Reading' in March for her voluntary work. So how has she gone from pillar of the community to cutting and pasting photos of semi-naked women?

It is all in the name of art and essential to the drama of course. During the play a pornographic magazine is passed between characters and is an important part of the action. As the play is set in the 1980s the production team wanted a magazine from the right period. We like to recycle props at Progress so they were pleased to find that a period porn mag had been purchased for the recent production of Teechers.

Liz is one of the people responsible for Progress's 'body of persons' licence, giving us permission to produce plays with young actors. In this role she thought she ought to check that the magazine was suitable to be shown to a young person. It didn't take her long to decide that it certainly wasn't.

She then bought a celebrity gossip magazine that was the right size and put it inside the cover of the porn mag. This solved the problem of the unsuitable material but now there was a problem of authenticity. As the magazine is passed around the stage it is likely that audience members near the front would be able to see that it was not what it claimed to be. So stage two involved Liz trawling the Sun's website to find photos of their 'Golden Girls' - page 3 photos from the 1980s. She then printed these and stuck them in her magazine.

Liz reading an (undoctored) vintage TV Times.

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...

Enjoy by Alan Bennett 6th - 11th June 2011

Progress Youth Theatre Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas 4th - 11 July 2011

Open air production The Tempest by William Shakespeare 23rd - 30th July 2011

See Progress Theatre website for details of all our productions and auditions.

Enjoy door practice

When I last wrote about Enjoy I mentioned that they needed some extra actors to take on non-speaking roles. They have now found some volunteers and they were at their first rehearsal on Tuesday night. Also at its first rehearsal was a functional front door.

Doors are difficult to work with on stage (never work with children, animals ...or doors). They take time to open and shut, actors have to remember when to close them and when to leave them open and the door itself can block the audience's view of the action. The scene I watched being rehearsed was fairly short but did involve the door so a lot of time was spent trying different ways of opening the door and places to stand. All further complicated by having to find space for two extra people on the stage. Director Peter Charles has assigned all the cast extra door practice.

Door Practice

 

 

 

 

Producer Mandy King told me about another problem they had with the door. It has a working letter box that they fitted on before fixing the door into position, at which point they realised it was upside down. Taking it out and reinstalling it the right way round proved more difficult than putting it in the first place. I think Mandy learnt some good new swear words though.

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...


Enjoy by Alan Bennett 6th - 11th June 2011

Progress Youth Theatre Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas 4th - 11 July 2011

Open air production The Tempest by William Shakespeare 23rd - 30th July 2011

See Progress Theatre website for details of all our productions and auditions.

Update on the Tempest

Enjoy by Alan Bennett is the next show at the theatre but we've got time for a guest blog this week from the production team of The Tempest.

Open air Shakespeare is always popular among theatre goers and this year the Progress Theatre returns to the open air with its annual Shakespeare production and our director Chris Bertrand’s vision of The Tempest. The Reading Abbey is now closed to the public, so our plans were in ruins (pun intended), but now they’ve been revived thanks to the lovely people at Caversham Court Gardens who will host our venture into the unknown world of a new venue.

In April The Tempest’s Stage Manager, Matthew Drury, was out in the glorious sunshine to photograph the cast’s rehearsal and had the following to say about the challenges a new venue brings to us… 

“One of our biggest obstacles is getting power to light the stage. You don’t find a plug socket in the middle of a field, so you need to rethink many things you’d normally take for granted.” Though you may not think it, the lack of mod cons such as electricity has had a positive effect on the show. Forcing the director and ensemble cast to get creative and think outside the box. The show now features some wonderful elements of collaborative sound effects for the storm and costume design that uses the daylight to its full advantage. It’s going to be an inspirational piece, not to be missed.

One of Matthew's photos of the outdoor rehearsal

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...



Enjoy by Alan Bennett 6th - 11th June 2011

Progress Youth Theatre Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas 4th - 11 July 2011

Open air production The Tempest by William Shakespeare 23rd - 30th July 2011

See Progress Theatre website for details of all our productions and auditions.

Enjoy rehearsals

All My Sons by Arthur Miller is running until Saturday 14th May. There are still tickets left so don't miss the chance to see this brilliant emotionally gripping play.


Meanwhile rehearsals are progressing for the next show, Enjoy by Alan Bennett. I'm going to struggle with posting about this show as I keep being told interesting titbits followed by "oh but you can't write that in the blog it'll spoil the plot". So what can I tell you? It was first performed in 1980 and this production is set in that period but director Peter Charles said the look will be "more beige tank-tops than Toni Basil". It is set in Leeds and to my southerner's ear the actors seemed to be making a good job of the Yorkshire accents.

LIz Carroll and Tom Sellwood 'Enjoy' rehearsing their dance moves

The production requires a number of extras - these are non speaking parts but need to be reasonably young and strong. If you are interested and free 6th - 11th June and the weekend before for final rehearsals then contact Peter on enjoy@groovechild.co.uk.

The other thing I'm going to struggle with for this production is not making terrible word plays on the title - I'll do my best!


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...

All My Sons by Arthur Miller runs until 14th May 2011

Enjoy by Alan Bennett 6th - 11th June 2011

Progress Youth Theatre Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas 4th - 11 July 2011

Open air production The Tempest by William Shakespeare 23rd - 30th July 2011

See Progress Theatre website for details of all our productions and auditions.

All My Sons Tech Rehearsal

This is the final weekend before the first night of All My Sons on Thursday 5th May so it is time to sort out all the technical aspects before the final few rehearsals. Today was mainly about getting the lighting right, making sure that the areas of the stage where the actors perform in each scene are lit correctly. Of course the actors also need to make sure they stand in the right part of the stage....

After a run through with the lights director Harry had to sort out the sound effects with the two operators. The actors weren't needed for this so went for a well earned break in the pub - acting is hard work you know!

In the post All My Sons - Photo Op I took some photos of the publicity shoot. I thought you might like to see one of the resulting shots taken by photographer Mandy King.

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...

All My Sons by Arthur Miller 5th - 14th May 2011

Enjoy by Alan Bennett 6th - 11th June 2011

Progress Youth Theatre Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas 4th - 11 July 2011

Open air production The Tempest by William Shakespeare 23rd - 30th July 2011

See Progress Theatre website for details of all our productions and auditions.