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| Peter wearing his crew t-shirt at the recent Progress AGM |
Peter joined Progress when he was headhunted to play Hamm in Endgame after the actor originally cast "couldn't hack it" and pulled out after only two weeks of rehearsals. Peter was cast after being auditioned over the phone and clearly was more than able to hack it.
Peter was in the RAF until 1968 and acted and directed all round the world. He spent three years in Malta and belonged to the prestigious Malta Amateur Dramatic Club (MADC). He directed and appeared in several Shakespeare plays with MADC including playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night. MADC are still going strong and their latest production is Much ado About Nothing (outdoors of course).
After the Berkshire Shakespeare Players stopped putting on productions at the abbey ruins a professional production company called MDM took on the space. (Peter claims it stands for Make don't Measure after the production of King Lear when they miscalculated the height of some levels on the stage which meant the actors needed to have very long legs or be good at jumping.) Reading Borough Council only allowed MDM to use the ruins on condition that they involved Progress Theatre in the productions. The first show was Henry V and Peter's involvement was selling coke and crisps - all the bar ran to in those days. Things have moved on since then and if you come to this year's production you'll be able to buy cocktails!
Over the next few years Progress put on the plays while MDM organised everything around it including sets and costumes. Peter's involvement grew and he had parts in Macbeth and King Lear and co-directed Much Ado About Nothing . The crunch came in 1999 when MDM decided to pull out and Progress had to make a decision whether to run the whole event ourselves. Peter had long discussions with Jon Churchill, who is also still very much involved in Progress and they decided to go ahead. It was a huge risk and Peter now says they probably wouldn't have done it if they'd realised quite what a big job they were taking on.
The rest is history and over the years Progress produced many successful and profitable productions in the beautiful Abbey Ruins until they were finally declared unsafe and closed off in 2008. After a two year break Progress returned to open air Shakespeare with The Tempest at Caversham Court in 2011. This was by necessity much lower key than the abbey ruin's Shakespeares, the audience bringing their own chairs or sitting on the grass rather than installed banks of seating. Peter says that he was initially against this as it seemed like a step backwards but now thinks it has worked. The event is much easier to organise and there is less financial risk.
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| Caversham Court Gardens before Macbeth dress rehearsal, backdrop to my interview |
Peter's role is executive producer which he describes as doing everything no-one else wants to do like hiring toilets, ordering the staging and being available during the day to take deliveries. I should mention that Peter is also the treasurer for Progress Theatre although after many years in the role he is now training up a replacement. I asked if he was also planning to retire from the open air Shakespeare. "I'll see how I feel at Christmas" was his reply....
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Macbeth Thursday 18th to Saturday 27th July 2013 at 7.45pm, Caversham Court Gardens
Informal read through of Writefest plays, Sunday 4th August 7.30pm. Progress Theatre
Writefest auditions, Wednesday 28th August 7.30pm, Progress Theatre
The 8th Annual WriteFest Thursday 17th - Saturday 19th October 2013, Progress Theatre
Informal read through of Writefest plays, Sunday 4th August 7.30pm. Progress Theatre
Writefest auditions, Wednesday 28th August 7.30pm, Progress Theatre
The 8th Annual WriteFest Thursday 17th - Saturday 19th October 2013, Progress Theatre
