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!

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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.

Getting ready for Intimate Exchanges

It was a busy Sunday at Progress Theatre. The cast and crew of the Earnest/Travesties double bill took down their set in the morning. As it is less than three weeks until curtain up on Intimate Exchanges director Geoff Dallimore was there to help them get out as quickly as possible before starting to build his own set. By the time Progress Blog got there in the afternoon the first audition for Death and the Maiden had started. Every space in the theatre was filled with people threatening or pleading with each other - I assumed these were lines from the play. 

There is plenty to be done for the set of Intimate Exchanges. There is the front end of a garden shed to be built as well as a platform for a performance within the play. The set building team were trying to work out how high the platform should be so Geoff got down on all fours and said "measure me" (26 inches if you're interested).

The run of Intimate Exchanges consists of two separate plays,  A Self-improving Woman and A Gardener in Love. The two plays are exactly the same for the first twenty minutes and then diverge when one of the characters makes a decision. You can go and see both plays if you want to see what happens when the alternative path is taken but you don't need to, each of the plays can be enjoyed as a standalone piece.

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 ….

Auditions for Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman. At Progress Theatre,  Wednesday 31 March 7.30

Intimate Exchanges by Alan Ayckbourn 14 - 24 April 2010

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh 20 - 29 May 2010

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

Auditions for Intimate Exchanges

Auditions are coming thick and fast at Progress. The next ones are for Alan Ayckbourn’s Intimate Exchanges and are on Sunday, 6 December 2009, 1.30pm to 4pm and Wednesday, 9 December 2009, 7.30pm to 10pm both at Progress Theatre.

The director, Geoff Dallimore, told us a bit more about this unusual play which has only been performed twice in its full version. This is not surprising when you learn that it fills two volumes, has sixteen possible endings and ten different characters, all performed by just two actors. The second production was almost cancelled when Ayckbourn suffered a stroke shortly before starting rehearsals and one wonders whether there was some connection!

The idea behind the play is that small choices can have significant repercussions. Thus, at the very beginning, one of the characters must decide whether or not to have a sneaky cigarette and, based upon that decision, the entire course of the play is set. As the play progresses, different characters are faced with further decisions and the narrative flows in one direction or another as a consequence.

Progress Theatre will mount two of the possible variations. The decision leading to the split takes place after 20 minutes when the character of Lionel must choose whether or not to take the youthful Sylvie out on a date or if he should make a move on the dissatisfied wife of the local headmaster. The different variations will be performed on alternate nights to give audiences a chance to see both of them. Joint tickets to see the two productions at reduced prices will be available. Keep an eye out early in the New Year when tickets go on sale.


Geoff directed a very successful production of Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind in 2007 that featured live falling rain. Intimate Exchanges attracted him because the small cast and quiet setting will work perfectly at the intimate Progress Theatre. Nevertheless, he says there will be plenty of technical wizardry on show including a collapsing stage on stage.

As well as directing at Progress, Geoff is a talented musician and has often acted as Musical Director for shows. You may have seen him on stage in his musical persona. He played piano in the Wild West saloon bar of The Taming of the Shrew in 2008 in the Abbey ruins. He also wrote and played the music for the 2006 production of Dracula at the theatre.

For more information about the play and the auditions see www.progresstheatre.co.uk

Don’t forget …

The current production at Progress Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare runs until 5th December – get your tickets now.

Auditions for A couple of poor English-speaking Poles by Dorota Maslowska are being held on Sunday 29th November 2009 at 2.30 and Tuesday 8th December 2009 7.30 at Progress Theatre.