Neverwhere and shopping Trolleys

Neverwhere is mostly based in a world under the London we know called 'London below'. This is a world populated by people with special powers, strange beasts, rat speakers and people who make a living out of things they find in the sewers. One place they all come together is the floating market - held in different venues where goods and services can be traded and a truce between warring factions is upheld.

There are traders selling dreams and nightmares, rubbish, various weapons, birds and information. The rubbish vendor has a trolley to sell her goods from and this has been lent to the theatre by local community Co-op, True Food.

True Food has a shop in Emmer Green, as well as running markets three evenings a week in other parts of Reading. They sell groceries, loose foods like nuts and seeds, fruit and vegetables - locally produced where possible and eco-friendly cleaning products. True Food recently won a BBC Food and Farming award 'Best Retail Initiative'.

The trolley full of tasty food but look out for it during Neverwhere full of rubbish.

Following the success with 39 Steps the first night of Neverwhere is going to be a Jelly Third Thursday event. For £10 (with no booking fee) you will get a ticket, pre-show drink and talk. See the Jelly website for details.

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 -

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman,  Adapted by Robert Kauzlaric 19th - 28th January 2012
(There has been a lot of interest in this production from Neil Gaiman fans, tickets are selling fast so if you want to be sure of one then book soon.)

Auditions for Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz at Progress Theatre Tuesday 2nd February 2012 7.30pm or  Sunday 5th February 2pm

Art by Yasmina Reza 20th - 25th February 2012

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

Neverwhere gets on stage

The set for Neverwhere is quite complex, there are two different height raised platforms, a curved staircase and several entrances. Before WriteFest finished most rehearsals were either in the theatre foyer or in the Palmer Park Church Hall. It is always difficult trying to block scenes (work out where everyone needs to be) before you are in the actual space but it is even more difficult with a set like this. It leads to instructions like 'stand behind them but actually you'll be above them' or 'they are actually coming down stairs while you exit under them'. It takes a lot of imagination when you are actually in an empty room with a few chairs.

Before Christmas the cast were finally able to see the skeleton structure of the set and start to see what director Rik Eke had been talking about.

The technical crew have been very busy over the Christmas break and the whole set is now really coming together and looking great - I'll include a photo in next week's blog.

Following the success with 39 Steps the first night of Neverwhere is going to be a Jelly Third Thursday event. For £10 (with no booking fee) you will get a ticket, pre-show drink and talk. See the Jelly website for details.

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 -

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman,  Adapted by Robert Kauzlaric 19th - 28th January 2012
(There has been a lot of interest in this production from Neil Gaiman fans, tickets are now on sale and selling fast so if you want to be sure of one then book soon.)

Auditions for Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz at Progress Theatre Tuesday 2nd February 2012 7.30pm or  Sunday 5th February 2pm

Art by Yasmina Reza 20th - 25th February 2012

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

WriteFest Tech and Cataloguing Costumes

Last Sunday was technical rehearsal day for WriteFest. With eight sets of sound and lighting requirements, making sure everyone has the right settings and props in the right place at the right time this was a long day for the technicians and stage management.

Also going on in the foyer was the latest day of cataloguing the costumes. Progress has a huge collection of costumes, some of them valuable period pieces, many handmade beautiful costumes and some moth eaten and falling apart. The problem is that there are so many it is very hard to know what we have and where to find it.

Chris Moran has taken on the job of sorting through all the costumes, throwing away the rubbish and creating a database of every single piece. The idea is that it will then be much easier for productions to find what they need and we will be able to hire out costumes to earn some revenue for the theatre. Luckily Chris has lots of willing helpers for this mammoth task including the invaluable Barbara Bentley.

Barbara showing her costume 'bible'
(not that she ever needed to refer to it!)

Barbara was in charge of the wardrobe at Progress for many years and has a wealth of knowledge. She can tell at a glance what period a piece is as well as usually telling us what plays it has been used in, where it came from and who wore it. She made many of the costumes herself including seventeen togas and tunics for the Abbey Ruins production of Julius Caesar.







Cataloguing involves assigning each piece a unique number and a code to indicate what type of costume it is. A photo is then taken showing the number and code, details are entered into a database and a laminated label showing its number is pinned to the costume.

This is the third costume cataloguing Sunday and so far over 100 have been done. There are still many more to do and more days are being planned for the new year. If you would like to get involved then email Chris at cmoran@ntlworld.com



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 -

6th Annual WriteFest 8th - 10th December 2011

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman,  Adapted by Robert Kauzlaric 19th - 28th Jan 2012
(There has been a lot of interest in this production from Neil Gaiman fans, tickets are now on sale and selling fast so if you want to be sure of one then book soon.)

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

WriteFest 2011

After the outstanding success of The 39 Steps we move on to our 6th annual WriteFest. This is an evening of short plays of between 5 and 20 minutes written by local writers. It is a popular evening and with eight plays there is bound to be something that appeals to you (and if one doesn't at least you know it won't last too long!)

With so many plays there is plenty of opportunities for actors, WriteFest often appeals to those who don't have the time to commit to a full length play with a longer run. It is also a good way for new members to get on the Progress stage and show everyone what they can do. I met two new members Libby and Shi at the set building session, busy making a giant wooden 'H'.

The 'H' is for the play Libby is in called The Letter H Girl which is set on the Hollywood sign. Shi is in two of the plays She's not there and Self-Service. Libby's Mum suggested that she audition for Writefest and Shi went along because she has recently moved back to Reading after being very involved in theatre groups at university and touring with a musical theatre production for schools.

Shi also has a part in Neverwhere where she plays a market trader proudly selling  "Rubbish! Junk! Debris! Nothing whole or undamaged!"

Coming up -

6th Annual WriteFest 8th - 10th December 2011

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman,  Adapted by Robert Kauzlaric 19th - 28th Jan 2012
(There has been a lot of interest in this production from Neil Gaiman fans, tickets are now on sale and selling fast so if you want to be sure of one then book soon.)

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

The 39 Props

In fact there are more than 39 props in this production of The 39 Steps,  more like double that. I spoke to the man who has had the job of sourcing all those items, Tony Powell.

Many of the props he found in the Progress store, a cellar on the grounds of Calcot golf course. This store is a treasure trove of items that have been used in previous productions or someone thought might be useful one day. There are old sofas, cash registers, shields and even a bus stop. Over the last couple of years Tony has taken on the job of bringing order to this eclectic mix of things. He has tidied it up, put similar items together and thrown out things that are not worth storing. He is planning to catalogue everything but that is a big job.

This production is set just before the second world war and with an eye for detail Tony has even managed to find some period milk bottles, he spotted them in an old farm yard. The beautiful old milk holder he bought from Fanny’s Antiques in Reading and they have kindly agreed to buy it back if it survives the show unscathed.

Some items Tony has ended up making either because he couldn't find what he wanted or they were too expensive. He has made an old lamp-post, an aeroplane and some haddock. He searched everywhere for suitable plastic fish but ended up making his own from foam polystyrene.

A collection of period hats & props with stage manager Laura Mills reflected in the mirror.

Another major source of props has been his own house. His reputation as an extraordinary props finder started when he was working on Much Ado About Nothing which was set in the aftermath of the Falklands war. He 'happened to come across' at home a copy of the Sunday Times from the 1980s with a report on the Falklands. I did ask if he was a hoarder and after a long pause he said 'yes I probably am!'

The 39 Steps has been chosen as a 'Third Thursday' event by local arts group Jelly. You can buy a ticket for the first night (17th November) from Jelly, they cost £10 (no booking fee) including a free drink, a talk from the directors and a chance to meet the artist exhibiting in the foyer. See the Jelly website for more details.

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 -

The 39 Steps by John Buchan, adapted by Patrick Barlow 17th-26th Nov 2011

6th Annual WriteFest 8th - 10th December 2011

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