Bold Girls come out of the dark

When I arrived at the theatre to catch up with Bold Girls I had to feel my way to a seat. The auditorium was in darkness as they were going through the lighting and sound cues making sure everything was just right.

During the tech rehearsal the techies are allowed out of their box at the back the auditorium and sit near the stage so that they can hear and respond to the director's comments. The actors spend their time frozen at particular points to check they are "in the circle of light" or moving from one point to another to make sure there is no "harsh line of light".

Richard Saunders and Martin Noble

The main set for the production is a fully equipped kitchen but some of the action takes place in other venues. For these scenes a black curtain is pulled across the kitchen set and the action takes place in front of that. When it is not being used it is ingeniously hidden down the side of the set.



One of the outside scenes is a pub so a bar table and stools are required. There was a suitable table in the theatre's props store but the stools were proving difficult - local pubs needed their stools for customers! In the end the answer turned out to be a social enterprise in High Wycombe called Out of the Dark. They train and  employ young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to revamp salvaged furniture. They produce some beautiful pieces and their website is well worth a look.  The Bold Girls team were more interested in their unpainted stock where they managed to find some bar stools for £5 each. We hope to have an on-going relationship with Out of the Dark - a great project.

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Auditions for Not about Heroes  by Stephen MacDonald, Wednesday 12th February at 7:00pm, Progress Theatre

Bold Girls by Rona Munro. Monday 17th February – Saturday 22nd February 2014

Trainspotting by  Harry Gibson, adapted from the book by Irvine Welsh. Monday 17th – Saturday 22nd March 2014

Auditions for God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, Sunday 30th March 2014 2.30pm or Thursday 3rd April 2014 at 7pm, Progress Theatre
 

Full details about out theatre and all our activities can be found on our website.

Bold Girls

Bold Girls is a very emotional and funny play about the relationship between four women and the men in their lives. The men are spoken about and are an important presence in the drama although they are never seen on stage.

It is set in in Belfast in 1989 and the 'troubles' are a background to the action in the play but not its focus. When I was a small child I lived in Northern Ireland as my father, who was in the RAF, was based there. We left in 1970 so that the army could move on to the base.  All the characters in Bold Girls are Catholics who essentially view the British Army as an occupying enemy force. Having grown up influenced by the British military view of Northern Ireland it will be a thought provoking evening for me and others whose experience of the period may have been fear of IRA bombs in English cities.

Aidan's style of directing is to start the rehearsal process by spending time talking about the characters and their relationship to each other and reactions to events in the play. For Bold Girls it included discussing what the characters experiences of the violence might have been.

The cast themselves bring very different memories and experiences to their roles ranging from Libby who is young enough for it all to be just history to Alison who was living in London at the time. Her memory is of it being a scary time but essentially people just got on with life. This is very much the feel of the play. The politics and violence are a constant background but the play's focus is the relationships between the four women.

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. 

Auditions for Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde, Sunday 26th January at 2.30pm or Tuesday 28th January 2014 at 7.30pm, Progress Theatre

Auditions for Not about Heroes  by Stephen MacDonald, Sunday 9th February at 1:30pm or Wednesday 12th February at 7:00pm, Progress Theatre

Bold Girls by Rona Munro. Monday 17th February – Saturday 22nd February 2014

Trainspotting by  Harry Gibson, adapted from the book by Irvine Welsh. Monday 17th – Saturday 22nd March 2014

Full details about out theatre and all our activities can be found on our website.