The 8th Annual WriteFest starts this Wednesday and runs until Saturday, although tickets for Friday and Saturday are already sold out.

This is tech weekend when all the lighting, sound and stage management is put into place. With eight different plays to sort out this makes for a long weekend. It started on Friday night with one of the plays, three on Saturday and four on Sunday followed by a full dress rehearsal of the whole production.

For the technical crew there has been quite a lot of waiting around. Each play is allocated a two hour slot for their tech to give time for any problems to be ironed out but of course if things run smoothly and are not too complex they might finish in less than half that time. On the plus side it means the technical team have time to make tea, get something to eat or chat to passing bloggers.

All the plays have to share the same lighting set so to a certain extent directors  have to use a generic positioning of lights but there is enough capacity to include the odd special effect for an individual play. With a very simple set lighting can be a good way to create an atmosphere of time and place.

The other thing that has to be sorted out at the tech rehearsal is moving smoothly from one play to the next. When I was there they were looking at The Invisible Guest and director Stuart Merrall was explaining that the play starts with a pile of pink card (cherry blossoms) in a pile and lightly scattered at the front of the stage. Needless to say the blossom doesn't stay in a neat pile so at the end of the play stage managers Emma Walsh and Rebecca Gibbs have to come on a sweep them all off-stage.

The set for The Invisible Guest, the director was deciding which balloon to go with

Compere for the evening is Jon Speed, who is directing Our Father and was last seen as Captain Carrot, the 6'2" dwarf in The Fifth Elephant. It will be Jon's job to keep the audience informed and entertained during the scene changes. Let's hope for his sake it doesn't take too long to sweep up those blossoms.

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.

The 8th Annual WriteFest Thursday 17th - Saturday 19th October 2013, Progress Theatre

Auditions for Bold Girls,  Sunday 20th October at 7pm or Tuesday 22nd October at 7.30pm, Progress Theatre. There is also a pre-audition accent workshop Monday 14th October at Park United Reformed Church

Auditions for Trainspotting by Harry Gibson, adapted from the book by Irvine Welsh, Wednesday 6th November at 7.30pm or Sunday 10th November 2013 at 2.30pm, Progress Theatre

Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson Monday 11th – Saturday 16th November 2013, Progress Theatre

 

Details of all our productions and auditions can be found on our website.

WriteFest and the improved auditorium

Preparations for the 8th annual WriteFest are well underway so I arranged to meet with producer Matt Drury to discuss this year's production. One of the roles that Matt and co-producer Emily Goode  take on is acting as key holders. They people in who need to rehearse and stay on the premises to lock up at the end, so he had plenty of time to chat to me while Three Small Words were rehearsing.

There were about 65 plays submitted to WriteFest this year and this was whittled down to eight by the producers and Play Production Committee (an elected group of Progress members who organise the season of plays). The plays are chosen with the authors name removed and it is not revealed until all the plays for the evening have been picked. Submissions are open to anyone in he UK and Ireland. The geographical limit was introduced a couple of years ago after the call for plays ended up on an American website leading to more entries than we could cope with.

I wanted to sit in for a bit of the Three Small Words rehearsal partly to have a peek at the refurbished auditorium and partly because I'd been told it contained face licking. I didn't get to see any face licking but I did get to try out the new, more evenly spaced seats.

WriteFest co-producer Matt trying out the reinstalled seats.

An important part of the Writefest evening is the compere who introduces each play and entertains the audience during changes between plays. The producers are still looking for a confident person to full this role. It doesn't necessarily need to be someone who can deliver gags but they should be engaging and able to give a polished performance. If you think you fit the bill and would like to have a go then contact Matt and Emily on writefest@progresstheatre.co.uk.

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 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Tuesday 24th September 2013 at 7.30pm or Sunday 29th September 2013 at 10am, Progress Theatre

Jazz at Progress, Neal Meets Steele, Friday 27th September 2013 7.30, Progress Theatre

The 8th Annual WriteFest Thursday 17th - Saturday 19th October 2013, Progress Theatre

Auditions for Bold Girls,  Sunday 20th October at 7pm or Tuesday 22nd October at 7.30pm, Progress Theatre. There is also a pre-audition accent workshop Monday 14th October at Park United Reformed Church

 

Details of all our productions and auditions can be found on our website.

Making the most of the summer

There may not have been any plays on at Progress theatre since mid July but things certainly haven't been quiet. We have taken advantage of the natural gap in the programme to carry out some maintenance work. The main work being carried out is some remedial work in the auditorium, this involved the complete removal of all the seats so that the underlying structure could be replaced. A recent building survey reported that while our audiences were perfectly safe we were advised not to let people dance in the aisles!

The auditorium stripped bare

The old seats are going to be put back in but the rows will be more evenly spaced so that there will be no very cramped rows (but of course also no very wide rows). The aisle up the middle will also be straightened to make better use of the space.

Emma Walsh took over the role of theatre premises manager in July so has had to hit the ground running managing this major job. She was already on the committee so knew what she was letting herself in for. While the work in the auditorium is being carried out by professional contractors willing Progress member were called in to spruce up the foyer. It will not be dramatically different but should look clean and fresh for the start of the season. In her new role Emma is planning to draw up a programme of maintenance work for the whole year so that members can see in advance what is planned and what they might be interested in getting involved with.

Foyer decorating team taking a well earned break

Of course the million dollar question was is it all going to be ready in time? Emma said that there had been a delay in the schedule (isn't there always?) about getting the building regulations signed off. Things are now going well  and although we had to move a members social evening the handover date of 25th September means we will be ready for our first public event, Jazz at Progress on 27th.

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 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Tuesday 24th September 2013 at 7.30pm or Sunday 29th September 2013 at 10am, Progress Theatre

Jazz at Progress, Neal Meets Steele, Friday 27th September 2013 7.30, Progress Theatre

The 8th Annual WriteFest Thursday 17th - Saturday 19th October 2013, Progress Theatre

Details of all our productions and auditions can be found on our website.

The face behind outdoor Shakespeare in Reading

Peter Cockman joined Progress Theatre in 1974 but even before then he was involved with Berkshire Shakespeare Players, an amateur company that put on an annual Shakespeare productions in the abbey ruins. His claim to fame is he played along side Kate Winslet's father in Measure for Measure.

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.

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.... 

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.

 

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

A Shakespeare double bill

The Progress Youth Theatre are presenting a double bill of Shakespeare plays - Romeo and Juliet and Love's Labours Lost. Both have been abridged so don't worry you won't be at the theatre past midnight!

I was distracted from starting to write this blog by wondering about apostrophes, should it be 'Love's Labours Lost' or 'Love's Labour's Lost'? If you care about such things I did find an interesting thread discussing it here.

Romeo and Juliet is being performed in a contemporary setting with the two gangs portrayed as Muslims and Christians. Some of Shakespeare's language has been kept but some has been updated to fit the setting.

 

Fidelity, who plays the Princess, modelling her horse's head
 

Love's Labour's Lost has been set in Victorian times so will have a very different feel. The props used are stylised and use paper and letters as a motif (letters are important in the plot). When they offered to show me the horse's head I imagined something dripping with blood, Godfather style. It turned out to be a very sweet hobby horse decorated with letters.

There is some doubling up required with some actors playing more than one part. This necessity has been turned into an opportunity to showcase the skill and versatility of our young actors. Look out for some amazing transformations between sophisticated courtiers and country bumpkins.

If we have whet your appetite for Shakespeare then don't forget our annual outdoor production in Caversham Court this year is Macbeth and starts on 18th July. The weather is looking good so get your tickets soon.


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.

Progress Youth Theatre presents Romeo and Juliet and Love's Labours Lost Monday 8th to Saturday 14th July, Progress Theatre

This year's outdoor Shakespeare Macbeth Thursday 18th to Saturday 27th July 2013 at 7.45pm, Caversham Court Gardens