Lord of the Flies and Pigs' Heads

The Lord of the Flies set depicting a tropical island is taking shape. One of the set builders, Alex McCubbin, let slip that he was once in a production of the play at Henley College that used a real pig's head. There is a scene that calls for a pig's head to be carried around on a stick and they manged to get a local butcher to supply a new one every night. The actor who had to put the pig's head on the stick was a vegetarian and really didn't enjoy the experience.

Liz Carrol is responsible for props in Progress's production and she decided against the butchers option. At one point she did consider using a pig's head to get the skull and did some research on the internet. She gave up on the idea  after discovering that it takes weeks and involves insects to get the last of the brains out!

What she did in the end she describes as an interesting process involving a mask and expanding foam. She mysteriously added that during the creation there was a mistake which was eventually turned into gristle and bone. As you can see from this photo it looks gruesomely realistic - I should have started this blog with one of those "some views may find this upsetting" warnings.

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Coming up -

You can still auditions for Reading Open Air 2012 Henry IV Part 1 on Wednesday 14th March 7.30pm or Sunday 18th March 12pm at Progress Theatre

Auditions for Mine by Polly Teale, Sunday 11th March 2.30 or Tuesday 13th March 7.30pm at Progress Theatre

Progress Youth Theatre Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Monday 19th March to Saturday 24th March 2012, Progress Theatre

Classic Writing - Double Bill, Gaggle of Saints, by Neil LaBute and Handbagged, by Moira Buffini, 10 Apr - 14 Apr 2012, Progress Theatre

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

Lord of the Flies

Progress Youth Theatre are producing an innovative take on Lord of the Flies adapted by Nigel Williams from the William Golding novel. They are playing it with an all female cast. The play has been done before with girls playing boys but has never been done with all the genders switched. They had to get permission from the rights holders which took a while but was eventually granted.

Some of the cast rehearsing last Sunday

This production has given me a chance to clear some clutter from my house. A call went out for any donations of old school shirts and it was stressed that they should be ones not needed any more as they would not be returned. I managed to find about ten hanging in my children's cupboards that no longer fit them. For those of you who don't know, the play is set on a dessert island and follows a group of children who survive a plane crash and then have to live without adult supervision. There are about 15 girls in the cast and all need at least two, possibly three shirts each so that they can start of reasonably smart when they first arrive on the island and then get progressively dirtier as the play progresses. Producer Liz Carrol collected the shirts, rubbed them in dirt and then hung them on her washing line. What on earth did the neighbours think?


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 Reading Open Air 2012 Henry IV Part 1 Wednesday 7th March 7.30pm or Wednesday 14th March 7.30pm or Sunday 18th March 12pm at Progress Theatre

Auditions for Mine by Polly Teale, Sunday 11th March 2.30 or Tuesday 13th March 7.30pm at Progress Theatre

Progress Youth Theatre Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Monday 19th March to Saturday 24th March Progress Theatre

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

Art, art and crash test drama

Progress regulars will know that we always have an art exhibition in the bar area and try to make it appropriate to the show. As the theme of the next play is art then the display takes on a whole new relevance. The artist exhibiting this time is Michael Zavialov who makes modern abstract works so there will be plenty of opportunity to continue the questions about 'what is art' raised during the performance over a drink in the bar.

Art director Glynn Oram has performed in, directed and written many plays for Progress. He took a few years out from the Reading theatre scene when he was working in Australia. He was based in Sydney and got involved in Crash Test Drama, when he came back to Reading he bought the idea with him and set up Crash Test Drama UK.

Glynn - director of Art

At a Crash Test Drama event a series of 10 minute plays are rehearsed and performed on the night, they are voted on and two winners share the door takings. The evening goes as follows: meet up at 6pm on a Sunday. Actors have a police line up style audition. Directors, having received and chosen their scripts a few days earlier, try to cast their plays.Once cast there is a little over an hour to rehearse, with (on-book) performances from 7.30. Plays are voted for by the cast and the audience. The winner goes through to the final. In Reading Crash Test Drama takes place at The Rising Sun Arts Centre, Silver Street usually on the last Sunday of the month. See their facebook page 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 -

Art by Yasmina Reza 20th - 25th February 2012, 7.45pm Progress Theatre

Auditions for Reading Open Air 2012 Henry IV Part 1 Wednesday 7th March 7.30pm or Wednesday 14th March 7.30pm or Sunday 18th March 12pm at Progress Theatre

Progress Youth Theatre Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Monday 19th March to Saturday 24th March Progress Theatre

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

Art

It was another busy Sunday at Progress Theatre in spite of the weekend's snow fall. In the foyer they were holding auditions for Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz.

In the theatre itself the set build team were busy scraping paint off some flats. They had painted them earlier in the day but then realised the old paint layers underneath gave it an uneven finish. For many sets this wouldn't matter but Art is set in a world where people buy expensive art and probably don't have peeling paint on their walls. Preparation is key as any DIYer knows!

I also spoke to director Glynn Oram  who showed me the first attempt at creating the art work central to the plot of Art. The play is about the controversy caused by a piece of art described in the script as "a canvas about 5 foot by 4, with a white background, completely white in fact, with fine white diagonal stripes." They have recreated this by painting the back of a piece of hardboard white. By using the back you get the textured effect of a canvas. When I saw it they hadn't yet added the "fine white diagonal stripes'. It also may not end up being the full 5 foot by 4, Progress stage is quite small and it may just look too big. Also a piece of hardboard that size is very heavy!

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 A Kind of Alaska, by Harold Pinter and Handbagged, by Moira Buffini Wednesday 8th February, 7.45 pm or Saturday 11th February, 2.30pm at Progress Theatre

Art by Yasmina Reza 20th - 25th February 2012, 7.45pm Progress Theatre

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

Blood in Neverwhere

There is a lot of blood in Neverwhere, a lot of blood. Ian Belcher, who plays the Marquis de Carabas, volunteered to supervise making all the blood needed. He experimented with different recipes and consistencies to create the perfect blood for different circumstances.

The one used for 'background gore' as Ian charmingly put it, is made from cornflour, water, food colouring and a dash of washing up liquid. While it is cheap the disadvantage of this recipe is that it needs to be cooked for a couple of hours.

Ian cooking up a cauldron of blood.

If more liquid blood is needed, for example if it needs to drip off a freshly used knife, then a different recipe with golden syrup, water and food colouring is used. Ian discovered that different brands of golden syrup give different blood qualities. The best was a generic brand, Tate &  Lyle wasn't thick enough.

The final type of blood is used in one scene that is lit with a red light so the red bloods wouldn't show. This one is made with black molasses and water. This blood has to be spat out by one of the characters. One of the stage management team injects a shot of the dark blood into her mouth using a turkey baster.

Testing the finished product

All the blood makes work for for the stage managers. The floor ends up covered in sticky syrup and part of the set wall will have to be repainted every night.

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

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.