Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Reprising a Double Act

Calendar Girls is still running until next Saturday although it is almost sold out. A batch of tickets has been released for Thursday 20th September and they are available from the Reading Arts website or by phoning the Hexagon box office on 0118 9606060. If you haven't got a ticket and want to come on another night it may be worth turning up at the theatre on the night of the performance to see if there are any returns. You can also join the Progress Theatre group on facebook as people with spare tickets sometimes post them there.

The next show is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard. The lead roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are played by Chris Hoult and Craig Daniels who were last seen together on the Progress stage in 39 Steps where they played dozens of different characters. Chris and Craig first appeared on stage together in Hook in the Hook Players production of Murder to Death in 2010.

Chris and Craig as they appear on the flyers for the production

 

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet and during this play various characters from Hamlet appear and interact with them. The characters are all played by a small troupe of players and to help with switching between characters director Glynn Oram has bought a selection of interesting masks.

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 -

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth, 13th - 22nd September 2012, Progress Theatre
(Woodley Theatre's production runs 24th - 29th September)

Auditions for Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett Thursday 27^th September at 7.30pm and Sunday 30^th September at 6pm, Progress Theatre

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Tom Stoppard 15th - 20th October 2012, Progress Theatre

7th Annual WriteFest 14 - 17 November 2012, Progress Theatre

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

Calendar Girls - the Big Bake-off

The casts of Calendar Girls from Progress and Woodley theatres held a WI style bake-off on Sunday. There was a huge range of cakes and visitors were asked to vote for the lightest, moistest, most tasty, best iced, most unusual and best overall. In order to be strictly fair to all the entrants it was important to sample all the offerings! Of course there was plenty of tea to wash down all that cake.

This is just half of the cakes.

In the midst of the cake eating there was also a mini badminton tournament where the actors playing the same characters were pitched against each other. I'm afraid I have to report that Woodley Theatre won by 4 games to 3.




John Goodman and Jim McGuigan who play Rod in Progress and Woodley Productions

 

The stars stayed in character for the event including two very grand Lady Cavendishes giving out the prizes. As well as being great fun and promoting the two productions the aim of the afternoon was fundraising and a total of £210 was raised for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research

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 -

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth, 13th - 22nd September 2012, Progress Theatre
(Woodley Theatre's production runs 24th - 29th September)

Auditions for 7th WriteFest, Sunday 16^th September at 2.30pm, Progress Theatre

Auditions for Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett Thursday 27^th September at 7.30pm and Sunday 30^th September at 6pm, Progress Theatre

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Tom Stoppard 15th - 20th October 2012, Progress Theatre

7th Annual Write Fest 14 - 17 November 2012, Progress Theatre

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


Calender Girls - Fabulous Concealment

I think the painting activity was really to keep the cast quiet but the stated aim was to produce some Sunday school style pictures to decorate the church hall set of Calender Girls.

The other craft activity the cast and crew have been involved in is varnishing sticky buns. The play calls for a big pile of buns and buying real ones could prove expensive. Instead they bought some cheap bread buns, varnished them so they keep better and then covered them with icing, using a glue gun for the shiny sugar look.

Good enough to eat?

The pile of buns is used for 'fabulous concealment' the phrase used to describe the scenes depicting the photo shoot for the calender. Although all the ladies are naked, various items are used to ensure that their modesty is maintained at all times.

Director Aidan Moran described how he built up the confidence of the cast in playing these scenes by starting off with them fully clothed, moving on to dressing gowns and then underwear before being fully undressed. Stage manger Emma Walsh protects the actors privacy during rehearsals by ensuring that doors are not left open and no stray men accidentally wander in. Assistant director Shi Sur took on the job of checking from various points of the auditorium that nothing could be seen that shouldn't be.

The amateur rights to perform Calender Girls have been released for the first time this year in an attempt to establish the record for the highest number of productions of one play in a single year. A percentage of the performance fees paid by each theatre is going to Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. To raise more money Aidan has photographed and had printed calenders showing members of the cast in various theatre situations employing the same fabulous concealment technique used in the WI calender. This calendar had been made jointly with the cast of Woodley Theatre who are performing Calender Girls later in September. Copies of the  calendar will be available for sale.

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 -

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth, 13th - 22nd September 2012, Progress Theatre

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Tom Stoppard 15th - 20th October 2012, Progress Theatre

7th Annual Write Fest 14 - 17 November 2012, Progress Theatre

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

Calender Girls, Sunflowers and Pianos

The question I wanted to ask when I went to a Calendar Girls rehearsal was 'what is it with the sunflowers?' The poster features a sunflower and I'd heard that the rehearsals had started in June with a party where sunflowers seeds were planted outside the theatre.
Chris Moran, who is one of the calendar girls in the play, took me to see the sunflowers they planted and explained the significance of them. The plot of Calendar Girls centres around a WI member raising money for Leukaemia research by creating a nude calendar following the death of her husband. The husband's favourite flowers were sunflowers and he writes a talk for the WI about sunflowers where he compares them to Yorkshire women.

 The first read through of Calendar Girls doubled as a WI style tea party (yes there was cake!) and the cast and crew all planted a sunflower at the back of the carpark.

As you can see from the photo the sunflowers have come on a long way since June and fingers crossed they will be in full bloom in time for opening night. Look out for them when you come to see the show.

Tickets are selling fast, more than half are sold already so if you want to come and see this popular play then book your seats soon - there are unlikely to be any for sale on the door.

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 -

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth, 13th - 22nd September 2012, Progress Theatre

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Tom Stoppard 15th - 20th October 2012, Progress Theatre

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

Marketing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

The preparation for a show starts well before the first audition. The work may start over a year before when the director has to put their vision of the production to the Play Production Committee who decide the proposed season for final approval by the members. At this stage the director will also put together the basis of their production team, including production manager, lighting and sound, costumes and stage manager.

One of the earliest areas that needs to be put into place is the marketing plan. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard is being performed 15th - 20th October 2012 but the design for the flyers has to be finalised in the next few weeks so that posters and flyers can be printed ready for distribution and display. The first marketing meeting was held last week with the director, theatre marketing manager and the show's production and marketing managers.

Glynn, Abby and Liz studying the marketing schedule

Some things have to happen for every show like printing flyers and updating 'whats on' websites, other things will be different for different shows. For example Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead are planning to hold an open rehearsal to generate some publicity. The show is very funny and is running during the Reading Comedy Festival so we are hoping there may be some opportunities to market to their audiences.

Marketing meetings and schedules may not be what you expect to be doing when you join a local theatre but there is no point in putting on the most fantastic show if no-one turns up to see it.

If you want to be in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead there is still time to audition. The second audition is this Tuesday 1st August 7.30pm

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 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Tom Stoppard Tuesday 31st July 7.30pm at Progress Theatre

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth, 13th - 22nd September 2012, Progress Theatre

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