 June 2010 Congratulations to everyone involved with Seven Brides, it was another excellent show, and a big thank you to Penny for putting together another triumph! We have now turned our thoughts to the autumn plays: Hamlet is now in rehearsal and the readings for Billy Liar are at the end of this month, please come along to show your support! Also coming up soon is the AGM on the 6th of August where we hope to see as many of you as possible!
Matt Billy Liar 27th - 30th October 2010 Readings for Billy Liar will be held very soon. The reading dates will be held on Friday 25th June and Tues the 29th June at 7.30pm in the main hall. Billy Fisher is an ambitious but ultimately lazy young Yorkshire slacker with a dreary occupation working as a clerk at Shadrach and Duxbury's funeral directors. He spends most if his time daydreaming of 'Ambrosia', a fantasyland where he is a hero. A compulsive liar at the best of times, when a number of indiscretions cause Billy to take his 'alternative view' of his life even further in order to avoid landing himself in trouble, events start catching up with him. His lies snowball with highly comedic results to cover his tracks. Finally, when his life is a total mess, and nobody believes a word he says, an opportunity to run away from everyone to London presents itself. So now Billy has a difficult decision to make... CAST William "Billy" Fisher - Billy is 19, and living with parents Alice and Geoffrey, and his grandmother, Florence. Billy is very interested in girls and is keen to see how far he can go. He is confused between love and sex and like many young men is not yet ready to say goodbye to childhood. Although he uses some of his make believe to deliberately make himself more interesting to girls and routinely lies both to them and his parents many of his lies are spur of the moment things which have no purpose but which revolve around a number of recurring themes. The challenge for the actor is to appear totally confident, .but retain sufficient vulnerability to keep the sympathy of the audience for what can otherwise be seen as a scheming thief and liar who deserves all that he gets.. Billy works as a clerk in an undertakers He is engaged to three girlfriends, and has hopes of a career writing scripts for TV We meet him at the moment well all this is about to unravel. Alice Fisher - Billy's mother. She rarely sits down in the play, constantly working hard to keep the house tidy and look after her husband, her mother and Billy. Hers is the role of the traditional working class woman around whom her family live their lives whilst she manages all that is the foundation of those lives. She is not a drudge and having come up in the world through the success of her husband’s business she has standards which she expects to be maintained. She knew as a small girl that she would grow up, go to work get married have a family and run her home; and for her this has come to pass as inevitably as night follows day. She does what she does because that is her life nor does she question it. She lives with Geoffrey because he is her husband she cares for her mother because Florence is her mother and she entertains Billy’s respectable girlfriend and looks after Billy because she is his mother. The play will create tensions for Alice which the Actress must show but overcome because that is how women like Alice have always been. Geoffrey Fisher - Billy's father. Geoffrey uses the word "bloody" so often it has become a meaningless punctuation and must not be given as an expletive .A successful garage owner whose family live middle class lives despite his working class background Geoffrey has a brusque manner, and rarely shows emotion. The scene where he tries to understand his son should be play with an uncharacteristic hesitancy and will allow us to glimpse the human being who is in truth quite lost in the situation which by then is emerging. Later his normal practicality reasserts itself and he takes refuge in his own world of work to which his home life is largely a necessary adjunct. As to his relationship with Alice it is a comfortable one where the two of them are acting out the parts of husband and wife as they have always known them to be. Florence Boothroyd - Billy's grandmother, Alice's mother. She lives in her own world and talks to the sideboard more than her own family. She has a view of women Doctors which is even more disparaging than her view of “black” Doctors She delivers asides which must be carefully slotted in to the conversation of the other characters with a timing that is technically very difficult as their conversation must appear to carry on regardless, yet Florences ramblings must be heard as her comedy and the subsequent pathos which her role engenders is a vital component of the whole play. Not one word must be lost yet to achieve this and a convincing portrayal of a frail old lady whose contact with the world is slipping away represents a major challenge. (The big danger in playing a forgetful elderly person is becoming forgetful in fact) Arthur Crabtree - Billy's best friend and co-worker. When we first see him they both adopt thick northern accents and engage in a stylised version of “Trouble at t’mill”. Then Arthur gives us more insight into Billy and shows a practical down to earth portrayal of an honest young man with just as much interest in the opposite sex and has the chance to highlight his own performance by contrasting sharply with Billy in spite of all that they do have in common. He knows each of the three girls and appears to have a strengthening relationship with one Barbara - Billy's fiancee . Barbara is prudish, always eating oranges and harbours dreams of living with Billy in a cottage in Devon, with "little Billy and little Barbara". There is no doubt that Billy has got engaged to her in order to explore her physicality and there is also no doubt that from her point of view her passion is her oranges. And an engagement ring is merely a precursor of marriage which then in proper circumstances might lead to “feelings” which may not even be hinted at before the event. She gives us an insight into the mind and attitudes of a “good” girl and the actress must play this with conviction as well as timing her orange cutting peeling and eating so as to allow her lines to be delivered promptly and naturally. Again a difficult challenge to ensure that this least colourful of the girls is still seen as real person and not as a flat cardboard cut out. Rita - Rita is 17and comes across as a "hard lass". She is engaged to Billy, and has a habit of mimicking Billy every time he offers an excuse for her missing engagement ring. There can be no doubt that for her, the ring is a prize to be held on to and not a token of promised nuptials. We must clearly understand that while this is her first engagement it may well be the first of many. Rita has to be very promiscuous as well as very worldly and the kisses between her and Billy must be passionate and from her most seductive. She will be clearly seen to be in control of this and every other scene she plays. Her relationship to Arthur should also promise more but we will know from her bearing that whatever may be on offer at Foley Bottoms it will be on Rita’s terms. Seductive but not tarty, working class but with her own sense of self worth which makes her a much stronger character than either of the young lads. Liz - A scruffy girl who wears her favourite black skirt even though it has seen better days, and it is this ease with herself, her quiet confidence, that makes her individual mark in the third act. She is the one who truly understands Billy, and the only one he really has a genuine interest in. Billy may pretend he doesn't, but Liz quickly and quietly establishes herself as “the love of his life”. She encourages and supports him and clearly shows that she needs no token of his affections but wants only the love itself. When she leaves Billy is transformed from an aimless dreamer to a purposeful man of action. Or is he? Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
"I should just like to say a huge thank-you to everyone concerned with 7 B 4 7B. I am delighted the show was a success and it is no more than the hardworking cast and crew deserved. I mentioned my delight about all the performances at the after show party but I was very remiss in excluding the Brothers so I would like to make amends now. Thank you boys, you were brilliant. You all created such individual characters out of your roles and most important, the audience loved you! I think we should all be proud of what we achieved, from creating the atmosphere in the Front of House as people arrived to the play out music at the end of the evening. It shows what team work can do and oh what a great team! Thank you also for the presents Mike and I received. The montage of photos will be a lasting memory of a happy production and the jug will always remind me of the line ‘sleeping with sheep’! Good luck to Matt and co with Hamlet and Allan with Billy Liar. See you all at the Watstock evening I hope!" - Penny Cast Reunion
EDP Review Enthusiastic performance of an evergreen musical AGM  This year's AGM will be on the 6th August. We have a few committee members who will be standing down, so if you are interested in joining the committee, or would like to come along and discuss something, then I hope to see you there! Cheese and wine will be provided, so you won't be left hungry! Everyone is welcome, and I hope to see a great turnout!
West Norfolk Amatuer Dramatics Joint Party
 Plans are on the way to organise a large annual dinner and ball as a celebration of amateur dramatics in West Norfolk. A number of local societies including Watlington Players, King's Lynn Players, KLODS, King's Lynn G&S Society are already involved in the planning and other local societies will also be invited. The venue will be Lesziate Park Country Club and the evening will include a live band. The date is yet to be decided but it is likely to be early December. Cost of tickets will be kept below £30 per head. In order to gage the feasibility we would like to know how many of our members would be interested in attending such an event. Interested parties please contact Steve Brooks on 07786568731 or email him at stevenez@hotmail.co.uk.
Forthcoming Shows Hamlet directed by Matthew Austin - Friday September 10th - Sunday September 12th 2010. (Click the link to be taken to a stunning Hamlet website!)  Billy Liar directed by Alan Lord - 27th - 30th October 2010. Cinderella directed by Kate Ayres - Panto 2011. Disney's Beauty and the Beast - Musical 2011. Member's Corner If you have anything you would like to add to the member's corner, an article, review or anything at all, please email me at matt.kerslake@googlemail.com. Superstition in the Theatre 3 by Ginny Robson-Hull Peacock feathers, lemons and ghosts. Welcome to the final article in which I will take a whirlwind tour of some more superstitions of the theatrical world. If you happen to see the 'Ghost of Drury lane' before an appearance, it could herald a long and illustrious stage career. This ghost can be identified wearing a long grey coat, a tricorne hat, powdered wig and carrying a sword. He haunts theatre-land in London and is said to be be the apparition of a murdered man found in a walled up backroom of The Globe, he had a dagger stuck in his chest. Did you know, Monday nights were considered 'Ghost night' in the theatre where ghosts came out to appaear in their own plays, this is apparantly why many theatres do not play on Mondays, and why a 'ghost light' was always left burning on stage between performances, to scare them away and stop their interfering. Nowadays, a 'ghost light' provides a minimal light to ensure safety. If the show isn't going well, maybe it's because of the colour of the costumes? Green is traditionally never used as it's highly unlucky, as are yellow and blue, although blue bad luck may be negated by using silver. The reason for blue's unpopularity lies in the cost of the dye before synthetic ones were producd. So the theory goes that if blue material was being used the company was going over budget, but with the addition of silver it was a clear sign they had a wealthy patron. Yellow and green refer back to Elizabethan times and the superstition that green was the colour favoured by fairies ( who might jinx the play), while yellow was associated with the Devil In Medieval morality plays the devil always wore a yellow costume.. (Does this explain Norwich City's mixed fortunes?) In reality, both yellow and green used to be difficult colours to light effectively and could render the actor almost invisible. And in an outdoor production a green costume would certainly camouflage the actor. Lemons? Well, any food or drink containing lemon or milk were avoided before a performance as both substances inhibit saliva production and could weaken the voice, but before the scientific reason was understood...they were unlucky. Peacock feathers are not only considered a bad omen for the theatre, but are quite a common superstition.The 'eye' is once again associated with the Devil. They should not be used to dress a set nor in a fabric design. And while we are at it, I should just mention, never use a real bible on set, or mirrors. Never use real flowers, always send a boquet at the end of a performance, never in advance. Don't knit in the wings nor should you speak the last line of a play until opening night, and oh yes, never rehearse on a Sunday! On the other hand, should you have a cat residing in your theatre than that's extremely lucky.........................unless it walks across the stage ! I hope you have enjoyed these diversions . It's interesting to see which ones hang on today and which ones have died off. Some originated through practical reasons whilst others are relics of long held beliefs. |
