Here we go again, good old Sky Arts 1. Not Theatre Live this time, but Theatreland, starts Sky 1, Thursday 30th July at 8.00pm for half an hour.

Part 1 goes behind the scenes at Waiting for Godot at The Haymarket, inc a peek at rehearsals. It looks like a series on the whole of theatre and the problems and realities of running a place, such as The Haymarket. The Radio Times refers to this as 'another straightforward documentary series'.
For anyone interested in all aspects of theatre, or those just getting into it, this could be either an eye-opener, a taste of reality, or confirmation that behind all the glamour and the plush seats (!) it's bloody hard work with, hopefully, a great audience response at the end and the feeling you're knackered but satisfied.

So, Sky Arts campaign to get mnore bums on seats in Theatre forges ahead with another assault on the great British public. Good-oh!

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Comment by Stephen Alan Whitehead on August 12, 2009 at 10:22
This will be the last blog posted for the Theatre Live series on Sky Arts 1, as the experiment of six live plays, ended tonight with a tour de force. A two-hander, written by Michael Dobbs, entitled Turning Point and dealing with an intriguing historical situation; a meeting in October 1938 between Winston Churchill and Guy Burgess, at that time a producer for the BBC and their Week in Westminster series.
It is always hard for an actor to really get into the skin of such a historical character as Churchill, but Matthew Marsh achieved this, making him flesh and blood with all the foibles and problems the man carried with him, with his infamous 'black dog' moods. Benedict Cumberbatch had the unenviable task of bringing Guy Burgess to life. There are very few, if any recordings of Guy Burgess in existence so it was the essence of the man that came through. Dishevelled enough to look like a reporter, complete with grease patches on the knees from his open tourer car. (Nice touch and attention to detail). The composite set, of Churchill's study, and the garden (Churchill is discovered brick-laying, (real bricks, real mortar, with actual grass on the studio floor)was impressive enough to be convincing. Live music, The Lark Ascending' was provided by two live musicians playing piano and violin. And the whole event was a superbly scripted crown to the entire series.
A pre-performance interview with casting director Joyce Nettles, revealed how many agents and actors are now in touch with the producers of the series, getting their legs under the table should Sky Atrs have the wisdom to do this again next year; or even sooner.
The reception of Theatre Live by public, critics and the acting community has made this series a qualified success.
The old Play for Today series on BBC1 almost always went out 'live'. Too many drams these days rely on the editing suite and take after take to produce a varnished, almost risk free programme for the public. As Sandi Toksvig, whose brainchild this was, said tonight. "Everyone expected corpsing and scenery collapsing' they didn't happen. Instead it has taken the first step in revitalising television drama. Each play lasted 30 minutes. Isn't it amazing the effect thirty minutes can have on you.
By the way, all playwrights look to your backs: novelists are discovering the joy of language and live theatre!!!
Comment by Stephen Alan Whitehead on August 5, 2009 at 10:13
Theatre Live on Sky Arts 1 strikes again! This time Sandi Toksvig was in the enviable position of pacing backstage, whilst four seasoned actresses did immense credit to her play. This time a comedy! Four women, different backgrounds, diffferent social strata and getting together to plan a charity lunch for a charity no-one's ever heard of. One has to congratuale Joanna Monro for her controlled hysteria; Caroling Blaksiton for coping manfully with an eye-patch and an atitiude of 'sod the peasants'; Sylvestra le Touzel for being a supreme TV newsreader who's been given the midnight slot and has to cope with an egg shampoo; complete with shell; and Dona Croll for epitomising an MP who's been caught out doing nasty things with expenses.
Special mention to Simon, the sound effects man who worked overtime.
In the interview following, the executive producer talked about the 'raw edginess of live television drama' and about it not being as totally polished as so-called TV drama tends to be. In some quarters, her statement that BBC television drama does not mean an extra episode of Eastenders may seem sacrilege. But thank God for live theatre. The overall reaction to this project, that ends next week with a play by Michael Dobbs, has been almost overwhelmingly in favour. It is brave, edgy, nerve shredding, but makes those taking part relish the feeling that only comes with live theatre.
The play next week? A two-hander, based on historical fact, about a meeting between Winston Churchill and Guy Burgess just before the outbreak of war, and after the Berlin agreement; the so-called "peace in our time".

There will be an empty space after this series ends next week. But then, as Peter Brook says, an empty space is just waiting to be filled and acted on.
More, please, Sky Arts 1.
Comment by Stephen Alan Whitehead on July 29, 2009 at 2:19
Apologies to Andrew Upton, the adaptor of Hedda Gabbler for confusing him with the designer.
Comment by Stephen Alan Whitehead on July 28, 2009 at 2:58
Taking the last comment a stage further, if you'll pardon the expression, 'In the Company of Actors' charted the progression from Sydney to New York of this new production of a new translation of Hendrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabbler by Anthony Weigh and directed by Robyn Nevin. They had already staged this in Sydney when they were invited to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, one of the foremost stagers of foreign productions in New York. This involved revisiting and re-rehearsing the text and also redesigning the set.
A word about the set. It has a round forestage. At the back is a cyc painted with forestry and sky; upstage are windows, tall, elegant and curtained. They allow light in. This sounds obvious, but the journey of the light through the play follows the changes in the times of day and the effect can turn a light and airy room (God knows the windows are high enough and the furniture leaves as much room as possible to move without that sometimes frequent fear of tripping over the furniture rearing its ugly head) into one that is redolent with claustrophobia. It is costumed for the Edwardian era. The difference in the size of stages, BAM is larger than that in Sydney, though the theatre seats about the same (850) and then orginal set would have looked lost in that space. The set was heightened and extra windows were added to create more width, so the impression that at times the audience is watching life in a bird cage is also heightened. The audience is watching a marriage, doomed to failiure from the start, gradually and irrevocably breaking down. The only way that the bird trapped in the marriage that would never work could possibly escape, is that same way that Hedda takes.
Robyn Nevin, in a voice over interview, summarises an audience in this way: 'a group of people that arrive as individuals and leave as an audience.'

It is that collective process, the surrender of any number of people, whether it's a few dozen on the Fringe, or over a thousand in the RNT and Stratford, to the whims and persuasions of the actors on stage. It is they who control the audience, not the other way around.
The audience may have criticisms, they may like, or dislike; the critics might praise it to the skies, or kick it into the gutter; but the actors are the ones in overall control.
Cate Blanchett comments on seeing an audience sitting with their arms folded; a sign of defence, keeping out the actors, or at least at arms lenght, almost unwilling to surrender control to the actors.
Isn't it the actors duty to make those arms uncross? They won't uncross as a result of apathy and indifference. When an audience willingly allows itself to surrender to the emotions generated on stage then it becomes as much a part of the evening, and the process of the performance, as the actors on stage. How many actually forget that in every sense of the word, no matter how often you 'go on' in a play and say the same lines, over and over again, that for one person, maybe more, certainly not less, that evening's production is a first night. It's a first night for them.
Cate Blanchett, again in a v'over commented that the play did not come alive for her until she saw it off the page and onto the stage. I wonder, how many directors have actually sat down, read a play and discounted it because they couldn't visualise it? Years ago, I was given one piece of advice by someone with more experience in theatre than I, especially as a director. "One day you'll read a play and see the characters moving about in your imagination. You may not see faces, but you'll see characters shapes and perhaps even a set and costumes and when that happens, that's the one to direct. And she was right. I later went on to adapt and direct Merchant of Venice for a club night.
But playing with an audience is one thing; knowing you have them is another.
Some years ago I was assistant dir, on 'Night Must Fall' back in Neath. The director's wife was ill during part of the rehearsal process so I had to take over for a few rehearsals. One of them was an all day Saturday for Mrs Brampson and Danny, the most important relationship in that play, and one that has to be believable. Came the moment when the old lady (Mrs B) is on stage alone in the cottage. She's in a wheelchair; has been all the way through. A box of chocolates are on a table across the room; she gets out of the chair and walks to get one. Reaction of 'ooohs' from the audience. Have we got them? Maybe. Then there is silence; eerie, strange. No one coughs! There are curtains covering an alcove u/s/ctr, they are closed. The front door is off u/s/lft. She panics, she's alone in the house. Silence. The audience is breathing in and holding it. She starts to pray, muttering in her chair, suddenly Danny enters by parting the curtains quickly and sharply in the middle. Gasps and nervous laughter, hands going to hearts in the audience. Yes, they were with us. We had them. But everyone knows the old lady dies! But how? We telegraphed this so many times in the play, a cushion being adjusted behind her in the chair, that when it happened, that Danny held the cushion over her face and smothered her, it was done before the audience knew it. Realisation came with another set of muttering and 'ooohs'. We controlled the audience, played with them; made them part of the evening. We played to full houses, even with an old barnstormer like Night Must Fall. But we had them: every night!
And every night was a first night audience; a first night for them. One thing's for sure; that attitude keeps you on your toes!
Comment by Stephen Alan Whitehead on July 25, 2009 at 21:20
On a diversionary note, and also on Sky Arts 1, on Sunday night, 26th July at 10.00pm (or 22.00 if we're being anal), 'In the Company of Actors' focuses on the rehearsal process by visiting the Sydney Theatre Company, Austrlalia (natch), and the rehearsal rooms of Hedda Gabler starring Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving. It's five weeks to first night...

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