A Love Story.

ONCE UPON A TIME...

...there was a blog called King Lear & Other Stories: this is one of the other stories.

TWICE UPON A TIME...

...there was a girl. And a boy. Or a man and a woman, depending upon how grown-up you want to be. 

And there was a theatre company. That year they were producing a play by William Shakespeare called 'Much Ado About Nothing'. As it turned out, the title could not have been more wrong - it was about everything.

The Girl (let's call her Lesley) came to auditions, looking to become involved in theatricals, and she became part of the Watch in Much Ado.

 Here she is, second from right, in the hand-crafted costume that so obviously attracted the interest of The Boy in question...we'll get to him in minute or two... and costume and quirky style became The Girl's trademark in the next couple of productions.

The Boy (let us, for the sake of ease, call him Phil) had been in the previous year's production of The Tempest, and had given such a storming performance as The Captain (pun not intended, but we'll let it stand!) that he returned the following year to play Benedick in Much Ado. 

Here he is below in a very fetching mask...and the Boy and the Girl fell to talking.

It seems that fate, kismet, karma...you choose...had a hand in their  meeting. As did strange costuming and blood.

The following year, Lesley and Phil (now very much a couple) returned to the castle and took on ever more challenging roles.

Lesley, sticking with tradition, donned rags and bad teeth to play one of the Wyrd Sisters that Macbeth meets on the Heath.

And Phil, breaking with tradition, donned skirt, sword and a gallon or two of blood, to play Macbeth's doomed best-buddy, Banquo.

The Scottish Play worked its weird magic - although I get the feeling that what happened would have happened anyway! - and on the Friday night, Phil, with the help of a few friends, mainly Macbeth, and the knowledge of all, except Lesley, took the young lady to a secluded spot and there, to the dulcet tones of Macbeth singing, proposed a proposition that she could not, in all conscience, refuse.

He asked her to be his wife.

And she accepted.

The following year, they returned to play in As You Like It. There was a (largely unspoken) hope that, as the characters they were playing eventually get married (along with three other couples!), that they might do the deed for real. But they had other plans.

In 2012, they once again played characters that eventually fall in love and marry...didn't happen on stage then, either!

BUT...

...on 27th May, 2013, in Assos, on the Greek island of Kephalonia, Lesley and Phil, The Girl and The Boy, who had first met all those years before, finally got married!

And on July 27th, 2013, in Stoke Fleming, just beyond Dartmouth, they did it all again!!

It's a story that deserves sharing.

And from everybody in the company to our two lovely friends, may you have a long and happy life together...and what you doing in 2014? There are parts...

THRICE UPON A TIME...

Lesley and her Sisters

In Greece?!!?

And finally, this is from Twelfth Night, when Phil played Orsino and Lesley was Viola. Probably not the hardest bit of acting either of them ever had to do...

And the moral of all this  is:

Theatre - more fun and much more effective than speed dating!!

Good luck and love to them both.

The Corpse Tried...And Other Mishaps!

It's not the first time, and it certainly won't be the last, that things go unintentionally wrong or something, anything, gives someone a case of the giggles. And when they happen together...you can forget doing anything for a while. I would have loved to be able to get some video of some of ridiculous things have gone on...but fortunately, Keith was on hand to catch some of the oddities from last Tuesday's set-to.

No, no! It's fine...

What? And you never make mistakes..?

  

Staple gun might help... 

Just act as if nothing's wrong...

...ignore adverse reactions....

...keep calm and carry on!

Wait until she says 'Put his legs in.'

Which part of 'wait' do you lot not understand?

You talkin' to me?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm talkin' to you...

Thought so. Flattery gets you everywhere...

And whilst the mayhem continues on stage, the other members of the cast are busy getting into the right frame of mind or quickly catching up on their lines before their next scene.

Studious...

...studious...

...intently studious...

...pensively studious...

...relaxed, but still concentrating...and...

...smug!

Rehearsing is a huge amount of fun but can be, quite frankly, frustrating: particularly when you think you've got a certain scene down pat and you step out there, open your mouth and...nothing! And I speak from boringly monotonous experience! Yet when it's going well, and you feel the character completely (and sometimes s/he takes over utterly and you find yourself wondering 'where did that come from?!'), it's almost as rewarding as hearing the laughter or applause from an audience...almost. 

Keith caught some beautiful character shots in this session and few of the cast relaxing between their scenes. I think they've caught so many different moods incredibly well...see what you think.

But when all's said and done, it's the connections and friendships that are made off stage, in the quieter moments, that enhance, inform and, eventually, make the performances that we see on stage. It's all one, great big pot into which we pour all these elements, give it a good shake and a stir, and see what we come up with. I'ts alchemy. It's magic. It's hard work. But, above all - and this is what really counts - it's fun!

As I write this, we have two full rehearsals left to go, a tech rehearsal, a dress rehearsal and then, that's it! We're off! 

I've got a feeling that there mightn't be much appearing here over the next week or so...but if I can I will.

Two Weeks and Counting

And everyone seems to be remarkably relaxed about the whole thing!

With good cause. We're a fortnight away from the get-in, and just over that until we hit the Dress stage, and I am really, really excited by the prospect of bringing it all together.

We're in the process of doing first-half/second-half runs on a week-by-week basis and the whole cast are settled, generally speaking, into their roles; feeling increasingly comfortable with the characters they have created (and there are some real crackers...);

 and are now getting firmly to grips with the physical aspect of everything. 

A very good point was made, during rehearsals last Tuesday, as to the vocal side of the bits of business that need to go on during a performance. We get the physicality that is required - the touching, the hitting, the hugging and so on - but we rarely seem to do vocal. I suppose it's difficult to pitch correctly, for fear of 

drowning what else is happening on stage, but that, too, is a vital part of creating the entire picture. (Remember? Theatre was the original moving picture show!) But, that being said, we're getting there. Now all we need to do is remember which bits go where...and when...then we got it cracked!

In the pictures below, there are some shots of other actors reacting to what is going on around them. And 

although the audience maybe focused on what the 'main' action is, rest assured, they would be the first to notice if there was something not going on. Funny isn't it? You're sub-consciously aware of what's going on, yet immediately aware if something isn't happening correctly. Audience's are like that.
I think that if we, as actors, think of the people on stage as real, and treat what they got through as such, then the audience are only too willing to accept what we're doing and go along with us on the journey. And all the background hoo-hah and blather is an integral part of that illusion.

 They may be 'only' bowing as Lear arrives at court...but can you imagine them just standing around, waiting speak their next line? And,as it happens, in this particular scene, there are several characters who actually have no lines to speak but who must react to the stupidity (or wisdom, depending on their viewpoint!) of Lear's actions over the following ten minutes or so!

A nearly perfect study in group reaction to a what is happening around them.

And couple of shots of actors not directly involved in a scene, per se, but adding tension and believebility to it by their very stillness and expressions.

A couple of 'physicality personified' shots.

I can truly and honestly say that I have more fun at the castle, rehearsing with these guys, than...well, I really enjoy myself! I hope that, despite it being a complicated production, in respect of the 2nd half in particular, with it's movement sequences, effects and music...which reminds me: get music player that actually works!! Lesson learned. Don't scrimp on hardware...never pays...I hope that everyone's enjoying the experience of working on a darker, more dramatic tale.

We do have laughs though...

I think Ernie might have been attempting a version of 'Smoke Get's In Your Eyes'...but we decided to cut that scene. Pity really, cos the other's seemed to quite enjoy his rendition!

Three shots of four of the actors who have some of the most difficult roles to get to grips with; those of Lear, The Fool, Edmund and Edgar. And who can blame him for having a prop malfunction?
Keith has, yet again, managed to snag a hatful of excellent pictures that, as far as I'm concerned, have captured the atmosphere of one of our rehearsals perfectly.

And if sometimes they go on later than intended...there are compensations.

And In Other News...

We (and by 'we' I mean Janie!) have managed to solve a potential problem by using the telephone and asking! Simple really...wish I could say that I hadn't thought of it. But I had...and chickened out!

We (and by 'we' I mean 'I'!) have been wrestling with the construction and formulation of the Hovel and the 'shadow tunnel' used by the Bedlam Beggars. Mainly the construction. I knew exactly how I wanted them to look and how I needed them to function...however, the OAI was completely out-stripping the ability to get them built.

Enter Chris. Yep. Him. Not quite walking-on-water but, for me, he might as well have been.

He looked. He measured. He walked about a bit.

'Yeah...we'll do that.'

Welcome back Mr Brock...and thank you. You may never know how much that means to me!!

Note to self: go the Wine Merchants and explore.

We're Spreading Our Wings!

Some of you may know, other's may not, but Dartmouth Shakespeare Week is now heading out into the big, wide world...well, the rest of Dartmouth at least!

Without going over old ground too deeply - how's that for mixing ya metaphors? - last year was our tenth anniversary and, because of prevailing circumstances, we weren't able to do what we wanted to do by way of celebration. We managed the play at the castle, thanks to the help of some very generous donations from various people, but, unfortunately, that was that.

This year, however, is a completely different story. We're going to have all sorts of other things happening in town...and the first of those events will be in the Old Market Square on Thursday 8th August.

The Town Council have very generously waived any fees and we will be there from about 10.30 am and, believe you me, there will be some fun to be had.

Music, with our lovely friends from Mock Hobbyhorse and also some Elizabethan children's games. Interspersed with that will be some of the actors in this year's production - and the director'll be sticking his oar in as well - reading some of Shakespeare's best-loved sonnets. Lynne has persuaded some of the youngsters from her school to come over the water and perform something...it's still in the production stage, so it will be a nice surprise...and, to cap it all, there will be jugglers, fire-eaters, stilt-walkers and general circus-ness care of a group of young performers from a circus school in Plymouth! All very much in the style of Elizabethan England. Promises to be a whole lot of fun.

Then, on top of all that, on Saturday 10th August in Royal Avenue Gardens, also from about 10.30am, the good yeomen and wives of Dartmouth will be granted the opportunity to be in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the First.

Her Majesty will process from The Royal Castle Hotel and find her place in the bandstand in the Gardens, where she will hold court. The members of the 

Renaissance Historical Dance Society 

will entertain Her Majesty with demonstrations of courtly dancing, at various points during the day, whilst also giving the citizens of Dartmouth a chance to ask questions and explore life in Elizabethan England.

There will be entertainment from the 

Harberton Navy Morris Dancers and also there to entertain Her Majesty will be Elfic the Jester.

Everyone will have the chance to dance and make merry...might even read a sonnet or two as well. And the games will be there for the kids along with Lynne and some of her young people.

Our lovely Lucy managed to snag the RHDS for us...and along with everything else, this year's Dartmouth Shakespeare Week promises to be a whole lot more widespread than ever it has been before. And we hope to make this a regular feature from here on in.

This is what we have always hoped DSW would become. It's taken slightly longer than envisaged, but we're finally getting there. So, if you're fee and you fancy getting all togged up in Elizabethan gear and walking amongst the throng, please get in touch...we'd love to see you.

I'm kinda hoping that a couple of the actors from King Lear might feel able to pop over and chat to the multitudes, tell 'em all about us and DSW and what we do and how we do it. 

I know it's a big ask, considering you're up at the castle later, playing yer little socks off, but it would be lovely to see you there!!

My huge thanks to everyone who has helped organise this extravaganza...not least all the performers.

We hope to be able to use this opportunity to raise a little cash for the charities and good causes that we always support at the end of every Dartmouth Shakespeare Week...who knows? We could be the new Fringe.

Gives you a warm glow, doesn't it?