The Compton Players' NEWSLETTER MAY 2002

Contents

Editorial - 'Allo again
What happened to the Compton Players emailer?
Ticket Prices
Well connected
'Allo 'Allo special
 Director's postscript
 The review, Dave's cartoon and the pictures
 Some thoughts on the production
Members' news
Further thoughts on Learning Lines
Play readings
CP Calendar
Next newsletter

'Allo again

Inevitably, a large part of this edition is taken up with our recent successful production of 'Allo 'Allo. Ian gives his director's postscript on the play, there's the review from the Newbury Weekly News, Dave's cartoon, and some thoughts from me. 

Rob has provided the sequel to his article about learning lines in the last newsletter, and also a piece about ticket prices - a source of lively debate at last year's AGM.

Well, surprise, surprise, there were no entries for the Stanislavski prize in March's newsletter, so I have drunk the bubbly myself again. The joke's wearing thin now, but the serious point behind it is that this is your newsletter, not my ego-trip, and it will only flourish with contributions from you. You don't need to be a Pinter to contribute; there's a long gap before the next one, so get your pencils sharpened. Or else I shall have to send Tracey out with her whip to encourage you.

What happened to the Compton Players emailer?

Er, I didn't quite get round to doing anything about it, but I hope I'll have some more time now. When I do, I'll be getting in touch with everyone we've got email addresses for.

'As every working actor knows, the only way to learn is by doing it, rehearsing and performing the play, not talking about it endlessly, improvising or pretending to be a bloody snowdrop.'

Tom Conti quoted on The Rep College site, the drama school of which he is a patron.

'We are born at the rise of the curtain and we die with its fall, and every night in the presence of our patrons we write our new creation, and every night it is blotted out forever; and of what use is it to say to audience or to critic, "Ah, but you should have seen me last Tuesday?"

Michael Macliammoir.

Ticket prices

It's possible that this subject may come up at the AGM - it often does [You can say that again - Ed]. If a proposal is put forward that we should raise them then I think we should consider how they are to be raised.

Our present structure of ticket prices is extremely simple: £4 for adults and half-price, £2 for children and old-age pensioners. I have to say that some of the pensioners I know laughed incredulously when they heard that they only had to pay £2 since most of them could pay far more without any difficulty.

I imagine that this structure of ticket prices that we have goes back to an earlier age; I know it's existed since at least the mid-1970s when I first joined the Compton Players. In the decades before that many pensioners, if not most, relied on three state pension and if they had an occupational pension it was at a fixed rate which did not increase over the years as many index-linked pensions now do. Consequently, many pensioners were very hard-up and so generous concessions were given on ticket prices such as those which we give.

Many of today's pensioners are a different breed and, yes, I know that there are still some who are very hard up but I wonder how many of them we have in our audiences. Many of today's pensioners retired on an index-linked occupational pension, some of them also left work with generous final payments as well and they are not poor. Foreign holidays and decent cars are the norm for many of them and they enjoy a fairly comfortable lifestyle with all mod-cons.

I am not suggesting that pensioners pay the full adult price, although many of them could afford to do so, but I think that most of them could easily afford more than half-price. I suggest a price somewhere between full price and half price.

Another change which has taken place is the financial position of students in full-time further education. Until the 1970s most of them received grants from their local education authorities. As we know these arrangements have long since gone. Students now have to take up student loans or be supported by their parents. Our ticket structure doesn't reflect this changed state of affairs and students are charged the full adult price. I believe that they should pay either the child's price or the same as OAPs.

Similarly with those who are unemployed although I don't know how much of a problem this is in our audience catchment area. I think those who are out of work should pay either the children's rate or the OAP/adult student rate.

These are merely suggestions as to how our ticket-pricing structure might be altered to reflect changed conditions should the matter arise at the AGM.

R.B.

Well connected

The broadband revolution reached Chateau Shave recently, with the installation of an ADSL line. The hardware installation was quite quick, but it was followed by two and a half hours on the phone to BT to get it working, most of it spent listening to gloomy music interspersed with the depressing mantra: "Your call is moving up the queue". Marginally better than "Your call is important to us". One consequence of this change is that the Newbury Theatre web site, home to our Compton Players pages, has moved from Freeserve to BTopenworld. If you come in the normal way, via www.newburytheatre.co.uk, you shouldn't notice any difference, but if you had the CP page bookmarked, you'll need to change your bookmark [but you know that already or you wouldn't be here - Ed].

'Allo 'Allo special

Director's postscript

It was once said of a friend of mine who had achieved a certain success that "He got there because no-one had told him that it couldn't be done".

I always believed that it could be done, or more precisely that I didn't see why we should reject a good play simply because we couldn't cast it. If 'The French Play' proved one thing, it was that we should always capitalise on interested visitors, even if it means railroading them ever so slightly into filling vacant gaps in the cast list! No less than six in this instance, and it would have been impossible without them! At one stage, I likened 'Allo 'Allo to a pantomime (Oh, sorry, I've said the 'p' word!), but Paul said it was more of a farce. It certainly looked like a lot of both at certain stages, but it seemed that management by procrastination eventually paid off, even though I don't recommend this as a theatrical norm.

Seriously, I have to thank my fellow Committee members for the unerring support throughout this saga, which varied from "No, leave that bit to me" to "Don't even think about doing that!" - closely followed by the tremendous hard work put in by all the members of the cast, in some cases under difficult health, social and family conditions. It would take too long to thank everyone by name, but I'm going to anyway. Firstly, the pleasant peasants Jade and Natalie, who spent most of the play being thrown out; Becky for being so loyal at almost every rehearsal, even though there wasn't much for her to do, and for chatting on the front porch holding hands with H; and H of course for stepping into the breach and saying absolutely nothing, except for the sink plunger which said quite a bit. To Tim for turning a soldier into a chauffeur and looking after backstage when the real SM was on set; to the boys in the dugout for the most resounding English in the play; to Peter for a splendid cameo all of his own; to Stuart for a very scary Nazi with at least two wooden legs; to Michael for keeping his eyes averted and his ventilators firmly shut; to Ben up in the box for London Calling right on cue and Simon for keeping us all out of the dark; to Paul and Tracey for a double-act to rival Morecambe and Wise; to Mark and Louise for another, guaranteed to strike terror into the heart of any butcher; to Nick and Philip for yet another, although one wonders how an Oxfordshire Austrian and a Croatian Italian got into the Army in the first place; to Brenda and Jas for two unusual and definitely unservile serving wenches performing indescribable tasks well beyond the line of duty; to Sheila for the World's first and only Welsh impression of Edith (Piaf!), and finally to Rob for a René that combined Morse, Ollie Hardy, Granville and Dan Leno in the same persona! Not forgetting of course, Alec and Enid for the choreography, Mike for setting up the lighting, and Eric for his famous spongework and many boobies. It was great to have Mary back as well, in a job which at best required no contribution whatsoever other than wearing a red hat (and we all know what that means! [apparently something to do with knickers - Ed]), and grateful thanks also go to Norma, David and Peter for their sterling work in the tickets and posters department; Jane and Tony and their helpers for a very profitable bar, and Dave as ever for some superb graphics.

Ian

'The important thing in acting is to laugh and cry. If I have to cry, I think of my sex life. If I have to laugh, I think of my sex life.'

Glenda Jackson.

The review, Dave's cartoon and the pictures

This is from the Newbury Weekly News.

Here's the picture gallery for 'Allo 'Allo. And here's Dave's cartoon. Click on it for a bigger version.

Some thoughts on the production

A week before the first night, some of the more faint-hearted amongst us (me) thought that it wasn't going to be ready in time. I should have had more faith. In true theatrical tradition, it was "alright on the night" - as Trevor Dobson says in his review, we pulled it off.

To Ian's list of thanks above, I must add our thanks to Ian for attempting this difficult play as his maiden production. The rehearsals were not without their traumas, but if Ian was worried, it didn't show in his relaxed management style. And thanks to Stuart for the voice-coaching session he gave us; we all enjoyed it, and I hope he'll do some more of these with us in the future.

It was very encouraging that we have continued to introduce new members onstage and backstage, and I was delighted to have Mary and H back with us.

We're always very aware of the mistakes we make, although the audience rarely notice them. On one night I forgot to wear my hat for the café scene. Not a big problem, except that Helga has to say, "May I take your hat?" when I prepare for my tango. When we sat down at the table, I whispered to Tracey "I hev forgotten my het", and left it to her to sort it out. Which of course she did, without any problems. And on the Friday night, when I came to play "Falling in love again" on the violin, I started scraping and nothing happened - a glitch in the control room. I contemplated singing it, but fortunately the sound arrived belatedly before I got the chance. By now I was a bit un-nerved, and when it came to the second violin piece (The Stripper) I didn't give Ben the cue ("1, 2, 3, 4"), so again no music. I panicked and improvised: "Ze violin isn't working - I'll just snog you anyway" and grabbed a startled Tracey, hoping for a quick blackout (no such luck).

Paul

'An actor is totally vulnerable ... his total personality is exposed to critical judgment - his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego.'

Alec Guinness, New York Times 17.5.64.

Further thoughts on Learning Lines

One of the things which I didn't say on this subject last time was that some lines are easier to learn than others - something which was subsequently pointed out to me. It is quite true. Sometimes it is hard to see why this is so but I think that two of the most common reasons for some scripts being easier to learn is, firstly, if it's well written, and, secondly, if it has a rhythm. These two, I think, are connected. Good writing has a rhythm of its own, even if it's not immediately noticeable, and if the lines have something vital and important to say that, too, will help them to remain in your memory. Many years ago I was in a production of The Crucible. I had the part of the judge, Deputy Governor Danforth, a beautifully-written part in a powerful play and I found that some of the dialogue which I had learned remained in my memory for many years afterwards.

Earlier playwrights than Arthur Miller wrote in verse quite deliberately because it was the convention of their time to do so. Shakespeare, writing either side of 1600, has his characters speaking for most of the time in lines of ten syllables, each with the same clear rhythm. Learn any of this and you will find that despite being in the language of the late 16th century it is surprisingly easy to learn and remember. At least, I think so. I have never acted in Shakespeare apart from a walk-on part as second servant or such but I had to learn some passages as homework while at school and some of it is with me still, half a century later.

Shakespeare and his fellow playwrights were continuing in a more sophisticated form a tradition which had existed for many centuries previously in which stories were told in verse form. These early societies were largely illiterate and so stories and news were transmitted orally. And they were in verse, usually rhyming and with a strongly marked rhythm, because that is how the storytellers and balladeers could learn and remember them most easily. So, if you become aware of a rhythm in the writer's dialogue while learning the lines it all helps.

Incidentally, for those of you who are wondering what happened if the storyteller forgot his lines it is thought by many that the chief purpose of the chorus which many of these ancient songs and poems have at the end of each verse is to give the performer a breathing-space - literally - and to give him a moment to assemble his thoughts for the next verse.

Last time I didn't mention one of the most effective and commonly used techniques which is to have someone reading the preceding cue-lines to you and checking that you have got your lines right. This does have its drawbacks: my own ever-loving complains that it often takes any suspense out of the actual performance for her since she already knows how it's going to end. But there you are. More sensible, if you can arrange it, is to go over the lines with someone else in the cast.

Finally, I don't think I emphasised sufficiently last time that it's a question of finding the line-learning technique which best suits you. If you're new to this business try the different methods I've outlined until you settle on the one which suits you best.

And encouraging news to finish on: research has shown that if a person has to use his memory a great deal, such as London cabbies learning the London street plan ﷓ 'the Knowledge' ﷓ for their licence, the memory part of the brain actually expands to meet the increased demand on it. So, there you are, something to remember.

R. B.

On the same subject, Rob found this in the Guardian.

In 1754, actor-dramatist Samuel Foote composed the following lines to test the boast of actor Charles Macklin that he could read any paragraph through just once and then be able to recite it verbatim:

"So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie; and at the same time a great she-bear; coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. 'What! No soap?' So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber; and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the great Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top. and they all fell to playing the game of catch as catch can till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots."

It is reported that Macklin passed the test and was word perfect after a few moments study.

And a recent story in the Sunday Times reported that Julie Christie now turns down most Hollywood or West End roles she is offered because she can no longer remember her lines. Christie, who is 61, is suffering from a rare medical syndrome called autobiographic amnesia. The article finishes: "Studies show that the brain starts losing its ability to generate memories from as early as 24, and most people start losing the ability to store short-term memories after the age of 40. Bob Dylan has appealed to friends and fans to help him to compile his autobiography, confessing that he suffers from "black holes" dating back to the psychedelic 1960s."

Play readings

I shall arrange some play readings again this summer, starting on Thursday 27th June at 7:45 in the Scout Hut, and continuing weekly until we run out of plays or get fed up.

CP Calendar

Next newsletter

All offerings to me, by email to , or by post to Paul Shave, Windrush, The Ridge, Cold Ash, Thatcham, RG18 9HX, 01635 866800. By 11th August.

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