‘This wind we talk of blows as from ourselves’
EDITED BY MARK WAKEMAN
HTML coding by Robin Hall
Mark Wakeman, BenchPress Editor
Hello there and sorry it’s been so long since last you basked in the warm glow of your Bench Press. However my excuse was a good one as I have been rehearsing hard for Romeo and Juliet, our latest theatrical sensation which saw the directorial debut of the lovely Zoë Chapman and a number of exciting new performers for the Bench.
Hopefully those who came to see Romeo and Juliet enjoyed themselves as much as we did performing it. The cast all got on extremely well and I don’t think I will be alone in saying that I am very sad the whole thing has come to an end.
So Congratulations to Zoë and her cast and crew for giving that Shakespeare guy another crack. It must be nice for him to finally see someone take an interest in one of his plays.
But now we must talk of Christmas and other things, so read on and enjoy.
In case you were not aware the company has voted for its next productions, they will be Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Uncle Vanya, The Real Thing and Supernova 2. Two of the directors Damon Wakelin and Nicola Scadding would like to tell you a little bit more about their plays which are being put forward for our February and April slots.
And the rest.....?
The other shows that you have to look forward to next year is Tom Stoppards The Real Thing in July which will be directed by the lovely Robin Hall and which we will hear more about closer to the time and then in September we have SUPERNOVA 2. Hopefully most of you will remember the first Supernova event, for those who don’t remember it is where we allow all those budding writers in the Bench to perform their new works to an audience for the first time. Short one-act pieces normally which will allow us to utilize every member of the company who wants to be involved. Hopefully over the coming year we will get to look at the written pieces before the event itself, perhaps even getting some new would de directors to consider taking on the task of directing them for club nights, allowing us to select the best of scripts to perform before the eager audience in September.
PICASSO 9th and 12th December at Bedhampton Arts Centre at 8.30.
UNCLE VANYA Bedhampton Arts Centre at 7.30 on the 10th and 11th of December.
SHAKERS Havant Arts Centre on Tuesday 17th December from 7.30 to 9.00
| DATE | EVENT |
|---|---|
| Monday 9th December 8:30, Bedhampton Arts Centre |
AUDITIONS : Picasso |
| Tuesday 10th December 7:30, Bedhampton Arts Centre |
AUDITIONS : Uncle Vanya |
| Wednesday 11th December 7:30, Bedhampton Arts Centre |
AUDITIONS : Uncle Vanya |
| Thursday 12th December 8:30, Bedhampton Arts Centre |
AUDITIONS : Picasso |
| Tuesday 17th December 7:30, HAC |
AUDITIONS : Shakers |
| Thursday 19th December 7:30 for 8pm, HAC |
CLUB NIGHT: Christmas Celebration. Bring your poems/readings/songs. Please also bring £1 as we hope to have refreshments. |
| Thursday 9th January 7:30 for 8pm, HAC |
CLUB NIGHT: Games |
| Thursday 23rd January 7:30 for 8pm, HAC |
CLUB NIGHT |
| Thursday 6th February 7:30 for 8pm, HAC |
CLUB NIGHT |
| Thursday 20th February 7:30 for 8pm, HAC |
CLUB NIGHT |
| Tuesday 24th Feb - Saturday 2nd March 2003. Performances at 7:30. Special matinee performance on Saturday 2nd in aid of the Silver Fund. |
Picasso at the Lapan Agile, Steve Martin |
| 19th April - 3rd May | Uncle Vanya, Anton Chekhov |
| Saturday 17th May | 9 Days in May Launch Waterlooville town centre. |
| 13th July - 27th July | The Real Thing, Tom Stoppard |
Picasso is 9th and 12th December at Bedhampton Arts Centre at 8.30.
Uncle Vanya is Bedhampton Arts Centre at 7.30 on the 10th and 11th of December.
For Shakers this will be at Havant Arts Centre on Tuesday 17th December from 7.30 to 9.00 and I would like to hear from potential stage managers as well. See separate piece about this but if you have any questions / misgivings / ideas before ring me (Tim on 023 9248 4730).
For January, because the first Thursday in January is the day after New Year's Day, the club nights will be on the second and fourth Thursdays, i.e. 9th and 23rd (this one in the Studio)
This will be bigger, better, brighter than ever, with a big launching event on Saturday May 17th in Waterlooville precinct. We have been asked to provide some bodies to help with this, giving out flyers for our own Festival event (Shakers) but also for the Festival as a whole and there is no reason why The Bench as a company should not 'sell' itself and give out flyers for The Real Thing, and Supernova and the November show (if we know what that is going to be.) Could you make a note in diaries and I hope some people will be available. I don't yet know what form this will take, but we could make a sort of float (using that lovely hospital bed that is in the props room (AND WHICH WE HAVE NEVER USED) perhaps.
Likely Dates : 22/May Havant Arts Centre. 23/May Park Community School 24/May Crookhorn (to be confirmed) Sunday matinee 26/May Bedhampton Community Hall.
This is a different venture from our usual productions because it will be four nights in four different venues in four different parts of the Borough. We hope to appeal to audiences who don't know the Bench, who don't regularly go to the theatre. We will be in venues which we have never performed in before. We will have to arrive, set up, modify the show to accommodate the constraints of that venue (its lighting capacity, fire exits, dressing rooms, etc) do the show, pack up and move on. It is a style of performance which is ‘ensemble' acting at its best. It is going to be a huge amount of fun.
By comparison with the security of our familiar venue at the Arts Centre, this may sound quite precarious and daunting, but actually it is not entirely unknown ground. It is what Cloak & Dagger does all the time so I know that there is nothing we need to be afraid of. All we need now is a team to pull it all together. We need a cast (four young women) and I have in mind to cast it quite early and then have fairly light rehearsals to start with but intensive (perhaps three or four hours at weekends) nearer the end. However, that will be sorted in conjunction with the actors.
We also need a Stage-Manager cum Sound-and-Light-Designer cum Techie who can be available from say 4.00pm on the performance nights (of which there will probably be just three on weekdays and one or two at the weekend).
There is a lot of fun to be had with lighting and music, both being fundamental to the whole show, so we need to get this role sorted as well. You will be very involved from day one.
This is very much a team event which needs a minimum of six people from the outset all ready to dive in from the outset. The audition is on 17th December, but given that it is more important to get a cohesive team than 'ideal' individuals, it would be best to have everyone together from 7.30 to work together - and this means Stage Manager as well as actors.
It's going to be good!
Damon Wakelin, Director
"In the twentieth century, no political movement will be as glorious as the movement of the line across the paper, the note across the staff, or the idea across the mind."
The February production will be 'Picasso at the Lapin Agile' written by Steve Martin, (yes, the Steve Martin) and will be directed by Damon Wakelin, (yes, the Damon Wakelin) and produced by Nicola Scadding, (yes, the Nicola Scadding).
Steve Martin is most famous as the author and star of numerous Hollywood movies. His screenplay credits include 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid', 'LA Story' and 'Roxanne'. Picasso at the Lapin Agile was first performed by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Co. in 1993 to public and critical acclaim.
'Picasso at the Lapin Agile' is Martin's first full-length stage play and takes as its central premise an imagined meeting between Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein in a Parisian bar in 1904. Both men are in their twenties, both are on the verge of greatness and both are convinced that their unique talents will shape the twentieth century. What follows is an hilarious encounter covering art, science, genius, creativity, love and the twentieth century.
The play is an ensemble piece, with 7 men of various ages and 2 young women all of whom have lovely moments. The play runs at about 90 minutes straight through and promises to be great fun to be a part of.
The performance dates are February 25th - 1st March and there will be a matinee performance on the Saturday to raise money for the Havant Arts Centre Silver Fund .
Auditions will take place at Bedhampton Arts Centre on the following dates;
Monday 9th December at 8.30pm & Thursday 12th December at 8.30pm
For more information please call the director, Damon Wakelin, on 023 9236 6829 or 023 9247 3926 or by email on damon@cast-theatre.co.uk
Nicola Scadding, Director
24-26 April and 29 April – 3 May 2003
Thank you for voting in a play which Michael Frayn calls one of Chekhov’s “Four masterpieces that change forever the nature and possibilities of drama”.
Chekhov’s originality is in the way he exposes the emotional web that lies below the surface of ordinary, undramatic events. He said, “people dine, simply dine, and at that moment their happiness is decided or their lives shattered”.
He was enormously influential. Most major modern playwrights – such as Miller, Mamet, Beckett, Pinter, Friel, Frayn himself – owe him an enormous debt for inventing a dramatic form that gives them the freedom to experiment.
“Uncle Vanya” is an observation of ordinary people who are comically inept at managing their own lives. They don’t understand their emotions and impulses, they can’t relate to each other, they squander their opportunities, they dream, they talk but hardly ever do.
It deals with the impact of newcomers on a family living in a Russian backwater. Add to this intrusion heat and alcohol, enforced laziness, family quarrels, sexual proximity, awkward love affairs, bungled seductions, emotions and lives turned topsy turvy and we have all the ingredients for –well farce or tragedy?
Chekhov keeps a delicate balance between comedy and tragedy. The plays sly, ironical, sexy, funny, farcical And its serious, painful, compassionate, poignant, something more ambiguous than pure tragedy.
There are eight great parts for actors: Four for men (Ages 30s-60s) and four for women (Ages 20s & 60s). There are a couple of “nod-in” parts that might just suit someone working backstage who wants a taste of the limelight! All the roles are important, the beauty of playing Chekov is that he doesn’t build his plays around a solo performer, it really is an ensemble work.
Auditions are at Bedhampton Arts Centre at 7.30 on Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th December (And yes, Damon and I are collaborating in holding auditions all in the same week) They’ll be more about the play on the 5th December club night. I look forward to seeing you there. If you cant make these dates or if you would like more information then please ring me on 02392 325279. Thank you.
Robin Hall, Treasurer
Last month annual general meeting was held for "Havant Arts Centre Company", which runs the Havant Arts Centre, the Bedhampton Arts Centre, and the Gallery Cafe Bar.
The figures presented at that meeting show that the company lost money over their last financial year. This followed a loss in the preceding year. The financial year for the company runs from April to April so the numbers presented to us were already six months out of date. In fact the situation has continued to decline and the Arts Centre is now in danger of becoming insolvent.
Many of us have already met Amanda Eels, the new director of the Arts Centre, who joined the organisation in August. During her short time at the centre she has been extremely positive in her manner towards the Bench, supporting us with early dates for our production slots. Amanda is now responsible for carrying the company through a difficult period.
The circumstances she finds herself are not of her own making - the problems, whatever their cause, clearly existed before she joined the Arts Centre.
I have written this piece for the Bench Press because I think it is important that Bench members understand the situation, how it might affect us, and that anyone who wishes to is given the chance to help.
The situation has been serious for some time and is in danger of becoming critical. ·The arts centre has a turnover in the region of a quarter of a million pounds.
In the Financial Year ending in March 2002 the group made a loss of £7,790 which followed a loss of £2552 the year before. (Total loss of £10,342 over 2 years.)
The company no longer has any reserves and is so has had to borrow money to cover these losses.
At the close of accounts in April 2002 the company was operating at a loss.
The roots of the situation are probably complex but two major factors stand out:
The withdrawal of Southern Arts funding. In the year ending in 2001 Southern Arts withdrew approx. £25,000 of funding. That year the council more or less made up this loss, but in the year ending 2002 it reduced it's contribution, leaving the Arts Centre with a reduction in income of around £10,000.
Poor results from the Gallery Cafe Bar. Previously the trading company "Havant Arts Active Ltd" made a covenant to the Arts Centre group, including an amount drawn from profits from the bar. In recent years the cafe bar has not performed so well and this covenant has fallen from £5351 in 2000-2001 to zero in 2001-2002.
Amanda is confident that the Arts Centre business is viable in the long term. She has many ideas to help improve the situation in the longer term. She has the full support of the Arts Centre board. However there is a significant short-term cashflow problem of cashflow the organisation needs to reduce it's overdraft at the bank.
The first target is to take the company through the next six months to the end of the current financial year. If they can get to April 2003 without increasing the debt then the position will look more stable and they can start looking to the longer term.
If the Havant Arts Centre Company Ltd becomes insolvent it will have to stop trading. This would happen if they cannot continue to reach an agreement with their bank to manage their debts. The Arts Centre building would not disappear. I think that it is probable that the council would put in place new management to continue to run it as an arts centre. However :
The arts centre has been raising money for some time in a 25th Anniversary 'Silver Fund'. This money is now crucial to the survival of the centre as we know it. Amanda and her team at the Arts Centre are putting into place as many ideas as they can to reduce costs and increase their income, all with the aim of reaching April 2003 without any more debt than today. Over the last 12 months the centre has lost the equivalent of one full time member of staff, which has reduced staffing costs.
As individuals there are a number of things we can do to support the Arts Centre :
As a group we aim to participate as much as we can in fundraising events. The Bench has already been noticed for it's strong showing at events such as the decorating day and we hope that by supporting the fund raising effort we will not only help the centre to keep operating in it's current form but demonstrate our commitment to the Arts Centre.
We are hoping to have a good Bench representation at the '12-till-12' event in December. We need entertainment! - anything you can offer to perform would be very helpful. Zoe Chapman at the Arts Centre is co-ordinating volunteers for this. Please think about any sketches, scenes or acts, short plays or songs that you would like to perform. This event will take place in the bar (similar to comedy nights) and members of the public will be asked to offer donations and sponsor the participants.
Already we have arranged to give an extra performance of our February production, 'Picasso at the Lapin Agile' as a Saturday matinee and donate the takings to the Arts Centre fund.
We might consider doing similar special performances of other productions, particularly if we are not paying any rights or are able to get funding for the rights.
Any other ideas anyone has would be very welcome, please speak to me or to Tim, or to Amanda who is very approachable and friendly!
Finally, we will be making a collection of donations from the Bench to the silver fund. Some members in the Bench might want to make individual donations. We would like to collect these donations together and make one combined gift to the Arts Centre from Bench members. (Rather than make individual donations.)
I would like to emphasise that this is an entirely personal decision for all Bench members. I would not want anyone in the Bench to feel any obligation to support this collection. Rather I would like to offer a way for those who would like to contribute to do so through the Bench.
If you wish to make a donation through this collection please :
Robin
Remember !
January club nights are Thursday 9th and Thursday 24th
Usually club nights are the first and third Thursday of each month at Havant Arts Centre, 7:30 for 8pm start.
Backbench members are most welcome to come along.
And Finally …
A big thankyou to everyone who kindly offered their Front of House services for Romeo and Juliet, with such a big cast it was a challenge but thanks to Ruth, Tim, Alice, Gina, Peter C, Megan, Paul, and Neil K in particular for giving up an evening to 'sit out' and to everyone else who wore a badge to make sure that 'the show can go on'!
Please visit our online contact information page for up to date information.
Bench Theatre
Registered Charity No. 291935
Bench Theatre, PO Box 144, HAVANT, PO9 1XB