EDITED BY MARK WAKEMAN
HTML coding by Robin Hall
Well ladies and Gentlemen, another exciting AGM is over and the Bench Theatre plunges into its next exciting year of theatre. But it’s all change, we have a new Chairman, we have a new Committee and we have a new production underway!!!! There is also a chance to create a play from scratch, news about the next play selections, articles from your fellow members in the company and much much more.
All because I said I’d print naked pictures of me if I didn’t get lots of information for the new Bench Press. It was made clear at the AGM that the Bench Press was only viable if people send me articles to put in it and these articles had trickled down to zero! So I made my bold statement, I will be Naked next time unless you give me something else to print.
The articles have come flooding in. So read and enjoy. But remember, there’s always next time....
Mark Wakeman, Bench Press Editor
| DATE | EVENT | |
|---|---|---|
| 4th October Thursday |
Club Night – see later in this issue... | |
| 1st November Thursday |
Club Night – play selection | |
| 4th November Sunday |
Deadline for next Bench Press issue. | |
| 10th November Saturday |
Come and help us send out the Bench Press – 12pm, HAC. | |
| 22nd to 24th November and 27th – 1st December |
Caucasian Chalk Circle. Bring lots of friends! |
|
| 6th December Thursday | Club Night |
John Batstone stands down and Tim Taylor stands up! Here is the Chairman’s report, by John from the AGM and Tim Taylor’s first chance to speak to his new subjects.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If this time last year we had known what we know now we could have sharpened up our advertising and promotional process. But our rather piecemeal method of play selection doesn’t encourage much forward planning and we weren’t to know that all of our major productions for the year were to be about the theme of family, in some shape or form. This could have played well in brochures, press releases and ordinary chat over a pint.
In November, Racing Demon set the wider concerns of what is a Christian family in the contemporary church against the problems of one particular priest whose own family is at sixes and sevens. It is a strong play and in our careful production it showed that it can still hit as hard as it did when it first appeared in the early nineties. In February there was a double bill of recent Pinter; parents and children appeared in both and their relationship, especially in Moonlight, was intriguingly and obliquely observed. Audiences may have been perplexed but they turned up and were impressed with what they heard and saw. They turned up in force to the spring production of Arsenic and Old Lace; this good old barnstormer showed there is still an audience out there to witness the contortions of a family which contains a schizophrenic, a psychopathic killer and two serial poisoners. Plenty of energy and attack in this sprightly production - they loved it. The summer production, Memory of Water, was very rewarding for all of those involved and audiences again relished this sharp and poignant account of a dysfunctional family, at odds with their mother, each other and themselves. Recent loss focussed upon the coffin, the careful construction of which could put us in direct commercial competition with the firm across the road.
Three of these are all recent plays, which The Bench seem especially at home with. Perhaps before too long we can put Sarah Kane ’Blasted’ and Mark Ravenhill ’Mother Clap’s Molly House’ before the amazed gaze of Havant audiences.
In addition to all this the year got off to a positive start with Supernova which a lot of members put a great deal of creative energy into to showcase talents of the company. Let’s hope this isn’t going to be a one off. An evening of pre-Christmas offerings and a contribution of Shakespeare for the May festival showed a good appetite for getting involved outside the main productions. This latter was a direct product of a Club night and a feature of the year has been the amount of activity and variety that club nights have contained; they have been fun and encouraged participation and Ingrid, Sam and Zoe are to be especially thanked for their efforts there.
After a couple of years of some turbulence relations with the arts centre have been steady. There has been a welcome absence of irritations over trivial things and while we still haven’t a deal which may satisfy us into the long term, the work of our sub committee will continue to explore ways in which we may extend our operation without abandoning our home base from which we draw much of our strength and character.
Bench Press has appeared on a pretty much regular basis and Mark deserves our thanks for the almost single handed way he has kept the issues coming. (He’s right you know, cheques made payable to...ED)
As I come to the end of four years on the committee, the last two as Chair I should like to thank all those, especially committee members who have put in an enormous amount of time and commitment to Bench affairs. I have a nice cosy feeling that whenever I ask somebody to do something the answer invariably will be ’Sure’, ’No problem’, ’Don’t worry’. There is good heart in the company.
I wish from time to time that more people would offer more, without prompting and that ways can be explored of bringing Backbenchers more actively into our operations. These revised membership lists, new arrangements for ticketing and THE FUTURE _ in capital letters – are the tasks that await all members and the new committee. I hope everybody will find ways to put something into the group as the best means to get something out of it. Thanks!
John Batstone.
Thank you John, and here’s the New Chair to speak to you....
For those who weren't there at the AGM, I was elected as Chairman, narrowly defeating an empty cardboard box which I personally think would have made a better job of it, but that's life.
There were also changes to the constitution agreed, mostly to tidy it up and bring it more into line with what we actually do, but we also agreed to reduce the size of the committee which I think is a Good Thing but has consequences which we need to address.
We have a long tradition in The Bench of identifying volunteers for something and then loading them up with all the other duties as well until they collapse, screaming and frothing, and have to be helped out by kind people in white coats. Having done a stint on the committee before and spending three years as Treasurer, I still remember the relief at standing down and no longer feeling I had to do everything that anybody else in the company thought would be a good idea. Others will know the feeling. It's not that there's actually a huge amount to be done, it's just that it tends to land on the same people every time and it shouldn’t.
It seems to me that the committee ought to deal with the administration of the company: our contract with the Arts Centre, membership and publicity matters, insurance payments and so on. All the dross. The other stuff would be much better distributed among other members who would take on a clear and limited job without having to attend committee meetings or find other stuff dropped on them. For example, Mark Wakeman will carry on editing BenchPress and Zoe Corrigan is keeping on her overseeing of the props room although neither is staying on the committee.
Can we do more of this? As an example, the possibility of another theatre trip has been raised. Is there anyone who would like to take that on?
You just have to find out a couple of possibilities we could go to, get dates, prices, transport arrangements, etc and send it all through to Mark to stick in BenchPress then make the bookings. You don't have to join the committee and get lumbered with anything else. You are not undertaking to organise all social events from now until eternity and on its own, this isn’t a very big job, but it certainly helps the committee if some of these non-administration things can be taken up by others.
Similarly arranging the Front of House rotas. Would anyone volunteer to do these for this year? I guarantee you won't have to do it again next year - you won't even be *allowed* to do it next year - and if nobody else comes forward next September, I'll do it myself, (promise) (Wait a minute. Saying things like that is what landed me with this job.)
I'm sure that if we had more of this sort of workload distribution it would be healthy for the whole company. It would get more people involved in what is going on, reduce any feeling that the committee is a Millbank-style secret inner cabinet that controls everything and make more time and room for the committee to focus on the things that really do need doing without grinding them down in the process.
Any takers?
Tim Taylor
As you can see Tim has raised some very good points. It is all vital that we all get involved as much as we can, otherwise what’s the point of belonging to a theatre company anyway.
I’m sure that Tim will continue to come up with some fantastic ideas over the next year. He’s also going to write lots for me which saves me work!!! Indeed he even sent me the following....
October 4th - Club night. Jacquie Penrose will be presenting her ideas on a devised production based on Hercules. More on this elsewhere in this issue.
November 1st Club Night. Play selection: We have the April/May slot to select for and hopefully a one week slot in February (to be confirmed by then). We should also be thinking of the summer next year.
All directors throw off your modesty and bring your plans.
December 6th Club night. Last year's Christmas poems, songs, recitals and readings with a broadly Christmas theme was felt by all to be a great success to start thinking of this.
Items up to fifteen/twenty minutes of any sort are welcome to show off your talent to the rest of the company.
Start planning/writing/learning.
There has been a change in the way that Education in the prison is being staffed, financed and run and this has left us out in the cold this year since last December’s stunning production of Cinderella. However, the prisoners are planning a Christmas show again (A Christmas Carol) and we have been asked for help. The first meeting will have been on September 25th after which I will know more about input, dates, times etc.
This is not a closed shop and it would be good to get more members involved so if you are interested in being involved, please contact me.
Tim Taylor (023 9248 4730: timbotee@cix.co.uk)
Okay there are no letters, I just like writing Letters Page! No but there have been a great number of changes in the company over the past month or so so feel free to write in and let me know what you think about it all!!!! Any ideas, anything, I’m desperate, throw a dog a bone, something...anything (Wanders off into a world of witter!)
At the October clubnight I am proposing to launch a long-term project, which could possibly come to fruition in the summer of 2002 (if the company is willing). I am hoping to lead the creation of a devised play using the story of Hercules as a starting point, and involving as many of the company as want to take part.
I would like to lead the creation of a devised play because it is something the Bench has never tackled. We have used improvisation and devising techniques in the service of text rehearsal and adaptation, but we have never created an entire play from scratch. It is an exciting and challenging way of working, and allows people to become wholly involved in the entire process. As it calls on different skills to text work, it should stretch us in new directions.
I was drawn to the story of Hercules from a slightly oblique angle; in ’The Father’, Strindberg uses Hercules as a metaphor for heroic masculinity, and Omphale as a metaphor for the evil forces of femininity that emasculated him and did him down. Omphale was the goddess to whom Hercules was assigned as a punishment for one of his murderous outbreaks of temper. His 3-year punishment was to wear women's clothing and learn to weave cloth. Once he had learnt humility, he was allowed to return to the completion of his Labours. There seems to be rich potential for dramatic treatment with a modern 'take' - opportunities for irony and humour as well as high drama and daring-do. If it's good enough for Disney, then we could do it better!
Plans are very tentative at the moment, but this is an outline of how I think we could proceed;
Dear Bench Members and Backbenchers,
Whilst Bench productions are always very well received and widely praised, there are usually a few empty seats at most performances. I invite you to join in a drive to fill those seats so that we can play to packed houses every night!
A couple of weeks before every production, I create a ’handbill’ which I e-mail to (practically) everybody I know on my distribution list. Many of these are, for example, members of Havant Hockey Club. A few of them already come to Bench productions and appreciate the reminder. Others, I admit, will probably never be interested, but it doesn’t hurt to tell them… you never know when you might get another convert!
For example, my e-mail announcing ’The Memory of Water’ encouraged one couple to go who had never heard of the Bench and did not know where Havant Arts Active was! I received the following e-mail reply: ’We went to see "Memory Of Water" on Saturday night and had a superb evening, very amusing, thoroughly entertaining and just as professional as the West End production we saw last year. Thanks for the tip off, we will register to receive information on future events’.
So it really does work! I’m sure friends don’t mind receiving occasional e-mails like this (they can always hit the ’Delete’ button!) and every so often it pays off! Just think what we could achieve collectively if every Bench member and Backbencher could encourage just one new patron each!!
My ’electronic handbill’ contains all the key information: production and author, dates, venue, Box Office phone number, ticket prices and a short synopsis of the play. If you would like me to send it to you so that you can forward to your friends, simply drop me a line at derek.callam@stirlingcomms.co.uk and I will include you on my hit list!
In this electronic age, it is very quick, cheap and easy to spread the word... let’s all take advantage and help bring out those ’Sorry Folks – Sold Out’ signs more often.
Derek Callam
Information in Bench Press goes stale ! - for up-to-date contact information please check the relevant page on our website.
Do you like sets? Sets, I love ’em! Possibly my favourite ever was the original one for Lionel Bart’s ’Oliver’ by the architect/designer Sean Kenny. It was all solid wood and it did things! It had nooks and crannies and it opened out and it had a bridge that split in the middle and all of this without the aid of sophisticated mechanisms such as big theatres for in for nowadays. Most of all it helped the cast. It think a set should be there to reflect the meaning of the play but even more than that to help the actors/ Sometimes sets are meaningful and marvellous without anybody on them, like those old-time front rooms which you weren’t allowed to sit in, just look at. But the ’Oliver’ set like all of the best sets only looked complete when the actors were on it. It was a set to be big and busy in. It was a set to be menaced in. It was big and expensive.
Now the opposite of this was the set for ’Salonika’. Ten tones of sand provided free of charge by G.A.Day, shovelled on top of a dozen rostra so the floor didn’t collapse, the new arts centre cyclorama, beach decking to walk on, two old deck chairs and all it needed next was an intriguing story and some lovely actors.
And on they came — Janet Simpson 85 and boisterous, Robbie Cattermole, her dried up and wan 60 year old spinster daughter, Terry Cattermole and the 80 year old boyfriend of Janet the mother, Alan Jenkins a mysterious man on the beach—and incidentally our first nude performer—lots of natty towel work and front row seats always taken—and the fifth---wait for it—up from the depths of the sand rose the ghost of the soldier killed there in 1918!
Those in the know sitting out front found it rather disturbing. After all he had been buried there since 7.15 and the play had been going some little while and he’d always insisted they plant him deep! And up he would rise slowly each evening complete in his uniform, all six foot three of him and as thin as a rake! Now that’s what I call Making An Entrance!
And the play itself? Well I’ll be honest with you, it’s not the sort of play I usually go for—people sitting around remembering and arguing but this was that with a difference! Some scenes still linger, they were so vivid. The 19-year-old father trying to advise his 60-year-old daughter how to live her life, the daughter having her photo taken—’Smile please’ says the man. ’But I am smiling’ She answers. Janet and Terry doing their Darby and Joan act as the sun sinks behind them—both moving and funny, once Nicola had persuaded Janet she was not a dear old biddy at all but a domineering old baggage and with a lot to answer for! It was funny and sad, yeh yeh yeh, but something else we don’t come across too often, it was just a little bit awesome—like that feeling we get when we say ’This has happened before.’ Lovely lighting, lovely sky effects and not too long for what it had to show us.
And the strike? No problem! Sunday morning they came with their buckets and their garden wheelbarrows and it was gone in a flash—leaving lingering memories of people on a beach, of a photo being taken, and the dead rising.
Article by John Scadding
Some of you may remember that a few of us performed a sketch show in aid of the Naomi House Children’s Hospice last year. Well this year I’ve been asked to publicise that on the 16th of November there is going to be a 50’s & 60’s night at Cosham Community Centre in aid of the charity. There will be a D.J, food and a raffle. Tickets are priced at £6.00 so if you want to support a good cause why not go along!
On a similar note I have been asked to put together a show in aid of the Rowan’s Hospice and so I have contacted all those who went to Naomi house with me last year and we are reforming as ’The Vicar’s Daughters’ to do another comedy extravaganza! The date is November 10th and the cast includes myself, Robin Hall, Dave Hill, Nathan Chapman, Mike Hickman, Zoe Corrigan, Paul Davies and Claire Kendall (Bench members all!) Please feel free to harass any of the above for tickets, it’s for a good cause and nowhere else will you be able to see the missing adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the worlds only assassin Nun and a man who juggles Chutney! So come along and catch V.D live on stage...
For those of you who couldn’t be bothered (or had some other lousy excuse) to come to the AGM this year, here is a very brief and slightly approximate of our financial situation:
At the end of last year (YE 2000) we had £6,386 in the bank.
At the end of this year (YE 2001) we had £4940, and we were owed the receipts from Memory of Water which came to £1548, so really we ended the year with £6488.
So over we had a nice steady year, not making money but not losing it either.
The plays that we did made us a total nett profit of £1536.
(Supernova = £112 profit, Racing Demon = £408 profit, Pinter double bill = £296 loss, Arsenic and Old Lace = £1020 profit, Memory of Water = £290 profit.)
Membership subscriptions (Bless you all!) raised £1447.
(cf £1500 the year before – if you have let yours lapse, pay up!)
Our other expenses came to £2792.
(Membership of Havant Arts Active = £922, Rent of props cupboard space = £531, Bench Press = £322, insurance = £170)
Treasurers Conclusions:
NOTE: Our full accountants report is sent to the Charity Commission and is available to anyone interested.
At our November club night we could have three performance slots to consider – a possible one-week slot in February, a two week slot around Easter and our summer slot. We need two things : DIRECTORS putting forward plays and also MEMBERS to discuss them and vote!
For more information ask any of your friendly committee members.