The Verse

Its all been getting quite maniacal for the few days orchestrating an expanding team of sound designers, choreographers, stage managers etc. But as I lay in bed last night I realised that at least on this blog alone we have not so as much as mentioned the text itself, so I thought I'd better rectify that.

Other than Craig whom I know has worked 'outdoors' many times before, I think I am right in saying that the remainder of you have little/no experience out of doors. This factor, and believe me, it is a very big factor, could potentially prove the biggest hurdle for you in this early period of rehearsal and performance.

The main problem is obviously acoustics, we are not in a traditional theatre space built with actors in mind, rather the spaces we play in tend to have no acoustics whatsoever and range from gardens and ruins to old country houses. In short there is nothing for the sound to bounce and resonate off, and coupled with all the extraneous factors like traffic, picnics, airplanes at inopportune moments etc it means simply being heard can never be taken for granted especially with 'the wind and the rain' thrown in for good measure.

It poses a challenge for us as there is a huge plethora of subtle nuance within the text which we must try and bring out. But take comfort from the fact that the verse often benefits from being said openly, honestly and outwardly, it was written for Elizabethan theatres which as we all know had no roof and not wonderful acoustics. What we must keep reminding ourselves over the first few weeks is that we must present this show in the open air, and thus we will be having a dress run in the open air and we will rehearse sometimes in the open air to give you a flavour of what happens to your voice when out of doors. So whilst we may find many a subtle wonderful moment, we might have to mark it, remember it for Southwark and then find something else that will work for an outdoors space

What is vital is to get into the habit of really and truly warming up each day and every performance day, this might sound basic, but it is easy to forget when tiredness begins to seep in. We will all be doing a group warm up and Ron will be working with on a singing warm up, but there are other basic breathing exercises that you will all be familiar and you will likewise have some idea of which exercises and techniques work best for you and I would encourage you all to do these on top of what we are doing.

The real trick is to find the balance when out of doors between volume, clarity and colour. Whilst the wonderful close proximity of the Southwark audience will enable us to bring the play right back into more of a chamber piece, we must for now jettison any ideas of whispered voices and hushed speeches. But I do think this, although challenging, presents a great opportunity for us to discover the verse and prose in its raw form. The verse provides you with the structure, the place to breathe and a real way into your characters, and is something that in this adaptation could be overlooked in favour of the music/movement/ character etc.

The great inimitable John Barton once said that

Two simple qualities will see an actor through the supposed minefield of
Shakespeare's verse: common sense and a feeling for what sounds right.

In short we just need to harness the verse, yes let's hunt out the cadences, antitheses, alliterations, elisions, strong and weak endings etc but above everything else- trust your judgement, if it sounds right- it almost certainly is.

Greetings!

Hi guys! Just wanted to say hello to all.

I'm really excited about seeing you all in the rehearsal room here and there. I'm going to be trying to take as much of the producing work off of Alastair as possible during the rehearsal period, so if you have any "producery"-type questions, drop me a line and I'll be happy to help!

Best,
Max

Drivers

Hello, happy bank exeat weekend.

I need to know which of you would be willing to chip in with the driving in the early summer leg:

Not that many journeys, nothing too trying.

1.) Bracknell to Plymouth (3hrs)
2.) Plymouth to Hampshire (2hrs)
3.) Hanmpshire to Bury St Edmunds (2.5hrs)
4.) Bury St Edmunds to Dunmow (50 mins)
5.) Bury St Edmunds to London (2hrs)

bear in mind this is split over two weeks, it doesn't equate to too much. Please could you let me know if you would be willing to drive a.) A car, b.) A large Transit or c.) either

Please can you let me know as soon as possible so I can sort out insurance matters.

Many thanks

Music and Singing

The following is an edited version of the brief I gave Ron, who is going to working with you as Musical Director.

Well in short, I am keen to use the boys voice to bring out the feel of the boarding school and as the play progresses- I would like to use their ‘chorister experience’ to underscore and at times juxtapose the dramatic events that take place both in the story of R+J which they are acting but also their own stories.

The key thing to bear in mind is that as students they are boarding school pupils who sing hymns and maybe Latin plainsong on a daily basis and therefore have a degree of musicality built into them, they are certainly more attuned to classical music than todays kids. I really want to bring this out and use it as a tool for them to confront the repressive regime in which they live. Hymns like ‘god be in my head’- that sort of simple a cappella suited music that has an incredibly spiritual feel would be suited. (nb: if you have any suitable suggestions I would be very keen to hear them, as would Ron)

The music should help transport the boys and the audience into both the world of the chapel and then headlong into the world of Romeo and Juliet

What I mean by this is that for example in the opening scene, I would like them to be singing as choristers- setting up the religious connotations from the off- something quite angelic-

But I think as the play progresses we could move away from hymns and into more simple ‘humming’ and even sound scaping to a degree.

There are a couple of other bits of music- the main bit being the dance- in which I was thinking that we could use some 50’s rock and roll that they bring in on a gramophone- which again is a point in itself…I don’t think we should use any prerecorded music- it should come only from what the boys have eg: themselves, the gramophone etc, we could use some artistic license and have some come in towards the end of R+J when they have totally immersed themselves in the play, but on the whole it should be music that they create themselves within the space.

Please be reassured you were cast on the basis of your acting and not your singing, however we will be working on this every day, and Ron will be in rehearsals for some of the time, to teach and then revise and work the music. If you watched the great Gareth Malone on BBC's The Choir, you can see how this sort of music has the uncanny ability to forge bonds and connections and this will be pivotal to the show both on and off stage. I know Chris highlighted this in his blog previously in that choral singing was very much a feature of daily life, and in fact remains so, at these public schools. It wasn't always a showing off exercise, but just a ritual, an every day occurrence. I remember when I was at my boarding school we had hymn practice every Thursday, which was basically an excuse to wind up the poor teacher whose job it was to teach us harmonies etc, to be honest I dont think we ever got to harmonies, as the harassed man resorted to sending more and more of us to the headmasters office. The tune was about all we ever accomplished in these sessions. Again though I think this demonstrates that this surplus of religion didnt exactly inspire a genuine devotion or respect for the material that we had, we did it, and we didnt often do it offensively, but we didn't endow it with anything more than a passing alto.

As I arrived at my senior school, The Perse in Cambridge, which although Private, was my no longer a boarding school, this 'aloof' take on religion took a step further, and morning hymns were reduced to a state of belching bassonic rumbles that one could hardly say 'took the roof off'. I remember being initially a little taken aback by quite how superfluous these morning religious assemblies were to basically everyone, even the Chaplain. Just a bi-weekly ritual that was relic of the school's more pious days.

The point I'm making here is that religion and these hymns and music we will be singing was just part and parcel of everyday life, I don't think that a lot of thought went alongside day to day religion, just as not a lot of thought went behind anything of any great importance. Such was the aggressive timetabling that there was precious little time for any extraneous thought other than making it on time to your next scheduled activity. There was no time to stand and stare. And so this elicit breaking out and playing and exploring with ideas and literature really must be a huge journey of discovery, from the blatant and obvious things like physical contact to the subtler elements like the singing- where the music was for possibly time in the boys experience the first time endowed with meaning and passion although not directed at perhaps its intended purpose.

Thank you Chris for your post- much food for thought in here, I encourage you all to follow suit and share your research. I cannot make you do it, but would only encourage persuasively. We are all busy, but you should be finding the time to think about the play and your lines, and this is just an extension of that and a tool for us to progress to a collective understanding. Just do it.

Finally I would remind you that you need to send Ron as a matter of urgency your CV and a brief synopsis of your voice and singing experience- ron.mcallister@southhillpark.org.uk. ASAP please.

Costume

Just a gentle yet firm reminder... please can you reply to Fiona and send her through your measurements. If you have yet to be in touch- please email Fiona on fionajd@hotmail.com and request either a measuring sheet or if you have recieved this please send her the requested measurements as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance

Cast List

Just realised that you dont officially know the casting:

so please find below the cast details:

STUDENT 1: CHRIS HOGBEN
STUDENT 2: TOM HACKNEY
STUDENT 3: CRAIG GILBERT
STUDENT 4: SAM DONNELLY

I am delighted to have got you all on board.

In terms of script: please ensure you are looking to the METHUEN edition, it is the edition you should bring to rehearsals, I would advise you also bring a paper copy as sent to you all previously as well as a hard copy should you wish.

In terms of line learning: given a 6 week or even 4 week rehearsal period I would never request being off book before rehearsals begin. In this instance we have 2, and we have a huge mountain to climb, having script worries into the the second week is a recipe for seriously compounding any insecurities. I would seriously sugegst trying to get of book asap. Certainly by Friday of week one I will be asking that books are not brought onto the rehearsal floor. It is beastly, I know, but neccessary I feel if we are to do the play justice.

Finally on this note, we will in the first week be working towards a basic rudimentary run through, to which Ellie, Max and the team at SHP will be invited to. Ellie has requested to come in and her feedback and support will hopefully be constant in the project up till the Southwark opening. I want to warn you in advance of this, and to affirm a principle that the way I work is not to close off the rehearsal room entirely, whilst keen to make it a safe and comfortable place to try out ideas, I do invite constructive and structured feedback from a chosen few who will be popping in and out from time to time. Half the time they wont be concerned directly with what you are doing, but rather concnetrating on matters of design/costume/staging etc.

Just remember that this early rehearsal period is a pre cursor to another week before Southwark and another two before the tour opens in Autumn, it is as much a chance for the design and creative team to try out ideas as it is for you guys, so please dont feel an undue sense of pressure that is resting in your shoulders solely. There is a large support team in place, and we are all here working together on one piece to make it as good as it can possibly be.

Please try and learn it as neutrally as is feasibly possible- a difficult request- but it will be tough to have to re-learn something to say it/feel it in an altogether different manner.

Finally I would be keen to hear your initial thoughts on the characters you are all due to play. Nothing concrete, just initial responses, take the hints within the text and run a little with them-
eg: crucially why they play their respective characters in the play itself? How you think this reflects on their own personalities and how the experience of rebelling against the school and acting out this play is important to them not just as a group, but also as individuals.

Again I reiterate that nothing you write binds you to any interpretation, any back story or anything like that, it should just be a rambling if needs me, guttural response to your character and his role within the play.

Hey gang! Will be great to start working with you. I'm getting impatient.


I've been doing some research on boarding schools, bastions of the old English establishment what what etc. Eton seemed a fitting place to start...

Now Eton seems like a MASSIVE extreme of all things English, but I think you get a good sense of the importance of tradition, following eccentric rules, and how public schools aim to develop a boys character. So I've got some messy ideas and links and things below:







http://www.etoncollege.com/default.asp

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vcKpwKK94QU&feature=related

(Dodgy japanese eton documentary with even worse English subtitles)

Random thoughts:

• Being away from home. Out on your own. Just you now.
• Church meetings most weekdays, with a longer service on Sunday.
• Singing like a choirboy. Get used to that kind of music.
• Best teachers / worst teachers
• A Good teacher teaches you that what you've just been hearing about is the best thing in the universe, nothing else bears thinking about.
• Small groups for lessons and a personal tutor
• 'Your results are raising concern. Letters will be sent home.'
• WOW. The FEAR of stepping out of line is crazy!
• The Peer Pressure from older, institutionalised boys.
• Not wearing the very complicated uniform correctly an offence. It's like it is made to catch you out. People WILL notice. You WILL be punished.
• Having to organise your time well enough.
• Masters constantly on your back about acheivements or failures.
• Being late, having to do lines, being left in the lurch, the disappointment of Eton hanging over you. 'Eton is disappointed in you'.
• Being expected to reach for massive things.
• Fagging (running errands and making tea for their elders) humbles young aristocrats. (Just like Shaolin training ;)
• Getting to a school and saying: 'right, how am I going to make an impact here?'
• Join the new boys fives tournament - go for glory?
• Work hard so one of my pieces will be on constant display in the College Library?
• Study the rules of the Eton Wall Game so my goal will one day be scored at the St.Andrews Day match?
• Will I be a wet bob or dry bob come summer term. Can I row and make my House Captain proud?
• 'The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton' - The Duke of Wellington.
• PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE!
• You MUST win acclaim!!!
• You MUST succeed!!!
• Live up to the example and memory of the greats who have passed through here.
• On Eton: 'The peer pressure is still very evident. Having officially taken over a position of responsibility for the annual Fourth of June celebration, I had to decide whether to wear my stick ups for the first time on the great day. In the end, along with my friends who were in in a similar situation I decided it was best to wait until further towards the end of the half lest we were queried too frequently as to our new dress. And there is also the threat of boys pulling your bow tie undone in the street as a prank before you have learnt to refasten it properly without the aid of a mirror.'

Chain of Authority: Provost, House Master, then Dame (like a Matron/Nurse) House Captain, Captain of Games, Boys Maid. Domestic Staff Prefects fit in there somewhere. Above? Below? Who knows?! All Houses have their own colour hats. Stripes, Quadrants, Front Logo

Minor Sports Selection: Choose TWO. Beagling, Fencing, Rackets, Fives, Squash, Hockey, Water Polo, Climbing, Martial Arts, Badminton, Fly Fishing, Canoeing, Basketball, Weight Training, .22 Shooting, Golf, Table Tennis, Tennis, Athletics, the Eton Wall Game (which is mental)

Pupils of Authority: There are a number of variations of school dress which distinguish boys in positions of authority. All office holders wear stick ups - that is to say, a wing collar with a white bow tie. The Captains of houses wear a grey waistcoat (often double-breasted) as well as stick ups. The twenty highest academic achievers in B Block (the final year) form 'Sixth Form Select', a prefectorial body. In addition to stick ups, they wear silver buttons with their black waistcoats. There is a second, self-elected prefectorial body, known as Pop or The Eton Society. These elite boys are entitled (by their own authority) to wear black and white spongebag trousers, stick ups, and any colourful waistcoat they desire (and great liberty is taken) also trimming their tailcoats with silk piping. Pop:, also known as the Eton Society. Over the years their power and privileges have grown. Pop is the oldest self-electing society at Eton, although the rules were altered in 1987 and modified again in 2005 so that the new intake are not now elected solely by the existing year. Members of Pop are entitled to wear checked spongebag trousers, and a waistcoat of their own choosing or design. Historically, only members of Pop are entitled to furl their umbrellas or sit on a special wall. They also perform roles at many of the routine events of the school year including School Plays, Parents' evenings and other official events. Notable ex-members of Pop include Prince William of Wales, and Boris Johnson.

The ties are easy to misplace in your room and far too frequently you see boys without ties at all. The better beaks (teachers) might put such a miscreant on a 'dress offence' (imposed for various infractions of the regulations) which means wearing full school dress all day for three days and signing in at the school office, properly attired, once an hour during free time. (Boys are usually permitted to change out of tailcoats for the afternoon during games and free time.)

Day in the Life - from New Boys Guide on the Eton Website
You’ll need to wake up at about 7.30 every weekday (8.30 on Sundays) to give yourself time to wash and dress before Breakfast: a reliable alarm clock is a helpful bit of kit.
After Breakfast you have about twenty minutes before Chapel at 8.40 (10.40 on Sundays): time to make your bed and tidy up your room, time to see if you have any letters or email, time to see your House Master or Dame if necessary, time to organize yourself for the first three schools of the morning.

The weekly morning timetable runs as follows (Tuesday and Thursday are slightly different):
09.00–09.40 1st school
09.50–10.30 2nd school
10.40–11.20 3rd school
11.20 Chambers
11.45–12.25 4th school
12.35–13.15 5th school (but a free period on Saturdays)
13.25 Boys’ Dinner You should go back to your House after the first three schools — for elevenses and to organize yourself for the final two schools of the morning. What happens after Boys’ Dinner depends on which day of the week it is and on which half it is. It’s too complicated to explain here: you’ll find out when you arrive.

Every day and every half, Supper is at about 7.40 followed by House Prayers at about 8.20.

'Every evening, about an hour and a quarter, known as Quiet Hour, is set aside, during which boys are expected to study or prepare work for their teachers if not otherwise engaged. Some houses, upon the discretion of the House Master, may observe a second Quiet Hour after Prayers in the Evening. This is however less formal, with boys being allowed to visit each others' rooms to socialise if neither boy has outstanding work.'
Between House Prayers and Lights Out (at 9.30 in most Houses) you have time to finish off your ‘prep’ for the following day, to have a bath, and to tidy up your room. This is also the time when your Dame is likely to drop in to have a chat, and your House Master too. Have a good night! You’ll find life at Eton is very exhausting, and a good night’s rest is absolutely essential.

Sporting Fixture list

This is proving difficult, schools are being very tricky requesting everything from money to CRB checks to a member of staff per visitor... anyway, I am still pressing ahead looking into local clubs etc.

I would ask you to do the same, we are ideally looking for fixtures in the following sporting endeavours:

ROUNDERS
CRICKET
RUGBY
TENNIS
SWIMMING
ATHLETICS (relay)
FOOTBALL
HOCKEY
BASKETBALL
TABLE TENNIS
Reserve list:
POOL
BILLIARDS
NETBALL
SCRABBLE
MARBLES


We wll play anyone of any standard and we will always try and win, ideally the losing team will buy the first round of drinks. We will travel by team bus into London if neccessary.

Dates for fixtures 5th-14th June- time ideally 7pm but also from 5pm at the earliest, weekend we could do a sunday afternoon...

please do look hard, dont let the side down what what

The groundwork for change

Over the next few weeks and months, I want you to reallt try as much as possible to immerse yourselves in the mentality of the boarding school.

I had the rare 'luxury' of attending one when I was very young- in fact when in Suffolk we could even visit it. Joe's production gave a very American view of the boarding school and I suppose I want to look at 'British Boarding school'.

My boarding school experience was in the early 90's, and that was pretty harsh, but the 50's were a different kettle of fish. Staff handed more control down to the senior pupils, The Prefects- who were at relative liberty to accord punishments at their leisure- from kneeling on pencils, running errands, experiencing 'initiations', beatings etc. It was real rite of passage stuff and had forged generation after generation of English middle and upper classes with stiff upper lips.

Perhaps what boarding school did above all else is create two different worlds: The 'official' world, in which boys behaved as was expected of young becoming gentleman, and then the 'alternative' world in which boys behaved as boys as expressed so clearly in Lord of The Flies, a base, guttural, crude and sexually charged world where authority was earned and punishments dished out to its own rules. It was at once separate and yet entirely linked to the 'official' experience, both worlds existed side by side.

We will begin by pushing the 'official world' to its extreme, immersing the audience in the atmosphere of the daily life of a boarding school- as soon as Student One wakes up from his dormitory at night is when the alternative world takes over, and the dangerous energy of living on the edge of lawlessness creeps in. You must remember at all times, the sheer thrill of breaking rules, being caught had painful and embarrassing consequences that would invariably get back to ones parents. And always around the next corner could lay a 'master' or 'prefect' in wait- ready to pounce and send you arse cheeks red raw back to bed.

Try and build up a daily picture of life in a boarding house, the routines, the lessons taught, the way in which they were taught, the careers you would be expected to follow.

on the other hand, look also at the external factors that were beginning, like the railway in Cranford, to creep in at the edges of traditionalist Britain like a plague that would soon sweep out the remnants of Victorian England into the Bazalgette Sewer and forge the beginnings of the cataclysmic social, political and cultural changes that would change the face of Britain for ever.

Remember that Churchill had only been ousted and in fact died in '55, if you look at that decade you will find a heady wave of impetus building that laid the foundation for the more obvious signs of change that occurred in the 60's.

Rationing ended absolutely for the first time in 14 years on 4th July- 1954, Churchill gone by '55, the debutantes season ended officially in 1958 when the Queen stopped receiving DEBS, thus the 'marriage market' for the inbreeding of England's upper elite was effectively closed for the first time in centuries- a shadow of it remains today, but without royal patronage a 400 year old tradition that had defined the shape of the ruling class suffered a mortal blow.

In your research I want you consider that ART eg: the music of the 50's etc was a reflection and not the catalyst for change. Don't play devils advocate on this, just for now take the above statement and look towards specific changes like the ones detailed above; those gradual changes in the 50's that catalysed the country into its most overt change in the history of the nation in the next formative decade.

Just remember that the 50's represents for us the epitome of a nation trying to hold onto its past, clinging onto the vestiges of the empire which was falling away at the fingers, clinging onto to the clearly defined roles of men and women and clinging on to an education system that had moulded the young minds of England for generations.

The Mini skirt and rock and roll were by the mid 1950's pummelling on the doors of post war Britain begging to be let in, and as much as the authorities and the nation put up their best defences, the force of change was unassailable and defeat to old England inevitable.

A big welcome to the new boys

First things first- a big welcome to you all! We have a long road ahead and lots to achieve before November 7th. My hope is that the experience will be one that is both artistically challenging and also jolly good fun.

We begin rehearsals in a matter of weeks now, and I urge you to use this blog as a tool to explore ideas amongst ourselves, suggest ideas on character and pool our collective research.