I have, of late, noticed that the review I wrote for Twelfth Night a long, long, time ago still gets the most hits on this blog (and by most, I mean "tens" more than other posts), I thought I'd write another review. This time it is for a one-off show that involves over 250 people being onstage in a single evening, a performance those performers will never forget and one that you, the reader, have likely never heard of. It is the 2015 Open Stages Showcase, and it goes up this evening, and it is the culmination of two years hard work by amateurs all over the country and the folks over at the RSC. This is a story, one of many I'm sure, that is told by one of the amateur practitioners that has been a part of the process since the beginning. This is the best that I can tell it, I think... I might edit it later on.
In early July 2012, we, of the Shakespeare Institute Players, were asked by the RSC to pitch a play to the Open Stages Project that they were beginning in September. Long story, very short, I pitched a play on behalf of the Players, a production of Measure for Measure set in "Dust Bowl" America, that was accepted to the project. It was one of about 90 productions from around the country that was accepted to be a part of it. There were a few reasons that all of us in the Players wanted to be a part of this incredible venture (and when I say "all" and "we", of course I am speaking just for me, when in fact there were lots of other people that took part in this.)
First, we got to work with the RSC, their staff, on their stages, in any capacity whatsoever. We got to take classes with RSC professionals for free (Voice, Speech, Acting, Movement, Stage Combat, Stage Management, Directing, Design, Music, and many others) over the course of the next year. As students ourselves, and ones that were paying the University of Birmingham for the privelege of being called so, a free class(es) with working practitioners at a professional company was something none of us wished to pass up.
Second, this was an opportunity to perform on stage at the RSC (or, in my case, have a production I've directed staged at the Swan Theatre.) Putting the entire show up at the Shakespeare Institute in the summer of 2014, and having RSC professionals come to see it and give us critical feedback on it, was once again an incredible, enlightening experience. The unique part of this was that, as a member of the Open Stages Project, we were to get together about a year later to bring the show back from the dead to rehash an excerpt of it on the RSC stage at the Swan Theatre (ten minutes, consisting of three scenes and one song performed as if on a speeded-up playback). That day is today, 14 June 2015.
Third, in 2016, another project was going to happen cleverly called "Dream 16". This is still to be (it hasn't happened yet) the culmination for the RSC on their country-wide collaboration and celebration of amateur theatre-makers that will be performed in February 2016. The idea was that they would get a troupe of amateur actors to portray the mechanicals in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, including the rather large role of Bottom the Weaver. We auditioned, we had fun, we did not get the part, such is life.
Fourth, this was our one (and most likely, only) chance to work in such a hallowed space.
My thesis topic, loosely interpreted, is the study of one particular production's design at the RSC, so I don't have the words to express my joy in all that has happened to me and around me for the last two years with regards to working with the RSC and the Open Stages Project. That I get to see a piece of Shakespeare's work, directed by me, onstage at the Swan... well, that's more than I'd ever thought to hope for and I wish I could say thank you enough times for the people involved to start believing my gratitude. Right now, I think it annoys RSC folk when I hug them for showing me to the toilet.
I know there were some companies that did not get into Open Stages, and even more companies that did not get into "Dream 16". We were told only once after our audition (via email) that we weren't good enough, and that stung enough to know that I wouldn't wish it on anyone. The reality of that is, I recognize the people who live with that feeling everyday (mostly other actors at other auditions) and have nothing but admiration for them as they pick themselves back up, dust themselves off, and try again.
The reason I mention that is because I would like to enlighten the disillusioned. The project, and especially today here at the end of our two-year process, has not been all musk-roses, sunshine, and Shakespeare. It's been the usual production hell that theatre professionals have come to expect around the world, and because it's the RSC, amp that hell up to about 1000 degrees centigrade, throw 220 actors on the barbie, and cook until they stop squirming and "just deal with it"... and you've got yourself one hell of a show that no one, well maybe the parents of the kids who are a part of it, will ever see. If you are reading this, you probably know me and know that I have seen professional and amateur companies alike go thru "tech hell", it might even be that some of you reading this were actually there and know of what I speak... I'll just say, the assessment is equal and fair.
(On a more personal note, I would've preferred not to have been told by the company stage manager at the RSC that my lighting ideas in my production script were shit, or rather, "not-well-planned-out and terrible", but since she asked for design notes two months ago on a script and blocking that has changed many times since then... and she probably has union lighting guys barking in her ear about what a crappy set-up this was, and also what a shit detail it is to have to come in on a Sunday morning and cater to a bunch of non-professionals, she might also rather just be home sleeping... I figured she was just taking her anger, frustration, and crap out on one of the people that actually wanted to be there, and one that could do nothing about an RSC professional stage manager making their day just a little less bright. I digress, and since this is my blog, I needed to vent so that I could return to that stage door this evening with my head held high.)
I'm not complaining. Let me repeat that, I am not complaining. I get to see "My Shakespeare, rise!" for the first time tonight in a place that I have and will call "church" for a long time coming. Here's to dreams coming true and many more being created all at the same time...
"I therefore will begin. Soul of the age!
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!
My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room:
Thou art a monument without a tomb,
And art alive still while thy book doth live
And we have wits to read and praise to give." -- Ben Jonson
"To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare"
(Printed on one of the first few pages of the First Folio, published in 1623)
Year ?, Day ? - Words written: ?
(this post is anamolous and should be considered outside the realm of PhD-land)
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