Marshalled by director Chris Monks the charismatic company read through the script. It’s always been one of my favourite plays, but hearing it read aloud is even more thrilling than I’d expected it to be. Nimble lyrics, energetic storytelling, and crackling with humour. How on earth did Lionel Bart pack that entire novel into two hours of stage time?
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This afternoon a mountain of brown boxes was delivered and a buzz went round the building. The new brochure had arrived.
Back in the summer I was working out my notice in my previous job, but each week I spent a day at the Vic, getting to know the team and working with them to put together my first season. It seemed a world away at that time. But suddenly here it is, brought to life by graphic artists and copywriters and late nights in the marketing department and proofreading after proofreading. Now booking opens – and I must start planning the season after.
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We have six parts to cast for The Glee Club. Over four days in London and Newcastle-under-Lyme we are meeting around sixty actors. Musical Director Mary Keith, accompanist Paul Crewe and I are squished into a tiny room, where every twenty minutes we welcome a new actor. Every time I interview actors I marvel at their ability to come into a room completely at ease – not a flicker of nerves – and perform brilliantly.
In this case we are casting actors who can sing, so there are songs in store. The actor takes the music to the piano, murmurs a few words to Paul, and then bursts into a fantastic rendition of a number from CHICAGO or IOLANTHE or an Andrew Lloyd Webber. Then the musical director might do a little work – asking him to sing in a Yorkshire accent, for example, which changes the vowel sounds dramatically. Then he reads a short piece from the play. I might ask him to read it again, perhaps approaching it in a different way. Then there’s a time for a few questions and it’s thank you and goodbye. Every time I do this I’m left feeling enormous gratitude to the actors, who spend time preparing, travelling, interviewing, and make such efficient and effective use of the mere twenty minutes allotted.
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I’m meeting actors next week, a process that unfailingly brings a play sharply into focus for me, but I must be able to offer some useful thoughts too. So with a blazing log fire and a stock of chocolate to keep me company I’ve curled up on the sofa at home to spend some quality time with The Glee Club script.
It’s such a tightly written piece that I hadn’t noticed, until I started to work on a scene-by-scene breakdown, how busy it is. Playwright Richard Cameron keeps the stage really bubbling, with characters coming and going, dressing and undressing, showering, tangoing, segueing into comic skits and, of course, singing.
The scene-by-scene breakdown will help me schedule rehearsals. It seems so early to start planning rehearsals, but I need to fix the musical director’s visits now, so must start to get an idea of how they will fit into the whole. The breakdown will also help me to find the right moment for a movement or dialect coach’s visit; a research trip; to ensure the performers go home at the end of the first week with a sense of achievement and satisfaction rather than panic. And to give myself a measure, when I’m in the thick of it, of how things are progressing: to know whether to put my foot on the accelerator or take the scenic route.
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Borderlines is a New Vic flagship. Every time I look we are up for another award; we were the first theatre company to perform in the Houses of Parliament, and we make a huge impact on the lives of marginalised communities in our area – all through Borderlines. I haven’t yet seen Borderlines in action, so today I’m in Stafford for a conference exploring strategies to combat bullying in schools.
Our team work fantastically hard all day. There is the van to be unpacked, then a workshop to be led; then the team go into the hall to set up. Everyone grabs a quick bite to eat, then Sue (the director of Borderlines) goes off to lead a second workshop alone, whilst the actors and stage manager run through the performance, setting sound levels and working out entrances. Having done the whole show once, they promptly do it again, though this time in front of an audience. Then, when everyone’s tired and hot, the set has to be dismantled and the van packed again. The day’s still not over: there is the journey back to the New Vic, and when we get there, the van has to be unpacked again.
Surely this is the hardest kind of work? It takes such tremendous commitment and dedication, and the day leaves me feeling very proud to be associated with it. It’s also been a great opportunity to see what’s happening in the big wide world outside the New Vic’s walls.
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