Tag Archives: theatre

On the Pointlessness of Losing One’s Temper

24 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Theatre

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

So… the day after tomorrow we go onstage.

The School Play, I mean. In theory, we should be doing last-minute tweaks, fine-tuning… In theory all should be well and as good as ready. In theory it should be time of a tech rehearsal, dress rehearsal, and then curtain-up…

Except, well – you know… theatre. Continue reading →

A Play – Hatching

10 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Here we go: the School Play – now officially titled Faults of the Fathers, will go onstage in a couple of weeks, and we are hard at work on it. Yesterday afternoon, as I arrived at the Tiny Theatre for rehearsals, I met a friend and colleague at the door.

“How’s it going?” he asked – and I said it’s going the right kind of dreadfully for two-weeks-from-curtain-up, which is frightening to the students but quite typical, and quite true.

And last night’s rehearsals were a perfect illustration of what I mean. Let’s see… Continue reading →

The Stage-Eye

22 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in Eccentricities

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

So I was asked to read a manuscript, with an eye to a possible stage adaptation. It happened in that roundabout way that entails friends and friends of mutual friends… I’m sure you know how it is. And because of some initial insistence that I should meet the author first, or I could not really understand, I went in with a certain amount of wariness… Continue reading →

The Ghost in the (Stage) Machine

07 Thursday Dec 2017

Posted by in Theatre

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

So, the Canterville Ghost’s second first night came and went – and it was… interesting.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of things that saw it fit to happen. missed cues, blanks, last minutes flying rescues (because the Company is made up of fast thinkers), hitches, mixed-up lines, missteps, misplaced props, a wobbly wing… and the most egregious of them all: our Duke of Cheshire wandering onstage during a scene where not only he didn’t belong – but the Otis Twins were commenting his absence in detail – much to their harried mother’s despair… Continue reading →

Taking Stock

30 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in Scribbling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

So, the last day of November… Time for reviews, isn’t it?

Let’s begin with my not-quite-NaNoWriMo. I meant to work on my new on spec play – the one without even a working title – and so I did: the other night I finished the first draft, with a couple of days to spare. It is a very first-drafty first draft, and will require a lot of work still, of course – but there it is, and not too horrible. I think I can count it as done.

But that’s not all. Considering how December is a month for sporadic writing at best, I might as well take stock of my writing year in general. Let’s see… Continue reading →

Davide Mana’s Behind the Copper Mask

11 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by in Stories

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Do you remember when I told you about my copper mask – oh well, the Chorus’ copper mask in Shakespeare in Words? And how my friend Davide – he of Karavansara – said there was a story in there, and he’d write it for Halloween?

Well, he’s done it.

Not that I’m terribly surprised, mind: the man has proved again and again that he can put together a good story by whatever deadline he gives himself – and so a Halloween story it was… Continue reading →

Oh my ears and whiskers…

12 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by in Theatre

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

I’m late – sorry, sorry, sorry! It’s not that I forgot to post, but…

Frantic days, hectic week. We’re debuting Carlo Emilio Gadda’s Quer Pasticciaccio Brutto de Via Merulana (That Awful Mess on Via Merulana) on Saturday, and we have dress rehearsal in little more than an hour, and everything – but everything – has happened, ranging from the hilarious to the highly depressing, so much so that we weren’t even quite sure we could début at all until the other day, and is this ever a run-on sentence! Continue reading →