The Obligatory New Year Message 2017

It's been a busy 2016 - I launched myself on Patreon and started to seriously move in a more organised way online in audio terms.  I popped into London to see how the fringe has changed (not a lot) and (as per usual) lost all my money.

I've also been focusing on archiving and updating - soon the Milk Bottle website will be all up to date with huge amounts of info on past shows as well as acting as a proper delivery system for new and old audio.  There's already a fair amount up, more coming throughout January.  Thanks to Keith for all his hard work on making the website look so good and hold so much.

So, what projects are on their way?  Well, I've been aside a lot of time the next month or so to record versions of my older monologues - so these will start coming out soon.  But the next exciting audio project is Investigate Me? which I've promised for about a year to produce.  It's going to be a huge full length radio play and I'm really exciting about it.  More very soon.

Live from the Get In! returns in March and I've lots of ideas for the next two shows.  I'm really pushing the boat out for them and hoping to have some great new talent on board as well as the regulars.
I'm directing The Time Machine in April.  It's going to look amazing and be a real departure from some of my usual work.  I'll be writing in detail about what the show is going to be like in the next month or so, but, trust me, book those tickets NOW.  There are only three shows happening and it's going to be amazing.  Book those tickets at www.quaysudbury.com

And I'm also directing As You Like It by William Shakespeare for Lavenham Players in July - tickets will be on sale soon.  We've a fabulous cast and I'm really looking forward to getting down and dirty with the text.

I'm also going to be announcing some dates for an occasional show I'm doing with Michael Fouldes - The Museum of Tat Roadshow - based on our radio show.  It'll pop up here and there over 2017.  Like a harmless but slightly annoying rash.

So, basically, 2017 is all about more recordings of old shows, more audio, and a few live bits and bobs.
And the huge secret project I can't tell you about.  There's that as well.

***

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help.

Also, as there's a lot being planned at the moment, if you want to keep up to speed, why not join my mailing list.  I know, so last century. 

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Stooping...

Picture the scene... I'm in Scotland, visiting my Grandfather.  It is moderately cold and I'm working away in the backroom.  My mobile phone rings.  It is Michael Harding, who I know is directing a production of She Stoops to Conquer.  To answer the call or not?  I know that this call means the auditions were short of men and that this would be a request to play.  It is a community production and so doesn't pay - quite the reverse.  But it is 'on the list' as it were.  The bucket list of plays to do before death.  And I haven't been all that well these last years, so whilst doing it would potentially get in the way of my actual work, it does remove a play from the bucket list.
I answer the phone.
I am offered the part of Hastings.
Working, as I do, on the taxi rank principle (you take whichever fare comes your way) I say yes.  In any case, I can't read up on the play as I'm in Scotland and Michael borrowed my copy of the script a year earlier.  (I did get it back - unlike a collection of Alan Bennett I could mention.)  I could have had a look online but there was no hurry and I waiting till I was back home to have a rummage through the text.
Initially Hastings is not appealing.  He doesn't have much of a character at first glance.  He largely speaks in plot, often repeating the same dialogue about the horses he needs being fatigued or reminding his fiance/audience of their plans to elope (with the fiance, not the audience).  The part is not, line wise, large but spends a lot of time onstage, largely waiting half a page till his next line.  Oh, the dangers of lost concentration with such a part.
But, after a rehearsal or two a few little hints did draw blood.  Hastings, though not deeply drawn (it is a comedy) has some nice character traits.  A good hearty man who takes everyone as they come, fond of a laugh and gentle mockery, quick to anger (or any other extreme emotion) but just as quick to a level headedness.  So, plenty to help create a physical score with, which in turn will help me remember where the lines go.
My little turn will go out next week - details below.

Sudbury Dramatic Society humbly presents

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER

by Oliver Goldsmith.

A Respectable House, Suffolk. Two London Gentlemen a-courting arrive in the country and seek lodging for the night... A rollicking Tale of Confusions, in which the venerable Mr Hardcastle's hospitality is roundly abus'd, his Wife's ambitions are confounded, young Mistress Hardcastle assumes a position below her Station, and bashful Master Marlow is dup'd into forgetting his Modesty.

Performing Tuesday 4^th to Saturday 8^th March at 7.45pm

Quay Theatre, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2AN
Box Office - 01787 374745
Online - quaytheatre.org.uk

P.S. For those who won't be able to watch the show, here's my little contribution to the programme notes.

When it comes to classic English plays (anything much earlier than the 20th Century) which get a modern revival there are two major periods to choose from.  The Age of Shakespeare (largely the plays of Shakespeare) and Restoration Comedy.  After these periods there is an almost two hundred year gap before anyone can find a play that they feel is fit for revival.  That isn't to say the plays aren't there or aren't, necessarily, any good, but they are largely not to taste and not as good as what came before or after.
There is, however, a brief oasis of quality which shines through this dark period, where a few plays have stood out and survived into modern times.  They are the best of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, (The Rivals and The School for Scandal) and tonight's play She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith.
It is a common mistake (even by knowledgeable theatre buffs) to call these plays Restoration Comedy.  They aren't, not just because they were written a hundred years later but also because they are very different comic beasts.  By the 1770's comedy had become more refined and less sexual than in Restoration times and preferred to avoid the vulgar and focus on wit.  Luckily Goldsmith and Sheridan had wit aplenty - though they still, occasionally, threw in the odd filthy joke.  These plays are the missing link between the old comedy of the Restoration and the later comedies of Oscar Wilde.  Witty, clever and largely immortal.  Not only that, they set the trend, not broken till the 20th Century, of almost all English comedy being written by the Irish.

Watching Brief

With a week to go - A WEEK! - before You Have Been Watching goes up, let me give you a snap shot of a typical rehearsal.

I arrive slightly late as an earlier rehearsal overran.  Cast have ordered a drink in my absence, saving me offering.  Result.

We gather in a small group of two or three and I start off the first 'exhibit' in the show.  The performer involved gives me a terrified look as I explain what I want them to do.  The other performers sigh, relieved that they're not first.

We run the piece.  Notes, suggestions, discussion.  I leave the 'exhibit' to run with another member of the company and work on someone else.

Repeat of earlier fear, though now with a different person.  Run, notes, tweaks, run.

By the end of the rehearsal all the 'exhibits' run at the same time - I go round being awkward / taking photos. (Though I forgot the camera this week - hence no photos!  DOH.)

We set tasks for the next meet and head for the bar for alcohol to dull the pain.

Repeat.

I tend to arrive with little confidence in what I want to do - and then find I'm surprised how well it all works.  There's a lot to be organised for Monday 17th February and I'm a little stressed as some of the costumes will (in theory) arrive two days before hand and some might not arrive in time at all.  Which could prove irritating and expensive.  But you'd be surprised how much can be done props wise thanks to a 99p shop.

Tickets for this one off performance are available now - pay-what-you-want on the night - and can be reserved at the Quay Box Office as normal.  Box Office: 01787 374 745

You Have Been Watching

Written and Devised by Robert Crighton

Performing at the Quay Theatre (Upstairs) on Monday 17th February at 7.30pm

Tickets available online at www.quaytheatre.org.uk

Box Office: 01787 374 745

Watching Open Rehearsals...

Well, the starting line for Project 10/52 is getting close.  The first of January approacheth and the online You Have Been Watching.

world of the project begins.  But the bit that is more exciting, because it interacts with you real people, is Project Two:
This is a show that will be guided by the cast, by the people who want to get involved in rehearsing it.  It probably won't be a traditional play, though I have written material that could be presented this way.  It might end up more an installation, more performance Art, than pure theatre.
Which brings me to a question often asked about my residency: why am I an artist in residence.  Why not actor, or writer, or director... or...
Well, it's because none of those three titles covers the work I do very well.  I am doing all three, of course, and also working on visual art, set, lighting, costume - the totality of the work.  But not only have I rejected those other titles because none of them covers the work accurately, I have chosen Artist because the boundaries between Art, Performance and Theatre have never been more porous.  The techniques I may choose to explore in YHBW may not be theatrical in a traditional sense, but may involve set ups which are more akin to an art gallery than a theatre.
Then again, I may not.  But it's nice for one's title not to drag one down in one direction.

Anyway, what I want to do with YHBW is make it largely interactive - taking a cue from art practice - but the interactions will be largely theatrical.  I don't think I can describe the piece as immersive, that catch all participatory slogan which is very now, because I will never have such total control of the space/s we'll be using.

This is all starting to sound a bit wanky, let's move away from the arty bollocks for a moment.

What I'm doing at the moment is creating material for a show whilst at the same time devising exercises and games to play with the 'cast' which will probably destroy said material as we rehearse it.
No, still sounding wanky.  Oh well, I tried.

The rehearsals will be public, completely open to anyone who wants to be in the 'cast' or just watch.  It will be in a public space and so we will interact with people if they happen to come in, partly because the work will do this when finally 'performed' and the 'cast' will need a chance to practice this.
It isn't a work which requires many traditional actors as many action to be performed will not be acting as such - so anyone can get involved.  People will have tasks, some fairly simple, some what you might call acting, having a text to perform.
There will be two initial open rehearsal/auditions (I call them auditions, more a sorting hat process than ruthless culling) on Sundays 12th and 19th of January from 1pm at the Quay Theatre, lasting around two hours.  Everyone will get a chance to perform, do exercises, help create the work - but for those two sessions I will not know precisely how it will look.  We will test out material and ideas and then I will have a play and see what I want to do with everything/one.  Then there will be three more group rehearsals with whoever came to the first two sessions (plus extra rehearsals for individuals) before the final performance on Monday 17th February.
So, if you'd like to get involved, or you know someone who would, do come / force others along.  Or if you'd just like to watch, come along.  Full schedule below.

You Have Been Watching - basic rehearsal / performance schedule
(Will include additional rehearsals at discretion of participants.)

OPEN REHEARSALS / WORKSHOP - Sundays 12th & 19th January from 1pm at the Quay Theatre
Anyone can turn up and get involved or just watch.

GENERAL REHEARSALS
Specifically for those who came to the first two sessions or collaborators - anyone who didn't get to the earlier sessions maybe allowed in if they ask me nicely.
Sunday 26th January from 1pm: first trials of devised/text work
ONE WEEK BREAK TO ADJUST / LEARN MATERIAL
Sunday 9th January from 1pm: adjustment and revision of devised/text work
Sunday 16th January from 1pm: technical runs
Sunday 17th January: performance in the evening - tickets available now!

Less Historic, More Ancient Crimes

The halfway mark (depending how you want to judge it, it's not quite a linear year) for Project 10/52 (starting v. soon) is Project Six - Historic Crimes.  It's a serious play - a funny in places, but also very dark.  It's based, in part, on the current scandals rocking British broadcasting, schools - anywhere where people in positions of trust have been found to have abused their positions - where people in whom we have invested public affection turn out to have dark secrets in their pasts.
I think the two possible reactions can be summed up neatly thus - when Jimmy Savile - DJ, television presenter and clearly a seriously dodgy bloke, turned out actually to be a sex offender, everyone sort of already knew or were not in the least bit surprised and so went - NO SHIT, SHERLOCK.  However, when another celebrity was accused of a similar crime, (accused, not convicted) the reaction among all my friends was - NO, NOT HIM!  This was because we liked him, liked his work and we don't want his work tainted by accusations or, if prosecuted, convictions.  (Note my careful wording to avoid libeling anyone.)
And these are the reactions to minor celebrities - what would happen if it was someone really important, someone who had real cultural capital?

Happy Birthday Shakespeare.

The play's about how a group of people would act if they found out that the secular god that is Shakespeare was guilty of some very historic crimes?  Would they tell anyone?  Would they let the truth out or would they keep silent?  If a crime is committed in the distant past, is it our duty to stand up for the victim (who cannot be helped) or leave well alone?
It is one of a long line of plays that I have written which I would call morality tales.  I tend to be a very moral writer - though only in the subject, not in the action of the plays sometimes.  To write a morality you often have to show very immoral things - show the things that the audience must judge (or not judge) as right.  Incidentally, this play will not show any of the crimes I'm forcing onto the greatest writer of all time - it will deal mostly in ideas, characters, emotion and Norman Wisdom (who will, I must assure fans, be a force for good - not that I can't libel him, he's dead - I just wouldn't, that would be mean).