Realising a Metal Harvest

Concept artwork for the original,
unrealised production

After the chaos of so many shows last year, this year has so far been quite straightforward.  A few productions, one a revival, and mostly I'm editing and shaping work, not actively writing.  But even so, I'm mostly reacting to events, putting shows together at the last minute (i.e. with a few months notice) rather than properly planning ahead.  There was a time when I planned 18 months ahead (even if not everything happened as planned - see the Seldom plan in posts ad passum) and could get my ducks properly in a row.  Here starts the planning.

One of the shows I didn't do last year was titled Metal Harvest and I was gutted that it fell by the wayside - it's a simple show in many ways, but it's a bitch to get right.  It's a storytelling/character/music piece about the life cycle of a shell from the First World War.  I was going to be performing it on the 100th anniversary of Britain entering the war, but it makes more sense to be doing it a hundred years after 1915 - an hundred years after the shell crisis and big changes to how munitions were created.  All sounds a bit dry, but the shell is a pretext to tell the stories of those who handle it.
And then there's the music.  On Wednesday I had a meeting with Richard Fawcett, who's composing and arranging the score (as well as playing a mean fiddle), and I'm glad to report the show is on - and it's already sounding really, really good.  We've worked together on music for a couple of shows now - the last being for The Passion which would have been a completely different show without the musical interplay.  We've been talking about this show for almost eighteen months now and for the first time I've been able to present him with an outline text, so that his musically ideas can now fill gaps between scenes, create physical sections, create atmospheres and push me to create new words.  To say I left feeling fairly buzzed would be an understatement.
I then walked down the road to the Quay Theatre and pitched the show to the coordinator and we have a date for a first performance penciled in (subject to fate etc.)  I'm hoping to run a limited tour after this first show, taking in some of the venues I've toured with Everyman, as well as any other places that come our way.  I'd also like to fully document the show, video and audio, so that it has more of an afterlife.

At the same time as rehearsing this show, I'll be finishing off work on the Chester Mystery Plays for my Before Shakespeare project - and hopefully doing some writing.  I've also got some work for another company, but that's not creative per se, so doesn't eat into my time in the same way.

That covers 2015 - now to sort out 2016 - but I can't do that till I see how well the Everyman tour goes.

The Tempest Test

I'm in the middle of producing some actors' theatre.  I like actors' theatre, the opportunity to get out from the 'yolk' of director lead drama and give the cast room to breathe.  This isn't to say the show is undirected - that it isn't blocked or that I haven't been telling people what to do - it isn't even to say that there isn't an aesthetic - it's just that the aesthetic I am aiming at is general, a set of guiding principles by which all future productions might be built.  There isn't a specific directorial vision for these Scenes from The Tempest, there is a directorial vision for The Milk Bottle Irregulars, a possible new venture that I'm road testing on Monday.
The Milk Bottle Irregulars is a more cut and thrust version of the more considered productions I produce as plain old Milk Bottle.  MBI is actors on stage, it's nuts and bolts, it's simple and direct.
But Monday isn't a full production anyway - it is but a few scenes from The Tempest.  It is, as advertised, an experiment.  An experiment to see how to make simple theatre and make it swiftly, and yet to keep it to a high standard.  To do this, we cheat.  And there are several ways we are cheating.  But I'm not going to go into that, because they're our cheats, so there.  (Blows raspberry!)  The experiment is to see how distracting our cheats are for the audience; is the final product good enough?
If all goes to plan, this will be the beginning of a regular pattern of work for Milk Bottle.  As mentioned in the last newsletter, I haven't produced a classic play under the Milk Bottle banner for nearly a decade, I've always gone to other places to do so.  This plan could mean there will be a semi regular series of one-off productions of classic drama - Shakespeare for the most part, but there are other plans - led by an irregular band of actors.
There is another reason for the Irregulars and it's a bit old fashioned.  If this test is a success we'll canvas the local schools and youth orientated organisations asking them which Shakespeare / other playwrights they might be studying next term (just checking the syllabus is hit and miss, there is some choice) and then, essentially, offering them access to a production of play/plays and free tickets.  Not discounted tickets, free tickets.  Not an infinite number, but enough for a class or two.  It's that rather old school idea that an education should be rounded; that the young should get to see drama, not just read it; that, as a company, we should reach out to the community and to the young.
Not only that, but the tickets on general sale will be as close to dirt cheap as I can manage.  Because theatre should be for everyone, not just those lucky enough to have deep pockets.

The Milk Bottle Irregulars Presents

Scenes from The Tempest

By William Shakespeare

Usurped and exiled Duke of Milan, Prospero, lives alone on an Island with his daughter Miranda and his books – with which he can cast spells and dark magic.  Using his powers he shipwrecks his enemies and plans his return home, but will he forgive those who have worked against him or destroy them?

Monday 22^nd April at 8.30pm

Free Entry – wait in the Quay Bar prior to show – duration 1 hour

To put your name on the guest list – email: contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk or call: 07704 704 469