I haven't blogged on here for several months now, mainly because I can't seem to make the time to keep up with all the online forums, websites, blogs, social networks etc. However, I have made my mind up that I will try to write at least a short blog on here more regularly, since I have not yet maintained a regular output for my interest in amateur drama. I have been a member of the same local society for the past 20 years ( it doesn't sound so long if I say it quietly) and therefore have a certain loyalty towards the place. Also, this society (Bilton Amateur Dramatic Society) is the place I met my husband - we both have such fond memories of all our years together there. As with all groups of people, there are those that stay and the "drifters" or one-play members. We are constantly struggling for new members and whenever anyone actually turns up at the theatre, we are over the moon!
I must explain that we are also in the fortunate position of having our own theatre. Not that we own it, you understand (although that idea is always in my dreams), but the building is held in trust for us to use it as a theatre for as long as the society exists. This does have drawbacks, as well as benefits. We, the members, are responsible for the maintenance of the theatre and obviously we have to pay for electricity, gas, water and insurance of the building and contents. We also need to maintain the grassed area to the side of the theatre which is used by our patrons as a car park.
Here is a photo of our little theatre seen from the driveway leading up to it:
Over the years since I joined BADS, I have acted, directed, prompted, stage managed, built sets, painted and decorated sets, built props, helped out front-of-house and anything else that has been required at the time. My favourite role is that of an actress, naturally - why else does anyone join a dramatic society in the first place? However, we certainly do not have the luxury of being able to pick and choose what we do and when - it's usually all hands on deck and hope for the best. It is my turn to produce and direct the next play. This will not be performed until January, so you probably think that's a long way away. However, in order to direct a play successfully there are one or two things you must get right first. 1. Establish who is available. There's absolutely no point whatsoever in selecting a play for production with a cast of 22 when you only have 6 members in the society to begin with and 2 of those are only there to collect money and make the refreshments on performance nights! 2. Once you have got a rough idea of who is available (ensuring that you make it clear to all involved that they will be needed for rehearsing twice a week for up to 3 months)and what jobs everyone is actually willing to do in order to help with the production, then you can start looking for a play. As I said earlier, there are not so many members within the society these days, so we have dispensed with the old-fashioned practice of holding auditions for plays. We all know each other's capabilities and suitability for any role - plus we are all mature enough to know our limitations for anything requiring that little bit extra (such as a different accent, for example - some members simply cannot "do" accents - not a problem, really). Other jobs are always available for anyone not cast in a particular play, especially if there is a set to be built- that is the longest and hardest job of all, in my opinion. In recent times we have concentrated on performing with a curtain set - in other words, the stage is decorated only with black curtains from top to bottom and at stage left and right. This simplifies things in some respects, but it does limit your choice of play somewhat. Here are some previous examples of curtain sets that we managed to do with a combination of scenery as well:
In the play above, I am standing at the left of the photo as you look at it, holding on to my husband, Keith, who is playing the part of a director in a play. The play was called "Easy Stages", written by Nick Warburton. It is a spoof of an amateur dramatic society's production of hamlet, which is the reason for the "Castle Walls" at the back of the set (painted by yours truly, of course). This play was a lot of fun to be in, but required an awful lot of meticulous planning to ensure everything went as smoothly as possible in order to make the play within the play seem chaotic. We recently read it again at a play reading event when we were joined by a couple of new members. On the same evening as we performed Easy Stages, we were joined by members of our Youth Section who performed two one act plays - "In Need Of Care" and "Departure" .
This is the set for In Need Of Care - which was the same curtain set for Easy Stages, only the two outer castle walls have been covered up with black curtains and the middle curtain is now showing the inside of a disused farm outbuilding. This play was set in the 1960s, I think the two young lads really enjoyed wearing their "Beatles" wigs!
The 3rd play which we performed on this night was also done by the Youth Section, this time we covered the whole of the set up and simply used some blue folding chairs to depict an airport lounge area.
In contrast to these, here is a play which was set in a drawing room - the paintings on the wall behind me (yes, that's me with the short red bob) were meant to be forgeries of famous paintings, so I chose some that I liked! Can you tell me what those paintings are called, I wonder? 
Anyway, I am currently searching for plays to read at play readings and also that may be possible for us to perform. I am considering one-act plays, since they solve a few problems in terms of getting everyone involved and still having people available to do back-stage work. However, one act plays are also tricky to organise at rehearsal times, so I may end up picking a full length play. I am going to the library in Hull tomorrow to try and pick a few for reading and I have ordered several from the play publishers we use regularly, Samuel French. I will try and update you on my progress as time goes on, but as you can see from this post, I don't do things by half, so you may be in for a lengthy read!
