1. Present:
Geoff Guy, Oonagh Hughes, Brenda Read-Brown, John Williams, Hannah Moore, Liza Otter, Gill Horsey.
2. Apologies:
Martin Oakes, Tony Guy, Mike Babb, Richard Hughes.
3. Minutes of the last meeting
The Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
4. Matters arising
Most of the actions concerned with TADS’ change of name have been completed.
5. Treasurer's report
The financial position is still sound, with little change from the last meeting:
Cash £82.05
Current account £433.77
Deposit account £4468.45
Total £4984.27
It is likely that AREP rehearsals will result in a surplus of around £80 in subs. We need to arrange the sharing of all proceeds with the Mediaeval Society. Brenda handed over a cheque in payment of rehearsal subs for OTWAP.
Action:
Richard Hughes to discuss with the Mediaeval Society how proceeds fro AREP are to be shared.
6. Previous productions
Brenda gave her director’s report for OTWAP (attached). It was agreed that OTWAP should be entered for the Cheltenham One Act Play festival next March. Geoff suggested that Brenda should look at dates of further rounds of the national one act play competition (of which Cheltenham is the first round) in case OTWAP should progress.
Brenda felt that she could not direct Ring Round the Moon for the Tuckwell Festival if there were any possibility that OTWAP might get past the first round of the national competition, although it might be possible to present the full-length version of OTWAP at the Tuckwell.
Many people have asked if we are going to present OTWAP again, and the Cheltenham Literature Festival production date (14th October) should be shown prominently on the website.
Brenda was given a vote of congratulations.
Actions:
Brenda to ask Martin to ensure that the LitFest production date was publicised.
Brenda to find dates of future rounds of the national one act play competition.
7. Present productions
A Ryght Evil Place
Richard was promised 20 re-enactors, but in fact there will probably be only 6. Although the production will still be quite a spectacle, this lack of warriors will detract a little, and Richard feels a bit let down. No more cast members can be added from within TADS because of the difficulty in obtaining costumes. We can learn from this experience.
8. Next productions
Hannah felt that if anyone is going to direct The Threepenny Opera, it should probably be Richard. Instead, she would like to direct Pygmalion, probably the play she knows best. Hannah would like to set it a little earlier than 1914 (when it was written) and include some songs to be sung while scenes are changed. She wants to take a naturalistic approach; she has ideas for a set but would need Richard’s help. Hannah was encouraged to ask for help from anyone who might provide it.
The licence would cost £56 per performance, which is reasonable.
The challenges Hannah envisages are
TADS has already presented this play, but this was about 14 years ago.
Lots of appropriate costumes will be needed, and we’ll have to hire them.
On the other hand, this play is likely to appeal to a range of audiences and could be shown as a Saturday matinee.
Hannah plans readings to cast the play, and would start rehearsals in September. Brenda was a little anxious that this might make future productions of OTWAP more difficult, but it was agreed that these difficulties could be overcome.
It was agreed that Hannah should proceed with Pygmalion as our next major production. It was suggested that we should have a fund-raiser that was directly related to the play, for example, singing some of the songs in local pubs; this would keep the idea of the play in people’s minds as well as raising cash.
9. Any other business
There is still no information about GDA subs.
The GDA AGM will be on 26th September. Several members plan to attend.
10. Next meeting
The next meeting will be on 30th July, in the Morecambe Room, starting at 7 pm., with a readthrough of Pygmalion immediately afterwards.
Action:
Oonagh to ensure that the next meeting is included in the Roses’ diary.
The meeting closed at 9.15 p.m.
…………………………………
Oonagh Hughes (Chairman)
Once this was a poet
Director’s report
This was a production that seemed doomed to failure. The original leading man and the original stage manager dropped out. A supporting man was found only after an appeal to the Martin Oakes find-an-actor service. The leading lady moved to Yeovil. The supporting actress’s mother died; later her boyfriend had a heart attack. Oh, and the leading lady injured her back, and the new leading man moved house. At first reading, the play – which had already been cut – was found to be 15 minutes over the 50-minute limit.
But we ended up with a magnificent cast (Paula Fancini-Hooper, Ian Bishop, Joe Durrant, and Pam Jell) and crew (Martin Oakes and Hannah Moore). Liza very kindly provided a rehearsal space.
Paula and Ian found, to their surprise, that all the poems in the play, which had been written to be learned and performed, were actually quite easy to learn and perform. And, from the first rehearsal, when they made me laugh and cry, I knew that as long as we could cut the play without destroying it, we would be on to a winner. Paula’s range and ability to move the audience was consistently impressive. Ian’s ability to, as the adjudicator said, show the light fading from him, made his performance seem amazingly natural. Both Ian and Paula handled the nude scene with enthusiasm, aplomb and sensitivity. Joe stunned us all with the conviction of the first line he ever spoke with TADS: You f***ing poets, you f***ing come in here…etc. And Pam handled perfectly the tricky business of sitting silently for ages, but then being in exactly the right place at the right time.
Martin, as usual, got the sound and lighting spot on, and Hannah doubled her SM rôle as props mistress and calmer of nerves.
And we ended up with – well, all the prizes that were going, more or less; a comment from the adjudicator that we were quite a way ahead of the second prize winner; and an audience who really cared about what was happening to these two very far from perfect people.
I have given the Treasurer a cheque for the £36 collected in rehearsal subs, but I’m afraid that this won’t cover the cost of getting all the trophies inscribed.
However, Sara-Jane Arbury, who programmes the Voices Off events at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, was in the audience. She has asked us to perform OTWAP as part of the Festival this autumn, on October 14th (please note change from original date!). For this, TADS will receive a donation from the Festival of £200. I’m delighted that we will not only make a profit – unusual for a one-act play – but, more importantly, have a chance to put the play on again.
This has been a fantastic experience for me, and I’ll always be grateful to the cast and crew for bringing life, and such powerful life, to my story.