Knox Academy Drama Department J Naples-Campbell

The Casting Process - Timing Is Everything

The time line for work here at Pitlochry Festival Theatre begins much earlier than most people realise. As the 2007 season is opening we are already solidifying the programme for 2008. In any given year the Artistic Director will normally direct 2 of the season plays whilst the remaining 4 are directed by invited guest directors. The team of Directors will create a breakdown of the characters involved in all 6 plays and the types of actors they will need to play them. This is released to agents across the UK and actors are invited to submit their CV’s. The company is usually made up of between 18-22 actors depending on the shows and the character breakdowns, in every season we will receive many thousands of CV applications. The CV’s are then processed and a short list of actors is invited to audition in London or Edinburgh over the winter. To give an indication of just how many applicants we have, lets look at one run of characters from this season. (Remember there are 18 – 20 of these each season) One actress was required to play the following roles: Mirren (Passing Places) Dinah (Philadelphia Story) & Beatie (Magistrate)

Over 400 CV’s were received for this one place! (The light grey boxes behind this text)

24 actresses were short listed and auditioned…

...and just one was finally chosen!

At any one time 80% of them will NOT be

working as an actor!

There are over 60,000 actors in

the United Kingdom.

This process is repeated for most of the cast runs, although a few familiar faces to Pitlochry are given personal invitations to perform in the season. The selected company arrives in Pitlochry in March to begin rehearsals of the first four shows. The actors are expected to learn multiple parts at once - sometimes rehearsing two different plays in the same day and, later in the season, performing two different plays on the same day. We try to balance the workload so that an actor who is a lead role in one play will be a smaller role in another. To make sure we are ready for the opening night our cast work up to a six day week any time between 10 am and 10pm – usually working 43 hours a week. This does not include time spent at home learning lines and working out character histories for all there roles!

Rehearsals Begin

The rehearsal process is very complex and depending on the demands of the production, the Artistic Director can employ a number of specialists to assist him. Passing places rehearsals required the following staff: Director - Ken Alexander Drives the vision of the piece, directs actors and guides the team to

realise his vision. Stage Manager - Nick Trueman Provides all materials required for the rehearsal process including rehearsal props & furniture and oversees the stageing of the production when transferred to the stage Deputy Stage Manager - Maggie Lyndsay Co-ordinates the book for the performance – assisting in rehearsals, providing prompts to actors and notes to the technical and production teams then running the show from prompt corner when transferred to the stage. Assistant Stage Manager – Gillian Marchbank Assists the stage manager and “runs” (is in charge of props and actors in the wing when transferred to the stage. While rehearsals progress, the design process is also in full swing.

The Design Process - Working in Repertoire

PFT runs a Repertoire system of performance. This means the theatre presents a season of plays, with a different play on stage each day. To this end, our production team have to reset the stage each day with a totally different floor, set, and lighting design– this is called a turnaround. There are also turnarounds between the matinee and evening performances every Wednesday, Saturday and various other weekdays throughout the season. During these two turnarounds the team of 6 – 8 production staff have only 2 hours to complete the task. To enable us to work a repertoire system we have to take many elements into consideration at the design stage: • Design concept/Directorial vision • Budget • Storage space • Materials and expertise required to build • And, most importantly can the finished product be built or dismantled

in the space of 1 hour for the matinee turnarounds?

Design Team :

Set Design - Charles Cusick-Smith Visually realise the ideas the director has about how the play should look and be represented. Costume Design - Charles Cusick-Smith Designs costumes in keeping with the set and the ideas of the director. As is the case with Passing Places, the costume designer and the set designer are often the same person. Lighting Design - Ace McKinnon Creates the Lighting plan for all lights used in the entire season. Uses lighting effects to visually enhance the set and costumes and create the atmosphere required by the action and content of the script. Sound Design - Ronnie McConnell The creator of the musical/ aural elements of a production, helping create the atmosphere required by the action and the script and compliment the live effects performed by the acting company.

Set & Costume Design :

The production design process is a lengthy one, starting at least six months and often as much as 10 months before the production starts. This process begins when the Designer is engaged. Discussion between the Director and Designer take place about the artistic concept. The Head of Production & Resources advises the Designer about the budget and resources available at the theatre. The Designer makes an initial scale model of the set known as a “white card” model, modifying this as the design progresses. The final version is an exact full colour, scale miniature of the set complete with furniture and props, rather like a doll's house! Once the Director and Designer are happy with the model it is passed to the Production Team, who calculates how much it will cost to build. The Production Team has to work within very tight budgets set at the beginning of the year. If the set proves too expensive, the Director and Designer will have to make changes so that the set comes within the budget.

Once the design is finalised the Designer will produce a full colour model and working drawings. The carpenters, scenic artists, stage management and wardrobe department can then begin work on the set, props and costumes.

The full colour scale model (Ratio 1:25)

Set Design:

Charles Cusick-Smith designed the set of Passing Places to encompass Alex and Brian’s whole journey from Motherwell to Thurso.

The initial visual impact of the set reflects the sometimes claustrophobic urban landscape. By using a combination of hatches, flaps and sliders the action can flow from scene to scene very quickly.

As the boys’ journey progresses, the world around them opens up, as does the set, revealing a glimpse of open space and sky. The further North the boys travel, the “wider” the open landscape becomes.

To make this concept work visually, the Set designer and Lighting designer had to work closely together to create the full backdrop for the cast to populate with the many colourful characters Alex and Brian encounter.

The Build :

All our sets are constucted from scratch in our Workshop, with each set taking on average 1000 man hours to build and paint although some are decidedly more complex than others. In an average season we use… £800 worth of screws & Nails 300 Sheets of 8x4 ft plywood & MDF 6km of 3x1 inch timber! 50 Litres of paint A whole host of materials ranging from motorbike parts to Builders insulation foam, carpet, corrugated cardboard to motorway conduit can be used. Once the sets are built, they are passed to the team of Scenic Artists, who then employ many skills and techniques to create many different styles and effects. The scenic artists have to work closely with the carpenters as they are jointly responsible for making a set look exactly like the designer’s model, only 25 times larger!

Passing Places- before painting

They use a many different techniques and effects like stencilling, dry brushing, spraying, carving and sculpting to get the exact match to the model. One technique used regularly on set and costume is “Breaking Down” This involves making things look old, dirty or worn out: usually achieved on the set by painting on “grime and dirt.” All staff in the workshop have to wear appropriate protective clothing when using any materials which may be hazardous. This means that every single material and substance, every painting & sculpting process must go through a rigorous series of Safety checks and risk assessments before the scenic artists can even start on the set!

Passing Places- Spray painting in progress

Music & Sound Design :

The director works with the sound team to select music and sound effects which are then pieced together to create the sound-scape for the play. From scene change music to explosions, each sound is there to help set the scene for the audience – to immerse them in the boys’ world. With digital recording, and editing, Computer based sound mixing for shows is a very high tech art. However we still need the human element to press the right buttons at the right time!

Lighting Design:

Pitlochry is unique in UK theatre as the lighting design is made for the whole season, not just one play, in other words all six plays are considered at the same time. There is a general “rig”(The term used for all the lights that are used and where they are positioned) which covers all areas of the stage for all plays, then a special “show specific” rig with lights & effects set for each individual show. In the same way as the set design is created well in advance, so to are the lighting designs which are given to the Chief Electrician (Chief LX) and his team who prepare the lighting “rig” for the forthcoming season. To ensure all production requirements are met, the Lighting Designer attends production meetings with the Directors, Designers and Heads of Department and regularly attends rehearsals, particularly towards the end of the rehearsal period when full runs are being rehearsed. In the last week of rehearsals the final “tweaks” are made to lighting rig. During the production week the Lighting Designer will have a specific period of time with the finished set on stage to plot all effects and cues with the director and lighting (LX) operator.

This is carried out in great detail : how many seconds the fade out will be, lighting focused on a set area to within an inch, This attention to detail is essential to allow the LX team to reproduce every effect exactly, in the repertoire season. The designer fine tunes this during the technical rehearsals and will attend a number of performances during the run to make sure all is as it should be – which it invariably is! The lighting in Passing Places is essential, not only to set the scene & show the passage of time, but also to reflect the mood and atmosphere of each scene.

Great use is made of the sky cloth or Cyclorama (cyc for short)– this is a huge white cloth that is tightly stretched around the entire back of the stage to give the illusion of open sky.

For Passing Places this was then spray painted to give the effect of clouds and with the use of different lighting effects can indicate clouds floating by, the sun setting, stormy weather and so on.

The Wardrobe Team : Wardrobe Supervisor - Julie Carlin In charge of all aspects of costume making from research to fittings,

material purchase and Budgets to staff hours. Deputy Wardrobe Supervisor - Iona Bollington Assists the Supervisor, buys clothes and makes and alters many of the costumes Assistant Cutter - Sophie Toulouze Drafts a pattern to the actor's size and cuts the material for each costume. Dressers - Shiela Napier & Helen Walter Clean, repair and maintain all costumes, wig dressing, preset all costumes & assist with quick changes during shows and.

Costumes

With 18 actors playing over 80 characters between them (many of whom have 5 or 6 costumes in each play) there is somewhere in the region of 400 costumes in this season alone. Every one of these is either created or altered in what we call our Wardrobe department. With costumes ranging from modern day in Passing Places to the 1700’s in Flouers o’ Edinburgh by way of wartime Berlin in Taking Sides, the Wardrobe Team has a huge workload. Depending on the style, requirements and budget of a production, the Wardrobe department will use or adapt costumes from our extensive stores, hire or buy costumes or make an entire costume from scratch. Before a costume is started, the supervisor will research, in conjunction with the designer, information, pictures and materials relating to the style and period required. The cutter will draft a pattern to the actor's size and cut the material and the team will then sew the costumes together. During this process the actor will be continually fitted with their costume to make sure that it is going to be comfortable for them to move and act in. Most of the costumes for Passing Places were easy to find as it is a contemporary piece set here in Scotland.

The Story behind the Lada:

A large part of the action in Passing Places takes place inside a car – the LADA. It therefore seemed likely that the one thing the designer would definitely need was ......... a LADA! So when the chance to “acquire” one came along, just after the play list for the season

was announced, we jumped at it.

After designer Charles Cusick-Smith began to explain his ideas for the set however, it became obvious that the LADA was not going to be needed after all. So what to do with an old clapped out wreck of a car? The marketing Department decided to use it as a focal point for advertising the play. It was parked on the grass outside the theatre overlooking the river, beside a Passing Places sign and covered in advertising posters. Then someone came up with the idea of setting up a website for it . “www.ladacam.com” was born! On this site you can watch a time delay image of the LADA and anyone who investigates it!

Making the LADA a “happy” car!

Within the course of the play, the boys’ LADA is ”made happy” with a new paint job by Serge. So midway through the season we decided to reflect this with our own car and asked pupils from Pitlochry High School Art class to come along and “customise” our LADA, the results of which can be viewed outside the theatre and on www.ladacam.com, and “You tube”

The Future of the LADA:

By registering online at www.ladacam.com anyone can have the chance to win the LADA at the end of the season, so who knows what journeys lie ahead for the LADA on the lawn!

Did You Know ?

• The production team have only one technical

rehearsal of each show before it opens.

• Each set takes on average 1,000 man hours to

construct and paint and on average only 1 hour to

build or remove from the stage before each

performance!

• This season, over 200 metres of fabric have been

used to create the dresses in The Flouers o’ Edinburgh alone!

• Every costume has its own hanger- that’s only 400 hangers!

• Our 18 actors wear almost 150 pairs of shoes between them as they tred the

boards this season.

• Stage management pride themselves on doing it in the dark!

• The PFT rehearsal process begins with the first 4 plays all being worked on at the

same time. – actors can work a 6 day week, and up to three sessions a day from

10.30am till 9pm, on 4 different plays.

• Patterned wallpaper on sets is often hand stencilled, with up to 4 different hand

cut stencils & colours and 5000 repetitions!

• There are more wheels under this season’s sets

than there are seats in the auditorium

• Last year we had an actual heated swimming pool

on stage containing 12 tonnes of water, we filled

or emptied in just 20 minutes! (that’s about 2

household bathfuls every minute)

• From the stage every seat and audience member

in the front section can be seen clearly, so yes the actors can see when you are

eating…talking…or sleeping!

General Information Setting

• A large part of Scotland is covered, from Motherwell to Thurso via Skye, Ullapool and Tongue.

• An unusually large number of locations are specified, indoors and outdoors, in a car, etc.

• The characters sometimes provide a description of the scene, either from what they are seeing in front of them or from the guide book and map.

Set, props, lighting, sound, costume

• The sets present the director and designer with a major problem. • There are so many scenes that the temptation is to avoid being

representational at all costs. Yet certain pieces are essential – the shop counter, the car, Tom’s office, etc.

• Some props are more than just dressing, they are essential parts of the plot – the car, the surf board and the gun, for example.

• Lighting could make up for a lack of scenery, particularly in scenes where it will create mood and atmosphere – the camp fire, the ceilidh and the Thurso beach, for example.

• Sound too is used to set the scene – the shop door bell, the seagulls, the car engine, the jet plane and the off-stage ceilidh.

• The larger than life characters demand appropriately outrageous costume. Serge is described as ‘Eric Cantona dressed by Salvador Dali’ and similar inventiveness would be required to dress Diesel, Shaper and Binks at least.

• Visual effects are important, for example the car’s new paintwork and the car on fire.

Language

• The language is basically realistic – that of contemporary young people. • Most have the dialect of the western Central Belt in Scotland. • Some have traces of their ethnic origins – Serge has a few, not very

convincing French phrases; Iona has an occasional Americanism; Diesel is English.

• The swearing is used for both realism and for comic effect. • Brian sometimes sounds as if he is quoting from a book, the little bits of

knowledge he has gleaned from the library: ‘Mr. Binks is subject to a bizarre paranormal phenomenon…’.

• Some passages (Scene 30, for example) have a poetic quality, even though the vocabulary is still that of the lad in the street. The poetry comes from the rhythms and the pictures created in the mind rather than from any use of poetic or picturesque language.

• Stephen Greenhorn gives his characters an awareness of language and its significance: Alex can’t say ‘beautiful’ at first, but he can say ‘chudovyj’ because he doesn’t know that it means ‘beautiful’.

Comedy, wit and humour

• This is a predominantly comic play. • Much of the comedy lies in the bantering, cynical views expressed the

characters. Often this hides an emotion that they can’t express any other way. • The play offers numerous types of comedy.

– Puns (the ladder/Lada confusion); the unexpected (‘he’s my father’); – Stating a familiar truth wittily (‘The library! Hang out for pensioners who can’t pay their gas bills.’); – Twisting a familiar idea (‘wearing flowery shirts, chasing birds grass skirts, drinking Buckie out of half-coconuts’); – A ludicrous situation (Alex hands a baseball bat to a youth who wants to assault him); – Bizarre images (a man carrying a surf board while riding a motorcycle); – Mad logic (Binks won’t pay Alex the wages due to him because they were in the stolen till);

– Insults (‘Saw you dancing with Brian … Any broken toes?’). Acting style/techniques

• It is important to capture a realistic, naturalistic quality in the acting. These are ordinary people in an extraordinary situation.

• This naturalism must be maintained against non-naturalistic settings. • Even the monologues (Alex’s morning walk in Thurso; Brian’s computer

disaster) have a naturalistic sound and feel. • Dialogue is often brisk and witty, like a stage routine. • The actors address the audience sometimes, setting the scene. • Occasionally two scenes run simultaneously (Brian’s computer monologue

intercut with Alex and Mirren’s conversation; Tom and Brian in the office intercut with Alex and Mirren in the kitchen).

Actor/audience relationships • The actors sometimes speak directly to the audience. • The filmic nature of the play’s structure may make the audience feel cheated,

thinking that they are missing out on the greater impact a film or television production could bring to certain moments – the shop window being smashed, the mountains, the sea and the car. In a play produced in a bare, non-realistic style, audiences accept, for example, that four chairs represent a car. But then what about the dramatic revealing of Serge’s paint job?

• Audience laughter in a play that is constantly funny helps to shape the flow of the action.

Stage directions • Stephen Greenhorn leaves most decisions about staging to the director and

designer. • He gives indications of how scenes should be paced – ‘A beat’, ‘Pause’, ‘Boy

swithers’ and ‘Binks schemes’. • There are few descriptions of the physical appearance of the characters.

Relevance to Scottish society

• The play is all about Scotland and Scottish society. – The juxtaposition of beauty in the landscape and ugliness in the towns. – The juxtaposition of new technology and primitive living conditions. – The poverty of many young people. – A lack of employment. – A lack of purpose, even in well-educated young people. – Violence and crime. – Ambition, inventiveness and poetry. – The isolation of young people. – New social groupings. – Multi-ethnicity.

Target audience

• The play is clearly intended to be of interest particularly to Scots, • especially to the young, the unsettled and the unemployed, • and to those who are interested in the developing Scotland – the diversity of

influences from the past, the conflicting pressures in the present, the changing relationships within society, the changing expectations regarding education, employment and life-styles.

Overview

• The play progresses chronologically. It represents a rite of passage for several of the characters, particularly Alex, Brian and Mirren.

• There are fifty-four Scenes, giving the effect of a cinematic structure. This technique pushes the storyline on quickly. It builds up a sense of tension.

• There is a dramatic tension, too, created by the inter-cutting between the Binks scenes and the others. Binks is in constant pursuit, getting more and more agitated. The other characters have frequent breaks, voluntary or otherwise and become less and less agitated.

• The play has numerous descriptions of places, comments on historical incidents and stories about the past which all contribute to a sense of Scotland’s place in the world – geographically and historically.

• New characters are introduced throughout. • Some interesting characters make only a brief appearance. • Six different nationalities are involved – Scottish, English, Canadian, French,

Cornish and Ukrainian. The fact that Mo is specifically Cornish rather than just English underlines the impatience many Scots feel about being lumped in with the rest of Britain as if they were all one race. The Cornish and the Scots are ethnic minorities in Britain. The unseen Ukrainians were ethnic minorities in

the USSR. They are also a reminder of the contacts Scotland has with the big outside world as well as providing a useful foreign word, chudovyj.

For the exam!

Social, political and religious dimensions Social background and conditions.

• Brian is out of work, Alex in a dead-end job because of the poverty of Motherwell.

• Only the criminals, like Binks, make a living. • Alex thinks education is a waste of time. Brian has more hopes of it. • Comfortable housing, good food and material comforts are not generally

available. • American and Australian influences are replacing Scottish culture.

Nationalism.

• Brian and Alex have an ambivalent attitude to their native land, defensive of it but ashamed of much that is done in the name of Scotland.

• They mock the ‘shortbread tin’ image. • They are ignorant of their history. • They are surprised by the diversity of cultures within Scotland.

Industrial relations and the workplace.

• The only employee in the play is Alex, and he was only that for five Scenes. His relationship with his boss was based on terror.

• Most of the other characters have found happiness by opting out of the work ethic.

• The most successful worker, in economic terms, is Tom who has achieved his success by keeping away from workplaces and relying on himself and the new technologies.

• The industries that have been successful in the past have let Scotland down – coal, steel, ship-building and nuclear power.

• The new industries are oil and tourism. • Oil has brought material wealth but little happiness, as Iona testifies. Now

even the wealth is disappearing as the oil industry hits hard times. • Tourism thrives on a distortion of the real Scotland. Visitors are led to expect

bagpipes and heather, lonely hills and empty glens, medieval castles and monarchic deer. The reality, which tourists don’t see, is decaying town centres, poverty and the worst health record in the civilised world.

Political theatre as entertainment

• The play is very entertaining but this does not detract from the clarity and power of its political statement.

• There is a minor area of entertainment in the ceilidh, especially Iona’s song. It makes the political point that much of Scotland’s cultural heritage seems foreign to her citizens.

• The major area is the comedy much of which is directly aimed at political targets: poverty, city centre blight, etc.

• Binks’s scenes have a farcical quality, combining knock-about humour with real violence.

• Binks’s stupidity is funny but it is frightening too because he is the character wielding most power.

Distribution of wealth.

• Apart from Binks, Alex and Brian meet no one who has wealth. • Iona had a good living in Aberdeen but she has rejected it. • Mirren could earn a high salary in the electronics industry but she has

rejected it. • Tom has a good income but he chooses to live where he can spend little.

Relationship between the individual and the establishment.

• Those who might be expected to be part of the establishment, the educated (Tom, Mirren, Brian), have chosen to be outsiders.

• The organised life of society appeals to none of the characters in the play. They have all rejected urban life in favour of the freedom of rural living.

• They are all living on a stratum of society which appears to be unaffected by the instruments of the establishment – the police, the social services, shops, the church, the media. Only Binks has any contact with organised society – the lollipop lady, the petrol pump attendant, a tourist.

Devices used to communicate social and political messages.

• The various stations along the route are places of happy noncomformity: the travellers’ camp, Skye, the Ullapool ceilidh, Tom’s house and the Shaper’s workshop.

• The people Alex and Brian meet all have a message to impart. • The evils of society are represented by the violence: Alex’s mugging, Binks’s

ferocity and the destruction of the car. Even Alex is part of this culture at first, smashing the shop window and stealing the surf-board.

• The ways of life rejected by the characters they meet represent areas that limit personal freedom – the army, industry, education and employment. Binks’s single-minded stupidity reveals the dangers and weaknesses inherent in a society based on greed and selfishness.

Use of history, nostalgia and popular tradition Historical accuracy.

• Stephen Greenhorn scatters little items of information about he history (and geography) of Scotland throughout the play.

• They are never obtrusive but their accuracy gives the play a solid basis for the arguments built on them.

Growth and decline of industry.

• Always in the background of the play are the failures of Scotland’s industries: coal, steel, ship-building and nuclear power.

• Oil has been growing but is now likely to decline. • Tourism is a growth industry at present but is it doing harm not only to the

physical countryside but to the soul of the nation? It depends upon broadcasting a false image of the country and its people.

• Electronics, the home office and teleworking may offer some hope for the future but our expectations, based on historical experience, are that these too will decline in their turn.

Romanticism.

• The image of Braveheart lurks round every rock in the Highlands. • The scenery encourages a myth of the splendid savage hiding in the hills.

Use of Scottish music, song and dance.

• Iona’s song, Scene 35, performed in a language the Scots cannot understand, by a girl born and educated abroad.

• The off-stage ballad in the same Scene provides the backing for Mirren’s dance with Alex, an important stage in their relationship.

Variety, pantomime and farce.

• Binks’s behaviour frequently recalls the techniques of variety theatre (the ladder/Lada routine, for example).

• The theft of the ice-lolly borders on farce.

Satire • Binks is made a figure of ridicule, even though he represents a genuine evil in

society. Celebrations, rituals, social gatherings.

• The ceilidh in Scene 35, though off-stage, creates the mood that helps Alex to relax.

• It also provides a credible setting for the songs

Issues of gender Relationships.

• Alex and Mirren take most of the play to move from outright hostility to a hint of friendship. There is, even at the end of the play, nothing sexual in their relationship.

• Diesel ends his relationship with Mirren gently but firmly because he knows that she has nothing more to learn with the travellers. She has her own journey to make.

Women and power.

• Remarkably, almost all the ‘gurus’ are male – Serge, Diesel, Tom and Frank. The only woman in the same category is Iona.

Men and masculinity.

• Alex begins the play with an archetypically male-behaving badly outlook – work if he must, drink when he can and never look to the future. Over the length of the play he becomes less aggressive, more thoughtful and more sensitive. He can now say ‘beautiful’ and he would even like to learn to say it in other languages.

REMEMBER TO GO THROUGH THE TEXT AND GET AS MANY QUOTES AS POSSIBLE FOR YOUR ESSAY!!!

This play could be linked with Black Watch or Women of Lockerbie through use of Social, political and religious dimensions.