His Dark Diary

What the papers say

2006-12-20T17:00:00.000Z

Our local paper, The News, sent a critic along to the first performances of each part, and I have reproduced his review here. If you have been able to see our production, I would be very interested to hear your views on this review, whether you agree with the general thrust of it, feel something or someone else was worth mentioning or whether, in your opinion, Mr George got it all wrong.

Perhaps you would like to write your own review of the production. That would be fantastic! If you want to do so, just click on the comments link at the end of this post and type in your review there. Please be honest. What worked, what didn't work for you?

Here is what James George thought.

A quantum physicist's dream in the fight of good over evil.

BENCH Theatre's offering for the festive season, is a mighty but cumbersome beast.
It's a rip-roaring good-versus-evil tale set in a series of worlds, parallel to our own, and is, in many ways, a quantum physicist's dream. Director Damon Wakelin doesn't balk at the challenge with a cast of 37 and an enormous set-multi-levelled, multi-faceted and multi-doored – not to mention the splendid puppets.
Acting abilities vary. Add to that a not-too-perfect adaptation (much stuff considered vital by purists is gone altogether) and what are we left with? Actually, a worthy piece of work.
The beginning of Part One suffers from information overkill - facts and names thrown out like javelins - but get past this and things quickly improve.
The usual Bench acting stalwarts acquit themselves more than admirably, but the big surprises come in the form of two youngsters.
As Lyra, Charley Callaway is a feisty, gutsy heroine with a heart of gold. She gives an excellent, tell-it-as-it-is performance.
Then there's Martin McBride as hero Will. Frankly. One rarely sees so finely-crafted a performance from an experienced adult, let alone a youngster. In his work were truth and reality and effortlessness.
It's not festive, but put in the effort and you will be mightily rewarded.

So what do you think? Please send us your own take on our attempts to stage the unstageable!

Well, we're on.

2006-12-20T16:45:00.000Z

We opened last Thursday, December the 14th, almost exactly 11 months after the auditions were held. It's been a long, long journey, but now we have reached the destination.

The final preparations for the show involved a week-long period of techinacal and dress rehearsals - a considerable luxury for a company used to a single day to complete a get-in, fit-up and dry technical rehearsal, but boy did we need it!

The set itself is a monster, creating a whole new acting level around three sides of the Arts Centre space, with access via ladders, steps and a fireman's pole (much fun was had trying this out, but sadly I don't get to use it in the show itself). five extra entrance points have been created by this additional space, including two huge doors at the back which open up fully to create an extra, if very small, acting space which will be used for scenes such as Lee Scoresby's balloon and Lord Asriel's battle quarters.

It actually took us a week or so to get the set fully completed, including painting, and several large scenes had to be reblocked as new problems were discovered once in the space.

We had several dress rehearsals in this week, all completed in a space in various stages of completion, with painting, sound effects, and video projections being frantically finished for opening night. It's a bit of a cliche, but I am certain it is true that we performed our opening night with paint literally still drying on the set!

It was an intensely busy and stressful time, for everyone. John, the stage-manager, and a handful of other people put in unspeakably long hours to get everything ready. Yet through all this, what has been remarkable is the tremendous cooperative spirit amongst everyone, cast, stage-crew and technicians. This camaraderie and pulling together has been one of the most striking aspects of this whole adventure, and I don't believe I have heard a single voice raised in anger throughout.

As I write this, we have completed 5 performances, three for Part 1 and 2 for Part 2, and each one has been to a sell-out audience. This looks to be the case for the rest of the run, with only a handful of tickets left for one of the performances on the final Saturday.

Audience's have been making lots of positive noises after the show as well, which is always nice, but is possibly to be expected out of politeness. Nonetheless, one can't help picking up a tremendously positive vibe in the foyer, and it looks as though we might have actually cracked it!

A Director emerges, blinking, into the light...

2006-09-12T21:27:00.000+01:00

Work has started again on our mammoth December productions, and I thought I might give a little update and insight into how it’s all going.

The good, and heartily encouraging, news is that the whole thing seems to be coming together. Granted, we do still have a goodly chunk of text to explore but the work that is in place is already giving us cause to suggest that we might have quite a show on our hands.

The single most heartening aspect of rehearsals is the fantastic atmosphere that exists when the cast is all gathered together. Given that we have a huge cast that covers an enormous spectrum of both age and experience, the team spirit seems to be very strong throughout. It was never going to be easy to juggle the needs of 36 actors against the needs of any single rehearsal, but the combination of patience, energy and sheer willingness to work hard and to support each other has been positively heart warming.

It is also proving to be a highly enjoyable challenge, this directing lark. The show combines the epic with the intimate and the opportunities this provides to flex different directorial muscles has been quite liberating. It has been just as enjoyable and rewarding to work on the, crucial, relationship between Lyra, (Charley Callaway), and Will, (Martin McBride), as it has to painstakingly choreograph large scale set pieces such as the duel at Svalbard, (18 actors galumphing about as Armoured Bears!), and the escape from Bolvangar – an enormous, high impact sequence that involves every one of the cast of 36.

And then there is the weight of new skills that the cast have readily embraced. Sean, Vicky, Darryl and Zoë are imbuing their puppets with lives and characters all their own, successfully animating the inanimate. From the very start Alan and Emma have chilled the spine with their sensitive and considered development of the Angels. The emerging strain of mask work is really beginning to take shape in the hands of our tribe of Bears.

Of course, at the heart of the show is the need for us to engage the audience wholly and unreservedly in the story of one little girl; her journey from innocence to experience. Our Lyra knows the responsibility she carries and, without wishing to place any additional pressure on Charley, she is rising to every challenge that I and the production as a whole have thrown her way. Two separate rehearsals have seen us wring tears from spectators in the room. Not bad going.

Outside the rehearsal room, great strides are also being taken. Especial mention must be made of Sue Dawes and her small army of costumiers. Witches are costumed; Bearskins are being made at a furious pace; a huge collection of cold weather kit is gathered in the Bench store ready to clothe a vast array of Gyptians, children and soldiers. And then there are the cassocks! I should also mention the sterling work being led by Julie Wood on making the puppets; John Wilcox and Peter Woodward on the set: Jacquie Penrose on lights; Nathan Chapman on publicity and Jaspar Utley as Producer. And poor old Derek Callam has just accepted the burden of collating and producing the His Dark Materials thesis, sorry, programme. We have also started to see Jules and Tim appearing at rehearsals, cameras and sketchbooks in hand as they begin to generate materials for the Theatre Gallery Exhibition that will accompany the production.

As you can probably tell, there are a huge number of people involved already. But there is always room for more of you! We will need crew and Front of House; we would always welcome more pre-production support, especially for costumes and puppets. If you would like to get involved in any way, please contact Jaspar.

I would like to offer my public thanks to everyone that helped out with the workshops we ran in the Summer Holidays – another new departure for the company! - Sue, Ellie, Daisy, Frankie, Marion and Hattie for the costumes workshop; Martin for the stage fighting and Martin and Charley for the Play in a Day workshop. Run in partnership with the Arts Centre, we were able to raise a little over £200 towards the show budget.

My parting words would be; please book early! Tickets are selling at a healthy rate already and I do believe we will play to more or less Full Houses throughout. We would all hate for members to miss out on what promises to be a genuinely exciting theatrical experience. We have just been promised a two-page feature in The News at the end of September, so the public profile of the show is about to be dramatically raised and we hope there will be a commensurate increase in ticket sales.

Now, if I could only work out how to do the curtain call...

Damon Wakelin

His Dark Diary

2006-09-12T21:25:00.000+01:00

His Dark Materials

A Director emerges, blinking, into the light…

Work has started again on our mammoth December productions, and I thought I might give a little update and insight into how it’s all going.

Now, if I could only work out how to do the curtain call…

Damon Wakelin

The Poster is Ready

2006-07-27T11:06:00.000+01:00

Hurrah!

My own personal project during these initial months has been designing the production poster. This is going to be one of the first images a potential audience will see and we all felt it was important that the poster reflected the tone and scale of the production, as well as being a striking image which will grab people's attention.

We don't normally use photographic images for our productions, and very rarely do we opt for full colour, as cost can be prohibitive, but for something like His Dark Materials we are pushing the boat out.

Here is the final design.
The image has evolved tremedously in the many months it has taken to get to this point. The difficulty I found was that the plays are on such a huge scale it was tough to distil everything down to a single encapsulating image that did the production justice. A lot of discussion took place and a number of interesting ideas were offered by Damon, which eventually led to the final product.

At the end of the day I am pretty pleased with the final result. Poster design is something I enjoy a great deal, but I am completely self-taught in terms of creating the images, not being a particularly good artist, so it takes me a lot longer to get something I think we can work with.

I would be very keen to hear what you think of the design, and I look forward to seeing it printed and plastered all over Portsmouth.

Rehearsal Photos

2006-07-27T10:29:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a long while since this blog was updated, but we have now stopped for a summer break and rehearsals will resume in September. So this spare time has given me the opportunity to add some content to these pages, and here you can see some rehearsal photos. Martin (Will) is not only taking on one of the largest roles in the play, but he has also come to every rehearsal armed with his digital camera to create a pictorial record of how the production is shaping up. You can see a selection of his photos below.

Lyra encounters Iorek, cunningly disguised as a water-bottle!

Lord Boreal devoured by the Spectres

Damon directs David (Asriel), Vicky (Salcillia) and Charley (Lyra)

Constructing the Daemons...

...which begin to take on recognisable forms.

A mini coven of witches

Lyra with the Gyptians

The Blog is Out There!

2006-03-06T16:35:00.000Z

Many thanks to the lovely people at HisDarkMaterials.org for including details of our production on their website. Theirs is a fantastic site, full of information on all things Pullman, and looks great. As a small token of thanks, I have included a link to their pages on the right. Have a look at what they offer.

Resurfacing

2006-02-24T08:26:00.000Z

One of the advantages of having a large production team, is that is allows individuals to disapear from view for periods without leaving a huge gap. The Bench February show "Four Nights in Knaresborough" closed last week, meaning that several people involved in HDM have been resurfacing during the last few days, including Damon (our director) and Martin (our Will) - two pretty important people! However work has not stopped since Christmas, and when the show goes on it will owe a strong debt to the people who have been making a start on their own portfolio of tasks, holding meetings and making sure that we stand some chance of having everything organised in time for opening night. Just keeping track of who has committed to do what, and whether it gets done, is no small feat.
The start of rehearsals is an exciting time for everyone, not just those who will appear on the stage, and the rest of us should be enthused by Nathan's positive reports.
(I am glad to hear that Nathan thinks Charley is a believable youngster; at the auditions I accused her of being under 16 and have not quite recovered from the embarassment!)

First Rehearsal

2006-02-22T17:50:00.000Z

It’s not even March and already the cast have started to work together. Ahead of the first full-cast gathering this Sunday, Damon called the actors playing Will and Lyra for an introductory session last night.

I went along to take some photographs, hoping to get an image that would work as part of a poster design, and it was exciting to be present at the first rehearsal, heralding the start of a project that will be many more months in the making.

Charley (Lyra) is completely new to the company, and she and Martin (Will) didn’t audition on the same nights, so last night was the first time the two of them had met. Given that their characters have a complex, varied and intense relationship. It was an excellent idea for the two of them to meet and start working together in relative privacy, before being unveiled to the rest of the 40-strong cast.

First rehearsals can be awkward, particularly when the performers don’t know each other. Being aware of this, Damon wasted no time in breaking the ice with a series of trust-building and uninhibiting silly games and warm-ups, allowing Martin and Charley to relax and get comfortable with each other, and at the same time putting them into various daft positions!

Already the two of them seemed to be happy to work with each other (which is a relief!), and the rehearsal moved on to some text work.

Appropriately enough, Damon elected to start off with the Part One scene set in Cittagazze, which is where the two characters first meet. An excellent choice, as it meant that the slight furtiveness of two actors meeting for the first time could be capitalised on by translating it into the wariness the two characters have on their first encounter.

I had only seen Charley work briefly in the auditions, and was curious to see what she was like as a performer. I’m happy to say she seems to be very well cast. Hopefully it won’t offend her if I say that, despite being 18, she looks a few years younger, which is handy as Lyra starts off aged twelve. She also has just the right mixture of maturity and adolescent bolshiness that characterises Lyra so much in the early stages of the plays.

I’m really looking forward to watching how this pair and the rest of the cast develop in the coming months…

His Dark Diary

2006-01-15T18:40:00.000Z

His Dark Diary
So Many People!

There were a total of 37 auditionees over the two evenings, including at least three married couples, a pair of brothers and another of sisters. Damon's task now is to match these people to the many, many characters involved in the story. Only a small proportion expressed a particular preference to which character they would like to play; I'm not sure if that makes the process easier or harder. There was a remarkable amount of talent on show, from the longest serving Bench member to a good number of new faces, mostly youngsters, who generally held their own.

To make things easier we labelled everyone on arrival with their own name (stickers and marker pens) and took everybody's photograph. These are now published so that Damon has some hope of matching faces to names; sadly since the same web page includes everyone's contact information I can't make it public, but I'd like to include photographs on the web as soon as we can. (A few of Will and Lyra would be nice, don't you think?)

My time now on the project is bring funneled into the web. It will be a publicity vehicle and also an information center; by protecting a set of pages with a simple password we can create some privacy (not particularly secure but away from casual prying eyes) where we can publish everyone's contact information, meeting notes, rehearsal dates and all manner of other things. Those web pages are actually taking shape, so this evening I shall try and prod into life the main page. I've decided that it will have a different look and feel from the main Bench page, but design isn't really my forte so any feedback and suggestions would be most welcome: the page is at http://www.benchtheatre.org.uk/plays0607/hdm/ and you can email me with any ideas.

Witches and Puppets and Bears. Oh My!

2006-01-13T16:48:00.000Z

Well, it looks like we have to do this now. Nearly forty people attended the auditions over the two nights, meaning that we are able to cast the 100+ characters, albeit with a considerable amount of doubling.

The auditions were really interesting. I don't recall us as a company holding evenings quite like these before. The emphasis was very much on workshopping people and ideas, and rather than putting pressure on individuals a great deal of the work was done collectively. This was great as it meant people (particularly those new to the company) didn't feel put on the spot, allowing them to try out all the ideas. From a personal point of view, I would have found it difficult to make some of the casting decisions based on what I saw, because for all the good work produced, we only caught glimpses of what people can do with text and interaction with other performers.

However, this is a very different show, and it's probably true to say that for the majority of people auditioning we already know a lot about what they can do in the conventional acting sense. It was great to see these familiar people respond to our requests to behave differently, and to use different sets of "acting muscles".

Some very nice work was produced, and it was encouraging to see just how many performers were comfortable with the physical aspects of the work. The multi-role playing workshop produced some wonderfully entertaining results, and I think we've been able to find out what we can do for the polar bears, witches and angels. I was particularly pleased with how positively people threw themselves into these unusual tasks, and even more pleased with the ideas that people were coming out with.

Even at this early stage, there is a strong sense of ensemble and a very supportive attitude to the project, with people integrating quickly, sharing experiences, discussing ideas etc. No egos, which was very good to see.

I managed to look in on some of the puppet work at the end of the evening, and even had a go myself. Paul and Gerri are brilliant not only at bringing the puppets to life, but also at coaching the rest of us. I think some truly excellent work is going to emerge from this area of the performance, as already people were able to animate puppets of different sizes, imbuing them with characters, responses and emotions. This is so important to the success of His Dark Materials, and I am confident that we can pull it off.

The Auditions: Now It's Real!

2006-01-08T15:34:00.000Z

This week it all starts to finally happen as we have reached the audition stage. Obviously Damon, the director, has been working very hard for many months just sorting out the logistics of the task ahead, working out the numbers and just how we are going to achieve what we need to, but this has been largely a solo task up until this point.

Now, though, everyone in the company has the chance to get involved with the arrival of the auditions which take place this Monday and Thursday evening.

Even now, I can get a sense of just how different this production is going to be. There are, according to Damon's maths, 118 named roles to cast, and we are looking for a cast of at least 31 individuals, with all but two of those performers taking on several roles.

We're anticipating a great deal of interest at the audietions, and to accommodate this we have booked out the entire building at Bedhampton Arts Centre, so that we can use all three rooms.

But perhaps the most nerve-racking thing at the moment is the nagging possibility that we won't get enough people at the auditions.

As we're performing this so close to Christmas (last performance being December 23rd), there are likely to be a number of people unwilling to give up their festive break for what is going to be lots of hard work. We don't want to find ourselves in a situation where we are asking people to be involved. This can lead to people who are not totally committed to the project getting involved out of a sense of duty, rather than willingness, when really we need people who are 100% enthusiastic and excited by being involved.

The auditions themselves are going to be complex. Rather than straighforward reading of particular scenes, Damon wants to see how well people can act, operate puppets and move convincingly, so the auditions are being divided into three half-hour sections.

Acting Jacquie Penrose is going to be leading a group audition on characterisation, keeping in mind that most people will be called upon to play multiple roles. Actors need to be able to show that they can create very distinct characters so that audiences are confused by seeing the same actor in various different scenes.

Puppetry Every human character in His Dark Materials possesses a Daemon, an animal representation of the character's soul. These Daemons are characters in themselves, and are going to be portrayed through puppetry. Paul and Gerry from Scat Theatre do a great deal of work with puppets and they will be working with people to see who is most adept at breathing life into an inanimate object.

Movement Two very distinct and important character groups in His Dark Materials are the witches and the polar bears. The polar bears have to fight, and the witches have to fly! I will be leading a movement audition where I can work with groups of performers on the differing physical dynamics of these two groups of characters. Although not everyone will end up playing a bear or a witch, seeing performers attempt these two starkly contrasting types of physicality will enable us to see, more generally, which performers are more confident physically, which can absorb choreography quickly, and therefore which performers would be better suited to more physically demanding roles or fight scenes.

Damon will be flitting between each group to get a flavour of how things are working, but it is certain he will be relying very much on the views of Jacquie, Paul, Gerry and myself. We will each give our feedback to Damon and he will be faced with the task of fitting actors to parts.

It is likely that the casting process itself will take a couple of weeks at least.

Once the auditions are over and done with, I'll post my thoughts on how it all went on this blog.

Wish us luck...

The Adventure Begins

2005-12-28T23:15:00.000Z

Welcome to His Dark Diary.

This blog is a journal of an amateur theatre company in the south of England staging Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials.

Although first night is a little less than a year away, if you know the books of the stage adaptation, you will understand what a vast undertaking this is.

We thought it might be of interest to provide you with an insight into just how one approaches this kind of project, and also to find out just how quickly the participants go insane.

Please check back for updates on the fun. Thanks for reading, and if you're in Havant in December 2006...

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Nathan Chapman