Hello everyone, my name’s Warren and I’m playing Dogberry as well as producing Much Ado About Nothing.
The blog has had a bit of a hiatus and as producer I guess that’s my fault, so I’ll start by saying sorry, it’s a busy time in SMPLand behind the scenes at the moment but now the blog is up and running we’ll be giving you updates on all the goings on.
Though it’s early days this show has been great fun to be a part of the production team for already. As we’re looking to do something completely different and new to the group, having the freedom to come up with ideas along with David Bowman (Director) Kate Sanders (MD) and Joe Krajewski (Choreographer) has been really liberating and nothing is off the table. We’ve come up with some great ideas which will make this show a unique experience for our audience. Then we turned it over to our cast who are also coming up with some great additions to the show. The result will be a show that’s completely different to anything we’ve previously done, which is all rather exciting.
Our read through and audition process went really well with some very good auditions. Our cast is once again filled with quality and it’s nice to welcome back some returning members as well as new ones to the existing group.
The first few weeks have all been about getting used to the dialogue and blocking the scenes. David, the director, has done a fine job getting his head around the staging for this show as the type of staging changes constantly. One scene may start in the round, but finished in a traditional fourth wall staging while the next scene takes place in a traverse set up. All of which has meant that during rehearsals we’ve had to be creative with tables and chairs to re-create each of the locations and orientate ourselves.
We’ve deliberately selected an abridged version of the script, but Shakespeare purists don’t fret, all of the best bits are still included. We’ve opted to do that so that we can add in some music and dancing, some of which we hope you’ll join us for, as well as allow for transition betwixt the scenes.
Our aim with the show is to make you feel like you are a part of what is going on, you will be treated as guests of Leonata, the same as the cast, and we want you to sing, dance, chat and have a good time with you, who knows, you may even end up with a line to say.
This weekend we were lucky enough to do a park visit and after rehearsing with chairs and tables finally make sense of what our performance areas will be. The visit was incredibly helpful and allows us to try out scenes to make sure that everything will run smoothly. We’re so lucky to have the use of the park, not only is it beautiful but it fits the setting of the play perfectly and it’s multitude of different areas makes it an ideal place to put on this kind of performance. We were joined by some of our tech team who are relishing the challenge of doing something quite so different.
Finally I’d like to say some ‘thank yous’ already. Huge thanks goes to ‘The Friends of Bury Lodge Park’ especially to Denise and Caroline who have been instrumental in allowing us to get permission to use the park and incredibly helpful in answering the many odd questions we have. The friends are all volunteers whose work makes sure the park looks as stunning as it does and will provide us a gorgeous location for the show. They are always looking for volunteers to help in the park so if you are interested then check them out HERE. Secondly, thanks to Paul Everitt for letting us use Salisbury House which will be a huge help come show week too.
All that remains to be said is that tickets are limited to 100 tickets per show so please book early to avoid missing out on a unique show. You can order your tickets by clicking the banner below.
