Celebrations are the order of the day at recent rehearsals from the Too Friendly Theatre Company. The cast have just been informed that they have received multiple nominations in this years National Operatic and Dramatic Association annual awards. The awards celebrate the best of the North West’s theatre and they have been nominated for their play ‘It’s Now Or Never’, performed in the Little Theatre in Southport last Summer. They have been nominated as ‘Best Supporting Actor for Mark Haygarth, ‘Best Actor’ for Cliff Gillies, ‘Best Director’ for Cliff Gillies, ‘Best Staging Of A Play’ and for the ‘Best Play’. Cliff has also been nominated for ‘Best Mortal In A Pantomime’ for his role of the Dame in All Soul’s production of Peter Pan!
This amazing news comes as the company puts the final touches to another show at the same venue. ‘Time Of My Life’ opens at the the Little Theatre on May 27th and tickets have just gone on sale. The play, written by Alan Acykbourn is considered one of his greatest plays and should prove a real treat for local drama fans. The story follows Laura Stratton’s fifty-fourth birthday. She is out for the evening to celebrate at her favourite local restaurant. The other guests include her businessman husband, Gerry, her two sons Glyn and Adam, Glyn’s wife Stephanie and Adam’s new girlfriend, Maureen. Three couples celebrating a happy family outing. Yet is it all as harmonious as it appears? What secrets lie buried in the past? What hidden tensions lurk beneath the present surface? What awaits them all in the future? What do the waiters make of it all?
Alan Ayckbourn’s dark comedy explores the family’s lives, past, present and future in a three way journey through time. It has been described as ‘completely timeless, a masterpiece of theatre’ and ‘dark, funny, a soul searching
The production opens on May 27th and runs till the 29th at the Little Theatre in Southport.
You can get information on the theatre’s website www.toofriendlytheatre.com. Tickets are priced at £7.50.
BOOK TICKETS NOW! YOU NEVER KNOW YOU MIGHT BE LOOKING AT NEXT YEAR’S ‘BEST PLAY’!
To book tickets in advance call 01704 541306
in a three way journey through time. It has been described as ‘completely timeless, a masterpiece of theatre’ and ‘dark, funny, a soul searching
The production opens on May 27th and runs till the 29th at the Little Theatre in Southport.
You can get information on the theatre’s website www.toofriendlytheatre.com. Tickets are priced at £7.50.
BOOK TICKETS NOW! YOU NEVER KNOW YOU MIGHT BE LOOKING AT NEXT YEAR’S ‘BEST PLAY’!
To book tickets in advance call 01704 541306
Tag Archives: Acting
New play… and more award nominations.
‘First Sight’ Review
We performed my play ‘First Sight’ recently at the Matchbox short play festival and at the risk of looking like I’m blowing my own trumpet I wanted to show you the review that appeared in the recent NODA magazine.
“First Sight written and produced by Cliff Gillies and performed by Too Friendly Theatre Company was the first play. Cliff took the part of Matthew, the main character, who delivered the dialogue mainly as a monologue. He tells the story through a number of love letters he has exchanged over many years with Emily, his love at first sight. His delivery was an emotional roller coaster which could not be faulted. The parts of Dave, played by Mark Haygarth and Emily plated by Helen Rawcliffe are important to the story…
…However the writing was excellent with an unexpected twist in the denouement. This was a good short play well presented.”
Edited from the full NODA review.
A Week To Go & Building Characters
So its now just over a week until the opening of our next production, Peter Gordon’s ‘Murdered To Death’ and it’s time to take stock. This production has been unusual in that a lot of the aspects of the show have been out of our control. That is not to say that we have no control over them as such, rather that we have no direct control over them. For example rehearsals… So far we have had only one rehearsal were the full cast has been present. Through no fault of their own we have struggled to get a full cast to turn out and poor Dot has had to step in an play any number of roles during the rehearsals. This of course doesn’t make for an ideal rehearsal as you really can’t get your ‘bounce’ from the person you should be playing against. It’s not the only problem we have had but is the most frustrating.
But it is this time that the show finally comes together and we build the set on sunday and get a chance to rehearse on the set for the first time shortly after. I love it when we first get the set together as I find that I really get into my character from that point.
Speaking of characters I was looking through some of my old essays and found one on the subject of first readings of scripts and the characters we create. I thought it might be useful to copy some of it here for you… I’d be interested in your comments.
“There are two things to remember about sight reading. One is that most people hate it, the other is that…. most people hate it!”
Sight reading is when you read aloud a script for the first time, having had no time to prepare and not knowing the story.
I got the guys to do an exercise; reading a portion of a script that they have never seen before. Once the monologue was finished we discussed what we had learned about the characters and their situations from their speech.
Actors are obsessed with working on their characters, developing the way the characters think, work, feel and look. They use Stanislavski’s ‘System’ and emotion memory to flesh out the character and make them real. The work endlessly for weeks to understand and become the character.
Yet it was clear from the discussion that we had picked up 90% of the characters qualities and traits, accurately, during a reading of only two minutes in length. A reading in which the actor had no chance to prepare or work on his character and didn’t even know the name of the play, the story, the characters accent, skin colour, social background or, in fact, anything.
Where the scripts so good that everything we needed was already there?
Was the actor that good that he or she imbued the character with the correct traits automatically?
The answer, for me, was probably a bit of both. Whilst it does somewhat make a mockery of the actors who spend years ‘working’ on a character it is, for me, a useful tool. If at the start of a new script I have a session of blind reading and then brainstorming the characters traits this can then be used as a base for the characters in the full play.
If we as readers find these traits in the characters when we first read them; then surely the audience on first seeing the play performed will see the same traits.
And The Nomination Goes To…
I got a phone call this week from Helen, her having just taken delivery of a letter from the National Operatic Drama Association. It seems we have been nominated in this years NODA awards. The nominations are for our production of Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’ and we are up for the following:
- Best Supporting Actress (drama) for Andrea Culkin.
- Best Actress (drama) for Helen Haygarth.
- Best Actor (drama) for Cliff Gillies.
- Best Staging.
- Best Play.
- Best Actress (pantomime) For Sue Thomas.
It goes without saying that I am really, really pleased. You know, dear reader, that I had some difficulty getting this show on; particularly in terms of the staging so to be nominated in that category was most pleasing of the lot!
Added to this I have been nominated for ‘Best Mortal in A Pantomime’ for my role of ‘Buttons’ in last years All Souls production of Cinderella.
The awards evening is in the middle of August and I of course will let you know after the event whether we were lucky enough to win any of the categories. In the meantime I am to get prepared for two events..
Coming up quickly (too quickly) is our next production, Peter Gordon’s “Murdered To Death” in opening in June. I want to take a moment to let you know how funny this script really is… If you are a theatre company looking for a script then check this out (Peter’s Website). Whilst the play is really funny it’s taking a while to get together and we seem to be running out of time…. but don’t I always say this sort of thing every show??
The other event is at the end of April and is yet another awards evening. I will be heading to Blackpool along with many of the cast of Cinderella; for it too has received a nomination in the regional NODA awards for Best Pantomime.
It seems I will have to be ‘suited and booted’ a few times in the coming months!
