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UPDATE
December 2011
Welcome....................................1
Feedback....................................2
Open Stages Productions.......3
Open Stages Facts....................4
Notable Pitches.........................5
RSC Website & Facebook........6
What’s Next?.............................7
Collaborations...........................8
Pericles Announcement..........9
The first stage of the
project is nearly completed
with the Open Stages Skills
Exchanges element of the
project coming to a close.
The RSC’s Open Stages
team have travelled
between April and
September running
,
delivering
, meeting and
working with almost
in
London, Belfast, Ipswich,
Newcastle, Truro, Cardiff,
Manchester, Southampton,
Glasgow and StratfordUpon- Avon. Each Open
Stages Skills Exchange has
included workshops on
voice, text, movement,
acting, directing and
design as well as
workshops on stage
management, and lighting.
These workshops ensure
that not only does Open
Stages leave a legacy of
skills development for
amateur theatre, but that
each Open Stages
production carries an
element of genuine RSC
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DNA. We have also run
workshops at NODA and
DAW summer schools at
the and at the NDFA
festival on Guernsey.
We always expected to find
a lot of talented individuals
but it has been the genuine
openness to new ideas, and
the quality of work
achieved in the workshops
in response to the exercise
and techniques that has
been truly impressive. We
have also enjoyed the
honesty, warmth and good
humour which seem to
characterise the amateur
sector. Most rewardingly
the workshops have
triggered small epiphanies
on both sides, with Michael
Corbidge (a particular
favourite with participants)
discovering a wealth of
mature female voice talent
and many amateur theatre
makers making
transformative leaps in
their approach to
Shakespeare and theatre in
general.
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2
Feedback
Participants gave us some
incredibly generous and
encouraging feedback:
To be fair there was also
lots for us to learn - smaller
groups, longer sessions,
more subjects covered
including Theatre Costume
being one popular request.
Also people were keen to
go further beyond these
first introductory sessions
and open up the process to
more than just the few
places available to each
group, as well as more
opportunities to discuss as
well as workshop. All this
and more we have taken
onboard for future
planning.
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monthly Newsletter
performing everywhere from castles to community centres. For some companies this
was their latest Shakespeare production in a distinguished history, now with the
recognition and input of the RSC, for others this was their first Shakespeare daring to
take it on with the support and encouragement of the RSC.
Productions will continue to reach performance right through to the end of 2012 when
over 7200 people from all walks of life will have performed in their own RSC Open Stages
Shakespeare production.
Our lasting regret is we (the RSC) cannot see all the productions. Our thanks to those
companies who we have seen, for giving us some truly memorable evenings and some
magical moments. To those companies we haven’t seen congratulations on your
productions we continue to receive press cuttings, DVD’s and photos’ attesting to some
incredible productions. Please do keep sending us DVD’s etc of your productions.
When we issued our challenge/invitation to amateur groups to produce their own RSC
Open Stages production we set a cautious target of 50 amateur companies, as it was we
received over 300 ‘pitches’ of which 263 fitted our criteria of being a genuine amateur
company – run and participated in by volunteers and the production being a
Shakespeare or Shakespeare themed production.
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Open Stages Productions
We’ve also had a fantastic summer of Open Stages productions with
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This gave us an approximate
total number of participants
of
With the oldest participant
listed as
and the
youngest participant being
Newly written plays and
musicals (30 plays, 6 musicals)
Devised works
Shakespeare related existing
works (27 plays, 9 musicals)
This gave us an approximate
total number of participants
of
With the oldest participant
listed as
and the
youngest participant being
The amateur groups
participating in Open Stages
include:
General Amateur dramatic
groups with mixed age range
Adult specific groups
Youth/student groups
University groups
Village- or communityspecific groups
Musical theatre groups
Groups that own theatre
space
Registered charities
Religious groups
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The Oldest group (as far as
we know) was formed in
and groups where created
specifically for Open Stages.
groups belong to
Only
umbrella organisations.
The venues for performance
of Open Stages productions
include:
Theatres (of which
are
owned by the company)
Parks or gardens
Community or church halls
Schools or universities
Arts centres
Churches or abbeys
Castles
Beaches
Pubs
Amphitheatres or outdoor
theatres
Stately homes or hotels
Festivals
Forests
Warehouses
are ‘other’ or yet to be decided
Overall we were surprised and
impressed with the ambition,
energy and imagination of
pitched productions, from the
company in the midlands
producing an English/Polish
dividing
English Montague’s and
Polish Capulet’s, to the all
female
in Milton
Keynes, a cheerleader version
of
, and
meets Star Wars in a
new interpretation of the play
in Huddersfield.
Open Stages Facts
The
Open Stages
Productions, included:
works by, or excerpts of,
Shakespeare including:
19 Macbeths
18 Midsummer Night’s Dreams,
13 Tempests,
12 Romeo and Juliets,
12 Twelfth Nights,
8 Hamlets,
8 Much Ado About Nothings,
8 Merry Wives of Windsor,
6 Taming of the Shrews
6 As You Like Its.
6 Winters Tales
6 Measure for Measures
4 King Lears
4 Richard IIIs
4 Pericles
4 Titus Andronicus
3 Antony and Cleopatras
3 Comedy of Errors
3 Coriolanus
3 Cymbelines
3 Julius Caesars
3 Merchant of Venices
2 All’s Well That Ends Well
2 Love’s Labour’s Lost
1 Henry IV Part 1
1 Henry V
1 King John
1 Troilus and Cressida
2 complete works Marathons
10 collections of various extracts
Newly written plays and
musicals (30 plays, 6 musicals)
Devised works
Shakespeare related existing
works (27 plays, 9 musicals)
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including a flash mob Romeo and Juliet and a Tempest performed on
the beach in Whitely Bay on Tyneside
performed by the Royal Navy’s own theatre society with serving
sailors, officers, and marines, many of whom recently returned from Afghanistan, performing at
HMS Excellent the Naval base in Portsmouth harbour. The Forbidden Planet performed by the
Royal Air forces Theatre Association
Shakespeare performed in the Jubilee Pool an Art Deco listed
Swimming Pool in Penzance
Theatre piece inspired by Shakespeare performed in a theatre made entirely of
living willow trees, and powered by green energy produced by solar panels and wind turbines
Set at the local supermarket, a checkout assistant uses Shakespeare to
persuade her colleagues, “life is better lived as a player, not just watching from the side-lines”.
An Edwardian concert party
set on the Titanic’s voyage, using original writing combined with appropriate extracts from
Shakespeare.
– exerts of Shakespeare performed in a village hall in Bridgnorth
told by story tellers from Mosley, and performed in Newman
Brothers coffin works
performed in Coventry cathedral by torchlight
a tribute to all the spear carriers, messengers and one line characters
performed by the Royal Air Force theatrical association
technically supported by an Army Officer.
A modern musical retelling of Shakespeare’s
and performed in the great Hall at
Leicester Guild Hall where Shakespeare himself is said to have performed as a young
player....And many, many more
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Notable Pitches
in Shakespeare’s plays
RSC Website & Facebook
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monthly Newsletter
The RSC Website was
invaluable during the
application process as a
place perspective groups
could learn about the
project and down load an
application form. The
Home page also gave the
project a profile beyond
those targeted. However
the second phase involved
the establishment of a
‘listing page’, giving details
of all productions involved
and a map showing their
location, took somewhat
longer than we anticipated
and fairly cumbersome to
update. This proved
frustrating to both us and
some of the groups
performing earlier in the
project. The website now,
however gives a
comprehensive list of all
productions though we still
hope to do more work on
this area.
More successful has been
the Open Stages Facebook
where companies have
been able to share photos,
poster, video trailers, give
casting calls, update on
how rehearsals are going,
ask questions and
generally share the
experience of Open Stages
with each other.
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For the RSC it has allowed
us to get a sense of what is
going on at a grassroots
level with the project. From
the 263 amateur companies
involved we have 854
individual members. Check
it out on the Link below
www.facebook.com/home.p
hp#!/pages/RSC-OpenStages/207015752660340
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The next stage of the project for
each region across the country
will consist of a series of
showcase events at each of the
10 Open Stages Regional
Partner Theatres. The format
of these events will vary from
region to region as some have
large numbers of groups such
as Contact Theatre in
Manchester and Questors,
whereas others have large
geographical areas to cover
and no permanent venue such
as Scotland.
You should already have heard
from your Regional Partner
Theatre regarding the
arrangements for this.
The RSC will be inviting one
company from each of the 10
regions to the World
Shakespeare Festival to
perform their production on
the stage of the Royal
Shakespeare Theatre, the
Swan, the Courtyard, or in the
case of outdoor productions
in our own outdoor space in
the grounds of the theatre.
This is not intended to feel
like the finals of some great
national competition rather to
showcase the work of a
diverse cross section of
companies from across the
UK, giving those attending
the festival a genuine feel for
the breadth, ambition, and
exciting nature of amateur
Shakespeare, as well as of
course its quality.
using the Courtyard,
Swan and Royal Shakespeare
Theatres
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What’s Next?
The final Skills Exchange for
Open Stages groups in the
RSC’s region will take place on
the 11th and 12th February this
event is for those Midlands
groups performing in 2012 or
those who weren’t able to
attend the first one back in
May.
The RSC will be hosting two
showcase weekends for those
groups based in the Midlands
on 17th and 18th March and
24th and 25th March in the
Courtyard Theatre.
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Professional and Amateur
Collaborations
In 2012 the 10 Partner
Theatres are each
producing a collaborative
performance project which
will see amateur and
professional theatre
makers coming together.
These are yet to be
announced but the RSC
can confirm its
collaboration will be
Ian Wainwright
Producer RSC Open Stages
Don’t forget to follow
Open Stages on facebook
This is a new and exciting collaboration between amateur theatre
makers and the RSC’s professional creative and production teams.
The RSC Amateur Ensemble will then produce a full RSC
production – Pericles. This will see a cast of amateur performers
working with RSC directors, designers, stage managers,
technicians to create an exhilarating new production of
Shakespeare’s tragic romance Pericles, for performance in the
Courtyard Theatre from 5th to 7th October 2012.
The artistic process will be led by the RSC’s Artistic Director
Michael Boyd and, given the large amateur cast, their availability,
as well as the episodic nature of the play, a team of directors
including Ian Wainwright as Community Director (RSC Open
Stages), and Directors James Farrell and Jamie Rocha Allen
(current RSC Assistant Directors). The Designer will be two of the
RSC’s current Assistant Designers. The production will also seek
to draw on the expertise of other RSC resident practitioners such
as the voice and movement departments in the RSC’s tradition of
artist development.
Auditions will be held in late spring early summer 2012 for the
Amateur Ensemble with rehearsals beginning on the 20th August.
There may also be opportunities for amateur technicians and stage
managers to work alongside the RSC’s own professionals during
the process.
The production process aims to share skills, practise and
resources between amateur and professional theatre makers. The
production itself looks to be a beacon of collaboration and to
celebrate the idea that Shakespeare belongs to everyone to
perform as well as to watch.
The production forms part of the RSC’s Open Stages project which
aims to-re engage professional and amateur theatre. It is also
forms part of the RSC’s ‘What Country Friends is This?’ season.
This production of
will be sponsored by LOCOG as part of
the world Shakespeare Festival.
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Pro/Am Collaborations
We look forward to seeing
and hearing about more
productions and working
with more of you in the
New Year.
RSC Amateur Ensemble Pericles