2007/2008 season.  Newsletter No.9

Editor: Jill Fuller, Ramatuelle, 20, Blofield Road, Brundall, Norwich, NR13 5NN
Tel: 0
1603 715346    e mail: jill@ramatuelle.co.uk

Contents
Scapino
Sewell Barn Company Day
New Season's Brochure
Interested in Working with us?
Membership News
Game Plan
Fête
August Activities at the Barn
Start of Season Celebration
Workshop News
Casting for 'Loot'
Changes to Casting Information
Drinks Included
Ticket Office
What else is on in the area


Our Next Production

Scapino
Adapted by Frank Dunlop and Jim Dale from Molière
Directed by Trudy McGilvray
July 10th, 11th, 12th and 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th at 7.30 p.m.

Our final production of this season, ‘Scapino’, promises to be a ‘fun-filled frolic’. In the cast we have a mixture of long established Barn members, as well as some new faces. Rehearsals are fun, interesting and challenging. We are working together, experimenting and (hopefully) enjoying the rehearsal
process. I am confident that the end product (PERFORMANCE!) will be well worth coming to see....see you all there!!!
Trudy McGilvray

Sewell Barn Company Day
As a new comer to the Sewell Barn I didn’t know what to expect. I had little reason to be nervous though as I was made to feel most welcome from the moment I walked in the door. The day was a wonderful way for a newcomer like me to find out about The Sewell Barn Company. An amazing array of productions was announced covering a broad spectrum of styles and tastes from the epic “A Matter of Life and Death” to the more intimate “Loot”. The workshop, where we were given a seemingly obscure line of poetry to produce a short piece around, was a great way to meet the directors and see how they work, with some interesting results.

All in all a great day for newcomers and old hands alike. I shall definitely be coming back for more!
Mat Briggs

New Season’s Brochure
With a bit of luck our new brochure should be available in time for the opening of ‘Scapino’ and we hope you like them. Please make sure that all your family and friends have a copy! Once again, we are very grateful to John Stokes for the great illustrations, and to everyone who has worked on this publication.

Interested in Working with us?
Please remember to get your Preferences Form back to Clare as soon as possible! If you need another copy they are available in the foyer or from Clare on: sewellbarn@freenet.co.uk or 07981 449522

Membership News
We have not raised our membership subscription since 1999. Postage and printing costs have gone up quite a lot since then, as have the running costs of the theatre. Therefore we have reluctantly had to raise our subscription this year to £10 for Annual membership and £50 for Life Membership but we have introduced a ‘Couples’ Membership of £15 for couples living at the same address.
If your membership is due for renewal this year you should receive a renewal slip with this newsletter. Please let me have your subscription before September 1st.
Many thanks
Jill


Our Previous Production
GamePlan
Just how funny could it be? A teenager having sex with a retired dry cleaner for money?
Well hilarious, as it turns out. And this is Aykbourn’s masterstroke with Game Plan. You’re sat there laughing, and a packed first night audience certainly were laughing, but having this nagging doubt about the sheer sordidness of the whole affair.
There’s certainly no doubt that this is a brave production. Normally that means, in ‘reviewer-speak’, that a company has over-reached itself. But not in this case! The risk is that the Barn’s loyal audience, which we have to admit is older and at least middle class, might find its earthy material a little hard to take.
Well not a bit of it. The audience lapped it up, vanilla flavouring and all, and that has to do with the quality of the performance. Try to be risqué and fall short and you’ll pay the price. With material like this if the performance is spot-on then the audience will follow.
I felt the play itself was slightly unbalanced. The first half is paced perfectly with the main characters introduced, the plot thickening, and everything coming to the boil perfectly for the interval. But the second half, though it resolves beautifully with a lesson about women fighting back whatever the cost, never quite delivers the high expectations of the opening hour.
It’s a play which asks huge amounts of its two leads, both playing as teenage girls. Mia Bond pitched her already world-weary 17 year old perfectly (but then again it wasn’t that long ago for her) and it took a brave actor to expose herself firstly in school uniform and transform shortly into stockings and basque and little else. She found perfectly the balance of the virgin whore, determined to go through with her moneymaking scheme. Assured on the surface, prepared with condoms and suitable reading material for the waiting punters, but underneath like the baby rabbit of time about to try crossing the dual-carriageway of destiny.
But what a double act. No, not Sorrel and her doomed punter, but her and her friend Kelly played by Tawa Kesington. What a pairing. Tawa is a natural comedienne. Just watch her face on stage, perfectly deadpan as if she had no idea of the comedy she’s playing. And to her fell the comic highpoint of the night, a simple move maybe but played to perfection as she donned her maid’s stack-heeled shoes and tottered off her chair as though she’d never worn anything higher than trainers.
Together they gave us a glimpse of a youthful, fresh vibrancy, a centre of gravity for the play around which the other five members of the cast orbit. I do hope they’ll forgive me for not name checking them all, suffice to say even though it was a first night there wasn’t a weak performance among them. It’s just that the two leads took the show, grabbed it with both hands and made it their own. And who can blame them?
Bob Carter


Fête
Come and see the Sewell Barn stand, and support your colleagues who are performing the first ever Sewell Barn Mumming Play (with a Robin Hood theme) at the St Augustine’s Medieval Fair on Sunday 27th July, 12-4pm. There are lots of other activities planned and it sounds like it should be a good afternoon out! St Augustine’s Church is off Pitt Street – just round the back of Anglia Square.


August Activities at the Barn

This year we have arranged two working parties to spruce up the Barn ready for the start of next season, and also to continue painting up the lists of previous seasons’ productions on the foyer walls. You may remember that because of the Blyth Jex building work we did not have access to the Theatre last summer, so we have a bit of catching up to do this year! Tasks will be many and various: a few suited to those with DIY skills and plenty for the unskilled but willing…. If you can spare us a bit of time on either or both days, Sunday 3rd and Sunday 24th August, we would love to see you. Those members who have joined us in previous years will vouch for the great spirit and sense of achievement that these sessions have. It is a good way to meet other Company members outside the context of productions. We will start work at 10 am and won’t start anything new after 3pm though wrapping up will probably go on for a bit after that. For further information phone Adrian Wenn, Building Manager, on 01603 483504 or Mike Dunne, Company Stage Manager, on 01603 464156. Remember to wear suitable clothing!

Start of Season Celebration
Sunday 28th September is the date for our new pre-season celebration and AGM. All friends are welcome – new and old alike. We will hold the AGM in the morning (timings to be announced shortly) - having worked through major changes to our Constitution last year, you will be pleased to know that a smooth run should be ahead of us this time around! At the conclusion of the AGM we will adjourn to the bar for one of our amazing slap-up lunches and the chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.
Lunch will be followed by a new event to celebrate the start of the season – The Sewell Barn All-Comers Team Quiz. Questions will focus on theatre and related subjects, with a bit of general knowledge thrown in. Full details will be announced in the next Newsletter, but we hope that plenty of you will want to join in. It will be great fun and we are confident that a good time will be had by participants and onlookers alike.
We are looking for a couple of incorruptible people to assist with question setting over the summer – if this is something you enjoy please get in touch with Clare Howard at sewellbarn@freenet.co.uk or 07981 449522. Jenny Hobson will oversee the catering, and will also be glad of assistance – she can be contacted on 01263 822908 or jenny.hobson@freeuk.com. It obviously helps the caterers to know rough numbers so please let Jenny know in plenty of time if you will be attending.
We hope that you will come along for the whole day and help to make this another great Sewell Barn social occasion before the Season gets seriously underway.
Clare Howard


Workshop News
June 3rd Workshop
The curtain came down on this season’s workshops with a real eye opener from Peter Sweet.
It’s an odd evening that starts with you blundering about blindfold with a flyswat in each hand and ends up with you trying to put into a character, memories from both hours and years ago, but I’ll try to sum it up.
The person you become on stage comes from many sources and it’s not enough, as I’m sure we all know, to rely on just stage directions and author’s notes. This workshop sought to help us find more from within ourselves. And so Peter’s aim this evening was to help us into using things from our own lives to build a stage character or persona. Peter patiently guided us through ways of reaching into our own experience of memories and our own way of doing things to find those moments which we can relive, recast, and incorporate into the person we are trying to be.
It was thought-provoking and lasting. When I got home my wife told me about how annoyed everyone at puppy class had been with one particularly undisciplined dog and its owner and my reaction was to think that there was an emotion to store away and use one day on stage. And if that wasn’t enough we learnt a lot about each other: how important a moment it was standing on a box in the Barclay stand in the 1970s; how odd to see a cyclist on the Acle Straight; the sheer disappointment of a holiday let-down including a heartbroken elephant and the importance of having a pair of cowboy boots at the side of the bed.
Bob Carter

Workshops Next Season
Just a reminder that next season all workshops will be held on stage. The usual pattern will be to hold them on the first Wednesday following each Company production, 7.30-9.30pm. However, in order to reduce the gap between Sewell Barn events the inaugural workshop will be held on Wednesday 24th September. This will be led by Martyn Richards, who will kick off our theme for the year – to increase familiarity with our unique playing space and the opportunities and challenges it presents to actors and directors.


Casting for ‘Loot’
Our January production will be Loot by Joe Orton, directed by Mike Dunne. The auditions will be held at the Barn at 7.30pm on Monday 17th July.
After robbing a bank, Hal and Dennis hide the money in the coffin of Hal's recently deceased mother, complete with corpse. However, their plans are thrown into chaos upon the arrival of Inspector Truscott and the two thieves hide both the coffin and corpse around McLeavy's house. The play descends into a masterpiece of black farce as the upper hand and power swings between Hal and Dennis, Nurse Fay and Inspector Truscott. Mike will be auditioning for all roles as follows:

McLeavy:                      a naive soul and Hal's widowed father. As honest and respectful as the day is long. (Playing age late 40s - 60s)
Fay:                               murderous, gold-digging Irish nurse who claims to be a strict Catholic, though she has been through seven husbands in ten                                      years! (Playing age late 20s - late 30s)
Hal:                               McLeavy's son is a common thief who, despite his recent bank robbery, is compelled to tell the truth at all times. (Playing                                      age early - late 20s)
Dennis:                          Hal's bisexual companion who is shrewd at manipulating the circumstances around him. (Playing age early - late 20s)
Inspector Truscott:        overbearing and shamelessly abusive, Inspector Truscott fancies himself as an uncommonly gifted detective! (Playing age                                     40s - 60s)
Meadows:                    Truscott's unctuous assistant. (Playing age 30s - 50s)

For more information contact Mike on 01603 464156, or mickjdunne@hotmail.com.


Changes to Casting Information
After some consideration, director Jenny Hobson feels that with such a challenging production as ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ to direct, the male lead needs to be in place as early as possible. We have discussed this and we have agreed that on this occasion the part of George will be cast by invitation. All other parts for this production will be cast at audition as previously advertised: Martha on Thursday 30th October and Nick and Honey on Monday 1st December. Please accept our apologies for any disappointment caused on this occasion and be assured that we remain committed to offering open casting opportunities.
*Also please note that there is a typing mistake on the casting notes sent out with the last Newsletter and the email address for Mike Dunne (director for ’Loot’) should read mickjdunne@hotmail.com.
Clare Howard

Drinks included
    First night tickets include a drink at the bar. (wine, beer, soft drink, tea, coffee)
    Also, don’t forget that members are entitled to a free drink (as above) at the bar on                              Wednesday performances   on production of a valid membership card.



Ticket Office

Don’t forget: the ticket office is now located in Jarrolds. Customer Services (2nd Floor)
Jarrold Dept Store 1-11 London St, Norwich NR2 1JF Tel: 01603 697248
Fax: 01603 611295 customerservices@jarroldthestore.co.uk
                             
What Else is on in the area?
The Maddermarket Theatre: ‘Tom Jones’ by Joan Macalpine (from Henry Fielding): 17th – 26th July at 7.30pm; also Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.