A Yorkshireman in London

Update!

Dan — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:02:03 +0000

I just had to write something here, as I was recently horrified to discover that I’d made it into Andy’s ‘hall of shame’ - most likely as it’s been over a year since my last blog post.

Maybe I just haven’t felt I’ve had anything interesting enough to write about - not everyone has an unhealthy interest in traffic lights, although most people seem to have an opinion on them. Who knows, maybe that will become a new regular feature …

More likely, every time I sit in front of a computer at night and think, “I know, I’ll update my website”, I apply my time to Imperial Productions. After two years, this is still a work in progress: right now I need to summon the courage to upgrade to the newest version of Drupal, not straighforward from the very old version I have installed.

Anyway, a new year’s resolution, perhaps, will be to at least record my theatrical endeavours. For now, a photo of the Public Hall, Budleigh Salterton, during the setup for Christmas Budeligh 2008. My fourth production in Devon since my last post.

Opening Night

Dan — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:43:57 +0000

Well, last night we opened the Britten Parables at Holy Trinity, South Kensington, and we’ve also got more super dress rehearsal photos from Ralph at xmo4.com. Of course, these operas are sung in English, but that doesn’t mean you can always follow what’s going on. With a little bit of help from the internet, I’ve just about managed to figure it out.

The Prodigal Son is a New Testament story, from the Gospel of Mark, I think. A family and their servants live by the fruits of their toil on the land. When the elder son and the men go off to work in the fields, the younger son hears a voice tempting him - it’s all in his mind, but the Tempter is played by a character in the opera. He asks his father for his inheritance before his time, but is granted it and wanders off to enjoy the high life in the city. Of course he squanders his riches on wine and girls, and he is left penniless. He returns home to ask for forgiveness from his father and from God, but instead he is received with great joy as everyone thought he was dead. They throw a big party, and even his envious elder brother finally joins in.

The Burning Fiery Furnace is a famous Old Testament story (from the book of Daniel) about three young Israelites in ancient Babylon. At a feast with King Nebuchadnezzar, they’re for some reason given new ‘Babylonian’ names, but they refuse to eat and drink with the courtiers. The Astrologer seems to convince the King that this is a grave insult. He’s further wound up by the three refusing to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol - and indeed anyone except God. He orders them to be thrown into a fiery furnace, but once inside, the men are joined by an angel, and their faith successfully defies the heat within. When they appear untouched by the fire, the king repudiates the Astrologer and is converted to their faith.

The music’s pretty cool, especially in the second one. I think 20th Century opera is an acquired taste, and the orchestral music has been described to me as ‘impossibly hard’, but the performers have done a really good job and pull it off well. We even had some good feedback from last night’s audience members. Let’s just hope a few more people will come and see it this Thursday and Friday … there are few other companies around brave enough to tackle something like this!

All Set for the Parables

Dan — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:23:29 +0000

For a while now I’ve been busying myself getting ready for the next show - and this time it’s a fairly interesting digression from the norm. This week Imperial Productions are putting on a couple of short operas by Benjamin Britten in a lovely little church in South Kensington, so I’ve just spent the weekend setting up for it.

We’ve created a large a circular acting space in the centre of the church, with the audience sat around about three quarters of its circumference; the quarter nearest the Altar houses a small 8-piece chamber orchestra to provide accompaniment to the 11 actors.

I spent a fun part of the weekend figuring out how to position proper lighting around the acting space with our designer, Ray Medhurst. Plus, of course, how on earth to provide the lights with adequate power. After worrying that the only power outlets we could find were 5 amps, we eventually stumbled across some real life 13 amp sockets, and a few electrical bodges later, our 63A dimmer racks are glowing nicely, albeit with quite tiny loads connected. In addition to four T-stands scattered around the church, we’ve also erected a tower in the West end of the church to provide a few extra lighting positions.

From what I’ve seen of the show itself, I think it’s going to be really good. The music is very challenging but the musicians and singers are all very competent, and it seems to be coming together nicely under the direction of Tim Brierley, who’s using the novel space really well. Our dress rehearsal is tonight - so hopefully we’ll have some nice photos soon. Then we open on Tuesday … so come see it!

Emma-Jane’s Graduation

Dan — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:54:46 +0000

On an exceptionally windy day, on and extraordinarily windy hill, I stood outside Guildford Cathedral three weeks ago, clutching a heavy bag that would get me to Devon for my holidays later that afternoon. But before then it was my sister’s graduation ceremony: only 8 months behind me, E-J would be receiving her degree in Primary Education, with a specialism in Geography.

Guildford Cathedral is immense, and despite its imposingly modern, red-brick exterior, wows congregations on the inside with its marble floors and limestone pillars. The organ sounds magnificent despite it being tucked into several odd corners, spread around a building apparently built with no intention of housing such an instrument. It’s nice to hear to it played well, and more importantly loudly, entertaining the assembled masses with that tune whose name i can never remember.

The Chancellor of Roehampton Univeristy happens to be John Simpson, which added an air of amusement to the day as proud parents tried to snap as many photos of him processing down the aisle as their sons and daughters receivng degrees they’d worked three years for. Still he is, of course, an intelligent and eloquent presenter, and he spoke with inspiration and admiration for the graduands present.

The end of the ceremony cued a mad flurry of photo-taking in every possible corner of the Cathedral grounds, followed by frenzied attempts to claw more champagne, strawberries and cream than everyone else. A merry pizza in a nice restaurant up the road, and then it was back to the cars for some long journeys home. For me, that meant Budleigh Salterton, and the start of tour 2007 …

Memories of a Great White Whale

Dan — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:31:46 +0000

Well it’s been three weeks now since Moby Dick, and I think I’ve only just recovered. I certainly haven’t stopped humming the tunes at work - and I’m happy to see this habit has also rubbed off onto a few of my colleagues who were lucky enough to come and see the show!

After the stresses of the first half of show week, the run went really well and we had some great feedback from audience members - which is always nice. It’s also nice that we doubled the number of audience compared to our last show, even if we still didn’t manage to break even … but hey, it’s not all about the money, is it? This is the magic of theatre!

Our wonderful show photographer Mr Rapley from xmo4 sent us the rest of the photos he took during the dress rehearsal and I’m pretty impressed with how good they look. To catch a glimpse of some of the timeless facial expressions immortalised in print, see the gallery at Imperial Productions - or just look on Facebook, I put a load of them there, too.

Imperial Productions’ next show, in true “and now for something completely different” style, will be some fairly rare Opera by Benjamin Britten. But that’s not until October, so I’ve already got all sorts planned to keep me busy until then.

Roll on West Side Story!