All Shaken Out and Bounced Away - the Director's Perspective

 

…. and a fond farewell to: Carol, Mel, Adele, Nicky, Daz, Trev, Susan, Elaine, Sharon, Tracey, shop assistant, girl with spotty back, Willy (and Vicky), Mervyn, Gerry, the teamsters, Mystic Meg, the posers, Mr and Mrs Trendy, Mr and Mrs Untrendy (who were unsure whether they were cockneys or Swiss!), Mr and Mrs Posh, Jackie, Claire, Louise, the taxi driver (not to mention Mandy and Andy King).

 

The story began last April, when Susanne Thommen passed me a rather battered book of plays to read: John Godber and Jane Thornton’s “Bouncers and Shakers”. I realized that they were potentially very funny and would be suitable for a Semi-Circle production. Since Susanne was not available, I didn’t think too much more about it, but then by the middle of May (exceptionally) we had no response to our call for one-act plays for the Semi-Circle Autumn Production! The call for plays had been on the Semi-Circle web-site and in the Newsletter since the beginning of the year (about 5 months).  Moreover, after months of intensive searching, we had failed to find a theatre for the production! We either had to take some drastic action or – for the first time in many years – cancel the Semi-Circle Autumn Production! But like true thespians: the show must go on! I proposed “Bouncers and Shakers” and with the Committee's approval, I went to talk to Helmut Förnbacher to find out whether he had a slot available for us – which was not self-evident given his full programme. It turned out that he had just 5 days free – 2 in October and 3 in November. I just caught him on his way to the printers to have his autumn programme printed - one day later and we would have been too late!

 

So we had our theatre, the dates and the plays – we were just missing a production team, actors and (most critically): Time! We were already in June - just before the summer holidays - we had no actors, no production team and nothing prepared for the publicity!!

 

But then I had luck on my side. Within a few days I had the key members of the production team in place – most importantly, I had a highly experienced Semi-Circle Production Manager: Susan Stafford. I also had Eric Collino as Assistant Director, Dragana Blaser on Set Design and Krista Jaquet on Lighting Design, and not much later, Susan Stafford had recruited Susan Aeschbach as Stage Manager.

 

Then came June 30^th the big day: Auditions! 

I needed actors who not only fitted the roles, but they needed to be excellent at characterisation, they needed to learn the rather difficult lines quickly and, of course, they needed to be available for the production dates and for the rehearsals (which had to be compressed into an extremely short space of time). It seemed too much to hope for, but again luck was on my side. There wasn’t a crush of people at the auditions but there were enough fine actors for me to fill most of the roles. Two weeks later, I had both of the casts in place and we had our first read-throughs that same week - just in time before everybody went off on their summer holidays! The first real rehearsals - with all the actors present - could only start at the beginning of September!

 

This time between the auditions and the rehearsals, however, was not lost time. There were many things to work on which didn't need the actors. Together with Conny Heim, I started working on the publicity material. With Dragana Blaser, we worked on the stage design. And, of course, the actors had time to learn their lines.

 

I also had a couple of other very important tasks:

John Godber had written two versions of both plays (one in the early 80's and the other updated version in the mid-90's) and both versions were too long to produce together in a single production evening. My first task was to choose which version to work with – and then to edit it down sufficiently to make the production short enough for an evening's entertainment. The selection of the version of the plays was something I had to do myself (I chose the earlier version), but for the text editing I had a lot of help from our two very enthusiastic casts.

 

As always, both casts are busy people with other commitments. Putting together a rehearsal schedule for both plays concurrently was extremely challenging. The only reason it was possible at all was that the actors were highly motivated and willing to be flexible, but also because I had the help of Eric Collino as Assistant Director and the occasional standing-in for missing actors by Susan Stafford and Susan Aeschbach. Without Susan, Susan and Eric’s commitment and help, it would not have been possible to properly rehearse these two plays!

 

Then came the setting up and rehearsal in the theatre – as always with a minimum of time available. Fortunately, Dragana and I had decided to go for a minimalist set and so transport to the theatre could be done easily by Robi Pipoz (set construction) and myself in the afternoon and that same evening we were able to have our first stage rehearsal with the actors. We only had one day available for the lighting set-up and technical rehearsal, but fortunately, Krista Jaquet and I came well prepared with the sounds and lighting plan and Michael – the theatre technician – is so competent that we were able to have everything in place in time for the actors when they arrived for the technical rehearsal in the evening. The next day was dress rehearsal and the day after that we had our opening night … and then the rest is history! Five excellent performances followed by the highly deserved post-production party at the Restaurant Insieme across the street.

 

Lessons learned? 

To quote Mr Obama: Yes, We Can! Despite starting with a seemingly impossible task, we managed to produce what I consider was a rather fine production – for which I have to say (no false modesty here) I feel rather proud. We managed to achieve this through the motivation, commitment and skill of all the cast and production team.

 

Regrets? 

It was great to have been involved in this production, but I would have liked it if a few more of our supporters had managed to come to see the performances. There are hardly any theatres in Basel which are more accessible than the Förnbacher Theater and our prices are rock-bottom. Yet, despite the efforts we put into publicity, we were unable to attract the audiences needed to cover costs. But above all, I personally am sorry that so many people who I know would have loved the plays, have missed the opportunity to see them - probably for ever!

 

Once again, my sincere thanks go to all the many people who gave their time and commitment to making this such a great production. Also my thanks to the Förnbacher family without whose cooperation, we would not have had a Semi-Circle Autumn Production!