Autumn 2004: Arms and the Man
AUTUMN PRODUCTION 2004- DIRECTOR’S REPORT
ARMS AND THE MAN by George Bernard Shaw
Auditions were held on the 22ndJune and the female roles were decided on there and then but where were all the young men? We needed two younger men for the roles of Sergius and Bluntschli. Fortunately we were eventually able to acquire the services of Michael and Niggi (a genuine Swiss) and we could finally start rehearsing beginning of August. In the end we had a great cast and the intensive rehearsals were a lot of fun and it was a real pleasure working with everyone.
My directing experiences in the past have been one-act plays, the shorter the better and now I was asked to take over the directing of a classic, three-act play in the Schönes Haus; a daunting task but a great challenge. We had 10 weeks from the start of rehearsals to the first night, which didn’t leave us much time. Doing such a play in such a theatre wasn’t going to be easy and at the beginning I had great visions of building platforms, scaffolding and a movable acting area but in the end the simplest of sets with just a movable door proved to be the most effective.
This production was a real team effort. Without people like Susan Aeschbach (assistant director), Robi Pipoz, who made the window and lent us furniture, Paul Chisholm (the lighting man) and his helpers who hit the buttons at the right time, Collette O’Neill with the sounds, Angela Robinson who organised the costumes, Helen Baldomero as stage manager and props the make-up ladies, all the backstage crew, front-of-house people, and last but not least John as production manager, it just wouldn’t have happened, so my thanks go to them all for giving me their support from the word go.
Diana Zuger
