Paines Plough Blog

Thanks to the brilliant @HeardinLondon, our Administrative Intern Stephanie found this remarkable poster, which chimes heavily with our very own WASTED:

The end of our second week at the Chocolate Factory and the phenomenon of ‘nibbles’ has taken over the rehearsal room. Mr Miles is initially to blame for filling a small prop glass goblet full of wasabi peas and placing them centre-stage (on our desk). For those of you who haven’t tried them yet, stay away, wasabi peas are addictive. But perhaps not as addictive as the salted edamame beans which followed the next day. And when they are so well presented, who can resist? After that, it became quite a tradition of attempting and failing (“right, this really, really is my last one”, “will someone please take these away?!”) to stop compulsively munching. A lovely present from Claire, the General Manager at Paines Plough, had a detrimental effect when the goblet became a cornucopia of Haribo. A very hyper rehearsal session followed. Mr Miles finally ended the craze by sobering us up with dried fruit and nuts instead of crunchy/salty/sugary treats. Remarkably fewer visits to our desk today.

My musical knowledge has expanded considerably since working on Mr Bartlett‘s play. Having missed out in my teens, I am now having my “Stone Roses moment” and enjoying it considerably.

Rehearsals are in a great place. We are already running full Acts and solid shapes are beginning to form. Each time a scene is run it brings with it new improvisations, details and startling moments. It has become increasingly clear that this is the type of exciting realism that director Mike Alfreds champions as truly live theatre; theatre which is “creative, spontaneous, curious, enterprising [and] responsive to others”. It is a delight to watch.

The production side of things is ticking along at a great pace with new pieces of furniture being lugged up the steep Factory steps each day. Intelligent (and unintelligible) technical talk of plug sockets, gutted televisions and tiles make me glad I am only a director and doubly grateful that we have such professionals working to make this show happen.

(Caitlin McLeod, Assistant Director)

So its halfway through the WASTED tour, and what better way to celebrate this exceptional tour by all sharing in a fun game!! The photo blog, Picture Us WASTED, will recommence next week with a fortnight bonanza, but for right now, what type of actor are YOU??

To write about a day in the life of an actor on tour is to write of the infinite quandary of our cosmos: so many types of actors, so many types of days. Below is a fun, slightly tongue-in-cheek, 10 question quiz, to help you discover what type of actor you are or could be, on any given day of a tour.

1. Your bedside alarm rings at 7.30am Do you?

A- up you get. You wanna get in the shower in time for breakfast and an hour’s vocal warm-up.

B- snooze it five minutes, if not more. There’s no way though you’re getting up for breakfast. And you did a vocal warm-up yesterday.

C- wake up in blind confusion. Smack the off-button. You ain’t getting up till at least midday. You didn’t get to bed till 5am and that hangover ain’t clearing any time soon.

D- there’s no way you will have set an alarm for half 7 in the first place.

2. Your digs landlady has left you a clipping of a local review of your show by your door. Do you?

A- pick it up. Read it quietly to yourself in your room, taking down any notes the theatre critic has kindly made of your performance to take into later consideration.

B- pick it up but without looking at it, pop it in your pocket for a later burial in a far away public bin. You don’t want to upset the landlady and she meant well, but you no longer read reviews. Not since the Bletchley Times spelt your name wrong and suggested they’d rather eat their own face than watch another of your performances.

C- pick it up. Realise what it is and throw it back on the floor. You need to attend to the three S’s before even entertaining any ideas of theatre and work.

D- you never made it back to your digs last night.

3. You’ve never been to this city before. Do you?

A- make sure you take out with you your Lonely Planet guide. You don’t want to miss a thing.

B- head out for lunch with the rest of the company in a local pub. Sit out in the beer garden and take in the ambience. Perhaps go for a walk round the shops if there’s time.

C- head out for lunch. The company are heading to a local but you fancy Wetherspoons. You know what you’re getting with that. Besides, it’s right next to your digs. Perfect.

D- watch This Morning, followed by Cash in the Attic, followed by Neighbours, followed by Quincy, followed by Countdown. Followed by, heck is that the time? You better get to the theatre. You’ve just missed the half.

4. It’s the half (half hour before the show starts). Do you?

A- warm up. Get your vocal exercise book out and follow its instruction methodically as always, careful not to skip anything.

B- warm up. You’ve noticed your higher range is slightly weak so you decide to concentrate on that. Perhaps try loosening the shoulders. See if that helps.

C- choose not to warm up. Get into your costume though and make sure it all feels comfortable. Yep, it does.

D- have a couple of cigarettes. Helps with the stress. Especially after the Stage Manager’s had a go at you for turning up smelling of alcohol.

5. You’re about to step out onto the stage for your first scene. Do you?

A- go through your three circles of concentration, your objectives and your super-objectives.

B- go through your lines.

C- check your flies.

D- sneak a peek into the audience. That girl you met last night said she’d come along. You wanna make sure you push all your best emotions and facial expressions in her direction. She was hot.

6. It’s the final show in this city. Do you?

A Help strike the set. It’s best it’s done quickly so more hands the better. You want to get an early night in before heading to the next theatre. Another week, another community to inspire through the medium of theatre.

B- have a quick drink then help strike the set. More hands the better and you want to have a couple more drinks somewhere else.

C- get to the bar and get in the drinks. You’ve got at least a couple hours of drinking time before the set is packed up. It’s always nice to get some praise from the audience.

D- leg it off the stage, throw your costume on the dressing room floor, run next door to the Wetherspoons, order yourself a line of Jaeger Bombs. The tour van can pick you up en route. You just can’t remember if it was your turn to drive it.

7. You’ve got the Sunday off. Do you?

A- get up early. Get down to the gym. Read through your script. Have a pleasant Sunday lunch with your nearest and dearest. Get an early night.

B- meet with some friends you haven’t seen in a while. Enjoy a few glasses of vino but not too many. You want to get a good night’s sleep in.

C- get a video in, a take-away. Start with a couple beers but your mate comes over and you end up getting really drunk. You get your script out but only to use as an intermediary between your lap and the very hot plate of curry.

D- wake up in a strange city, in a strange bed, a red stamp on the back of your hand, wondering why you hadn’t gone home on the tour van.

8. It’s the first show back after a week’s break. Do you?

A- get together with your fellow cast members that afternoon for a line-run, a discussion of new ideas you’ve had for the show, and to show them the drawings you’ve done of each of them.

B- get together with your fellow cast members to do a quick line-run before the half. You’ve not looked at your script for a week.

C- you’ve not looked at your script for a week. It might be quite exciting to go onstage and at times, be completely surprised by the lines you’re saying. Maybe that might bring about the spontaneity your drama teacher always harped on about.

D- just hope and pray the week you’ve just had, the most hedonistic, alcohol-fuelled week you’ve ever dared have in your life doesn’t harm what was already a rather compromised performance.

9. It’s the final show of the entire tour. Do you?

A- do as you’ve always done. You’re a professional, goddammit.

B- really go out there and enjoy it. It’s your last chance. It might be your last job ever. Have fun out there!

C- try out some new things. Drop in a few jokes of your own. Don’t tell the other cast members though. It’ll be a right laugh. As long as no one’s allergic to cat hair.

D- take the night off.

10. It’s the end-of-play party. Do you?

A- take some headshots along. You never know who you’re gonna meet.

B- dress snazzy. You never know who you’re gonna meet.

C- dress as you always dress. You know exactly who you’re gonna meet. You never liked them anyway.

D- not go. You got so smashed the night before, you’ve not slept for 48 hours and quite honestly your last performance was such a debauched embarrassment, it’s best for all concerned if you stayed away.

Results:

A If you answered mostly A, you are an actor.

B If you answered mostly B, you are an actor.

C If you answered mostly C, you are an actor.

D If you answered mostly D, you are an actor, frighteningly.

This week has been a busy one for Forward Theatre Project as we have been casting our latest play Scarberia by Evan Placey which is being performed between 24th May – 2nd June at York Theatre Royal as part of the TakeOver ’12 Festival. The play was commissioned by the TakeOver team who are a group of young people between 11-26 years old and has been created by working directly with young people in York and Scarborough England and North York and Scarborough Toronto. We also set up an international pen pal system between the 4 groups of young people – which is all done on email nowadays apparently (losing the fun factor of receiving a letter in the post I think –  but definitely more time effective!) We wanted to create a play which was about youth and which engaged with young people at every level. We didn’t want to guess at what young people want to see on stage about their generation but to actually get them to commission the idea they want to see and be involved in its creation to ensure we were creating an authentic voice on stage.

The play looks at the areas of Scarborough in the two different countries. Both wildly different in reputation, we were interested in creating a play which looked at how these two different places with the same name can be connected by one event… a killing. The play has been created by working with FTP’s collective approach to making theatre; the writer came with the beginnings of an idea and then with the director Gemma Kerr and the designer Lydia Denno, the team have worked together at every level to develop the play by working with young people to inform its development. They undertook an intensive 5 week research and development period which involved going across to Toronto to work in their Scarborough – an exciting step for FTP as we start to create work internationally and as we are live streaming the show to our group of Canadian young people as part of the run.

So we begin rehearsals in 2 weeks…actually a week and a half now…eek, where did time go?! So castings are fairly late in the day because of the way the piece has been created but we are really excited about finally bringing the full team together. We have been in the Paines Plough rehearsal room all this week seeing lots of brilliant Yorkshire and Canadian accents come in and out and have just set down to make final decisions. The play is a total cast of 3; two boys that play the English and Canadian roles and a Canadian girl who has gone missing. All the roles are 15 years old so it is a big ask to play both this age and with two very different accents. Luckily as I am from Yorkshire I can cover that side, and Evan is from Toronto so we also have a Canadian voice in the room – definitely useful tools! Auditions are always exciting as it is finding the final piece of the puzzle for your team and we are certainly excited about finding the pieces left for this production. And at being part of TakeOver- a brilliant initiative set up by York Theatre Royal in which every role at the theatre is taken over by artists under 26 years old who then are mentored by their equivalent staff member to programme and run a three week arts festival across the Mainhouse, Studio and other found performance spaces. This year the TakeOver team are hugely exciting to work with and have programmed some brilliant companies including Paines Plough of course for their production of Wasted as well as getting companies such as Frantic Assembly to offer workshops on their work. It is going to be a fun start to the summer, once it stops raining…

Charlotte Bennett
Artistic Director
Forward Theatre Project

Here at PP HQ we’re big fans of Apple’s app store. We’re forever downloading small, curved-edge squares that we’re convinced will make our lives easier/faster/more fun/better organised (delete as appropriate).

In fact, if by chance someone from Apple is reading this blog, we would be very open to a conversation about corporate sponsorship. You get to be associated with ‘the national theatre of new plays’ and we get shedloads of Apple products. Seems fair.

Our latest acquisition is PHOSTER which gives you a batch of ready-made design templates using classic graphics and fonts for inspiration.

So we’ve had a go at re-imagining covers for Paines Plough playtexts of the past. We’ve been inspired by trips to New York book shops where we’ve found book-jacket art to be far more interesting than the stuff we tend to get in the UK.

But we reckon that there’s far better design talent out there than is currently housed at PP HQ. So we thought we would launch a competition.

With Kate Tempest’s WASTED currently touring the length and breadth of the UK, the competition winner will receive a PP goodie-bag, including PP playtexts from our archive, a signed copy of Balance, the incredible debut album by Kate Tempest’s band Sound of Rum, and a pair of tickets to see WASTED at the Roundhouse on the 9th May.

All you have to do to enter is to design an imaginary playtext cover for WASTED and send it to office@painesplough.com as a JPEG or PNG with WASTED PLAYTEXT in the subject line before midnight on the 7th May. Tweet us @painesplough with the hashtag #katetempestwasted to let us know you’ve submitted an entry and we’ll tweet the name of the winner on opening night of WASTED at the Roundhouse on 8th May 2012.

You can design the cover however you like. It can be typefont-based like our own below or it can be image-based. It can be any style, colour and composition. It can include logos and creative teams or not.

We’ll post the winner as well as some of our favourite runner-ups on this blog in May.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

We recently announced that our smash hit co-production with Manchester International Festival of Paul Heaton and Che Walker‘s THE 8TH is hitting the road this summer. Presented by SJM Concerts, the tour opens at the massive Barbican Centre before rocking up to Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and Southwold.

In advance of the tour, Proper Records are releasing a studio recording of the show. It’s Paines Plough’s first ever album release so we’re pretty excited.

Before it hits the charts, we wanted to give a heads-up that you can now pre-order the album from Play.com and Amazon by clicking on the logos below:

You can read all about THE 8TH on this blog.

So it’s week three of the WASTED company, tearing it up all over the country. If life was a game of Dominoes and cities were pieces, we knocked down two last week, sixteen more till this brilliant tour ceases. (Now go back one more time, cos that opening needs to be spoken in rhyme.)

Here’s a round up of last week’s adventures on the road…

First up Watford Palace, which we were able to commute from London, so we all hopped on the train. Though not the blue choo-choo that Cary found himself on at the end of last week. Then it was back in Tour Van Number Two, with Harriet up front in the cockpit, flying up to the Milton Rooms in Malton, Yorkshire.

Arriving at 4pm at the Palace, as sure as clockwork, Harriet was hard at work setting up the space; and what a space it was. Really lovely traditional theatre and certainly the largest on the tour so far, and I think the largest overall too. We’d all had a couple days off and were back for Tuesday the 3rd. No time for that Monday morning ease back into work kinda’ vibe though. We had to be on it. It was a busy few hours before the show went up, and huge thanks and respect must go to Harriet for managing it all. It was also our first show of the tour with Kwake performing live with us. It was excellent to see him again. He was straight away working through the cues and the levels, and in no time at all, was banging out some wicked tunes and music for us. The show had a real buzz and energy to it, and we had a brilliant audience who gave us lots of laughs! The night also saw James and the rest of the PP team return to watch it, and just as last week with Kate in the audience, it was very special to be able to show them how the play was moving on with quite a few performances under its belt.

The next day, the WASTED Five (Harriet, Hanna, Cary, Lizzy and myself) all hopped on board the Funbus up to Yorkshire. Mixing business and pleasure, we both worked on the blog and played what has become a staple diet and necessity of the tour: ‘Bop It’. If you haven’t played it, you might be forgiven for thinking it’s a 5yrs-and-up game, that we bought from a kid’s toy shop. If you have played it, then yes, you will know that it is a 5yrs-and-up game, that can be bought from any good kid’s toy shop, but it’s also so much more. It’s a test of nerve, precision and rhythm. And a great way to wile away the road hours.

We arrived in Malton pretty late, and we were all pretty knackered; be it from driving (Harriet) or bopping (the others), but when we turned into the driveway and witnessed before us where we would be staying for the night, we couldn’t believe it. The place was a castle. Beautiful and imposing. Any thoughts of knocking it on the head early and calling it a night vanished. Bags down in our luxurious rooms, we headed to the bar of The Old Lodge. Welcoming staff, a warm cosy pub atmosphere, lots of red wine and guinness was sipped. Last week, you might remember that Hanna threw down the glove and challenged us to some boardgame action. Well, it just so happened this place was stacked high with them. First we played a game called ‘Smart Ass’. Next we played ‘Chairs’, a version of Jenga, except with…chairs. Miniature plastic chairs. It was pretty nail biting stuff. And sure enough, who won? Yep…not Hanna, unfortunately. In fact, I thought I would chart, photographically, the progress Hanna’s piece made in Smart Ass. You see that photo below on the ‘start’? That was it.

The next day we walked the 5 minute journey to the Milton Rooms, where we were met by one of its Artistic Directors, Nick. What a lovely reception he gave us, truly welcoming. It set the tone for the entire day. It was a great show, so many people of all different ages came out to see it, and everyone had such great things to say afterwards. The Milton Rooms team helped us strike the set afterwards, but not before making sure we were set up with cheese and wine and beers and fruit in our dressing room! Brilliant. It was then all back to The Old Lodge to share in a couple of rounds before hitting the hay. We were in fact meant to have been driving back that night but this hotel was so good, we could not pass on the opportunity to enjoy another night there. The next morning we woke bright and early, filled up on cooked breakfasts, and collected ourselves in the lobby before the lengthy journey back.

In next week’s blog, find out what we got up to in Coventry, Luton, Bordon and Windsor, after a sleep and chocolate fuelled Easter break, and a weekend of finding ourselves at a loss of what to do at 7.30pm.

(Note from Hanna: I’d just like to point out that yes, it is true I never left the start in ‘Smart Ass’, and was indeed overlapped twice by Cary and once by Lizzy, however I particularly excelled in both ‘Chairs’ AND ‘Bop It’, and once I get round to entering the pool league, I’m pretty sure I’ll be awesome at that too.)

So we’re now in our new home – the beautiful bricked, windowed and bright rehearsal rooms of the Menier Chocolate Factory. Although we can now see the world outside of our rehearsal room, small battles continue – it can be slightly freezing at times and a few, ineffectual gas heaters are wheeled to-and-fro to huddle around. Sarah (SM) and I currently hog a whole one to ourselves. A rehearsal photographer visited this week which resulted in us all pulling ‘intelligent thinking’ faces at every opportunity. Ben, James and Claire were invited to record a pod-cast with Literary Manager Chris Campbell – look out for that on the Royal Court Website.

This week we have almost all our furniture and props to play with (including skateboards, board-games, golf clubs and herbal cigarettes to keep the cast occupied in tea breaks). We’re still moving along at a great pace. The company has already successfully stumbled/limped/hopped through the entire play on its feet. And what a feat it is. Emotional, funny, moving and distressing – line by line the play is a litany of complexities, which makes it all the more wonderful to watch. Borough Market is a delightful Thursday and Friday lunch treat and today we had cake for Victoria’s birthday (in-keeping with the venue, it was chocolate of course) and wished everyone a Happy Easter and a long weekend off.

Well, what can I say? My time at PP came to an end after the last auditionee had left the building on Sunday. The time has absolutely raced along at such a lightening speed I don’t even know if I’ve had enough time to take in all the things I’ve learnt in the last three months. But, holy moly, I’ve learnt a lot!

From the moment you walk into the PP office you will realise that this is not an example of a clichéd, dull, grey workplace. James, George, Tara, Claire, Hanna, Bernd and Sean are a group of extremely talented, helpful, and dedicated individuals who make going into work an absolute pleasure. Though a lot of the time I’ve had fun just hanging about in the office, the PP team work incredibly hard to ensure the high calibre of work, for which the company is known, is maintained.

I would urge anyone who has an interest in theatre, and in particular playwriting, to get involved somehow. Go see one of their many shows all across the country – I can guarantee if you live in Great Britain a PP show is never too far away. In a theatrical landscape stuffed to the brim with adaptations and revivals, the work of Paines Plough is vital in sustaining the great tradition of compelling and provocative playwriting in Britain and Ireland. Long may it continue.

So, all in all it’s been a blast. I will definitely miss the constant supply of sweet treats, as well as the unceasing, eternal question on the tip of everybody lips: What’s that? You want me to have some cake?

I think we all know the answer to that one.

Hope to see you soon Paines Plough, best of luck with Programme 2012, and thanks a million for having me!

Kate

Week Two of this fantastic tour, and it just keeps on getting better and better. Firstly though, I would just like to make a slight editor’s correction to last week’s suggestion that it was WE that cracked the Wagamama Puzzle Sudoku. It was in fact Lizzy, and deserved props should go to her for that.

Now onto Frome in Somerset, leading the charge before Exeter and Bristol .

Quite a change from Cardiff, we pondered the reception Wasted would get in Frome. To help with our pondering, we found some beautiful pubs to sit and chill. The weather beautiful, the sun shining, we went inside and struck up the Pool League. With James away, it led the way for another to top the table. As it stands, it goes Ash, Cary, Lizzy, then Harriet. More on that next week. (Hanna: “Pool isn’t my thing but get me on a boardgame, and I will whip all y’all.” Challenging words Hanna. Let’s see if we can get a boardgame going next week. Rock n Roll…)

We need not have pondered. From Birmingham to Cardiff, from Cardiff to Frome in Somerset, those who watch the show seem to be so generous in their enthusiasm! It really is such a great piece to be a part of, and I know all three of us onstage feel very proud and lucky to be out here showing it to people who perhaps often don’t make it out to the theatre too often. We met a lady who had never been to the theatre in her life before WASTED. That makes us feel very privileged.

Smashing and dashing Frome, Exeter was next in our sights. The Bike Shed Theatre was a wicked space, with a great front bar with a ukulele playing barmaid, and a dedicated audience. Two nights to a packed out crowd, with the overhead lights inches from our faces, the atmosphere was incredible. Walking about the town in the day too, it seemed even the shops were spitting Tempest sentiment. If you’ve seen the show, you’ll know how significant the words “This is it!” are. And if you haven’t seen the show yet, well why not? Lol.

Bristol, we were gunning for you. The first night was immense. Kate, after a week away, was in the audience and it was really special to be able to show her how the play took its shape in another space. Afterwards, we did a QnA and much of the audience stayed. The feedback we got and the questions that came up were really interesting and it was excellent to be able to hear Kate’s thoughts and the way she had approached the writing of Wasted. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the rock n roll lifestyle was leading to us all going a bit bananas. Kwake came up to see the show the following night, and had a gig of his own in a nearby club afterwards where we all went to support him and have a little dance and meet the locals. They say sometimes it takes something like travelling to search one’s soul: Cary certainly found himself on this tour.

Three cities down, it was time to head back home to London for the first time since the tour began for a nice Sunday off. You can’t get more manly than a beer and a Black ‘n’ Decker, so while we struck the set, that’s exactly what the men of this tour did (under the strict supervision of Harriet, of course.) We’ve also got the dimensions of this Tour Van down to a tee, so packing up and loading is swift…

…Course, what none of us saw coming was a necessary change of Tour Van. The Tour Van (which shall herein be remembered as Tour Van Number One RIP)  broke. It was only a lucky stop in a Service Station that saw two mechanics overhear a very loud rattle of our gearbox suggesting an imminent explosion of metal beneath our feet. We pulled over, and with Hanna still in the deathtrap of a van, one of the guys took Tour Van Number One RIP on a heady round trip of the car park. Yep, it was the gearbox: something that Cary had already diagnosed. Aware of the seriousness of such an ailment, he took precautions to find his own way home.

Stay tuned for next week’s installment, to see what boardgame Hanna will throw down, and whether Cary’s choice of Blue choo’choo train does finally get him to the Watford Palace.