Blimey, I must be doing something right.
Ottershaw Players have very kindly chosen me to direct next summer's production at the Rhoda McGaw theatre in Woking. That will be 5 years in a row that I've been given this responsibility. For the record, the previous shows were
Les Liaisons Dangereuses,
Habeas Corpus,
Whose Life Is It Anyway? and
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime.
For May 2009, we've chosen
On The Razzle by Tom Stoppard. I put together a proposal for the committee a couple of months ago, which was accepted after everyone had a chance to read the play. I had indicated that I was happy to propose the play without myself in mind as director, in case anyone else fancied having a run at it, but at last month's meeting it was decided that I should take the play under my own wing.
As is now traditional for me, I've started a blog dedicated to the play, on which I can record my thoughts, plans, decisions, frustrations and (hopefully) triumphs.
At the moment I'm still in the "mulling over" phase: reading the play, trying to make decisions on how I'm going to present it. I had a brief flirtation with bringing the whole play up-to-date and doing it in modern dress, but realised quickly that the entire plot would be undermined by a simple phone-call, so I think we need to keep it in the mid-19th century.
My other concern is the set. This play needs several settings, which can change rapidly, so I envisaged a general setting using lots of fabric and using 3 or 4 trucked pieces to construct the different scenes. However, our set for Oliver Twist is a behemoth and pressure is on to re-use as much of it as possible. We'll see - so far it's nothing like what I had planned for...
I think I identified the issues with the poster and I've had a play around with it this morning. So this is now the new version. I think it's a lot clearer and more vivid.
