The phrase ‘workshop’ had us (and some other companies involved) a little unsure of what to expect. After all, is it really an ajudicators job to ‘redirect’ a play when he or she hasn’t been in a rehearsal room for the past 8 weeks and isn’t privy to the decisions and discoveries that had been made? Our friends at Dead Meat Productions were the ‘guinea pigs’ as Cherry Stevenson (the GODA adjudicator) gave her views on ‘Prevenge’ on the Tuesday night. In the end, it was quite a light hearted affair with Cherry’s laid back manner actually taking a lot of pressure off the actors, as they weren’t sure what to do now they weren’t performing the play but were sat on stage as ‘themselves’.
So, we could relax a little as we approached our performance on Friday night. The theatre itself is a converted abbey and originally the stage was built as an indoor Elizabethan stage, with balcony and pillars. The pillars have now gone but the balcony remains and gave the Shakespearean flavoured ‘Henry Gladstone’ a great setting. Steve and Becky rose to the challenge and delivered another great performance. The feedback from audience afterwards was incredible and Cherry heaped praise on the production. We were asked to ‘workshop’ a moment that looked at the actors vocal skills. Fairly painless in the end!
The Friday night was also the announcement of the Gala Night Performances. Instead of marking, ODN asks the adjudicator to look at the nine plays that were performed across the week, and she then chooses three she thinks should come back and perform on the Gala night. ‘Henry Gladstone’ was one of them!
So, we went back on the Saturday night to perform again, our seventh and final performance. Again the feedback was amazing from the audience. There were two awards on the night, a ‘punter’s prize’ selected by the audience and ‘a special moment’ award selected by the adjudicator. Whole Hog were nominated for this for the first ‘ghostly’ encounter between Henry Gladstone and the Young Stage Manager! The evening was attended by the festival’s patron, Colin Dexter (acclaimed author of the ‘Inspector Morse’ novels). Although aged 81 and rather frail, Colin could still charm an audience with wit and humour.
The evening ended with a lovely supper buffet where all the companies and audience could mingle, a fitting way to complete the run of a terrific project. Here’s to the 2013 festival circuit!