How do you solve a problem like Maria… Marten?

by Site Admin on Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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STAC productions

Due to administrative mishap on the part of the webmaster, audition notices for The Murder of Maria Marten, to be performed next February, did not make it to the website in time.

However a third and final audition for the show has been arranged for Wednesday 29th October.  Please see the new audition notice.

Unusually for the Swan Theatre Amateur Company, the play will not be performed at the Swan Theatre, because it will be closed! Instead we are de-camping to the Norbury Theatre, Droitwich for the performances (though rehearsals will still be in Worcester).

Also unusual is that Maria contains songs, so some of the fairly large cast need to be able to sing!

Audition Notice: The Murder of Maria Marten

by Site Admin on Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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Auditions, STAC productions

Open Auditions for The Murder of Maria Marten
by Brian J. Burton
to be directed by Brian J. Burton

Auditioning Wed 29th October — 7.30pm
at the Swan Studio, Worcester

Showing 25th — 28th February 2009
at the Norbury Theatre, Droitwich

Note the performance venue!  Maria Marten will be performed at the Norbury Theatre, Droitwich, because the Swan Theatre will be closed for repairs.  Rehearsals will be in Worcester as usual on dates  and venus to be arranged when the play is cast. These will commence in November with a short break for Christmas.

This version will be presented as if by a band of strolling players with a minimum of staging and furniture.  It is a fun show: a melodrama with music!

Cast: 5 female, 3 male (all ages are flexible)
Plus ENSEMBLE: 6 female, 2 male.

Maria Marten (18-30, a village girl, 3 solos + chorus)
William Corder (the Squire’s son, a villain, 30 - 40, 3 solos)
Thomas Marten (an honest rustic in the vale of years, 1 duet)
Mrs Marten (his wife, also old, 1  duet)
Tim Bobbin (a simple rustic  comedy role, 20-30, 1 solo, 2 duets)
Anne Marten (Tim’s girlfriend, 20-30, 2 duets)
Nell Hatfiled (a gypsy lady, middle age, no songs)
Meg Bobbim (Tim’s sister, 20s, Choruses only)

The members of the ensemble will be active throughout the show  as chorus, playing minor roles (gypsies,  country folk, an officer of the law, a housemaid  etc, re-setting the simple furniture - even playing a small drum etc for sound effects!)

Backstage crew may also be required.

IF YOU ARE  INTERESTED BUT UNABLE TO ATTEND THE AUDITION PLEASE CONTACT BRIAN on 01527 821 564.

Links:

• See Who are STAC? for company information and a map to the theatre
• Google map of Bygones Antique shop, Worcester from where scripts and CDs of the music for the simple songs can be borrowed
• Please make contact via the STAC website if you have any other queries

Bride seeks erotic screen!

by Site Admin on Monday, October 13, 2008
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Newspapers, Personal, Production, STAC productions

Angela Lanyon’s new play, A Bride In The Hand, was premiered in Australia  earlier this year. This November STAC bring Bride to the UK, to be directed by the writer herself.

Some of the action centres round an erotic Indian screen, but the production team are still looking for something ornate enough.  Lanyon says “It should have three or four ‘leaves’ - preferably plain on one side and with a carved top.”

If anyone can help with the search this would be greatly appreciated.

For this produciton, many of the cast are new or fairly new to STAC.  Angela continues:

Rehearsals are going well and it should be a load of laughs. Marcus and Verity are both new members and are fitting in well and good to work with.  Gilliam Charles is newish, he was in Memory of Water and Children’s Theatre.  Ann Lancaster is a member of Rachel le Sauvage’s Chance to Act group.

We could still do with a helping hand for the lighting.

If you’re not a STAC member and therefore don’t receive complimentary tickets, look out for an upcoming competition in the  Worcester News!

Importance “overflows with charm and wonderful oneliners”

by Site Admin on Thursday, October 9, 2008
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Reviews, STAC productions

Lauren Rogers’s review of The Importance of Being Earnest for some reason appears twice on the Worcester News website, a slightly shorter version published yesterday and a slightly longer version in the Reviews section published today.

Although seemingly neither overly impressed nor phased by the traditional, “straight forward” production, Rogers reserves especial praise for the younger actresses who “impressed the most”: Kathryn Bellamy as Gwendolen and Sophie McLellan as Cecily.  Simon Atkins (Jack) and Chris Broadfield (Algernon) are “well suited” to their roles, John Horton and Pauline Lowe are “a divine pairing” as Rev Chasuble and Miss Prism, and — while Patricia Hobday’s crocodile-smile interpretation of Lady Bracknell does not quite seem to strike home for the reviewer — Hobday is nevertheless “certainly talented and spat many of wicked aristocrat’s lines out with pleasurable spite”.

The show closes Saturday night.

The Importance of Being Photographed

by Site Admin on Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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Newspapers, Publicity, STAC productions

(Are the “Importance of being…” puns wearing thin yet?)

Photos from the dress are now up on the dedicated page for The Importance of Being Earnest.  The show began its run last night and is being well-received.

Many thanks to Howerd for taking them and getting them to stac-worcester.com so quickly!

Also, here’s something which didn’t find it’s way to the website so promptly…!

The Birmingham Mail anticipated our Wildean production back on September 19th, focusing on the much-talked-about “handbag” line of Lady Bracknell.  See “Patricia bags star role in Wilde classic” by John Slim.

STAC to perform “ever-popular masterpiece”

by Site Admin on Monday, September 29, 2008
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Newspapers, Publicity, STAC productions

The Worcester News anticipates next week’s STAC production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

With the caution that Charley’s Aunt was actually a 2006 production, not 2007, the text of the article follows below.

(more…)

Guest post: The Importance of Being Word Perfect

by Site Admin on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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Personal, Production, STAC productions

A guest post from Kathryn Bellamy, playing Gwendolen Fairfax in the upcoming STAC production, The Importance of Being Earnest.

They say the most nerve-racking part of any production is the moment before you go on stage. I beg to differ; the most nerve-racking time in a production in this (very) amateur thesp’s opinion is two weeks before hand when you realise that you are the only member of a dedicated cast who is still fluffing her lines. Worse still, when you have several scenes which involve just you and one other person who is relying on you to give the correct cue in order to remember their own lines. This feeling of mounting panic alone can be enough to induce even the most confident of performers into sleeping with a copy of the script under their pillow.

(more…)

The importance of being punctual

by Site Admin on Monday, September 1, 2008
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STAC productions

Slightly less punctually than normal, the photographs from The Memory of Water are now up.

You can see the new style gallery on the play’s dedicated page at www.stac-worcester.com/memory-of-water/. The play was a great success, even though director Derek Chaplain had to step up to play one of the parts. He new the lines well enough to go on without a script. That’s a dedicated director!

And speaking of dedicated directors, STAC’s attention now switches to The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Tim Crow, last seen directing Charley’s Aunt in 2006. You can currently see the impressive poster art at the top of the site, also available both for now and for posterity on the dedicated page at www.stac-worcester.com/importance-of-being-earnest/. There you can also find more details of cast, crew and - as if you didn’t know the plot already - a blurb for the play.

Worcester Standard anticipates “a powerful and funny play”

by Site Admin on Saturday, August 9, 2008
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Newspapers, Publicity, STAC productions, Worcester Live

This week’s Worcester Standard, out yesterday, looks forward to STAC’s Worcester Festival production, The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson.

The article is online: “Sister act at the Swan”.  The Standard calls the play “powerful and funny”.

You can read more about The Memory of Water here on the play’s dedicated page, or at the Worcester Festival website’s event page.

A Humble gallery

by Site Admin on Saturday, August 9, 2008
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Online, STAC productions

The STAC website is abandoning its fancy “Flash” galleries in favour of a new, embedded thumbnail format.

(This option was made available by an upgrade to the content management system behind the scenes, and may be useful for users with lower resolutions, without Flash, or with slower connections.)

Humble Boy is the first play whose dedicated page sports a gallery in the new, simplified format, and somewhat belatedly the performance photos are now up!

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