“There was much shock from the audience at the final kills on the stage.”

I rarely watch every single performance of each production that I direct. I’ll usually watch the first few shows and see it a couple more times throughout the run to make sure it’s still looking good. After each performance of each production the stage manager will produce a show report documenting anything that shouldn’t have happened during the show. This could be a missed lighting cue or an actor stumbling over their lines, you never know what’s going to happen and that’s one of the joys of live theatre.

Most of the time the audience will not notice that anything has gone wrong but it’s important to keep a record of what happens to see if there is anything that needs addressing (for example if there’s a cue that keeps getting missed is there a reason behind that? How can we prevent it happening again?). These reports are a way that I can keep track of what’s going on during the run of the production.

The reports are always formal in tone and refer to the actors as Mr Smith, Miss Jones etc. They will reference lighting and sound cues by number and reference the point in the play by the page in the script. These reports are then looked at ahead of the next night’s performance.

Sometimes, however, the report can be a lot funnier than intended. The audience has just as much of a role to play in live theatre as the actors on stage, take a look at a few examples:
“As Mr Bowerman fell to the floor during the diabetic episode a female member of the audience could be heard saying “Oh Dear!” very loudly.”
“There was much shock from the audience at the final kills on the stage.”
“When Mark hugged his dad there was an audible ‘aaah’ from the audience.”
“When Ms Alshibaya stepped forward to do the curtain speech a man in the audience shouted “Not in French”, she told him he had ruined her joke.”
“At the top of Act 1 Mr Healy delivered his line “Good evening Werneth, how ya doing?” and a man in the audience replied “Fine thanks”.”
“Honey the guide dog was sitting in her normal spot at the front of the stalls and was clearly quite alarmed at the garroting sequence and the log attack. She did however like Helga ten Dorp.”

Sometimes the stage manager will comment on how well a complicated sequence might have gone:
“The blood bag in the garrote sequence was excellent tonight.”

And of course, there are also little slip ups on stage, but a professional actor knows how to recover:
“Pg. 24 – Ms Matthews fell over onstage just before her exit, she ad-libbed “that floor’s a bit slippy Mavis”. She was uninjured.”

Panto has a mind of its own – it’s our most complicated production of the year so there’s a lot that can go awry. But sometimes it’s not the set, props or cues that malfunction, it can just be a member of the company:
“Just before the safe scene – Sarah the Cook made the ad lib as she left “This next bit’s a bit dull but don’t worry we’ll be back on in a bit”. This derailed Dick. The audience loved it as she found it impossible to compose herself. We did eventually get back on track.”
Of course, the preferred words on any show report would be: “A good, clean show.”

See you out and about.

Kevin Shaw
Artisitc Director

It's gazebo time...

As the summer is fast approaching we’re getting ready to appear at the first of many events that are happening around Oldham over the spring and summer.

On Saturday members of the Coliseum team will be heading to the Failsworth Carnival to pitch up our new branded gazebo. They’ll be providing some great activities and workshops for kids and there will be lots of staff on hand to talk to the public about what the Coliseum is up to. We’ve recruited the valued help of volunteers, ambassadors and members of the youth steering group to help at the event.

Last year we had a pitch at both Oldham Mela and Oldham People’s Carnival. The Coliseum is a vital part of the community and therefore support these local community events.

After the Failsworth Carnival we’ll be at the Saddleworth Show on the 9th June and at Whit Friday on 1st June (a date is everyone’s calendar I’m sure). We’ll be doing something exciting at separate contest throughout the day; Uppermill, Diggle, Dobcross, and Delph. I can’t say much more than that but if you’re going to be there make sure you look out for us. Delph and Lees bands will be part of our outdoor production Star Cross’d that will be in Alexandra Park this summer.

We’ll also be at the People’s Carnival again on the 24th June which has been taking place since the 1900s and always raises huge amounts of money for charity; it’s one of those events you simply have to be part of.

And on the 8th July there’s the Oldham Mela at Alexandra Park which is a Sanskrit word meaning “to meet”, which is exactly what the Mela offers; a great opportunity for communities to come together in a festival atmosphere to enjoy food, music and dance. They’ll also be extracts of Star-Cross’d on the main stage.

The Coliseum team including volunteers will be at all of these events with a variety of activities. If you’re off to Failsworth on Saturday then make sure you come and find the Coliseum gazebo and say hello. There will also be someone from box office on hand if you would like to buy your tickets there and then.

In the meantime, rehearsals for Dumb Show started this week and the play is already starting to take shape. I also held auditions for Star-Cross’d last week and that’s coming together nicely. There are lots of things to juggle at the moment; brass bands, community chorus, new drafts of the script, Dumb Show rehearsals, signing off the new season brochure, organising season launch and the small matter of making sure the refurbishment is on track. Phew.

See you out and about.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

Young hearts, run free...

Preparations for Star Cross’d are really getting going now. For those of you that don’t know what the play is about, it’s a modern re-telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set in Oldham. The writer, Ian Kershaw, is from Oldham and has found the perfect tone for the production.

This will be the Coliseum’s first ever large-scale outdoor production – it will be performed in Alexandra park and the audience will follow the action promenade style from scene to scene. The logistics of staging an open air production – let alone one that moves around – is quite complicated. A lot of the production team (myself included) have worked on outdoor productions in the past and we’re having to approach it all from a completely different angle than our usual main house productions.

All of the lighting, sound and other electrical equipment needs to be fully weather proofed as they’ll be exposed to the elements for two weeks. The path that the audience follow through the park needs to be full accessible for everyone and very clearly lit. There’ll be ample parking and numerous ushers to make sure everyone knows where to go. Because of the promenade aspect the audience won’t have set seating to watch each scene from so – while they’re welcome to bring a fold up chair or cushion – the company and cast will make sure they are led in the right direction but anything could happen!

We also have to take in to account the time of the sunset each day, factoring in when the light will fade and whether the action will face towards or away from the sun etc. The weather will play a major role in the production. In fact Shakespeare mentions weather throughout a majority of his plays and this was because they were often performed outside (The Globe in London is an outdoor theatre) so he would factor in the weather so that it formed part of the dialogue.

Last week we booked two local brass bands who’ll be playing dance music or acoustic versions of modern songs in the play, the casting process is also in full swing and we’re putting together the community chorus from talented young people from across the borough.

This is going to be a fantastic production – unlike anything we’ve done before. If you’re unsure about any aspects what an outdoor promenade production will be like just get in touch with the box office on 0161 624 2829 or at boxoffice@coliseum.org.uk.

See you out and about,

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

This week's news from the Coliseum...

As well as a board of trustees (a group made up of professionals with specific skills that guide the decisions of the theatre), the Coliseum also has a youth steering group which is made up of 15 under 26 year olds. The group is a key resource that influences the way in which the Coliseum attracts young people to the organisation.

The steering group was formed just over two years ago when the Coliseum received funding from the Big Lottery for a three year project to support the ideas and creative direction of young people in Oldham. The funding focused on ensuring young people influence the development opportunities available to them at the theatre. Our drama group TheatreLAB and digital theatre group DigiLAB were also a result of this funding as well as the steering group as well as Pathways, our career service for people looking for a job in the arts.

The group meet twice a month to talk through all aspects of the Coliseum, examining every element including production, education and outreach, front of house and marketing. It offers young people a platform from which they can voice their views about how the theatre works. Their ideas feed into the way we operate with the overall view of attracting more young people to the Coliseum.
All of the members of the steering group are involved in the Coliseum in some way or another – members of DigiLAB and TheatreLAB etc. As part of the group they attend the opening night of each production and talk to the audience about the steering group and how they’re involved in the theatre. Two elected youth reps also attend the organisation’s board meetings where they can offer advice on the strategic development of the company and also feedback their ideas directly to the board.

Different departments in the theatre also regularly consult with the group for their views on certain aspects of their own work. Last week the marketing team went in to speak to the group to get their opinion on the season brochure – whether it appealed to young people, what they thought of the front cover, what do they think of the content etc. This is really useful information that will inform the marketing team when they start putting the next season brochure together.

The steering group is a really valuable part of the Coliseum and as the funding from the Big Lottery comes to an end this year, we’re looking into ways to make sure the group is part of the Coliseum’s future.

See you out and about

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

This week's news from the Coliseum...

As part of our out and about season Coliseum productions being performed all over the place this week. Last night The Hound of the Baskervilles opened in Harrogate - the sixth venue on the tour. I went along to opening night and the show still looks stunning. Either myself or David Martin (Executive Director) make sure we attend the opening night at each venue on the tour as it’s important to support the production during the two month tour. I get regular updates from the production team about how the show is going. This could include technical aspects, what it’s been like to work at other venues and also news on the morale of the cast – making sure they’re still happy.

It’s also important to make sure the production that opens at Harrogate Theatre is the same production that audiences saw at Lawrence Batley Theatre back in March. Over time productions have a tendency to take on a life of their own in response to the audience’s reaction. I want to make sure that any changes to the production fit in with what we originally set out to achieve during the rehearsal process. The work we did during that rehearsal period is really key to how the production looked on opening night and that work still needs to be there right up until the last night. Incidentally the last leg of the tour is at Buxton Opera House so if you missed it while it was in Huddersfield you can still catch it there.

There’s another Coliseum production opening at Earl Mill Arts Centre tomorrow evening. This is a brand new location for the Coliseum to use and the youth performance of Tunnel Visions will be taking place there over the weekend. This is a really exciting production – the audience will move round a disused mill space in a train carriage travelling through time. The team behind the show have been working on it since the beginning of the year and I’m really looking forward to see all their ideas come together.

And over at the Grange Arts Centre Bill Naughton’s Alfie is still charming audiences at our fantastic temporary home. Saturday night is the last performance so if you haven’t yet had a chance to see it don’t miss out.

Brassed Off 2005

A little bit of exciting news to end this week’s column; I am happy to confirm that Steve Huison will be playing Barry in Dumb Show – which opens at the Grange in June. He’s probably best known for his role in The Full Monty and as Eddie Windass in Coronation Street. Steve is no stranger to the Coliseum, he played Phil in the 2005 production of Brassed Off and also appeared in Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay in 2008. He’ll be working alongside Kate Coogan (Stepping Out) and Leigh Symonds (The Hound of the Baskervilles) - I’m really looking forward to starting rehearsals.

See you out and about.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

This week's news from the Coliseum...

We’re approaching the half-way point of the refurbishment of the theatre. The contractors have been keeping us updated about how it’s all going and all is on schedule for our return in September. When we were first planning how the company could operate around the refurbishment works it became clear fairly quickly that we simply would not have been able to present plays in the Fairbottom Street venue while the building work took place.

We could have skipped a season and not produced any plays while the refurbishment took place but we decided against that. We were determined to continue to programme shows for our audience and it also gave us the unique opportunity to try out new things and experiment.

For example; The Hound of the Baskervilles has been our largest national tour to date – something we’ve not done before – and the use of imitating the dog’s breath taking video projections in the production was also a first for us. We’ve also been able to programme productions that are specific to in-the-round staging which is the configuration at the Grange Arts Centre where we are performing a majority of our spring/summer season. Anyone who came to see Taking Steps will understand why that play benefits from having the audience on all four sides of the stage.

One of the most exciting projects of the season will be our open-air production in Alexandra Park where we’ll be staging a brand new adaptation of Romeo and Juliet - Star-Cross’d - in the summer as a finale to our time out of the building. Producing an open-air play has been a personal aspiration of mine for years and while we were looking for new venues the park was mentioned and it seemed like the ideal opportunity to finally realise the idea.

The refurbishment has also given the Coliseum the chance to create new partnerships with organisations across the borough, especially with Oldham Theatre Workshop, the Oldham Library and Gallery and Oldham Council’s Arts and Events team.

Working on split sites across Oldham has taken a bit of getting used to. It’s a bit odd not to have the rehearsal room just down stairs from my office or the auditorium and box office in the same building. But this is a very minor thing in what is turning out to be a very exciting season. We took a calculated risk when we decided to programme a season while the building was being refurbished but so far everything we have experimented with has been a success and will influence the way we do things in the future.

See you out and about.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

Refurbishment Blog #03: Where have all the walls gone?

I’ve just been round to a meeting with the main contractors for the Coliseum refurbishment and they’ve shown me some extraordinary pictures.  Neither they nor we are actually allowed into most of the building now, as the asbestos removal is now well underway and access is severely restricted.  The asbestos removers have taken many photographs, some of which are reproduced here.

The auditorium now has far fewer walls than it had a week or so ago and the bulk of the main ceiling is slowly being removed, revealing the original tongue and groove structure that dates from 1887.  Some extraordinary features are being discovered and the whole exercise is becoming quite archaeological.  We’ve found a second, higher ceiling in the upstairs bar although we have no idea why or when this was covered up and there appears to be a far more shallowly raked structure underneath the current floor in the Circle.

Work has started on the front of the building – scaffolding has gone up and the areas of damaged rendering are slowly being chipped away to reveal the brickwork underneath.  The re-rendering of this façade will greatly improve the look of the theatre and also keep out the rain.

We are rapidly moving towards what we’ve started to call the “Asbestos Bridge”.  This is the time, at the end of May, when all the demolition work is completed, the building is declared safe and we finally get access to all of those areas that have previously been hidden by asbestos.  It is then, and then only that we will fully understand the nature of the entire project and know precisely the extent of the rebuild that will lead to the reopening in October.  I’m looking forward to crossing the Asbestos Bridge in comparative safety!

After we’ve crossed this bridge, we’ll be allowed back in the building to see how it’s all going.  This should be in about eight to ten weeks’ time.  I suspect that the Coliseum will be looking at its most forlorn by then as we reach the end of the most destructive phase of the works.  This is when we turn the corner and begin the re-construction.  The actual rebuilding should be well under way in time for the theatre’s 125th birthday on June 20th.  Nearly time to get the colour charts out and plan the re-decoration!

David Martin
Executive Director

This week's news from the Coliseum...

I am currently working on the casting for Dumb Show, the next production on at the Grange Arts Centre in June. The play is about Barry – ‘Mr Saturday Night’ – who is propositioned by two bankers offering him the five star treatment he thinks he deserves but all is not what it seems… This black comedy is a fierce satire on the ethics of celebrity culture and I’m looking forward to start working on it.

I’ll be holding auditions soon for the three characters and this process can be a nerve wracking situation for actors as it’s their job interview. They will be performing to a couple of people in a rehearsal studio which is of course not what they’ll actually do if they get the job which can make it all even more stressful. In fact some people can be great in the audition but never quite as good when they get on stage. I must point out that I try and get the best performance out of every auditionee, it’s certainly not like X-Factor or Britain’s Got Talent.

In the audition the actors have to demonstrate a real understanding the character that they are hoping to play. A lot of people think that the hardest thing an actor has to do is learn their lines but that is not the case. It’s like saying that the hardest thing a plumber has to do is know how to use a spanner. The learning of lines is the absolute basic; it’s everything else that makes someone a professional actor and perfect for the part.

Actors must tap into the internal life of the character and understand what their emotional state is for each scene (especially the one they are acting out for the audition). They must also understand the character’s place or status in the play and their relationship with the other people on stage. One of the signs of a great actor is their ability to listen while on stage. Understanding that the scene is not about them and their place in the grand scheme of the play’s narrative is key. It’s about understanding where the audience should be focusing their attention and not interrupting that.

All of this is made even harder when a production has actors playing a variety of roles. Jim Cartwright’s Two is a great example of this where two actors play a total of 14 characters. It’s not just a case of putting on a hat/fake moustache/wig etc. The actors must employ the different mannerisms, physicality, rhythm, tempo and the accent and tone of that particular character.

Overall the portrayal of any character must be believable to the audience within the reality of the play. If they don’t believe what an actor is trying to portray then the whole play falls down. This principle applies to all types of theatre from panto to Shakespeare, farce to drama. So when actors prepare for their audition they have an awful lot more to do than learn some lines.

See you out and about.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

This week's news from the Coliseum...

As we hurtle towards April (where is 2012 going?) LipService’s hilarious Move Over Moriarty opens at the Grange Arts Centre next week and we are getting ready to open our second production of the season – Bill Naughton’s Alfie – which opens on 11 April.

Towards the end of April Education and Outreach will be producing a performance at Earl Mill Arts Centre in Hathershaw, Oldham. Tunnel Visions is a site specific performance where audiences will travel through a converted mill space in a replica train carriage. This large scale project has taken inspiration from the Lydgate Tunnel which closed in 1963 and will use new technologies and new writing, the performance will transform this old mill space.

Site specific theatre is a really exciting way of working and each production is unique to the space in which the performance takes place. There are theatre companies across the country that only produce site specific theatre For example; Grid Iron Theatre company perform in disused warehouses, parks and town houses. In fact, Star-Cross’d (our open air summer production) is a site specific production, being performed in promenade at Alexandra Park. For Tunnel Visions, audience members will take a seat in a train carriage and travel around the space stopping at various points for different sections of the performance, travelling back in time coming across anything from dinosaurs to suffragettes.

Each performance will last 30 minutes and there will be 11 performances over the course of Friday 27 and Saturday 28 April. Tunnel Visions has been devised and will be performed by the Coliseum’s TheatreLAB and DigiLAB groups which are made up 30 of young people under 25yrs. DigiLAB focuses on the digital and technical aspects of theatre production. Since the groups were formed they have worked on a variety of productions including main house shows and interactive performances which have all embraced digital technology. Imitating the Dog – the design team behind our current tour of The Hound of the Baskervilles – will be working on Tunnel Visions using projections to create the different time periods. This will be a great opportunity for the members of DigiLAB to develop their understanding of technical design even further by working alongside this innovative company. Anyone who saw Hound will know what stunning effects Imitating the Dog can conjure up.

This will be a really exciting piece of theatre and writer Rob Johnston has also recently won the King’s Cross Award for New Writing 2011. The whole company have been working really hard to make the performance a success and I’m really looking forward to boarding a carriage for the first show.

See you out and about.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

This week's news from the Coliseum...

Last week we completed our run of The Hound of the Baskervilles at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield. I am delighted with the show and was so pleased to see so many of our regular audience members making the journey ‘over the tops’ in the coaches we provided. This week The Hound of the Baskervilles is playing in Bury St. Edmunds for the second leg of its ten week run.

Meanwhile all our staff our gearing up for the return of our new writing festival Wordsmith. Wordsmith12 will run from the 4 – 12 May and during that time we will present a series of performances, masterclasses and rehearsed readings at both University Campus Oldham and Oldham Central Library.

One of the highlights of this year’s Wordsmith will be a performance of True by Emma Rydal, which won the Audience Award for Best Play at last year’s 24:7 Theatre Festival - Manchester’s annual festival of new theatre making which has become a well-respected fixture on Greater Manchester’s theatre calendar. We are delighted to be teaming up with 24:7 on this to give this new play further life and exposure, and I would recommend it to anybody.

We will also be hosting a series of rehearsed readings of some new scripts during Wordsmith. This means that the writer of the piece, along with a director and a team of actors, will spend a day rehearsing the script, then perform to an audience in the evening. Theatre is a collaborative process, and rehearsed readings are a brilliant way for writers to garner invaluable feedback from other people working in the industry and, most importantly, the audience.

For any budding playwrights we are delighted that the brilliant Amanda Whittington, writer of among others Be My Baby, Ladies Day and Satin ‘n’ Steel, will be hosting a masterclass designed to help you hone your skills and develop your writing. After that, Amanda will be In Conversation with me, where I will be interviewing her about how she became a playwright and her subsequent career.

Wordsmith is a really important part of what we at the Coliseum do. It gives important exposure to new pieces of work and gives audiences the opportunity to see plays at various stages of development. New plays are the lifeblood of the theatre and Wordsmith is an excellent way of focusing the Coliseum’s energy on the various aspects of new writing.

There is lots more happening during Wordsmith12. For more information or to book tickets please contact our Box Office on 0161 624 2829. To discover more about new writing at the Coliseum please call Nicola Place on 0161 785 7007.

See you out and about.

Kevin Shaw
Artisitc Director