Calling all ambassadors!

The Coliseum receives an enormous amount of support from individuals and groups across the borough. This varies from our Front of House volunteers as well as people who volunteer with the Education and Outreach  and other departments, people who participate in our education activities, customers who donate their time and money and - of course - audience members. We have recently launched an ambassador scheme which aims to utilise this support and help spread news about what’s going on at the theatre.

Coliseum ambassadors will serve as an unbiased voice for theatre and share their experiences of the theatre with the wider public. We’ll be asking those interested to help do things such as distribute posters and leaflets, blog about us and post on our social networking pages. Incidentally, you can follow us on Twitter @OldhamColiseum and you’ll find us on Facebook as Oldham Coliseum Theatre. Ambassadors will be able to spread positive news about the Coliseum on a personal level which is really valuable to getting the word out there about all the different things we do.

The role of a Coliseum ambassador is unpaid but there are a lot of benefits rolled into the programme. You’ll be able to get free tickets to see selected Coliseum productions so you can recommend shows with confidence – you need to know what you’re talking about! Ambassadors will also get the chance to work alongside the Coliseum’s team of professional theatre staff with opportunities for regular training and advice about working in a professional theatre. You’ll see behind the scenes and get a chance to boost your CV.

If you’re interested in joining the Ambassador Programme then get in touch with Claire Phillips, Head of Marketing at clairephillips@coliseum.org.uk or call 0161 624 1731 to discuss it further.

Scene from The Glass Menagerie rehearsals at the New Vic in Stoke.
Harry Livingstone (Jim) and Katie Moore (Laura)

The Glass Menagerie – our next Coliseum production is being produced with the New Vic Theatre and I’ll be travelling down to Stoke tomorrow evening to see the opening performance. Last week the cast came up to Oldham to visit the Coliseum and see Deathtrap. They absolutely loved it and it was great to see both casts in the bar afterwards talking about the production and how things were going in Stoke. Deathtrap is only on until Saturday so make sure you come and see it before the curtain comes down on the final performance.

And finally; we have found our chorus for panto. Auditions were held last Sunday with an overwhelming turnout – more girls than ever turned up to be in for a chance to appear in Dick Whittington this winter. The level of talent was sky high making it pretty difficult to narrow it down to just 18 but the successful auditionees have now been contacted and will be coming into to be fitted for their costumes in the next few weeks.

See you at the theatre.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

Time for some business planning...

It’s that time of year again - business planning time. This plan is an extremely important tool that steers the entire organisation for the next three years. It outlines the key objectives that the theatre aims to meet during those years such as a different type of programming or developing the theatre’s audience. It’s really exciting to explore what the Coliseum could be doing in the future.

We started thinking about the business plan for April 2012 – 2015 earlier this year when the theatre applied for National Portfolio of Organisations (NPO) status from the Arts Council. This was part of the restructure of Arts Council funding that has been introduced following savage government cuts. Thankfully the Coliseum came out of the process unharmed and was one of five building based theatres nationally that actually had their funding increased.

The planning starts with our senior management team but it will eventually involve everyone in the organisation. We had a staff day last week during which everyone contributed ideas to the vision of the Coliseum. This is really valuable as myself and other senior managers can find out what’s important to staff and they can have their say about how we operate which is a fantastic opportunity.

The staff day was also a great chance to visit the new venues that the Coliseum will be inhabiting in 2012 - there’s been a lot of talk about it but there’s nothing quite like the reality of seeing where you’ll be actually be working for six months. We visited the old library on Union Street which will be our producing hub while the Fairbottom St. building is refurbished. The library will host all aspects of production including wardrobe, technical stage management and rehearsal space. We then visited a potential box office venue in the town centre – nothing is confirmed yet but we’re hoping to have a central booking office that will be convenient for you to book your tickets. Later we took a tour around the Grange Arts Centre to see where we’ll be producing Taking Steps in February.

Now, a worrying amount of audience members have come up to me to talk about the theatre closing in the New Year. Let me take this opportunity to make this very clear, the Coliseum is not closing in 2012. The company will be producing theatre in and around Oldham while the Fairbottom St. venue is refurbished and we will return to our usual home in October 2012.

While we’re still here though, make sure you come and see our current production of Deathtrap. The show is getting a great response from both audiences and critics. Pop into the theatre and see what everyone’s talking about.

See you at the theatre.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

Confidence and thrills all from the Coliseum

You may have read the article in the Chronicle last week about the inspiring work being done by Remploy based on Ashton Road. Remploy is a nationwide employment service for people experiencing complex barriers to work. Working with leading employers and through their own businesses they enable individuals to identify, develop and make the most of their abilities to enjoy rewarding and fulfilling employment.

Our Outreach Department at the Coliseum has recently undertaken a project in partnership with Remploy to use drama techniques to increase participants’ employability. Our drama activities are designed to develop the confidence of the project's partcipants, take them out of their comfort zone and challenge them both physically and psychologically. These included learning stage directions, understanding voice projection and vocal techniques, improvisation as well as actually learning lines from the John Godber play Teechers.

The participants were all unemployed, lacking motivation, money and confidence but were willing to challenge themselves to better their future. The group came from a range of backgrounds with a variety of different experiences of trying to gain employment.

At the end of the project the group performed an extract from Teechers in front of students from Huddersfield University who evaluated the success of the project and Remploy staff. The participants left with a great variety of new skills and had fun while gaining them.

Back to the main stage, Deathtrap has been open for a week now (where does the time go?) and the audience response has been fantastic. As with any play, you never quite know how the audience will react but seeing the audience’s reactions as they watch Deathtrap is a great experience. On a few occasions the twists and shocks have made people literally jump out of their seats. If you haven’t already seen it, I’m sure many of your friends and family who have are dying to talk to you about it but can’t let slip any of the plot for fear of spoiling it for you. Come along and find out what happens for yourself.

See you at the theatre.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

Ghost lights, the Scottish play and why the Green Room is called...the Green Room

Last week I let you into the vast world of theatre traditions and superstitions, many of which originate from the very early days of theatre and performance. There are just so many that I could write several columns on the subject but I’ve cut it down to just two, so here’s the second round.
One of the most famous theatre superstitions is to not say Macbeth in the building otherwise it brings bad luck. Some think this is because of the witch craft and sword fights in the play. An infamous story from the Coliseum’s history is actor Harold Norman’s death who performed in the play in the 40s. The safety tip fell off the end of the sword used in a fight scene and Harold ended up with a fatal stab wound, dying in hospital a few days later. It is reported that he had actually uttered the word Macbeth many times before the house opened that night.

The real reason it was bad luck was because the play is considered to be a seat filler and would only be programmed when a theatre was in financial trouble - usually closing soon after. Although that’s not the case these days, actors and crew will still refer to it as the Scottish play in the auditorium to make sure the current production is not cursed. There have even been stories of cast members acting out odd cleansing rituals if the play is spoken including turning three times, spitting over their left shoulder, swearing, or reciting a line from another of Shakespeare's plays.

Theatres leave a ghost light on stage during the night after everyone has left the building. The superstitious reason for this is to keep any ghosts in the building happy resulting in less hauntings for the theatre. There are even far-fetched tales of ghosts putting on their own plays in the dead of the night. In reality though, the practical use of this light is simply to prevent people from falling into the orchestra pit, bumping into the set or knocking over props. It could be said that by preventing this it stops actors and crew from harming themselves and becoming future ghosts – but I’m not too sure about that.

Many of the superstitions have derived from practical reasoning but that need has disappeared and the traditions have remained. For example; the green room is named such because it used to be painted green as that colour is relaxing for the eyes and for the actors and green costumes are considered bad luck and this stems from the practical fact that the colour green absorbs light, so if an actor wearing a green outfit was standing onstage next to someone in white then they would fade into the background and not be seen.

The list is endless but I’ll stop there. Even in the 21st Century many of these odd rituals still take place at theatres across the country.

See you at the theatre.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

Do you really want me to break a leg?

The world of theatre is full of odd and rather eccentric traditions, phrases and rituals many of which have been out of date for several decades but they have left a legacy in the theatrical industry. You may know the sayings but not the reasons actors abide by them so here’s a quick rundown of the most common ones.

It’s unlucky to whistle on stage and this harks back to the early days of theatre when sailors were used as backstage crew while their ships were in port. Sailors knew how to rig and change scenery and this is why we use the terms ‘crew’ and ‘rigging’. They also used a series of whistles to communicate scene changes and if actors were to whistle on stage then they might confuse the cues. Whistling on stage is still deemed bad luck even though – now in the 21st Century – we use headsets to speak to each other backstage.

When people use the term ‘step into the limelight’ it refers an early type of stage lighting where lime was heated until it glowed and illuminated the stage. The stars of the show would step into the limelight to be seen and a phrase was born…

Actors often wish each other luck by saying ‘break a leg’ and there are a few theories as to the origin of the phrase. The first is that it’s bad luck to say good luck so the opposite would be to wish someone to break a leg. Another is that when an actress does a courtesy at the curtain call she is breaking the line of her leg so you’d hope she breaks a leg on stage. Another refers to the narrow cloths at the side of the stage that are called ‘legs’. If the cast get several encores then the legs will have to be raised and lowered many times so if they’re lucky they’ll have so many encores they’ll break a leg.

A tradition that we stick to here at the Coliseum is to not say the last lines of a pantomime production during rehearsals. When we come to the end of a panto dress rehearsal and the characters wrap up the story with rhyming couplets, the cast just say “dah dee dahs” rather than the actual lines. This is because the show isn’t complete without the audience so it’s unlucky to finish without them. It makes for an interesting experience for someone who’s watching the rehearsal and doesn’t know this tradition.

There are many more of these traditional superstitions and sayings so next week I’ll tell you about a few more.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director