The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring!

Friday. 6.20 a.m. It's another relatively mild morning on the weather front, but Storm Kathleen is on the way, with high winds expected. This, according to BBC Breakfast this morning.

7.30 a.m. I think I made a mistake. It might be mild, but there's been some rain in the night. I can see the pavements outside are wet, so that would indicate rain.

I have a load of washing in the machine. It takes an hour to do the wash, and then into the drier. Just as well we have a tumble drier, otherwise, it would be dripping clothes in the flat, on the drying rack, something I wouldn't want.

(Note: The title for this post is the title of a song from Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, 'The Mikado.' I'm trying to find quotations from various sources, which are appropriate to the content of each post. Not always successful, but I do try. The flowers are blooming  all around Milton Keynes at the moment, so the choice of title is more than appropriate.)

8.45 a.m. On BBC Breakfast, they mentioned the fact that Abba won Eurovision 50 years ago this year. They had a reporter in Brighton, where the final of Eurovision was held in 1974. I was a D.S.M., working at Ipswich Theatre at the time and I had the radio on in my car and was driving home to my parent's house near Huntingdon and I heard the result of the competition on my car radio. It's just incredible to me that it was 50 years ago. I can't remember what show I was working on at the time. I do recall the first show I was involved in when I arrived, a production of 'Roots' by Arnold Wesker. I was put on sound operation. The sound deck was at the back of the auditorium, up several flights of stairs. I put together several sound effects tapes for several of the plays that were produced. At one point towards the end of the play, the central character, played by an actor called Jennie Quayle, puts on a record on a record player. I have a cue on my tape, which is supposed to come out of the record player. For some unfortunate reason, I had wound on the tape to the next cue (each cue separated by red tape, spliced into the recording tape.) The music that was supposed to come out of the record player was Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite, but, because I had wound on to the next cue, which was the sound of rain, that was what was played through the speakers on stage! I immediately ran down to the stage and apologized to Jennie Quayle, saying I had made a bit of a mistake. I think she was quite happy with my apology, but from then on, I was careful to make sure I had the correct cue lined up each time

10.40 a.m. I've been to Sainsbury's. The place seems to be falling apart. The travelator wasn't working, so I had to use the lift. It seems as if these travelators are always breaking down. There has been work going on with them for months, so it makes you wonder why they are always malfunctioning. I then went to buy some frozen veg at the far end of the store, and a whole row of freezers were empty and none of the frozen veg I had wanted anywhere to be seen. 

When I came to pay, I pushed my trolley into the self-service area and then found that most of the tills weren't operating. There were a few ar the far end, and several people waiting to use them. When I eventually got to start scanning my shopping, the machine wouldn't work and the lady who is there to assist when there is a problem had to get the machine working several times. There should be far more staff to help with this problem. I think problems such as this are caused by Sainsbury's getting rid of too many staff and expecting customers to scan their own shopping instead of having manned tills. I think it is so they can cut prices and compete with other supermarkets for cheaper items. But, as a result, customer service suffers and the shelves aren't filled up when items run out.

Time and Tide

 Friday. 6.15 a.m. I can't believe Alfie and I were out well before 6 o'clock this morning. The weather seems very settled as I write this.

Saturday. 6.40 a.m. What's going on? Is that all I wrote for yesterday? I usually write far more.

Alfie and I were out at 6 o'clock, and it's been raining overnight. Quite chilly.

3.20 p.m. I have been to meet up with my friend Nick, who I knew from my time living in Bedford (hi Nick, if you're reading this.) He lives in Northampton and comes to Milton Keynes on the bus. I was due to meet him at midday. I drove in and parked in Secklow Gate car park, where I normally park, which is next door to the somewhat dilapidated Point. It's not always easy to find space later on a Saturday. I then walked in and through the shopping centre. It was surprisingly busy. We met outside Starbucks. I ordered an ice-cold cold drink made with oats. Surprisingly good. Also, a cheese and ham toastie. From Starbucks, we walked to John Lewis and went up to the electrical department. We spent time browsing the television sets, some with huge screen sizes, some over 60 inches and costing in the region of £4,000. That size would be far too big for my flat, in fact, such a size screen would probably not fit in. The quality of the picture on these sets is amazing. We looked at Samsung mobiles and then Apple products.

From John Lewis we went to browse in T.K. Maax and then we walked through the shopping centre and eventually went into Costa opposite M and S. I had a rather tasty chocolate drink which was made with bits of Kit Kat and cream on top. Then, into Marks and Spencer's to look at clothes in the menswear department. Nick doesn't like escalators, which take you to the various levels of the store, so went up via the lift. A few quite decent items I may come back and purchase, as I have a voucher coming from doing some online surveys. This should come in the post in the next few days. Then Nick came to the car park as I was leaving and we said our goodbyes and I drove off.

12.45 p.m. If you know me and if you read these blog posts, you will know I am a lover of theatre, I have worked in professional stage management, amongst other things. I have a subscription to National Theatre At Home, which is a streaming service which streams 'live' recordings of plays. I have seen several shows at the South Bank home of the National Theatre and it's probably the leading subsidised theatre company in this country. Amongst the plays I've seen was the 1980's production of Guys and Dolls as well as On The Razzle, which was a play written by Tom Stoppard and based on the play which eventually became the Thornton Wilder play 'The Matchmaker' which then formed the basis for the musical 'Hello Dolly.' (I did 'The Book' for  a production of 'The Matchmaker' when I was D.S.M. at Ipswich Theatre in the mid-1970's. ) But I digress. . .

There are quite a few fantastic shows to stream on NT At Home. 'Treasure Island', a reimagining of the Restoration comedy, 'The Rivals', retitled 'Jack Absolute Flies Again' and set the play in the Second World War. Last night I watched 'All About Eve', which is based on the 1950's film which starred Bette Davis and Anne Baxter. This stage version isn't actually a National Theatre production. It was produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Fox Stage Productions. I haven't seen the film, but I know about it. I believe it was made into a musical called 'Applause.' This stage version uses 'live' video, so you can see two scenes simultaneously and could see the camera operators. I don't know whether this added anything to the action or whether it was just a gimmick. Just because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean you have to use it. Like, in films, where they use C.G.I. It doesn't always add anything. In fact, if used too often, it just becomes a distraction. You shouldn't actually be able to notice any special effects.

5.50 p.m. I have now managed to complete the piece of writing which will connect two sections of my writing project, which means I can introduce a new character.

'It Was 50 Years Ago Today!'

Quoting as I did in my blog post title, to the Beatles album track 'Sergent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.' It's something of an anniversary this weekend. It's exactly 50 years ago that I started work, as a very green 18-year-old, when I went to work as a student A.S.M. at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. I was taken down to Cheltenham by my mum in the Land Rover because it was snowing heavily and I had lots of luggage, including a bicycle to take. I had to live in the Y.M.C.A. because my mum didn't think I'd be able to manage on my own in a flat. I was eventually to live with a family in Cheltenham as a lodger. Whether I would have managed on my own in a flat is open to doubt. I wasn't given a chance to find out, but I suppose, as I was the first of her five sons to go away from home, she was only doing what she thought was the best for me. 

I was thrown into the deep end because that first Monday I went to work at the Everyman was the technical rehearsal for the latest play, an adaptation of 'Jane Eyre,' which had Angela Richards as Jane and Philip Voss playing Rochester. It would have been quite an eye-opener for me, as generally a technical rehearsal can be a very long and tiring experience, going on all day and probably into the early hours of the next day. The play is virtually taken apart and lighting and sound cues rehearsed, along with scene changes and it will be the first time the actors as well as the stage management, got to see and experience the set. Some of the scene changes could be very complicated, with the set consisting of several wheeled units or 'trucks,' built on platforms which had castors underneath them and could be difficult to manoeuvre over the stage floor which was built at a slight angle or 'rake,' meaning if you weren't careful, they could disappear over the edge of the stage and possibly fall into the audience, so each 'truck' had to be equipped with bolts which could be pushed into drilled holes in the stage floor to prevent them moving once in place. On the following Tuesday there would be a dress rehearsal, that is, if the technical rehearsal went on too long on the Monday. This would be almost like an actual performance, but without an audience, although the director would be making notes throughout and after the dress rehearsal he or she would gather all the actors and stage management to give these notes, for example, could a scene change be done quicker, could doors be prevented from opening or squeaking unnecessarily etc etc, as well as tweeking sound or lighting cues and endless other things that might need rectifying before the first night.

I think I was put on helping during scene changes. There would be a 'curtain drop, which was meant to be very short and you'd have to go on stage and place a prop or take something away. It could be barely a minute so you had to absolutely sure what you were expected to do. It could be quite difficult if you had to set a piece of furniture, probably carrying it on with another member of stage management and make quite sure it was positioned correctly. Coloured tape was put on the stage floor and usually the 'up-stage' legs of, say, a table or chair, would be marked and it could be quite difficult to find these coloured marks, particularly if you had such a short time to find them as well as the fact that there probably wasn't much light to see by, and then exit rapidly before the curtain went up on the next scene of the play. If it was a prop that was vital to the plot, or the piece of furniture was wrongly positioned, it could ruin the performance. Can you think of a prop, such as a vital piece of evidence in a 'whodunnit', if it's missing and the police, who are looking for evidence, suddenly that vital 'prop' is missing? Or the murderer looks in the drawer of a desk to find the weapon to shoot another character, and it's missing? Could be devastating. So, you needed to be on your toes when setting as well as striking props.

Another couple of anniversaries in 2019. It was on 20th July 1969 that the first humans went to the moon and walked on the surface. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin explored the lunar surface while Michael Collins remained in the Apollo 11 module, piloting the capsule around the moon. I recall watching this historic event unfold on television, in really grainy black and white pictures. I'm not sure I was that interested and the television coverage seemed to go on for a long time, even though the picture quality wasn't particularly brilliant. A D.S.M. at the Everyman insisted on me going to a jewellers shop in Cheltenham to get a model of the Apollo module which was on display in their window. As part of our job, we had to go and beg, steal or borrow items from local business for use as props in the plays we were staging during that season. It took me a while to pluck up courage to go and ask for whatever was required in a particular production, such as a tea set or, in one case, a samovar. If the business lent an item they got a credit mention in the play's programme and also got a couple of free tickets for the play. So, it didn't take me much courage to go and ask in that jeweller's to get that model. I duly came back and presented it to the D.S.M., who would have been more senior to me in the pecking order. Why couldn't he have gone and asked himself? I don't know, looking back, but probably to see if I would obey orders or just because he couldn't do it himself.

The other anniversary would be the fact that I passed my driving test whilst working in Cheltenham. I had been taking lessons before arriving in Cheltenham and had my first test during the break in the season and I'd gone home for the week. Consequently I had failed, and when I had returned to Cheltenham, I resumed taking lessons and then went on to take a second test, which I passed and the my parents bought me my first car, a two-tone green Ford Anglia, which cost the princely sum of £75! It lasted probably two or three years until it finally bit the dust. It had an odd habit. When it rained, you put on the windscreen wipers and if you went fast, they moved slowly, but if you were driving slowly, say, going up a steep hill, they went fast. Can't see how or why, but presumably they were linked to the speed of the engine. Also, you dipped the lights, when you drove at night, by using your foot on the floor, to depress a pedal near the accelerator pedal. It's a pity modern cars don't have this pedal to dip the headlights. Something you don't have to do nowadays when you learn to drive, and that's to use hand signals. Sticking your hand out to show you're intentions to move left or right or slow down seems a rather foolhardy thing to do. Most likely if you were to do it today you'd get some strange looks and possibly get your arm knocked off by a passing vehicle. 

Appearing On Stage

I was never employed to be an actor when I worked in theatre. I was first a Student A.S.M. (Assistant Stage Manager), and then a fully-fledged A.S.M., and then moved up to become D.S.M. (Deputy Stage Manager). There were times when a production required a few more bodies on stage, not necessarily speaking parts (a bit like 'Walk-On's in television or Supporting Artistes.) usually to fill up the stage, to flesh out things in a similar way. I think the second play I worked on was a production of Shakespeare's "Winter's Tale" and myself and other members of stage management were expected to don costumes and become 'Gentlemen' and 'Ladies' of the court as well as 'Rustics' in the country scenes, meaning we had to wear tights. No, don't laugh. O.K. if you must. Classically, actors are always talked of as becoming 'Spear-Carriers,' generally in the background of Shakespeare productions, usually the first appearance they make on stage. As such you have to stand very till so as not to up-stage the actors who are acting 'down-stage.' You have to make sure you don't distract in any way. Towards the end of my time at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham they also did a farce called "They Don't Grow On Trees," which was about a family seeking to employ a nanny for their children, and one actress (Vivienne Ross in this case) playing a range of weird and wonderful characters throughout the course of the play. One of these women was supposed to have escaped from some sort of institution, I don't know, a mental unit or something, and she was chased by men in white suits (myself and another member of stage management.) We were supposed to rush in and attempt to catch this woman, and I think I even had a couple of lines (a rarity.) and we were supposed to chase this woman through a window. Unfortunately, the audience laughed so much during this scene that my lines were completely drowned out! Perhaps if I'd had more experience of timing I might have got a laugh myself, but never mind.

Generally in stage management when I was working in theatre, there were various levels of stage management. I was employed as what was termed a Technical A.S.M., meaning my job was doing things like the book (described in detail in earlier posts.), looking after props, sourcing them and setting them and generally making sure they were set correctly, operating sound (recorded or 'spot' sound effects, such as off-stage things like door slams or breaking glass.) Some members of stage management were termed 'Acting A.S.M's' meaning they were expected to do some stage management duties, but were often cast in minor roles, such as maids, gents, in small speaking parts, as a sort of first step into acting, possibly those who had left stage school and were breaking into the profession.

Later in the season at the Everyman Theatre they did a production of 'Romeo and Juliet' and myself and another member of stage management were used during the opening scene where we were involved in a stave fight, supposedly part of the feud between the Montegues and the Capulets (I don't honestly think it was very convincing) but yet another instance where we had to fill out the stage to make the scene more convincing than it might otherwise have been.

In an earlier post I talk about my time at Colchester Rep. I was involved in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" which was a very budget-conscious production and consequently some characters, for example, the fairies, weren't cast as humans, but were created using torches which made 'spots' of light which stage management had to operate from the side of the stage. The voices were done by some of the cast speaking off-stage into microphones and the voices conveyed on stage via loudspeakers. I know, I wasn't  actually acting or performing but I was still part of the play. Two of us were in the 'Pyramus and Thisbe' 'play-within-a-play' at the end, as courtiers and guests. Definitely making an appearance, even though we didn't have lines.

I'm forgetting that I also appeared on stage during the performance of "Voyage Round My Father"  at Greenwich Theatre I when had to push on stage a large judge's chair. Although, saying that, as stage management, you were often seen pushing either chairs on stage, setting props, changing bits of scenery, or whatever. In this case I can categorically say I have been on stage when Royalty has be in the audience, and in this case it was Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden who were in the audience for one special performance. Stage management weren't supposed to be 'seen' as such, so we were often dressed in black. You went on, placed whatever item it was, a piece of furniture or a prop, and then disappear quickly. Also, during performances of the music hall which was staged at Greenwich when I had to set a stool by the piano for the incomparable Max Wall, and on one occasion I came on from the opposite side to which he was expecting and got a round of applause and some laughter! Also, during the pantomime at Greenwich, myself and another A.S.M. had to open and close the large doors which made up the set, and had to join in with the opening number. No use just standing stock still with your mouth shut. Also, performing a sequence which was done in U.V. light, when Dick Whittington and his cat get cast adrift on a raft at sea and we had to operate the model raft with puppet cat and Dick Whittington in it.

Working In Theatre- Stage Management Duties- Part 2

We had to find all manner of strange things for use as props in shows I worked on. Not only did me have to find, from whatever source, but sometimes we would have to make props. Particularly shows such as pantomimes, where you could let your imagination run riot and make things larger than life. Huge great clubs for hitting giants over the head with. Larger than life lollipops. Shopping trollies which had mocked-up petrol engines on them so that when the Dame appears on-stage it seems her shopping trolley is propelled by a lawnmower engine, complete with some  smoke coming out of the exhaust. You name it, we had to produce it.  I worked on a production of 'Macbeth' at Greenwich, and it was necessary to make a head of the actor who played Macbeth. If you know the play you must know that at the end he is killed by being beheaded and his head has to be brought on stage. We had to get the actor playing Macbeth, Alan Dobie, to agree to having his head cast in plaster. Not an easy thing, and not something that I would want as the thought of having my head covered in plaster of paris and straws put up my nose to allow me to breath wouldn't be pleasant. He did agree, and then, once the two halves of the mould were separated, the inside of the mould was filled with latex so a cast could be made. When it was finished the finished 'prop' head was very realistic, and it had stage blood applied, along with hair and it was extremely life-like.

In an earlier post on here I describe how, when I was working on a production of a play at the Century Theatre, Keswick, we had to create a dead chicken, which had to match exactly a live one which was on-stage and then is supposed to go off stage and be killed, and how we had to take some of the live chicken's tail feathers and put them into the 'prop' chicken (which, incidentally, has had its head chopped off, which made making the prop one easier!) Also, I mentioned in another post the production of a show called "Loot" by Joe Orton which I did at Colchester Rep where we had to build a set of coffins and caskets, one of which has to be built so that it can return to the stage burnt out and with a trap on the side which hinges down to reveal piles of burnt £5-notes inside, as well as the piles of Fivers as well as a convincing 'corpse' which is covered in a shroud and has to be articulated so when it is carried it appears as convincing as a del corpse, with articulated joints, limbs etc.

Food always caused a bit of a headache. Particularly when we were working with very little money. In a play we did at Liverpool Playhouse called "June Evening" (and which I did the book for, incidentally.) we had to produce an ox's heart. The play was by Bill Naughton, who wrote the plays "Alfie" which became the film starring Michael Caine as well as "Spring and Port Wine (which I was involved in at the Everyman at Cheltenham.) We did manage to find a butcher who could provide us with the real ox's heart, which we then had to cook before-hand and then put on stage. The set was a street, with two houses opposite one another, one being a home with kitchen and living room, and on a revolve, which turned round to show the interior at the correct time during the action of the play. The opposite house was a shop, rather like a corner shop, and probably a bit like one of the shops that are portrayed on "Coronation Street." As it was set during the 1930's we had to stock the shop with appropriate items and so had to contact various manufacturers who provided us with cans and packets, appropriate to the period of the play, in order to make the shop convincing. When this shop was fully stocked up and dressed, (again, on a revolved), it was quite heavy and to get it to revolve was quite an effort.

Alan Ayckbourne's plays nearly always have food in them somewhere. In "What The Other Half Love" at Keswick there was a meal at the end of one of the acts, we were supposed to produce avocados for the starter for one of the couples who are giving a dinner party. We couldn't afford to have avocados for every performance we did so we bought a real one and then cast it in a sort of papier mach material and then lined these halves with aluminium foil and then used mashed banana to fill these half 'shells' or 'skins' and it did simulate real avocado quite convincingly. In the same production the main part of that meal was supposed to be a casserole, but, again we were on a tight budget and had to use bread soaked in gravy to simulate the real thing. I don't think the actor's got to eat it, thankfully!

At Ipswich Theatre, the first show I worked on was 'Roots" (the second of the Wesker Trilogy of plays.) The whole play revolves around a character who doesn't actually appear. He is supposed to appear at the the end, and the mother produces an elaborate meal, which includes a trifle. As is wasn't eaten, we managed to construct it out out bread, cake and shaving foam. It was incredible to see how the glade cherries got bleached by the shaving foam, and made me wonder what on earth it was in shaving foam that could have that effect on glade cherries and what would it do to your skins if you used it to shave. We also had a large Victoria sponge on the stage, also never eaten, and it got so stale that it was like a piece of wood by the end of the play's run and it could almost have rolled across the floor like a wheel!

Working in Theatre- Stage Management Duties- Part 1

I will attempt to outline the various duties expected of a stage management crew, bearing in mind that this was during my time working in repertory theatre in the 1970's. I expect a lot of things have remained the same, but with such things as union agreements, financial factors and the fact that 'repertory' theatre no longer exists in the same way, there are bound to be a great deal of changes since I worked in this area.

A standard team of stage management would consist of a stage manager, and over all would inevitably be a production manager and over the whole lot would be an artistic director and general manager who would be responsible for the administration of the theatre. Stage management, going down the ranks as it were, would be made up of D.S.M. (Deputy Stage Manager) as well as A.S.M. There might be several D.S.M.s and A.S.M.s, depending on the size of the company. A.S.Ms could also be Technical and Acting, the Technical being responsible entirely for duties such as props, scene changes, generally looking after the actors on and off stage, whilst Acting A.S.Ms do a bit of both acting and stage management and would have been a route into an acting career. They would generally speaking get smaller parts,  (ie. butlers, maids, 'spear carrying' parts, herald, minor characters in Shakespeare productions etc etc.) doing minor stage management duties but they wouldn't have gone into theatre in order to focus on a stage management career. D.S.Ms generally used to be responsible for the 'Book' for shows, taking rehearsals and then, when the play goes into the theatre for a run, would be responsible for the running of the show from the prompt corner, giving cues for lighting, sound, and calling the actors on stage ready for their entrances etc. I did 'The Book' when I was A.S.M. at Colchester Rep, on a production of 'Billy Liar', my first shot at this particular job, but generally the more experienced D.S.Ms were responsible for 'The Book.' It was good to have been given the responsibility as you are totally in control of the show on stage. If there is a technical issue, an actor needs a prompt and he doesn't get one, a cue is late for something, such as sound or lighting, it is you, as being in charge of the prompt corner, who would take the responsibility.

When a play begins rehearsal, and it depended on how many weeks each play ran for, but generally they would run for two or three weeks, and the next play in the season was going into rehearsal, there would be a read-through of the play with all the actors present along with stage management, costume designer, set designer, lighting design, sound and so on. This gave everyone a chance to get a general 'feel' for the play. The director would discuss his approach to the text and then the company would see the set, given some sort of presentation by the designer, how the set worked, how scene changes are done, and generally, how the whole show will look and feel. The model is generally a full-scale replica and then there would be the ground-plans to look at.

Stage management would have 'marked up' the floor of the rehearsal room. Some theatres have their own rehearsal space within the main theatre building. At Liverpool Playhouse, for example, which could also be used for small-scale, studio performances, but generally most 'reps' had to make do with either rehearsing on the actual stage, that is, if the current show had space within it's acting area, but usually rehearsals would be held somewhere in the town such as a church hall or other convenient space where the floor-plan of the set could be marked out using coloured tape or even chalk. Doors, stairs and different levels of the set would be marked and then furniture placed in the position it would be on the set. This would most likely be stand-in furniture as most likely not all the furniture for the actual production would be ready for use in the rehearsal studio.

Then the 'blocking' of the play would begin. If actors were not required for a particular scene they wouldn't be 'called' until later, but whoever was responsible for running the rehearsals, generally the person doing 'The Book' would have to keep a tally of rehearsal 'calls' usually given by the director at the end of a day's rehearsal and then the D.S.M. would have to make up a call sheet giving calls for the actors for the next day or for the days ahead. The whole play would most likely be broken up into scenes or acts and the actors required for those scenes or sequences of the play would only then be needed for their scenes. You would most likely have to telephone those actors who were elsewhere to give them their calls.

'Blocking' is the initial direction given by the play's director, the moves the actors make around the stage. During this process the person on the book has to mark all these moves as precisely in the prompt copy so that, if needs be, the director or actors can be remind where a particular move is. At the same time, another member of stage management is plotting all props, what they are and where they are set on or off stage, if they come on from a particular entrance which is important so that at the beginning of the play stage management know where to set them. It is at this point, when there is a list of props, that stage management begin to find props. Some theatres have a properties department, a store-room which contains a fair amount of items which can be used in any particular play, be it a set of candle sticks, teapots, cups and saucers or smaller items of furniture, but if it's something more complicated, such as a stuffed bear (which is what we were supposed to find for a play I did in Liverpool.) or a samovar (which I had to find when working on a play in Cheltenham. Yes, I did manage to find one, in an antiques centre.) then you would be expected to walk the streets of the town in which the theatre was in and literally 'beg, borrow or steal' to get items to use on-stage. We seemed to have a regular selection of shops, mostly antique shops, who would be willing to lend items of furniture, and then we got on good terms with the display departments of certain department stores who used to provide all manner of items. On a production of 'Salad Days' at Cheltenham Everyman we needed to find a couple of hairdryers, the sort you would find in a hairdressing salon. I found out that Cavendish House, the large department store opposite the theatre, was modernising their hairdressing department and found that they were throwing out their old driers, so we managed to borrow them for the show. Perfect, and they even came on castors which made it easy during a scene change. They could then be simply wheeled on and off stage during the scene change.

Before the actual props are available (and some can be hired from a range of prop hire companies) we also had to provide 'stand-in' props, so the actors had something to handle during rehearsals. It's a bit difficult, for example, if a scene is set during a meal and the actors don't have plates and cutlery, or drinking in a bar and don't have something to drink out of. Once they have got their lines learnt and aren't carrying their scripts then they will want to have something to work with as regards props. The same goes with furniture. They need chairs to sit on and if there is a sofa, a group of chairs pushed together to stand in for a sofa which may not have been sourced.

Working In Theatre- Part 11

In the Spring of 1973 I answered an advertisement for a stage management job in  "The Stage" newspaper, the entertainment industry journal  where most acting, stage management  and other theatre-related jobs were advertised. It was to work at Century Theatre in Keswick, Cumbria. It now seems quite incredible, in hindsight, from the distance in time of some 40 years, that I was not asked to go for an interview. Today you have to give all sorts of forms of identity before you can apply for even the most menial of jobs, such as several utility bills, bank statements, C.R.B. checks and so on.  I couldn't believe that a few weeks after I applied that I got a letter back in response to mine, informing me that I had got the job of D.S.M. with the company and that I would start that Easter.  It does seem incredible that I could have been any one on earth when I eventually turned up for work, what with so many stories now  coming to light such as child abuse  etc etc (just think of the Jimmy Saville Scandal).  I imagine they must have followed up with references for other places I'd worked, or at least I would hoped they did. So I packed up some of my things and put it into my little Triumph car and drove off up the M1 and M6 towards the Lake District. I recall that the driver's side door of the car caused a big problem as it wouldn't close properly so I had to tie a bit of string to the inside door handle and then the other to the steering wheel column. Before I had tied it up in this fashion, the door had swung open when I'd gone round a roundabout. Thinking about it, it seems really quite precarious and dangerous, but there seemed absolutely no other way of dealing with the problem. I could have easily fallen out of the car, but it actually didn't seem to bother me. It did cause problems when I came to stop at a service area on the M6 as I had to undo the bit of string to get out of the car and then re-tie it back on when I got back in to resume the journey! On the way I spent a night with friends in Liverpool and then continued on towards Keswick.

I had a vague idea what to expect with Century. It had a reputation for being quite innovative, in that it was a mobile theatre and had been set up after the Second World War with the intention of taking professional theatre to towns and cities across the North of England which at the time didn't have their own, permanent theatres. It was quite an amazing construction, being made up of a series of large pantechnicons or I suppose H.G.Vs or in modern terms container trucks, which could be transported in convoy and then assembled to form the theatre with the stage being formed out of one such trailer and the auditorium from another, which had all the seats in it and another which housed the front-of-house with a bar and box-office as well as the lighting control box. There were a couple of other trailers which served as dressing rooms and another for wardrobe as well as a furniture van which contained all the scenery, props and other equipment. When it had originally been set up in the late 1940's all the actors, stage management  and auxiliary staff had toured and lived in caravans, and everyone mucked in and helped construct the theatre as well as set up and strike the theatre whenever it moved around from town to town and everyone lived in these caravans. During the summer of 1973 several of the actors in the company did live in caravans on the Keswick site, which was a car park, but also several company members, including myself,  lived in flats and houses around Keswick. I do not have very good experiences of caravans, mostly due to the fact that I'm over 6 foot tall and having to  live in accommodation which is cramped and usually has headroom of less than six feet high doesn't suit me, so I found a room nearby in  a house in the centre of the town.

The season consisted of four plays, which were "The Patrick Pearce Motel" by Hugh Leonard, "How The Other Half Loves" by Alan Ayckbourn, "The Man With A Load of Mischief" by Ashley Dukes  and "Romeo and Jeannette" by Jean Anouilh. Each play ran in repertoire for the season, from April to October and each would run for two days at a time and  then we would change over to another play in the repertoire, the idea being that most people who visited the area came for a week so in any week they would be able to see at least two plays in the season. The first play to be rehearsed was the Hugh Leonard and once that was running, the next was rehearsed during the day whilst the evening show was running, then that was opened and then the next was rehearsed and then brought into the repertoire until all the plays were running and then cycled round every two days. Extremely hard works as you can imagine. We had to set up and strike after each play's two-day run which meant working late into the night and as the show would finish at gone 10 p.m. we might not complete the strike and then set-up for the next show until well into the early hours of the following day. We had to re-light the new play once the set was in as well as put in all the necessary props and furniture.

As I've already mentioned, there was a furniture van on the site which was parked near the get-in doors of the theatre where all the scenery was stored. Bear in mind that this was chocker-block full of flats for up to four shows, although at any one time there would be three stored in this van. It was no easy task to drag out each flat and lift it into the theatre through the doors, and then, once the sets had been dismantled, to then lift them into the furniture van. It was quite a task to stack the flats carefully so as to not damage them but to make sure they were stacked in such a way as to take up as little space as possible. Also, after several months of this, setting and striking, the scenery began to show signs of real wear and tear.

If you know the Lake District well you will be aware of the weather in that part of England. It can change very rapidly. In one day you can have fog and mist and the next minute the fog will clear and it will be bright and sunny and the next minute it will be pouring with rain. I mention this because the theatre was, as I've said already, constructed of several large container or H.G.V. lorries and they were made of metal. When it was sunny it could get quite hot inside the theatre, as the metal of their construction retained heat. When it rained when a show was on the sound could be quite loud and the actors had to raise their voices to be heard. Another problem was that where two of the lorries met, just over the centre of the stage (I think, looking back, the roof of the stage was made of a side section of a lorry which was hinged up and it joined another similar section from the other up-stage section to make the rest of the roof.) Where they met it used to be not particularly water-proof and as a result there could be drips falling on the stage whenever it rained (which was quite frequently.)  The actors learnt quite early on in the season where any drips would fall and managed to find ways of avoiding these drips, which was quite amusing, watching them from the wings, trying to judge where the next drip was going to fall, and stepping carefully out of the way! As a way of solving this dripping it was decided to fix a sort of gutter along the  ceiling. But, unfortunately, it meant that as a result, the sets were some four or five inches too high. I must tell you that the entire height of the ceiling from the stage floor can have been no more than about nine or ten feet, in fact the height of a standard Leyland lorry (which was what the whole theatre was constructed from.) As a result of having this gutter fitted all the flats for all four plays had to be cut down so that they would fit under the gutter! So you can imagine the amount of work and effort this caused!

I seem to remember that there was a complaint from somebody who lived near the theatre. It seemed that we made far too much noise during the get-in/get-out nights. I think it may have had something to do with the floor of the stage. As with most stages, or at least those I had worked on, the floor was covered by what is called a stage cloth. It is in simple terms a large piece of canvas that fits the floor of the stage exactly and is stretched and held taut with staples tacks or nails. It can then be painted to suit the set design obviously depending on what play is being staged. After time this cloth becomes very wrinkled due to the number of feet walking on it and scenery being moved around over it. So, in order to remove any wrinkles and irregularities it had to be re-tacked. We used to 'tread' it so as to get rid of these wrinkles. This was always done as soon as the stage was completely empty. As a result of this 'treading' with everyone involved, it produced quite a lot of noise. I think it was this that caused the complaints from the neighbouring houses. As a result we had to keep any noise to an absolute minimum and we had to finish any work in the theatre at midnight or even earlier.

This stage cloth comes into the next bit I'm about to relate. During the scene changes for one of the plays, "The Patrick Pearce Motel" stage management would stand in the wings ready to go on stage immediately this particular scene ended and did the scene change, which if I recall was quite complicated. There was quite a draught which blew across the stage under  the afore-mentioned get-in doors. This caused the stage cloth to ride up somewhat. One of the stage crew had to remove stage weights off a lighting stand ready to move it away for whatever reason, perhaps to allow flats to be moved on or off. As a result the stage cloth under the lighting stand on this particular day was toppled over and the light and stand fell on my head. I was not seriously injured but I could have been. This was long before the claims culture of today when everyone and anyone seems to demand compensation for work-related injuries, but I just carried on as if nothing had happened. But, thinking about it now it was just another accident and one of the things you come to take in your stride in that particular sort of working environment.
Something else which is worth mentioning is connected to another of the plays in the repetoire, "Romeo and Jeannette" by Jean Anouilh. This is set in France and the director, John Ridley, came up with an idea for it that took stage management by surprise, not to say, shock. During the action of the play a chicken is killed and appears carried by one of the characters, having been killed off-stage, head chopped off complete with the rest of it's feathers, tail and so on. Easy enough to make a stuffed prop, which is what we did, but he wanted a real chicken to be on stage when the curtain went up, but not only on stage but sitting on the table in the middle of the stage. We all thought he was having a joke, no way on earth was a real, live cockerel going to stay sitting or at least, perching, on the table and remain there when the curtain went up as the play opened.  There was a real danger that the stupid bird would take fright and either fly into the audience or at least fly into the wings and perch on a lighting bar or something. But he was proved completely right. The real chicken we managed to acquire from goodness knows where, behaved perfectly during every single performance of the play and sat still on the table as the curtain went up on each  and every performance.  Remarkable. He lived in a cage somewhere on the theatre site, and was named Leon (I'm not sure whether it was the name in the play's script.) We had to make the 'dead' prop version of Leon and managed to retrieve some of his spare feathers (no doubt plucked from his wings and tail!) and we made the body rather in the manner of a stuffed toy, complete with wings, but minus a head, and used the feathers to complete the prop! It did look very convincing, but I'm not entirely sure what the real Leon thought of it! I don't know what happened to him once the season finished and all the company dispersed to various parts of the country. No doubt someone gave him a good home. He should have joined Equity and made appearances in things like 'Emmerdale' and make commercials for eggs or something. I never did know.

Working In Theatre- Part 10

I'm skipping forward slightly. I have mentioned in an earlier post a production of a play called 'Hadrian VII' which I was involved in whilst working as a D.S.M. at Ipswich Theatre. I also worked on several other productions, several of which I was responsible for The Book. As I've already mentioned in earlier posts, the job of working on The Book is important to the  smooth-running of any production as you are more or less totally responsible for such things as cueing lighting, sound, spot effects (door slams, glass crashes and other live off-stage sound effects.) as well as making sure the actors are given 'calls' via tannoy for their next entrance (as they are usually in either their own dressing-room when not on-stage or the actors' waiting or 'common room' (called 'Green Room' for some unaccountable reason, although if I did a Google I expect I could find some explanation as to why 'Green Room' in particular.) At Ipswich there were three lights that you had to use on the prompt desk in order to warn either the sound or lighting operator that a cue was coming up. Generally you have a red and green light, with red as a warning and some 30 seconds to a minute later you give the green when the cue comes, usually taken from a line in the script or a movement that an actor makes on stage. At Ipswich there was a third light, I think it was blue. You gave the red light and the operator would flash the blue to show that he/she was ready. On this particular show I was working on I gave the lighting guy a red light and was expecting a blue light to show he was standing by. After around 20 seconds I hadn't got anything back via the blue light and was panicking slightly. There were seconds to go before the lighting cue was due and still nothing. I got up off my prompt-corner stool and shot up the metal ladder which lead to the lighting box (actually on a sort of deck over the prompt corner.) to discover that the lighting guy was sound asleep! I had to make the fade up, or down, myself, using the ancient lighting board, while the guy was snoring soundly! I then had to return to my prompt corner, but it was a hare's breath in my timing and climbing the metal ladder otherwise the cue wouldn't have happened! Such are, or were, the joys of working in repertory theatre!

I worked The Book on several plays at Ipswich, 'Plaza Suite' by Neal Simon, 'Time and Time Again' by Alan Ayckbourne and 'The Matchmaker' by Thornton Wilder (which is the basis for the musical Hello Dolly!')

Now in this particular play there are several points in the action when some of the characters come 'out front' and 'break the fourth wall' as they say and speak directly to the audience. Usually they are alone on stage and no other characters appear until they've made, in some cases, some quite long speeches, some of several pages. When you are responsible for The Book, you will have been in all the rehearsals from day one, and carried through all the requirements of being responsible for the actors as regards prompting them. Most of the actors would have learnt their lines thoroughly and be virtually word perfect by the second weeks of rehearsals (depending on what length of time the rehearsal period is.) I kept a strict eye on the actors getting their lines right and as a result would prompt them where necessary. 

During this particular performance (I think it may well have been a mid-week matinee, but I can't remember exactly as it's some 40 years ago) all went well enough. Now the actor who played the central male character of Vandergelder (I'm not giving his name here as I don't want to cause embarrassment, but I think it's only polite to not to do so, as you will understand.) was somewhat renowned for his drinking habits. I'm talking alcohol and not tea or coffee, obviously. I had experience of this when working on other shows he was in. On  this occasion, when The Half was called (the period in which the actors are expected to be in the theatre and getting ready for the performance. It is actually 35 minutes before 'curtain up', which gives five minutes before the show starts and 'Beginners' are in place before the curtain rises on the show.) I would go round and check that everyone was in their dressing room or in the Green Room, but this particular gentleman would usually be found in the threatre bar downing a pint or two and generally 'propping up the bar' and certainly not preparing for the play's performance as I would have hoped. At around five minutes to curtain up he was STILL in the bar and not ready, but as he didn't go on until half-way through the first act it didn't really matter. Anyway, I wasn't happy about the situation but there wasn't a lot I could do about it.

As I've mentioned, there were several fairly long speeches which a couple of the characters had which were spoken directly at the audience. It was quite important to the plot that Vandergelder and Dolly Levi don't meet immediately. She has a long speech and goes off and then Vandergelder comes on and he gives several pages of dialogue. Most performances all goes smoothly until this particular afternoon the actor playing Vandergelder had had more than enough alcohol to sink a ship. He starts his long speech, and seems to be slurring his lines somewhat, and fluffs slightly, to such an extent that I have to give him a prompt. Something which anyone on the book dreads, as it's never always certain if they can hear you, or whether the audience is aware that you've given a prompt. I was taught that you only give a couple of words and the actor, if he/she is capable, soon gets back to the script and carries on. This actor didn't seem to take the prompt, so  I was forced to give it again, but still he didn't pick up and carry on with the line. He just seemed to go round and round, repeating great chunks of his long speech. It was very stressful and difficult for me. The actress playing Dolly was waiting off-stage for her entrance, and it's important as I mention that they don't meet at this point in the play, so she can't go on and 'assist' with the actors lines (ie, improvising or something to get the actor back 'on-script.') Anyway,  she was stamping her feet  and coughing to try and get him to continue his speech, but by now he had gone round and round with the same bit of script.  I think by now it wasn't just that one actress who was trying to get his attention, but several other member of the cast as well as stage management. I don't remember exactly how the situation was  eventually resolved, but I think he may just have got to the end of this confounded speech and gone off -stage so that Dolly could enter and the play continue. But it was quite a difficult situation. I'm not sure what the audience would have made of it, but if it had been a matinee there may have been very few people in the audience and they may not have noticed.

Working in Theatre- Part 3

I have talked about my first foray into stage management, starting at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham in February 1969 in an earlier post. I am working from memory, so excuse my lapses because what I am recounting took place a good 40-or more years ago. While  it's fairly fresh in my mind I have decided that I want to write something about my time in this before it all fades completely. Writing the last post, about summer holidays at Frinton-OnSea, has set my memory going as I used to drive from Colchester home to Bedfordshire  at weekends along the same road, the A120,  as we used to use on our way to Frinton  (Frinton is a relatively short drive from Colchester.)

 I finished in Cheltenham in the December and almost immediately got a new job working at the Rep in Colchester. I had Christmas at home and then went off in early January to begin work. The company was in the middle of a run of the annual pantomime, 'Aladdin.' I was able to see this from the audience, as I wasn't immediately called on to work on this show, which gave me a week or two to 'find my feet' as it were. Having been a 'Student A.S.M.' at the Everyman in Cheltenham, I was now officially a fully-fledged A.S.M. (Assistant Stage Manager) and now part of a team which consisted of several other A.S.Ms, D.S.M., Stage Manager and Production Manager. Michael Ashton, who had been Artistic Director at Cheltenham had also been Artistic Director of the Colchester Repertory Company. I like to think, but I'm not sure whether this is true, that it was because of this connection that I got the job.

Colchester Rep in those days was based in a very cramped building, converted from an art gallery in the 1930's.  This was located in Colchester High Street. It has since been replaced by the Mercury Theatre, built in the early 1970's. I remember it had it's foundation stone laid by Eric Porter, or else he 'cut the first turf' or whatever they call the first stage of  work on a building. He was in the highly successful 1960's  B.B.C. costume drama series "The Forstyte Saga" playing Jolyon Forsyte. The stage was very small. There was very little wing space and the back wall, which was curved, was as far as the stage went. If you had to cross from stage left to right, or vice versa, you had to go UNDER the stage. There was no stage door. If you wanted to get in to the theatre from F.O.H (front of house) you had to go through the men's toilets (!) There was a door which linked from front of house to back-stage through the toilets. When I was first shown the way, I thought it was very odd to be taken through the toilets, as you can imagine! You had to climb through a window in what was the 'props' room in order to get out of the theatre from the rear and go through a graveyard to get out to the street.There was no room above the stage for 'flying', that is, there was no grid on which bars could be suspended on hemp ropes so that scenery could be hauled up and hidden from the audience view. It was, of course, possible to suspend lighting and a certain amount of 'masking' as in other theatres, but if you were doing a show which required cloths, as in a pantomime, they had to be 'rolled' rather in the fashion of a window blind, but on a far larger scale. This was how most of the scene changes were done in 'Aladdin.'

The show which followed 'Aladdin' was 'Beyond The Fringe' which had been hugely successful in the early 1960's and launched the careers of Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennet, Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore. I got involved with the rehearsals for this, which included 'propping', going out and finding items which would be used during the show's rehearsal period, as well as setting, striking and generally stage managing the actual performances of the show.
"Beyond The Fringe" has some very famous sketches within it, including "Take A Pew", "One Leg To Few" and a really brilliantly funny pastiche of  Shakespeare. Of course we didn't have the original cast in our production. As with most 'rep' productions, which are, in effect, re-stagings of shows which have run in the West End, but have actors who have to be very versatile and play a range of different roles over a number of productions. I believe Giles Block was in the company when I was at Colchester, but I'm not sure whether he was in "Beyond The Fringe."
One of the productions in the season was "Billy Liar" by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall.  This was an adaptaion of a book by Keith Waterhouse, and has since been made into a film, starring Tom Courtney, as well as a musical, "Billy" which starred Michael Crawford and was quite successful when it ran in the West End in the mid 1970's. It was also the basis for a situation comedy starring Jeoff Rawle. This was the first time I was responsible for 'The Book" for a show. This is the duty of stage management and whoever is responsible for this is not only in charge of prompting during rehearsals and the actual performance, but also for the general running of the show from the prompt corner, giving cues for lighting and sound, but also making sure the actors are on stage in time for their entrances. You are responsible for the prompt copy which has all the moves the actors make which are given during the blocking stage of rehearsals, which usually take place in a space away from the theatre, such as a church hall, although most modern and well-equipped theatres have their own purpose-built rehearsal spaces within their main buildings or can be some way away from the theatre. You are responsible for making sure the actors get their 'calls' for rehearsal, costume fittings and other things connected with the production. Another member of the stage management is responsible for sitting in during rehearsals and taking note of where props are used as well as where they are set, and then, later on in rehearsal, producing these props, from whichever source, hiring, begging or borrowing from local businesses around the town and taking care they are not broken or even stolen and then set in the correct place during rehearsals and then when the play is running in the theatre.  During the run of the play you have to 'call' the actors via Tannoy, giving the actors time to get to the stage where they may be waiting to go on, in their dressing room or the Green Room, the actors waiting room or common room if you like. I still don't know why this is referred to  as a Green Room, but it is a tradition of theatre for it to be called that. It isn't generally because of the colour as most of the Green Rooms I've been in over the years have never been painted or at least decorated the colour  green. It may be that green is a peaceful colour, but I'm not sure.

Working In Theatre- Part 1

I had always been madly keen on theatre since I was about 5 years old, not particularly acting, more in the production side of things. My family had absolutely no knowledge of the world of theatre, as they were all in farming. Anyone who came along with any sort of information regarding how I could get into 'The Business' had their brains picked! I had originally intended getting in to television to do floor management, and had been told by the B.B.C. that I would need to have a couple of years experience in theatre stage management before I could work in television. As it turned out, I never did get to work in television, preferring a different career path. I was going to go to university and get a degree in performance or at least something theatre-related. I was lined up to go to Bristol University, but my A Level mocks weren't very good, so I attempted to go another route and apply directly to theatres and get some sort of stage management post. I wrote to a whole host of theatres across the United Kingdom, and eventually got an interview at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. They were running a Student A.S.M. scheme (Assistant Stage Management), where you were taken on for a year and learned stage management 'on the job' as it were. I was paid the princely sum of £1. 10s (or £1.50 in decimal currency) so my parents had to subsidize me the whole time I worked there, which went towards my upkeep, board and lodging and so on. 

I began my career on 16th February, 1969. I was taken to Cheltenham by my parents in the Land Rover, as it was a very cold, snowy, day. I even took my bicycle with me, as it was felt that I would need this if I was to need any sort of transport. I had been given the address of suitable accomodation in Cheltenham, which my mother did not think I would manage in, as it was my first foray into living away from home, so it was decided that I would live in the local Y.M.C.A. I have a feeling that I must have lived there for several months until I moved into a house with a family, no doubt my mother found this by placing an advert in a local Cheltenham newspaper.

The first show I worked on was an adaptation of "Jane Eyre." That first Monday was the Technical rehearsal of that show. It had Angela Richards as Jane Eyre and Philip Voss as Mr Rochester in the cast. I have to admit to being extremely 'green' as regards life and how things worked. I think we lived a very sheltered existence!

There was a very complex scene change that was rehearsed during this Technical, and I recall being detailed as to what was to be 'struck' during this particular scene change. Someone put something on the set, (I seem to remember it was a portfolio, one of those things artists use to store their artwork.) and I inadvertantly removed it! I was described as being 'over-zealous' but the stage manager!

The season was run in the tradition of 'repertory' theatre, a basic company of actors, appearing in a season of plays, which ran for two weeks. A show would run for two weeks (although I seem to remember some shows ran for three weeks.), and while one show was running, the next one would be rehearsed, one would end it's run on a Saturday, and that night, once the curtain came down, the old set was 'struck' and the next show's set would be constructed. We were supposed to work until 2 a.m. and go home to sleep, and then return the following morning to continue building the new set. On the Monday there would be a Technical rehearsal, which could go on for hours, sometimes into the small hours of the next morning, where all the lighting, sound and other cues were put into the action, all scene changes, costume changes and so on would be rehearsed and then put in. Then, depending on what time there was left, there would be a dress rehearsal, where everything rehearsed during the Technical would be put into a run, which was, in effect, a performance, but minus an audience. On the Tuesday there would be another rehearsal and then the show would open that evening. Sometimes there would be a very brief gap before the first performance. Then it would be straight into the First Night performance.

There would be a couple of days break before the next show went into production. The cast and stage management would meet for a read-through of the play, and the designer of the show would present a scale model of the play's set. This would have been produced from the working drawings/ ground plan he/she would have produced, and these  would be used by stage management to mark out the floor of the rehearsal studio. This would give the precise position of such things as stairs, doors, windows, fireplaces etc so that during rehearal the actors would have some idea where to move to on the set and time such things as entrances/exits. This marked-out floor would then be set up with furniture, not necessarily the actual furniture that would be used when the play was produced on stage, but it would allow the actors somewhere to sit when the directions required it. Also, during the 'blocking' of the moves, the D.S.M. would write the moves in the prompt copy and keep these moves up to date as these often got changed as the play progressed through rehearsal. He/she would also have to make notes as to things like the positioning of props, cues for music/sound effects, costume changes, off-stage sound effects (or 'spot effects, such as doorbells, gunshots, crashes etc.) but generally these points would be noted by an A.S.M. (Assistant Stage Management) who would also sit in during rehearsals.

Once the moves were completed for all the play, stage management would be sent out to find props, the items that the actors would use during the play, from firearms, to bits cups and saucers, hairdriers, books, infact, any item which was used on stage. Some of the more difficult to find items were often hired from specialist firms, such as guns, period things such as sports equipment, but generally we had to go out and scour the town to beg, steal or borrow items from local businesses. You had to learn to be quite imaginative as regards borrowing things. The various shops that lent things would get a credit in the play's programme and they'd get free tickets, but it could be quite difficult to find some items and it could be quite a feat of effort to walk into a shop and brazenly ask to borrow something which was worth a fortune, such as a piece of antique furniture which I presume was insured, because they was always the possibility of it being damaged whilst being used on stage. For instance, a piece of scenery might fall on it particularly item during a scene change. Or it could get lost or stolen. Fortunately nothing did happen with any of the items we borrowed, but the theatre must have some sort of insurance policy to cover such likely events.