A Reminder, 10 Years On

There is a saying I heard quoted by the amazingly talented Broadway actress Shoshana Bean which goes like this:

Every performer dreams of having his or her name in lights, but the best performer dreams of making someone in the audience feel the way he or she did when first seing a great performer.

In fact, Shoshana had this saying taped up to her dressing room mirror when she was playing Elpahaba in the Broadway production of WICKED. Personally I think Shoshana is way superior to Idina Menzel but there are lots of people who would lynch me for saying so!

Anyway I digress.

The reason I wanted to share the quote was because it reminds me why I work in the theatre industry. I remember seeing PHANTOM OF THE OPERA for the first time when I was 11 and during the lair sequence I said to myself "this is what I want to be a part of". 10 years later, almost to the day, I can't help thinking about those first experiences that made me love musical theatre so much. It also makes me think about how attitutudes and experience has changed my outlook and shaped my career and philosophies about the industry. I am very focused on the product and the outcomes of shows - I guess that's comercial theatre for you, but there is so much more that I had forgotten...

PEWSEY VALE SCHOOL: BUGSY MALONE

Recently I worked on a school's production of BUGSY MALONE for which my mate Ivor was the fixer and bass player. I really should say at this point that I gate-crashed the show and insisted on playing but no one has been impolite enough to say anything! The school, Pewsey Vale School, is based in Wiltshire - a mid-sized secondary school (slightly smaller than my own) and this was their first major production, the final weeks of which were done during an Ofsted inspection no less!

I have never had so much fun on a show in my life.

GROWING AS A MUSICIAN

While BUGSY MALONE isn't the most challenging of scores, it really allowed me to focus on my expressive performance playing flute and fine tune some basic aspects of my technique such as breathing and tuning. In the other shows and concerts I've done this season I've been to preoccupied with playing the right notes in roughly the right place to bother about anything else.

I had high hopes of mastering the saxophone for the show as well, but time wasn't on my side and the goddamm peice of crap excuse for a sax I'd acquired didn't really accelerate my learning either.

PERFECTLY PITCHED

The show was a perfect choice for a show and for those involved (see my earlier rant on amateur musical theatre producers who pick material which is way out of their league!) and the talents of the kids. I'm calling them kids but there's probably only 6 years between myself and the eldest involved! The nature of the production allowed them to switch between their own personalities and their characters when they felt comfortable doing so. The thrill was not in seeing brilliantly rendered characters from the show, but seeing kids put a lot of their own personality into their parts and on some occasions, even completely break out of character... much to the delight of everyone involved. There is such a danger that musical theatre can be too serious and that any flaws can seem like amazing incompetence. Either by design or by evolution, this show had become perfectly pitched for everyone involved.

GUERILLA TACTICS

It was so wonderful to see the kids tackle material which was new to them. The school had never done a big production before and there were more than a few times when the director had to instill some basic principles of performance such as "learn your lines" and "don't deliver the lines you do know to the floor/ceilling/back wall". There was the usual complacency on behalf of the cast and as much as the directors were worried it would never come together; the old adage of needing the fear in those final rehearsals to ensure the shows went well, was never more true.
It was fascinating to see the kids develop their own strategies for handling the material. For example, one of the lads learned everyone's lines in a scene and you could see his lips moving as he processed the other character's lines before speaking his own. Another of the lads in a main role used comedy and a natural flare for improvisation and connection with the audience to cover up areas where his "on book" performance wasn't so secure. These strategies weren't taught but were guerilla in nature, I'm sure. It must be said though that many of the kids demonstrated great comic timing particularly when improvising.

A DIFFERENT LIGHT

It was particularly heart warming not only to see these kids perform but to see an audience enjoy seeing them in a different light for the first time. I am sure there were teachers in the audience who were seeing pupils who perhaps aren't particularly gifted or enthused with their subject, really engage and dedicate themselves to a different activity. Perhaps for the first time it didn't matter that someone wasn't in the top set in Maths or Science or that they spent more time outside a classroom than in it!

THE PLAY'S THE THING

The most humbling aspect of the whole experience, leading back to my original quote, was how much the show clearly meant to everyone involved. As a musician who started out doing FTL work ("for the love...") and ended up being semi-contracted after various gifts and thank yous, it was wonderful to see parents, friends, teachers, cast member, the directors enjoy the experience, not just the product. The school is applying for special status and obviously the directors are really rallying for performing arts status. BUGSY MALONE really showed the potential that opting for performing arts status would bring. This show has evidently catapulted performing arts right to the top of the school's agenda. The gratitude, even for being such a small part of this process was imense.

When working on a show, I never expect to be thanked let alone thanked by the cast. My philosophy has always been that if you do your job well, then there is no need for comment because you are filling the requirement. However, at the end of the 3 night run I had several kids in the cast come up to me and shake my hand. I had kids in the dressing room tell me how much they enjoyed my performance and I got more presents from the musical director than I could ever imagine! It was great to bond outside the show as well and a few trips to the pub (if organic beer is so good for you why does it hurt so much in the morning eh?!), a curry house and other highlights including stealing mints from backstage, explaining to the drummer that a flute DOES need tuning and adding the word "funbags" to my vocabulary, ensured a great experience overall.

START OF A JOURNEY

Clearly this show for the school is only the start of their journey - but what is most important is that underneath the masses of shaving foam and silly string lay a beating heart and a hell of a lot of fun. I can't think of better building blocks and that is something the school must never lose. What this massive diatribe is basically saying is that regardless of the product, the BUGSY MALONE run reminded me of the importance of that "first time" feeling -that it can apply to any aspect of a performance (audience, crew, cast). To recognise it in others was a much needed reminder about where I came from and where I'm going.