COMING TO THE 24:7 FESTIVAL MANCHESTER THIS JULY

REELING - A play by Sean Gregory

REELING - A play by Sean Gregory
art by Angela Guyton (Click on image for artists website)

Thursday 29 July 2010

Praise for Reeling

A sell out first show, and not far off for the second, our time at 24:7 has been fantastic so far. Watching front of house staff having to find more seats to accommodate the audience was affirming to say the least. Everyone involved in 24:7 has been lovely; it's good to feel like everybody is supportive of all of the shows and the festival as a whole.

Today, Louise, Jo and myself saw The Bluest Blue and Sheepish, which were both excellent. The quality of plays is at such a high standard; I also saw Hatch yesterday which I'd highly recommend.

Tomorrow's our matinee, after which we'll be back in to watch another three plays. Particularly looking forward to seeing Make Believe.



So, now that they're starting to filter in, here's a selection of reviews for Reeling:



...a fascinating idea and a brilliantly original way for these sisters to examine their lives and reveal things that they have never previously been able to talk about.

Louise-Clare Henry is excellent as the younger sister who stayed with her mother with superb delivery of many cutting wisecracks... Joanne Smart is also good as the uptight, wary older sister...

David Chadderton, British Theatre Guide.



Reeling is a fine piece of writing

****

Natalie Anglesey, City Life




Families in crisis are nothing new in the theatre but there is a freshness to the script by Sean Gregory. Gregory handles with sensitivity the difficult subject of caring for a parent whose increasing frailty has become a burden. He is an evocative writer - using a snatch of a song to remind the sisters of their late mother...

There is a risk that the varying moods in the play could lead to a disjointed piece of work. Although the comedy -and even horror elements- are not ignored director Richard Vergette ensures that they fit seamlessly into the evolving story of the two sisters and so enhance rather than distract from their story. In a classy touch, he does not use standards on the soundtrack but original music by Josephine.

The acting is of a high standard. Although not physically similar, Henry and Smart have great chemistry that makes them convincing as sisters and so able to show the thousand nagging resentments that build up over time. Henry gives Alice an underlying vulnerability that off-sets the resentment she shows on the surface. Smart makes Jude a borderline neurotic consumed by guilt and married to a man whom she has come to loathe

The 24/7 Festival always has a gem or two that stand out from the rest of the shows and so far Reeling is the outstanding play for 2010.

****

Dave Cunningham, What's On Stage



Sales are going well for the last three shows (Friday 20th at 12.30, Saturday 31st at 6pm, Sunday 1st at 2pm).


Thanks to everyone who has been to see us, or is coming down over the next few days,

Sean

Monday 26 July 2010

AND SO THE FESTIVAL BEGINS...

It’s been a fantastic couple of weeks for me; not only as a producer but now I have the chance to flex my performance skills. It has been a challenging rehearsal process not only because the character of Jude has a lot of emotional problems in her life, but also resisting the urge to continue with producing duties. Thankfully Richards’s advice has been a god send. “Let Sean or myself deal with anything that’s needs sorting”. Having past on the duties to Sean it wasn’t until Richard reassurance I was able to let go. Not that I don’t trust that Sean would follow through, (Sean is determined to make this show a success as much as I am) but to hear someone else say ‘its ok, we can do this’ was a relief. Therefore, I pass this advice to any future producer/performer and make sure you have a strong reliable team. I couldn’t ask for any better, than Sean, Richard, Olivia and Joel.

So, from now on I can only mostly comment on the festival from a performer’s perspective. Last night was the preview, which I thought went really well. Louise-Clare gave really good performance and she gave me something to react to, a sign of a good actor. Louise is my sister at least for this week. Josephine, the singer song writer who has provided two songs for our show, was in the audience. I was disappointed not to meet her afterward and I have now learnt the value of getting changed quickly after the show. Josephine EP was released today and ‘I think it was love’ was played on Lauren Laverne’s show, BBC6 Music this lunch time. We are so lucky to be able to promote Josephine and it would be fantastic to get some publicity for our show too. So future producers use your contacts, you never know who might be able to help.

If you’re interested in listening to Josephine’s latest tracks you can find them on her myspace page. (Check out the Link list)

Our first show is tomorrow and I’m so excited. I might be biased but if you enjoy an emotional story this is right up your street!
Thanks to the best team for getting us here.
Joanne

Friday 23 July 2010

A Stage Manager's Perspective

Latest news: 96 tickets already sold and 2 days until the press preview!

I can't believe how fast the rehearsal process has gone; we began exactly one week ago today, and now we're preparing for our get-in and technical rehearsal at the theatre! It has been fascinating watching how Richard, Joanne and Louise have worked together to create the world of the Knowles sisters on the day of their mother's funeral. It's quite an emotional state to get into and even I start to feel quite tired after sitting watching a day's rehearsal; I can only imagine how the actresses feel!

As a first-time stage manager and never having met anyone from the production company before the first rehearsal, I was excited and apprehensive about the whole experience. Thankfully, the set stays the same throughout the whole 55 minutes so I just need to worry about the stage preset and hanging about in the wings incase of emergency! I feel like a safety net in rehearsals, there for support (or line prompts!) and occasional opinion on the action. I have certainly enjoyed the role so far!

One of the biggest practical challenges of the play is the number of cassette tapes. Yesterday I sat with Louise going through the whole script, counting how many cassettes were needed and which dates, then labeling them all up. Thankfully only 20 are actually taken out of the trunk although the crew (mainly Sean and Jo!) managed to gather about 250 which look amazing all lined up inside. A lot of time has been spent blanking the cassette tapes, since Joel will be operating the sound from the tech box, so that when the girls press play, we won't be hearing 'Christmas Hits 1992!'

Today we'll be moving the set into the venue. Joel, Sean and Alice spent the first part of the week building a wallpapered corner of the room, and the rest of the set consists of the trunk, a sofa, a standard lamp, a chair and a rather beautiful writing desk or bureau. The next focus of my job will be co-ordinating the set-up and take-down the set in the 15-minute window given by 24:7, and ensuring all the tapes are wound and placed in the correct place.

I'm excited about the next few days: please do come and watch!

Wednesday 7 July 2010

The Proper Beginning

It almost feels like there's ten starting points to a play. There's the writing of the thing itself, then there's the getting it on somewhere, then there's casting it, finding a director, stage manager, set designer, rewriting, booking rehearsal spaces, and so on and so forth.

Monday, however, was the proper beginning for Reeling.

So, what did Monday bring? It was the first time everyone involved had been in a room together, and for some, it was the first time we'd met.

The read through was tricky. As the play relies on listening back to tapes, sometimes characters listening to themselves, there were these bizarre moments when Jo and Louise-Clare were left having to almost throw their voices, as they had to reply to themselves. Both were terribly good at it though, of course.

After the read through, everyone got a chance to talk about the script. This is my favourite bit, as it was with Donal Fleet last year, having everyone sit around and giving their ideas on how to develop the script. I know some writers are quite precious about their 'words', but I think several perspectives (especially from someone like Richard) can turn a reasonable piece into something much better. Having to spend five hours on the train back to Norwich yesterday, I finished the rewrite... I hope all contributions made it from my notes to the script.

After the read through, we tore straight into getting the recorded parts of the play done. Richard and Joel combined their duel director powers like something from a Japanese monster movie. It was quite strange for me, as the writer, to watch this take shape. Having written a play where taped recording would be used, I was relying on the fact that Joel would know how to put it together. And, as is so often not the case, I was right. Richard got fantastic performances out of all the actors. This is another oddity about being a writer. You put these things on paper, hoping that it's going to be somehow effecting/funny/tragic/poignant etc etc, but (at least I can't) you can never be sure. And then you have someone like Richard who, along with the actors, finds these extra layers to the words on the page, which left me asking the same question several times - 'did I really write that? And if I did, can I get away with pretending it was intentional?'

It seems a shame that Ruth was only with us for the day (though, hopefully, she'll pop down to a rehearsal or two), that Ted and David were only around for an hour or so, and that Hannah was in and out in about twenty minutes. However, their contributions are bigger than their time given.

What else did we learn? Well, we're a new theatre company, so we learnt that there are mistakes there to be made, and we are going to make some. We learnt that you should double check peoples names before putting them on anything. And we learnt that people are, in the main, superb. It's fantastic for us to have people like David, Ted, and Ruth give their time so freely.

So, next week is the eleventh beginning, when we start rehearsals proper.

Sean

Monday 28 June 2010

Reeling Trailer



Credits:

Mr Melks - David Corden

Jude - Joanne Smart
Alice - Java Bere

Sound - Joel Clements
Cinematography and Editing - David McLaughlin

Writer - Sean Gregory

All the above did a fantastic job on the trailer... apart from Sean, who did nothing but knock out two pages of script.

Please, pass on this link - http://bit.ly/dt085e - and help to get as many people down to 24:7 this year. Any comments left on youtube would be marvellous, also.

Saturday 26 June 2010

Latest News!

Tickets now on Sale!

This year's festival website is now live and tickets can be booked. For a direct link to our booking page you can follow this link http://tinyurl.com/reel24

Reeling was also mentioned in Kevin Bourke’s article ‘Preview: 24:7 Theatre Festival 2010’ on the City Life website. Here’s an edited version of the article…

Anyone who’s at all interested in exciting new drama and comedy should already have earmarked the week of July 26-August 1, because those are the seven days of this year’s 24:7 Theatre Festival.
Now in its seventh year, 24:7 has long-since established itself as one of Manchester’s landmark cultural events. Driven by actor David Slack, the festival gives new writing talent the chance to shine and bloom. Every year, playwrights are asked to enter one-hour plays on any subject.
This year, hundreds of entries have been narrowed down to an exciting top 10, with four more plays being given a rehearsed reading. None of them last more than an hour and they’ll all be performed several times over the course of the week at 24:7’s home this year, the Co-operative Society’s New Century House. So there’s really no excuse to miss out.

In Reeling, by Sean Gregory, sisters Jude and Alice break into their elderly neighbour’s house only to stumble across a wall of cassette tapes that are recordings of their entire lives. The cast includes M.E.N award winner Ruth Evans, David Cordon (from last year’s Lub You) and 12-year-old local girl Hannah Hughes, while it’s directed by Festival favourite Richard Vergette.

“I attended a workshop where everyone was asked to come up with a frightening idea for a one act play,” says Reeling’s writer Sean Gregory, who also had a 24:7 entry in 2009. “The idea of your neighbour recording your whole life seemed pretty nightmarish to me, and finding the tapes seemed even worse.”

For the full article link is listed on this blog.

Cheers!

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Road to the 24:7 Festival - Producers Guide

Media Launch at The Contact

I had an interesting afternoon yesterday, attending the Media Launch for the festival. It was great to get a taste of the other shows involved, as well as a chance to intrigue others and sell our own show. The launch presentation was introduced by the Chairman (Actor), John Henshaw, who spoke about festivals appeal to non theatre goers. He was followed by the Corrie actress, Vicky Binns, who spoke about the festivals development and how it is always looking to do something new. I got chance to speak to both of them during the event and they seemed to be lovely down to earth people, just the way actors who I like should be. What followed was a 20 minute presentation with 5 Promotional Video’s and 5 Live performances. This gave a nice structure to the event, though personally I think Video is the better promo format. In that, it can used again for marketing adding value for more.

Our video was first! Which was great but, I also had concerns we would be forgotten by then end of the event. Hopefully this wasn’t the case. I would recommend more than a week edit. Joel our technical director was given the job of post production sound. Which he did a great job and all in one day! But there was some difficulty in getting the Credits on to the piece, which resulted in no claps from the audience. I think this was because of a combination of being first up, no credits, and the music for the second piece coming straight after. I say this because during the ‘networking’ after the presentation there was a good response from the people I talked to. Richard (our director), who hadn’t seen the promo until that point, thought it was excellent and enough to intrigue the audience, which was our aim. (Me, the writer – Sean, film maker David and Joel).

Though I only spoke to few people from the press, I had my first radio interview with WFM radio. Thankfully not a national station as my answer to the question, ‘How are finding the whole process’ being ‘I just love this play’, might not have been the most articulate response! Luckily Richard knew exactly what to say, Thank you. It was great to have someone there who knew the score.

Jo

Monday 14 June 2010

Latest News

Media Launch 15/06

The Festivals media launch takes place tomorrow evening. This event will be streamed live via the festivals website www.247theatrefestival.co.uk. To view go to the site at 6.15pm tomorrow and refresh the screen.

You may even catch the promo for 'Reeling!'

Friday 11 June 2010

Road to the 24:7 Festival – Producers Guide

Well, what an exciting week this has been! After several meetings with other fantastic directors, this Sunday, I managed to secure Richard Vergette to direct. For those of you who regularly come to the festival you may remember Richard who wrote and performed the one man play 'An Englishman's Home' which won critical acclaim at the 24.7 Theatre Festival 2008 and later transferred to The Library Theatre in Manchester. As well as writing and performing in the thought provoking play ‘As We Forgive Them’ (see link to listen to an audio version of this play) which won audience favorite production at the 24.7 Theatre festival in 2009, The Vicky Allen memorial award from Equity for Best Production and The Manchester Evening News Theatre award for Best Fringe Production in 2009.

Monday, we filmed the promo. Big, big thanks to the talented Dave Mclaughlin (film maker Daydreamz Productions), David Corden (playing Mr Melks), Java Bere (providing the voice of Alice) and Joel for designing the sound. The afternoon ran very smoothly and we finished well before my over estimated finish time. The morning was spent inviting actresses to audition for the role Alice which took place on…

Wednesday, finally met the lovely Richard in person and spent a good 6 hours auditioning possible Alice’s. As always auditioning is a painful process for everyone involved. The festival is such a fantastic opportunity and in an ideal world I’d love to give something to everyone who came along. The standard of performance was really high. But in the end we decided on the talented Louise – Clare Henry, who I’m really excited to be working with. The day was finished off with production meeting making decisions on technical requirements for a play we haven’t started working on properly in order to make the deadline for Monday 14th June. My advice is to over estimate what you require and then all bases are covered.

Meantime, while all this happening in Manchester, Sean was busy spending hours perfecting his skills in graphic design and adding a few details to the poster and flyers designed by Anegla Guyton. Which meant by Thursday we were able to order our posters and flyers which fingers, toes and everything crossed will arrive in time for the Media Launch next Tuesday 15th June.

So with the Media Launch approaching I’ve spent the last couple of days gathering information for Alexis the festival’s Press and PR person (alexis@247theatrefestival.co.uk). I’ve written our press release and hopefully contacted all the actors who have taken the time to contact me and apply for a role to say Thank you. (If you reading this and not received a message, I’m really sorry, but Thank you!)

So tonight I’m drinking a well deserved glass of wine as I continue to plan, market and email into the early hours!

Jo

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Pre REELING - The Back Story

1. Where did you get the idea for the play from and how has it developed?

There were several threads that all led to the creation of Reeling. The catalyst was a conversation I had with Joel Clements, the sound and lighting designer and all around technical man on Reeling. He told me about a project he was putting together using Ambisonics - which is basically very accurate surround sound. I had the idea of recording performances and then, playing these back, having live actors engage with them. I had the idea, just didn't know who they were, or why they were doing it. Last year, I had a one page play on at the Hotbed festival, Cambridge, called Melks. Melks, a loner, had recorded his next door neighbour, and would play back her words again and again, replying to her differently every time, as to change her meaning. Melks stuck with me, as did the idea of him recording the people next door.
Later in the year, I attended a theatre workshop with Jack Bradley, who asked everyone to come up with an idea for a one act play - something that frightens you - during lunch. So, the idea came of two sisters listening back to tapes of their lives that Melks has recorded. The idea of your neighbour recording your whole life seemed pretty nightmareish to me, and finding the tapes seemed even worse.
I spent a lot of time thinking about the sisters, I wrote short stories about them, and wrote lots of scenes between them. My laptop is awash with pages of Jude and Alice, every major moment in their lives charted.

2. Have you ever had a play in 24:7 Theatre Festival before? What made you apply again? And if not, what prompted you to submit this year?

I had a play on last year (Donal Fleet: A Confessional). That was the first play I'd ever written; I felt like I'd learnt so much through the rewriting, rehearsing and, especially, seeing the play performed, that I wanted to write another piece for 24:7. However, this wasn't it! I thought the play may have too many technical issues for 24:7. With fifteen minutes to set-up and take-down, you really need to think carefully about set design, lighting etc, with 24:7. That's the fantastic thing about the festival though. We've rethought the play, and tried to come up with an interesting way to stage it. 24:7 is such an exciting festival, and I'm so pleased to be a part of it again. Everyone involved in the festival really wants to make it the best it can be, and that comes from David and Kathryn right through to front of house staff, so it's a joy to participate.

3. What are your ambitions as a writer? And your ambitions for this play?

I'd love to see the play tour, and that's something we'll be looking into in the not to distance future. Having set up a theatre company of our own to put on Reeling, I'd like to write more stageplays under the Piece of Work banner. I've already got a few more ideas in the pipeline. Through 24:7 I've met some lovely actors, and I'd really like to write a play for some of them, specifically (I've already started writing it, actually).

Wednesday 26 May 2010

WELCOME

Hello dear reader, and welcome to Piece of Work Company's blog about our new show 'Reeling'.

This blog will contain posts from the collective of this company's creative professionals. Which includes myself, Joanne Smart (Actress and Producer), Sean Gregory (writer), Joel Clements (Sound designer), Anton Hunter (Musician), as well as guest collaborators Angela Guyton (artist and graphic designer), the show's stage manager, and hopefully Reeling's Director who is yet TBC.

So, in true collaborative style this blog will be a mish mash of everything and anything to do with our show. As producer, I hope to give you a 'Producers guide to the 24:7 festival' for any of you budding producers. Look out also for announcements, news and reviews once the festival begins. Check out links to other projects our members are involved in and many other related posts.

Enjoy!

Piece of Work Theatre Company