Notes from the Stage Manager's Box (8 page)

Apart from that there was nothing to suggest what was to follow. Over the next six hours or more the lighting rig is put in place, backdrops and scenic views hung and flown in, curtains arranged along with black tabs to mask the overhead battens, the furniture and props put
in place and marked with tape along with lines for where the flats are to be positioned.

By six o’clock the once empty and dark theatre was now a village in
Russia
. That is the magic of live theatre.

By about eleven o’clock on Saturday night the theatre and stage were just bare shells and devoid of life, waiting for the next company to transform it. For the Theatre Club it was another six months wait.
I decided that I would always be the first
in the theatre and the last out to experience that little bit of magic.

Many years later in an episode of Only Fools and Horses where Rodney marries Cassandra the reception is held in the function room of
the Nag’s Head,
the local pub. As the guests leave one by one Del Boy is finally left alone with just the empty glasses and the wedding cake
and Simply Red singing ‘Holding Back the Years’ in the background. I kno
w exactly how he felt. The end of a show is always an anti-climax. After a week working at your day job and then in the evenings all of a sudden there is nothing to look forward to.

As ever the first committee meeting after the end of the show needs to discuss what went right and what went wrong.

When I was Town Centre Manager I organised with many others Hertford Fun Day; a free community event with music, fair and stalls. On one Monday morning following the Sunday event a new reporter from one of the local papers rang up and asked: ‘What went wrong?’
‘
Nothing went wrong. Why can’t you just print what actually happened, that over ten thou
sand people enjoyed themselves.’
Fortunately the other paper and the local radio station all covered the event with glowing reports.

So it was with Fiddler on the Roof. Considering the scale of the show everyone was pleased although we all had reservations about one thing. Frank Squire had more serious doubts about it – that being the design for the show’s programme.

I have a habit of putting my mouth into gear before my brain and said ‘I could do better than that’.
The committee took me at my word and I presented them at the next meeting with a mock up of the programme I would have done for Fiddler.

Frank was delighted and the job of programme design was mine. The front cover for the following production is at the head of this chapter. Included in the notes was a map of cowboy territory and a biography of Calamity Jane. The poster which was produced in both
A4 and A2 sizes was a
picture of a stage coach and horse being driven at speed. I was pleased with that; it ended up framed on a lot of people’s walls.

I was henceforth a member of the Theatre Club Committee with the tit
le ‘Business Manager’. T
his was subsequently amended to Publicity Manager.

One of the advantages I had was that my good friend Jim North worked for the Stationery and Purchasing Department and as such was able to ensure that both posters and programmes got the very best attention from the printing team.

One thing I quickly learned about being on the committee was that most of the business that had to be conducted was quite boring. Such as finance and licensing arrangements. As stage manager and now publicity manager I ended up talking a lot about the progress of the production. You have to have something of a split personality as whilst you are giving the committee an update on the progress of the current show you are also planning the next show.

We held committee meetings in one of the Bank’s Regional Director’s boardrooms in
Drapers
Gardens
. The room was booked
by Elaine or Janet. One meeting
had to be swiftly abandoned as the room had been double booked. The twelve man committee walked along the dark corridors of power searching for an unlocked room in which to continue our
meeting.

This was Elaine and Janet’s territory and they had a flash of inspiration. We ended up along a corridor where out of all the locked room
s
in t
he building we found one
completely open.

We turned on the lights and all around the room on white boards were strange hieroglyphics and symbols. ‘The rooms are never locked’ said Elaine. ‘No one has a clue what goes on in here so
it’s
quite s
ecure.’ I never found out what did happen in there
but the rooms were occup
ied by groups involved in forward
planning.

Rehearsals for Calamity Jane were held in common with
all
those previously on Monday and Wednesday evenings. These two days
were found to be ideal as they
did not coincide with the majority of other personal, social and professional commitments of cast and production
team. Rehearsals
were held in the sixth floor staff dining room in
Drapers
Gardens
.

Members of the cast and chorus came from branches scattered all over
London
and the Home Counties. The production team worked in the City so we met most Monday and Wednesday evenings for a few drinks in one of the many City pubs. With the extra work on the committee
opportunities to enjoy
these few drinks grew quite rapidly over the years and most of the time involved Roy Follett and myself at the centre. It had the advantage in that everyone else always knew where to find us if early or in need of some liquid refreshment after a hard days work at the office.

The production team worked hard to attract new members. Owing to the nature of the company for
who we
worked all staff that hoped to have a career
had to accept
the principle of mobility. In other words you had to be prepared to move wherever the Bank wanted to send you as your career progressed. For those of us in the City it meant that we stayed within the Square Mile. For those in some of the Outer London Regions a career move might take them from the fringes of
London
to the limits of the county where the Area Office or most prestigious branch was located.
The main hindrance to their continuance as cast members was the problems of travel and regretfully they had to withdraw.

As much as most of the leading actors and chorus enjoyed the shows an
d stayed as long as they could
promotion
s, career moves, marriage, children
and retirements often meant that the make up of the company changed quite frequently. I have already mentioned Tony Siddall whose career advancement took him to the States.

One of the other obstacles to recruitment of members of the chorus was that although it was easy to attract new female singers and dancers it was not the same for men.

The common misconception is that the theatre is not a male preserve, it is full of ‘luvvies’ and ‘duckies’ and a bit effeminate. Once you get over that blindness
or blinkered view
most of the men that you attract into a show soon realise that there are a lot of attractive and availabl
e ladies as compensation for wearing
make up and sometimes bizarre costumes.

The problem for
the stage manager is keeping his
team together.
A well trained and steady team makes life back stage an absolute breeze.
Nearly all of my crew over the years
joined because they knew one of the others
and enjoyed the male company and the beer. Then they like the
new male members of the chorus enjoyed
having
the distraction of female company.

Looking over the cast notes for Calamity Jane I can see the names of quite a few men who started as back stage crew and caught the acting bug, ending up either as part of the chorus or with a small walk on role. I lost both Peter Davis and Steve Twigger this way.

As soon as the ladies found out that Peter was not only quite good looking, unattached at the time but could also sing a bit it was only a short space of time before he was a regular member of the cast.

The programme notes show Frank Squire as playi
ng the part of the Colonel but h
e had to withdraw close to the opening night and by common consent the part seemed quite fit for Steve Twigger. He did a few more shows in the male chorus but as he had said when he first joined, it was not an easy commitment for the captain of the Banks Rugby Second Team when the season often overlapped with the dates of our shows.

Steve was not the only replacement in that show. I can’t remember who was to play the part of Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin who is Calamity’s love interest but I do remember that he broke a leg – apologies for the bizarre theatrical pun – about four or five weeks before opening. This was not yet a disaster but we still had to find a replacement quite quickly.

It was John Hebden who came to our rescue. He said that he had a friend who had just completed playing the part in a local production and would be available. Paul St James turned up and was just made for the part being tall, slim and with curly blond hair.

The girls were happy and he was obviously a very popular stand in. I never mentioned until the show had completed its
run that Paul was John’s
partner.

Calamity Jane is like the other stage favourites; as soon as the overture starts the audience know where they are, in the Black Hills of Dakota. The Deadwood Stage is the opening number and other well known songs follow such as Windy City, Keep it Under Your Hat, A Woman’s Touch, The Black Hills of Dakota and My Secret Love which was a number one for Doris Day in 1954 and reached number 4 in 1963 sung by Kathy Kirby, she of the
dizzy
blond hair and shiny red lips.

It’s a big, bouncy happy show. The cast enjoyed the singing and the stage crew stood in the wings and sang along as well. The show went without a hitch, apart from a small diversion.

Scene 3 which close
s
Act One takes place in the Golden Garter Bar. It’s meant to be full of cowboys and dancers and is the setting for Katie Brown’s big number ‘Keep it under your hat’ when she is discovered to be plain Katy Brown and not Adelaide Adams as promised by Calamity.