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THE PLAY PRODUCED ~ ~-- --~-- ~ - --shy

The East Lane Theatre Club was originally founded in 1936 as the Eas t Lane Drlmatic Society by exshypupils of East Lane School vVembley

The Club now based a t the Vale Farm Sports Cround hilS its own theatre which a s conv4 rtld from a workshop thilt thE members built tlw mselves The theatre opened in

ctoberl990 with a production of Alan I yckbourns Abs(I1 1 Fri lTd and th t Club presents va ried programme of fo ur productions a year usually for seven performances sp read over (I hvo-veek period The th ea tre 5 a tlt

75 and has a stylish cnte bar Mea which vas I 0 built by its mlmbers and vas large ly fund ed by a generous grant from the Foundat ion for Sport and th Arb

SIalIcy was firs t presented in the Cottles loe auditorium at the a tional Thea tre in 1996 with Antony Sher in the title role Th play was staged with th audience on three s id es the fou rth being taken up by a mura l represen ti ng one of Spence rs works in progress The original cast consisted of four males s ix females and tvo boys wi th some doubling of whid1 l11 o re anon but particula rly in the fi na l scene it would be quite possibl e to use additional actors and actr scs

PCln1 lems has vritten J

painfully truthful reshycrea tion of the li fe and loves of the British painter Statuey Spencer It spans the years between the 1920s and tl la te 19505 highlighting Stanleys love Jnd courbhip of his two wives He was sociable cheerful courteous and ci1([ming but like so

STANLEY STANLEY by Pam Gems

David Hight discusses his production for East Lane Theatre Group

many geniuses evangelical zea l mad c hishyto tally self-absorbf trampling upon th ogt around him His wor was very much insp iregt by the vilktge of CooklUlll where he lived 11105t of h bull life and he used Imiddot women friend s and 10 shypeople to populate hmiddot canvases

Towa rds the end of th play Hilda Carline h shyfirst devoted wife wh had experienced a nerv(ushybreakdown due tCl

StanleyS ca 1I0usness in h -unrequited love fo Patricia Preece d ie5 Pcltricia who became hi second w ife and who b living throughout with her lesbian lover Doro th) H pworth hav ing taken Stanley for everything 5h can practically disownshyhim In the closing seen having been knight d f(l hi s serv ices to art Stan le~

in an eloquent and toud1ing sollloquy tells at his joy of creation with tIl inspiration of Cod and the help and inspiration of hi beloved Hilda

ne of the problems of cas ting is tha t the pia d evelops over 30 year5 during the two acts and the chard cte rs a~

accordingly The four principdls are of a s imilar Clge group and because of the comparative mlturi t) of the members 1 d ec ided to ca st the leads In Ihe old er range We eledd m e- rely 10 hin t at rejuvena tion or age ing and 1 believe th a t th is proved more r~alis tic and effectiv e th Jl1 younger actors greying up

The four leads w ere consequenlly v 1)

ex perienced and talented actors which added much to the crea ti ve process during rehearsa ls Tn addition the play t populated by 20 other parts including Stanleys agent Dudley Tooth

OCTOBER 16

fellow arti s ts Augustus John Henry Lamb Gwen Ravera( Elsie Munday his maid Hildas mother and several walk on parts which meant that we were able to do some doubling up thus making it more interes ting for those with smaller parts

Ivls Gems wrote into the final scene charming parts for two small boys which rEgrettably we could not cast so they were (ut How ve r we did manage to in veigle Frlddie a pekine e to ppea r in the lilst scene ilnd prilctically steal it

lrobilbly the g rEat(st luxury for East Lane members is the ab ility to r(hearse o n the actuill s ta ge throughout as the set bui Id s up around them d uring const ruc tion Th is g ives the -tors it greilter sellse oi belong ing within rather than visit ing C set

We reh used twin a week for n iIll weeks The play is se t in two act shyand 23 cenes ~ome of which ant aga in bro ken d(lw n by loca le md lor time so the smaller part shywere on ly needed once a eek for most of the rehearsal period

As you can im dfri ne it yvas d

omplicated piece to reheurse w ith completE Changes of mood ca lIed for every few pages and blocking was delayed when one o f the Icd(b dropped alit in the first week of rehec rsals Fo rtunately euro ven able to discover an excellent actress from outside Ollr ranks who successfully took ove r the bitchy (but scratch her eyes out for the

part) P1tricia In the week before the production domestic problems forced another change of cast and one of our own actresses gallantly took over the part of the maid Elsie at the dress rehearsal and made it work

The script uS published by Nick Hern although containing the authors descriptive notes is not an acting edition offering the director an open book - adding another vvork load I pe rsonally welcome the freedom of being respons ible for crea ting moves layo ut and d ud ing upon ettings and furniture etc without the possibility of being prejudiced by a previous d irectors work but allow yourself tw ice the lIs ual amOlLnt of pnpdration work l 1Ild most of the cast found a visit to the Stanley Spencer Gall ery in Cookhltlm a great he lp in catchin g the ltrnospher of th play

seEN R I d ec ided to leave the tage as celt1[ as p S5ible in orde r to easE tillt flow betw en the many sc nes for fu rn itu re ilnd props Therefore I designed a second proscen ium 1 h containing representations o f fi s m s taken o ut of Sta nl eys p itinti ngs wi th IMg arched picture trames bac ks tage containing lifl size imges rom Stanleys paintings of Iliida and Iillr iciil T hese were pl inted on 1gt U7e so tbat at selected s tages they could be li t fro m beh ind to dramatically reveal the stJge wives - PJtricia

str ipping to en tice Stanley a nd H ilda during StanleyS closing peech revea ling his love followi ng

he r death 111e res t o f the backd rop and wings were covered in b lack felt and lhe stage floor a painted black

Th re is iln Mgument for us ing mi nimal or no furnitu re or props which wou ld certa inly have speeded up the breaks between scenes bu t the script r lIs for full si ze asels d isp la ying la r e paintings Mim in these ritical props wou ld have robbed the play of real ity so I wen t the w hole hog with (urnishing nd props for EltJch scene This milde enormous dogtnl il nci s on our backstage rew who had to hump everything indudi ng a 3 wiele metal b d on and off stage as rapid I) as possib le

he theatre has a small apron ~ tage projecting into the iludito rium und we used th i to mOllnt one of Stilnleys pa intings in progres which the actor plilying Spencer

OCTOBER

lip during the run

e h ired from the marvellous a l iona l rheat res os tume and

Fu rniturlto Hire Department a p riod 19205 whee lchair the metal bed stea d and a magnificent paint table used l1 thei r originul product ion w hich added authenticity to the period feel

The cast wefe very creative in utili sing suitable cloth egt either from oLir own cos tume d cpartm nt or scrounging from eLsewhere to fu rthe r crca te the per iod of the 20s - 50s TIlly had to become dep t at ve ry qu ick chilnges several on stag( or behind the s enes which he lped tn indicate the time cha

To highligh t and hopefull y hold the mood At the nel of tiC n g as we ll as curtain-ups lind d owns I elec ted emotive English musi( of

the period wi th themes fo r Patricia - fra lllents from Elgar s 3 rd Sym p hon y and Tiltgt La rk

scend ing by Vaughan Williams for Hild a with the sild wis tful th me floating lip to the heavens effectively on her death with othe r selections from Vaugru1l1 Williams and Delius

The scenes were played in d

combination of five different areas 1( tually worked on prior to curtlin of the stage so the lighting pla yed

Ui

a critical role in setting the iltmosphere loca le and time of day neccssi ta ting over tlO lighting cues

We were proud to present the amateur premiere of Stanley Pam Gems fully understood the compl ex ities idiosyncras ies and attitudes of Stanley Spencer and hilS created a rounded s ta ge chJrilcter revealing thi ~

controver ial personality warts and all int g rated in to the world in which he lived with wltHIllth and humour H er fi ctiunal recrea tion of his life is as near the actual truth 15 we dfe likely to see and milkes for g ripping thea tre

ALL SCRIPTS SCORES AND LlBRml FEATURED IN

THE PLAY PRODUCED AND ~THE MU ICAl PRODUCED

CA BTA FROM

TEL 0171middot837middot5655 FAX 0171middot833middot0609

17

fellow arti s ts Augustus John Henry Lamb Gwen Ravera( Elsie Munday his maid Hildas mother and several walk on parts which meant that we were able to do some doubling up thus making it more interes ting for those with smaller parts

Ivls Gems wrote into the final scene charming parts for two small boys which rEgrettably we could not cast so they were (ut How ve r we did manage to in veigle Frlddie a pekine e to ppea r in the lilst scene ilnd prilctically steal it

lrobilbly the g rEat(st luxury for East Lane members is the ab ility to r(hearse o n the actuill s ta ge throughout as the set bui Id s up around them d uring const ruc tion Th is g ives the -tors it greilter sellse oi belong ing within rather than visit ing C set

We reh used twin a week for n iIll weeks The play is se t in two act shyand 23 cenes ~ome of which ant aga in bro ken d(lw n by loca le md lor time so the smaller part shywere on ly needed once a eek for most of the rehearsal period

As you can im dfri ne it yvas d

omplicated piece to reheurse w ith completE Changes of mood ca lIed for every few pages and blocking was delayed when one o f the Icd(b dropped alit in the first week of rehec rsals Fo rtunately euro ven able to discover an excellent actress from outside Ollr ranks who successfully took ove r the bitchy (but scratch her eyes out for the

part) P1tricia In the week before the production domestic problems forced another change of cast and one of our own actresses gallantly took over the part of the maid Elsie at the dress rehearsal and made it work

The script uS published by Nick Hern although containing the authors descriptive notes is not an acting edition offering the director an open book - adding another vvork load I pe rsonally welcome the freedom of being respons ible for crea ting moves layo ut and d ud ing upon ettings and furniture etc without the possibility of being prejudiced by a previous d irectors work but allow yourself tw ice the lIs ual amOlLnt of pnpdration work l 1Ild most of the cast found a visit to the Stanley Spencer Gall ery in Cookhltlm a great he lp in catchin g the ltrnospher of th play

seEN R I d ec ided to leave the tage as celt1[ as p S5ible in orde r to easE tillt flow betw en the many sc nes for fu rn itu re ilnd props Therefore I designed a second proscen ium 1 h containing representations o f fi s m s taken o ut of Sta nl eys p itinti ngs wi th IMg arched picture trames bac ks tage containing lifl size imges rom Stanleys paintings of Iliida and Iillr iciil T hese were pl inted on 1gt U7e so tbat at selected s tages they could be li t fro m beh ind to dramatically reveal the stJge wives - PJtricia

str ipping to en tice Stanley a nd H ilda during StanleyS closing peech revea ling his love followi ng

he r death 111e res t o f the backd rop and wings were covered in b lack felt and lhe stage floor a painted black

Th re is iln Mgument for us ing mi nimal or no furnitu re or props which wou ld certa inly have speeded up the breaks between scenes bu t the script r lIs for full si ze asels d isp la ying la r e paintings Mim in these ritical props wou ld have robbed the play of real ity so I wen t the w hole hog with (urnishing nd props for EltJch scene This milde enormous dogtnl il nci s on our backstage rew who had to hump everything indudi ng a 3 wiele metal b d on and off stage as rapid I) as possib le

he theatre has a small apron ~ tage projecting into the iludito rium und we used th i to mOllnt one of Stilnleys pa intings in progres which the actor plilying Spencer

OCTOBER

lip during the run

e h ired from the marvellous a l iona l rheat res os tume and

Fu rniturlto Hire Department a p riod 19205 whee lchair the metal bed stea d and a magnificent paint table used l1 thei r originul product ion w hich added authenticity to the period feel

The cast wefe very creative in utili sing suitable cloth egt either from oLir own cos tume d cpartm nt or scrounging from eLsewhere to fu rthe r crca te the per iod of the 20s - 50s TIlly had to become dep t at ve ry qu ick chilnges several on stag( or behind the s enes which he lped tn indicate the time cha

To highligh t and hopefull y hold the mood At the nel of tiC n g as we ll as curtain-ups lind d owns I elec ted emotive English musi( of

the period wi th themes fo r Patricia - fra lllents from Elgar s 3 rd Sym p hon y and Tiltgt La rk

scend ing by Vaughan Williams for Hild a with the sild wis tful th me floating lip to the heavens effectively on her death with othe r selections from Vaugru1l1 Williams and Delius

The scenes were played in d

combination of five different areas 1( tually worked on prior to curtlin of the stage so the lighting pla yed

Ui

a critical role in setting the iltmosphere loca le and time of day neccssi ta ting over tlO lighting cues

We were proud to present the amateur premiere of Stanley Pam Gems fully understood the compl ex ities idiosyncras ies and attitudes of Stanley Spencer and hilS created a rounded s ta ge chJrilcter revealing thi ~

controver ial personality warts and all int g rated in to the world in which he lived with wltHIllth and humour H er fi ctiunal recrea tion of his life is as near the actual truth 15 we dfe likely to see and milkes for g ripping thea tre

ALL SCRIPTS SCORES AND LlBRml FEATURED IN

THE PLAY PRODUCED AND ~THE MU ICAl PRODUCED

CA BTA FROM

TEL 0171middot837middot5655 FAX 0171middot833middot0609

17