GREAT EXPECTATIONS Adapted directed and designed for Bexhill Amateur Theatrical Society by Eric Stevens

ADAPTATION

as first attracted by the -ama tic possibilities of GREAT

E T TIONS when I saw a

uinnesss 1939 version en tually I de Ided to make my ) I did not want to use a nMrashy

r t( uinness had two) so this ant that everything relevant to plo t had to be shown including enwunter with the Hamburg

IDle r on the Thilmes I found the e) u rprisingly easy to adapt r

pI cJoely to Dickenss storyline II )iten combined the events of

1 rcnt chapte rs into a single uence For instance young

counter with the convict his isit to Miss Havisham folshy

Lti dircct ly one on the other In lnd my play was in three acts h 29 scenes ilnd 23 churacters e llf whom could be doubled

SETTING

_ Bex hill Amateur Thea trical _ dt~ p uts on half of its ilnnual

uctto ns in the thea tre of the dl-owned De La Warr

l1n lnd so I had that s tage in when prepil ring m ad aptashyIt ha a proscenium opening ~t m d a similar depth In Ii the prosce nium is a

_a~t with an entrance on ~lde This apron G111 cause

_t1tlt~5 as it is nonnally a vast - hich the actors hilve to

( orne before they reach the nc and owing to safety

JlJlion~ nothing can b set pershyn t l~ un it l lowever the

bull n em nt gave us a large unt of space and I wanted to

it it to the full

SCENERY ~arly o n I consultltogtd the theshy

-ilgtle fo r the lighting to make ilia they could provide whilt [

Then I designed the set went back to them with a

a p reliminary lighting in t through the plJy

L--_~ n rwas assured that it - ble We used seven

il OTIS pstage on 3 ft t middot Ha ishams room

on a 1 ft rostrum a5 R lrea was used for

ard the Fotge and 11 another SR area

_ _ Chambers a SL area

for the Forge Kitchen and Jagge rss began Apron K with Uncle House and the Prison Infirmary an Pumblechook escorting young Pip area On the Apron K for the Itm they crossed tll ap rOn during the Yard and the Ball at Richmond the multiplication test Jnd were correspond ing area Apron L for received by Es tella Apron L then the opening introductio n two Pip ald Estella moved centre stage letter-reading episodes Miss across the garden went into the Havishams Gate and the Prison Hallway where they met Jaggers Entrance and the o rchestra pit for before Pip w ent up to Miss the recapture of the convicb on the Havishams room After the gilme marshes and the scene with the of cards Pip and Estella came paddle-steamer Some scenes down to the Hall and Pip went out flowed from one locality to another into the ga rden where he had his Scene 5 for instance dealing with fight with young Herbert All this Pips first visit to Miss Havisham was done continuously with eachmiddotU

area being lit as necessary

The acting area was s urroundeJ black drapes and legs the vari locations suggested by min i scenery and basic furniture four-sided box mounted on a and cons isting of two doo r curtained opening and a b l-middot wall was placed diagonally to audience with one door and blank wall used for the ]-OL

Kitchen and the other two sides Herberts Chambers Other tru were used for the Forge the gn

JV

served as Miss Havishams ce and the entrance to the

n Magwitchs bed in the arv and a bookcuse in

_ ~ ~lt house Furniture and were used as necess(J ry but

ot consistent there ltIS only Jlj ir in Miss Havishams in

beclt1llse a second was not untiL Act II in the early

- at Herberts a table and w~re required but not in Act

en they were replltlced by a Itlngue

LIGHTING

- to ~ wmputerised lighting 11 the chungos from one scene llher were mon th and ins tant

t the night when it went Hds ) The equipm cnt did

permit us to p inpoint each ~o there wa inevitably a lot ag BCCltl use we were lightshy

lriou5 par of the stag in isoshythe lighting tended tn be

t ertical softened wherevcr Ie b a I w-pow red pot i1 t I r ~ngh A b lue s pot shin shy

cross the s tag horiwntally dtmusphere to the chu rchshylnd a companion allowed Pip tdl ~ to va lk off the stage ilt

d into a golden sunsct

EFFECTS

middot o f the e was of course the ng of Miss Havisham A

middot spot was shone briefly onto ed ding dress from the fireshybfore she was smothered by This had to be a hit or miss

bull on the opening night as the ~ had bern booked by anothshy

anisa tion on the day of our rehearsal which meant that

d to clear the stage entirely th technical and reassemble

middot middott in the two hours before the There was not time to

nro ugh the sequence i1S we h technicians for iI limited _ r of hours

-ene on the Thames caused a thought In the end I decided it in the orchestra pit as the

_ would be seen only from the -t up leaving the rowing boats

imagined It did not really as everybody VilS out of

of the sound operator who the lighting technicians was ed behind the proscenium

He was supposed to run pe of the steamer gradually

ing in volume but was to judge how far the actors _ t with the scene and their were drowned out long he steamer was supposed to truck them

Pip had extinguished Miss

Havishams flilmes he had to appear with his hands swa thed in bandages which were removed and replaced by Herbert We did this by making two boxing glove which could be slipped on during a scene change They were actually two Boots incontinence pads covshyered in strips of old linen sheeting which Herbert unwound and wound most convincingly

The rapid changing of meal setshytings was achieved by having them on a false table top so that the whole thing could be removed in one go

COSTUMES As soon as I had the go-ahead with the lighting I consulted our own

kmiddotworkshop who would be ma mg the set the Stage Manager who would be responsible for all the fast scene changes and the Wardrobe Mistress who wouJd have to proshyvide a range of costumes for the period 1815 to 1835 The ladies dresses were all home produced and some of the mens costumes keeping our hiring down to a minishymum The talented SM produced a series of designs which proved very useful in discussions with the costumiers The main problem was

fQ

Pip who is scarcely off the stage It was decided to give him a basic costume of shir t waistcoilt and trousers to which was added and subtracted a variety of hats and coats This necessitated a special costume plot which detailed preshycisely who was to bring on and take off each item and whether assisshytance was needed in the wings

CASTING

Great interest was shown in the play by our members and the supshyporting roles were easily filled at auditions However I did not have an older Pip - he is aged 18-22 - and greatly surprised an actor twice

that age by asking him to undershytake the part Much to my relief he accepted and by casting similarly with Estella and to some extent with Herbert the question of age did not bother anyone Herbert was an awkward problem as I could not find anyone in the Society to play the role Then one of those miracles that sometimes happen occurred I was telephoned by an actor in the next town who had heard about the difficulty and was looking for a more serious role than the farces he had been appearing in

REHEARSALS

We had a limited period of six weeks available Anticipating castshying problems I had auditioned well in advance ~nd was able to give most members of the cast indishyvidual rehearsals in the interim This was not jLlst a good idea it was essential as the first two weeks of the main rehearsals were affectshyed by holidays After blocking each act the next six rehearsals were devoted to groups of scenes such as the Forge Kitchen Miss Havishams Herberts Chambers etc to avoid changing furniture and to accommodate absenc s The remaining time was devoted to continuity and scene changing The difficulty here was that having brought one se t of furniture off there was little space in our rehearsal room in which to put itl

Throughout I was conscious that technical conside rations were going to take precedence over

very thing else and this somewha t disconcerted the cast who weT used to the actors having pride of place This was especially so at our two technical rehearsals - we could not possibly have managed with our uSLIal one - when very few scenes were played in their entirety One scene -bange was practised half a dozen times to get it done in 10 seconds Much to my surprise and relid the final running time was 2 hours 40 minutes including two intervals

Not everything came off but in spite of a certain raggedness in parts I was very gratified with the results especially on the final night when I was able to wa tch the show following the story instead of worshyrying about the technicalities It was a tremendous team effort in all 28 members of the Society had been actively involved and it formed a fitting climax to our Diamond Jubilee Year

ALL SCRIPTS SCORES AND LIBRETTI FEATURED IN

THE PLAY PRODUCED AND THE MUSICAL PRODUCED

CAN BE OBTAINED FROM

7

served as Miss Havishams ce and the entrance to the

n Magwitchs bed in the arv and a bookcuse in

_ ~ ~lt house Furniture and were used as necess(J ry but

ot consistent there ltIS only Jlj ir in Miss Havishams in

beclt1llse a second was not untiL Act II in the early

- at Herberts a table and w~re required but not in Act

en they were replltlced by a Itlngue

LIGHTING

- to ~ wmputerised lighting 11 the chungos from one scene llher were mon th and ins tant

t the night when it went Hds ) The equipm cnt did

permit us to p inpoint each ~o there wa inevitably a lot ag BCCltl use we were lightshy

lriou5 par of the stag in isoshythe lighting tended tn be

t ertical softened wherevcr Ie b a I w-pow red pot i1 t I r ~ngh A b lue s pot shin shy

cross the s tag horiwntally dtmusphere to the chu rchshylnd a companion allowed Pip tdl ~ to va lk off the stage ilt

d into a golden sunsct

EFFECTS

middot o f the e was of course the ng of Miss Havisham A

middot spot was shone briefly onto ed ding dress from the fireshybfore she was smothered by This had to be a hit or miss

bull on the opening night as the ~ had bern booked by anothshy

anisa tion on the day of our rehearsal which meant that

d to clear the stage entirely th technical and reassemble

middot middott in the two hours before the There was not time to

nro ugh the sequence i1S we h technicians for iI limited _ r of hours

-ene on the Thames caused a thought In the end I decided it in the orchestra pit as the

_ would be seen only from the -t up leaving the rowing boats

imagined It did not really as everybody VilS out of

of the sound operator who the lighting technicians was ed behind the proscenium

He was supposed to run pe of the steamer gradually

ing in volume but was to judge how far the actors _ t with the scene and their were drowned out long he steamer was supposed to truck them

Pip had extinguished Miss

Havishams flilmes he had to appear with his hands swa thed in bandages which were removed and replaced by Herbert We did this by making two boxing glove which could be slipped on during a scene change They were actually two Boots incontinence pads covshyered in strips of old linen sheeting which Herbert unwound and wound most convincingly

The rapid changing of meal setshytings was achieved by having them on a false table top so that the whole thing could be removed in one go

COSTUMES As soon as I had the go-ahead with the lighting I consulted our own

kmiddotworkshop who would be ma mg the set the Stage Manager who would be responsible for all the fast scene changes and the Wardrobe Mistress who wouJd have to proshyvide a range of costumes for the period 1815 to 1835 The ladies dresses were all home produced and some of the mens costumes keeping our hiring down to a minishymum The talented SM produced a series of designs which proved very useful in discussions with the costumiers The main problem was

fQ

Pip who is scarcely off the stage It was decided to give him a basic costume of shir t waistcoilt and trousers to which was added and subtracted a variety of hats and coats This necessitated a special costume plot which detailed preshycisely who was to bring on and take off each item and whether assisshytance was needed in the wings

CASTING

Great interest was shown in the play by our members and the supshyporting roles were easily filled at auditions However I did not have an older Pip - he is aged 18-22 - and greatly surprised an actor twice

that age by asking him to undershytake the part Much to my relief he accepted and by casting similarly with Estella and to some extent with Herbert the question of age did not bother anyone Herbert was an awkward problem as I could not find anyone in the Society to play the role Then one of those miracles that sometimes happen occurred I was telephoned by an actor in the next town who had heard about the difficulty and was looking for a more serious role than the farces he had been appearing in

REHEARSALS

We had a limited period of six weeks available Anticipating castshying problems I had auditioned well in advance ~nd was able to give most members of the cast indishyvidual rehearsals in the interim This was not jLlst a good idea it was essential as the first two weeks of the main rehearsals were affectshyed by holidays After blocking each act the next six rehearsals were devoted to groups of scenes such as the Forge Kitchen Miss Havishams Herberts Chambers etc to avoid changing furniture and to accommodate absenc s The remaining time was devoted to continuity and scene changing The difficulty here was that having brought one se t of furniture off there was little space in our rehearsal room in which to put itl

Throughout I was conscious that technical conside rations were going to take precedence over

very thing else and this somewha t disconcerted the cast who weT used to the actors having pride of place This was especially so at our two technical rehearsals - we could not possibly have managed with our uSLIal one - when very few scenes were played in their entirety One scene -bange was practised half a dozen times to get it done in 10 seconds Much to my surprise and relid the final running time was 2 hours 40 minutes including two intervals

Not everything came off but in spite of a certain raggedness in parts I was very gratified with the results especially on the final night when I was able to wa tch the show following the story instead of worshyrying about the technicalities It was a tremendous team effort in all 28 members of the Society had been actively involved and it formed a fitting climax to our Diamond Jubilee Year

ALL SCRIPTS SCORES AND LIBRETTI FEATURED IN

THE PLAY PRODUCED AND THE MUSICAL PRODUCED

CAN BE OBTAINED FROM

7