MAN OF LA MANCHA Gill Etter discusses her production of Mnn of La Milne/III for Field Place Music at the Barn Theatre, Field Place, Worthing, with the assistance from set designer Peter Barnes, lighting technician Mark Shepherd and director's assistant / stage manager Rachel Booker.

PLOT AND CASTING

Set in a dungeon in Seville at the time of the Spanish InquiSition, the show tells the story of an impossible dreamer, Don Quixote who, together with his faithful friend and squire, Sancho Panza, sets out to rest lre the ideals of chivalry to an unheeding world . Quixote's vision of himself as a dauntless knight-errant leads to his famous fight with a windmill, his combat with the deadly Knight of the Mirrors and his love for a kitchen slut, Aldonza, whom he sees as the chas tely beautiful Lady Dulcinea - much to the woman's bewilderment and derision. As the play progresses, however, she is gradually drawn into Quixote's fantasy and because no-one has ever treated her with such adoration, begins to see herself as he sees her.

The plot works on two levels - the n>ality of the dungeon scenes and the fantasy world of the writer and actor Cervantes, newly arrived in the prison and hauled into a mock­trial for his life by other inmates. To defend himself, he tells a story­the tale of a country squire, Alonso Quijana who, through too much study of books, "lays down the melancholy burden of sanity" and decides to become a knight-errant who will right all wrongs. The pathos and absurdity of his madness is well balanced by a constant shifting between fantasy and reality.

Our comp,my, Field Place Music, has a small regular membership, but part of our ethos is to cast from a wider community. To this end, open auditions were held and publicised widely in the local press. We received many inquires from ex-pros and Equity card holders, all of whom expressed an interest in singing "The Impossible Dream", but none of whom actually showed up!

Before the auditions, detailed character notes were issued, so that no-one could be in any doubt that this was going to be hard work. Casting proved extremely difficult. Other shows were being auditioned at the same time in

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BY DALE WASSERMAN

Worthing, most of which we n.>­

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performed at larger venue; with more generous budgets as a relatively small compan were not everyone's first d;­Eventually, I asked my pr and set designer als experienced actor and sing!! play the part of the Don, \ certainly kept him busy!

I did at last manage to assemb enthusiastic, well-committed many of whom were inexperienced but keen to 'ha go". However, due to illness, difficulties and numerou~ problems, I was forced to In

great many cast changes durin . rehearsal period . It bee necessary, at very short notic replace the actress playing Aid and, as we were stretch ­capacity at this point, I ended playing the part myself. Alth not an ideal situation, it unavoidable and I felt supported by the rest of the Cil-i

W~ --REHEARSAl:S, ­

~"- ...-'~-Our schedule consisted of acting rehearsals and one m rehearsal per week for 12 W .:

with a break for Christmas. aim was to hold a cast f t'

through and complete the bloc before the festive break, but proved unworkable, due to a epidemic. Basic blocking se-ll' to take much longer than I I anticipated, partly due to c. absences, but also, I fear, due to unaccountable absence of p on the part of the cast memt­who were there! Fortunatel )" very able assistant kept a faitr log of a ll the moves a positioning, enabling us to d quickly with any discrepancie _

The original libretto runs with an interval. I felt this was too ! to sustain, so inserted an inte about two-thirds of the \\ through the piece, at the po where the Men of the Inquisi arrive in the dungeon Cervantes halts his story in t lest they be coming for him. It · very gripping moment and played it as a "freeze frame" ei side of the interval , so that action remained continuous. M people told us that this was m effective.

Also, for greater manageabilit~ the text, I divided the play up if­six sections labelled A to F a. issued a call-sheet, so that everv_ knew which sections were bei covered at each rehearsal and which sections they appear"

-~ky scenes, like the rape and _hI scenes, were choreographed opt'cial rehearsals.

e to the Musical Director's other m mitments and a low budget for ltearsal accommodation, we held .1IW music rehearsals in people's 'l11es, but were mostly able to use

th eatre for acting rehearsals.

SCOREAND~ . 0 our critic pointed out, this is s

-)\\' where the songs are very .::arefullv integrated into the plot,

ak ing it difficult for many of m to have become popular hits.

':::" L'ryone knows "The Impossible • '~m ", but there are many other um bers of great musical and

,ramatic worth, which we enjoyeda ":lOt'Tforming. Musically, this is a ...l.&icuJ t score, with relentless and

nfo rgiving Spanish rhythms, "olving some tricky counting.

Fl1Tt wlately, our Musical Director is 'ff'! experienced and coped

n J lently with the score, although -' .•me of the less experienced -'nl':ers may have felt at times that

'e'V were running a race l

ot having music at many "filearsals did not prove to be quite -n much of a handicap as we had "ared. The cast were able to

ncentrate on their acting and on smooth flow of the pieces in

_,meral, which was very useful. At any rehearsals the cast spoke rough their song lyrics, which Iped to se t the songs well within e scenes, and was also a good 3\' of monitoring the learning

~ro<:ess .

~ lLsed a small band - the Musical rector on keyboard, together

Ith a drummer and flautist. All ere excellent and greatly hanced the show.

SCENl.R~

were cri ticized by the press for -:ng it "bleak set", but as the show

- ;;et in a dungeon, we felt that "3kness gave an appropriate

ugh <ltmosphere. The Barn al re has a fairly small stage

-h little or no wing space. Our ' ,o:b is towards minimalism rhaps just as well, on a low get l ) so we used black drapes

-tage and black legs mid-stage at sid e to mask entrances and

The action took place on ~ levels - an upper level fronted

p rison bars and chains, the ~ stage level and a forestage,

~ we set a glowing brazie.r and dungeon pillars, complete

- h<mging manacles. These .r; , joined by two horizontal

- w ith clips at the back, served stilble our hobby horses in a

- d fective manner.

Because the play'S action is stiffened with fabric sti ffener a.nd continuous, I tried to turn our sprayed gold. We were able to cut staging difficulties to advilntage, an authentic chin-shaped chunk with a somewhat Brechtian use of out of the brim, so thelt it well floor space and scene changes. The matched the illustration we had. cast se t and struck their own '.'-- ...... -"i T" furniture and props which, si llce SPECIAL EFFECTS AND

I.... · •this was effectively a "play within a PROPS'~~ _ ~.play", worked very well.

Warning' this can be an extremely '----.. "proppy" show I We tried toLlGHT~C!' -, ~_ simplify ma tters and kept our

We are very fortunate in our props to the bare minimum. lighting and sound techniciiln who

To bring out the deep ilbsurdity of is one of the best in the area and Quixote's combat with the Knighthas been a top qua.lity performer of the Mirrors, this scene WilShimself, so is well able to played as a puppet show, a darkempathize with actors and version of a children'sunderstand what thE'y require. As I entert8inment, using cast members myself am not technically very to portray a child audience andknowledgeable, I relied a great deal masked actors holding mirrors at on his expertise, giving him just a each side of the puppet stage, withbasic idea of the effects I wanted, Quixote fighting his own reflection . which he was well able to flesh out. The actor playing the Knight of the We used two distinct types of Mirrors designed his own,lighting for the show - one for the extremely effective puppet, and heprison scenes (cold, dism al, grim was given a body mike on whichilnd unwelcoming) and one for the the sound was distorted, to make"fantasy" scenes of the "play within hinl sound more sinister. We used a play" (wilrmer, but with some strobe lighting for part of thisvariation within this, as some scene, and the resultingscenes took place at night). These atmosphere was harrowing.effects were achieved 'using blu E'

gels for the former ilnd peachy­ The problems inherent in the yellow gels for the lMter. We also transformation scene, where used a "prison bars" gobo to good Cervantes applies make-up on effect, and a stark, red spot for the s tage to become Don Quixote, were rape scene. solved by the actor himself, who

wore his own goatee-s tyle beard (no messing about with crepe hairCOST~. and spirit gum!) ilnd added bold,

Again, we were very fortunate to "ageing" strokes with " s tick of white greasepilint. be able to hire most of what we

wanted from a local wardrobe Quixote and Sancho rode hobby expert. Preliminary notes had been horses, which were especially distributed to the cast, giving them made for us by a professi(ll1al soft plenty of time to providE' toy milker. When clipped in plac themselves with ba sic items of on the s table bar, these could be costume, such as knee breeches manipulated like rod-puppets, and tights (men) and long skirts especially in the scene where they and pe tticoats (women). This arc fed by Aldonza. Some meant that everyone w as prod uctiOl1S use actors as horses, effectively dressed from the waist but we felt the hobbv horses down before their initiill provid ed d welcome s'ource of consultation with wMdrobe! humour in a show which would

otlwrwbe be very dark.Don Quixo te and the soldi e rs needed to wear armour. W" hired this from Harvey's of Hove, a SUM~_~:-'theatrical cos tumier specialising in armour, who knew the show and Despite good ildv,1l1ce cover<lge in were able to ild vise US on the the press, our houses were ril ther correct style of helmets and disappointing, especially near the breastplates of the period. Our beginning of the run. Audience only real difficulty was the Golden numbers picked up as the week Helmet of Mambrino, an i1wkward went on, and those who did see thE' piecE' of heildgeilf, which is ach.Ii111y show were highly appreciative. a barber's shaving basin and is only Unfortuni1tt'ly, tlw local critic, who mistaken for il heroic helmet by had previously written some very mad Quixote. kind things about our productions,

did not share the audience 's We discussed various wilyS of

enthusiasm, but our feedba ck was ­making this, including plastic and continues to be - positive. pudding basins, metal cake tins

etc., but the most comfortilble We do feel that the main reason for solution (the helmet does aCh.lally the exis tence of a thea tre group is have to worn by two characters) to entertain the public - ilfter all, proved to be an old trilby hat, with they do pay for their tickets! the crown rounded out, then

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ALL SCRIPTS, SCORES AND LlBRETII FEATURED IN

"THE PLAY PRODUCED" AND "THE MUSICAL PRODUCED"

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