Author: KDC

What the Dickens! Part One

“It has an awful voice, that wind at Midnight…Heaven preserve us, sitting snugly round the fire!”

What the Dickens New-Writing Project

This Thursday, 18 October, at the Hoop and Grapes sees the FIRST of this season’s special Ghost Stories, written and read by KDC, and adapted from the great Charles Dickens.

Dickens was fascinated with the ghostly and the spiritual, and to celebrate that, and our FIRST EVER Halloween season, we would like to invite you to enjoy some ghoulish tales.

As the evenings draw in and Hallow’een approaches, what better way to celebrate the season and the coming of KDC’s Dracula than by pulling up a chair in a City of London hostelry and listening to spooky takes of spectral visitations newly-penned by the ink-stained fingers of our shivering scribes and read by some of KDC’s most sinister voices.

The readings will be from 7pm at The Hoop & Grapes. Come and enjoy an evening with a drink and friends and come to enjoy the first ever readings of some new work!

Pitches for Spring 2013

This is the month for you to put your directing minds, if you are so inclined, towards launching KDC Theatre into next year with some suggestions for our 2013 Spring Season.

We will be returning to our friends in Kentish Town at the Lion and Unicorn on weeks beginning 25th March, 1st April and 9th April, so as with last Spring, will be presenting THREE WEEKS of exciting and engaging shows. What are these shows you may ask? Well… right now that is up to you! We need YOU, our membership, to pitch to us!

If you have directed or produced or acted or stage managed for us before, we want to hear from you! If you have directed for one of our sister theatre companies like SLT, Tower, or SEDOS, we want to hear from you! If you’re interested in directing but want to build up some experience and attach yourself to the shows we choose, we want to hear from you!

Last Spring we embraced the Shakespearean. In Summer we went into the one act fringe world. This winter we are being seasonal. This is what we are looking for for our Spring Season:

1)      A classic play with a broad range of roles. Something established that can really bring in that sense of cast community that KDC loves to embrace. Something Greek with a chorus perhaps? Or a contemporary of Shakespeare? A hint of the fancy with something along the lines of Moliere, Goldsmith or Sheridan? Perhaps something from Oscar Wilde’s era takes your fancy?

2)      Directors for our new writing. We will be having readings this season of some of our work, as well as having plays already in our new writing bank on offer. Please email us to express an interest in this and we will send you further details of what’s in the bank.

3)      A KDC Spotlight. A cast of UP TO  four to really showcase our actors and directors with a smaller cast and a tighter focus. Last winter, Vic Craven brought us his extremely funny production of Talking Heads and this Summer we had Caryl Churchill’s two-hander A Number. So it could be a four person play, or it could be a series of monologues like Bash, or even something as intense as Waiting for Godot (rights permitting!)

The pitches are open NOW and will CLOSE ON SUNDAY 4th NOVEMBER.

We encourage our pitchers to come up with 2/3 options that we can consider, but the process is open to all. If you are interested, please drop me a line at chair@kdctheatre.com.

We hope to hear from you soon.

The Lying Kind Cast and Crew

Directors – Emma Knott & Daniel West
Producer – Lucy Hill
Stage Manager – Juliet Colbert
Lighting Designer – Isabel Eriksson
Lighting Operator – Pip Brewer
Sound Designer & Operator – Matthew Partridge
Make-up – Kathy Robbins & Charlotte Blake
Costume – Zoe Ashdown
Get In Assistants – Ernesta Vainovskaja & Michael Barry

Blunt – James Laing
Gobbel – Ronan Fitzgerald
Gronya – Tracey Pocock
Balthasar – Bernard Doogan
Garson – Dawn Williams
Reverend Shandy – Richard Evans
Carol – Imogen Levy

Introducing the 2012-2013 KDC Committee

On Tuesday 28 September, KDC held its Annual General Meeting. An opportunity for the members to learn about the progress of the year, the changes made to KDC, and the financial situation of the company. Also, it is an opportunity for new members to step up and nominate themselves to become a part of the committee and have an active hand in shaping the direction of the company.

We have four new faces on the committee for the next year. Dave Balfour has joined Fiona Thomas on the technical side of things, after having stepped up and been the lighting guru for shows during the past few seasons. He even brought a gobo! Sarah Heenan is taking up the post as the New Writing Coordinator. Sarah was a writer for Summers Gone and The War of The Waleses (as well as the director) as well as being an active actor/socialiser in the KDC circuit. Kim Morrison joins us as Secretary, replacing Anna Marx. Kim is very new to KDC having just appeared in the devised piece, Pub Quiz Champion. And finally Aruna Buchanan-Brown has come forward to fill the long vacant position of Publicity Officer, so you can expect to see a lot more tweets, facebook invites and emails from her!

I would also like to that a massive thanks to Anna Marx and Sandy Nicholson who have been on the committee for… ooof… can’t quite remember how long. I blame the Hoop. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done to contribute with the committee, Anna for the bookings, the general crisis resolution and Showdown, Sandy for your help with the Round Tables, the new writing, both for stepping up as Liaison and Audition reps. Thanks both!

So our new Committee for 2012/2013 is as follows (contact page):

Chair: Andy Marchant
Deputy Chair: Steph Urquhart
Artistic Director: Emma Knott
Treasurer: Richard Williams
Secretary: Kim Morrison
New Writing Coordinator: Sarah Heenan
Technical Directors: Fiona Thomas & David Balfour
Publicity Officer: Aruna Buchanan Brown
Social Secretaries: Carrie Johnson & Tracie Laurinaitis
Lockup Manager: Tracey Pocock
Website Administrator: William Baltyn
Executive Officer: Steph Urquhart

Stay tuned for more information about our forthcoming Newcomers Night on the 13th September, and our subsequent auditions for the fantastic plays for Winter 2012: THE LYING KIND and THE PRIORY

See you soon,

Andy Marchant
KDC Theatre Chair

‘What The Dickens!?’ Ghost Story Adaptation Project

We’re doing our first ever Halloween Show this year, Liz Lochhead’s Dracula, directed by Duncan Moore.

In honour of this witching hour seasonal spectacular, and also to match up to Charles Dickens’ 200th anniversary celebrations, we are issuing a new writing challenge.

I, your humble chair and servant, would like to open up the opportunity to you, our members, to adapt one of Dickens’ short ghost stories into a script, which we will then have readings of in October. The man wrote a whole variety of these, including, most famously, A Christmas Carol.

If you are interested in creating an adaptation – it could be five minutes or fifty – simply drop me a line to chair@kdctheatre.com. The adaptation style will be totally up to you. It could be a straight translation, a modern update, a Greek Choral effort… anything! You don’t have to know Dickens. You don’t need to have written a play before. This is just an exercise in fun, so conjure up some ghosts and ghoulies for Halloween.

There are lots of these stories around if you wanted to do some investigation online, but just get in contact if interested, or if you have a request, and I will assign you a task (to avoid repetition)

For further reading, some examples of these stories (but there are many more!) are: ‘The Queer Chair’ (from The Pickwick Papers), ‘The Baron of Grogzwig’ (from Nicholas Nickleby), ‘The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain’, ‘To be Read at Dusk’, ‘The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber’ from ‘The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices’ and ‘The Signalman’.

‘What The Dickens!?’ Ghost Story Adaptation Project

We’re doing our first ever Halloween Show this year, Liz Lochhead’s Dracula, directed by Duncan Moore.

In honour of this witching hour seasonal spectacular, and also to match up to Charles Dickens’ 200th anniversary celebrations, we are issuing a new writing challenge.

I, your humble chair and servant, would like to open up the opportunity to you, our members, to adapt one of Dickens’ short ghost stories into a script, which we will then have readings of in October. The man wrote a whole variety of these, including, most famously, A Christmas Carol.

If you are interested in creating an adaptation – it could be five minutes or fifty – simply drop me a line to chair@kdctheatre.com. The adaptation style will be totally up to you. It could be a straight translation, a modern update, a Greek Choral effort… anything! You don’t have to know Dickens. You don’t need to have written a play before. This is just an exercise in fun, so conjure up some ghosts and ghoulies for Halloween.

There are lots of these stories around if you wanted to do some investigation online, but just get in contact if interested, or if you have a request, and I will assign you a task (to avoid repetition)

For further reading, some examples of these stories (but there are many more!) are: ‘The Queer Chair’ (from The Pickwick Papers), ‘The Baron of Grogzwig’ (from Nicholas Nickleby), ‘The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain’, ‘To be Read at Dusk’, ‘The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber’ from ‘The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices’ and ‘The Signalman’.

The Lying Kind Audition Notice

Contact the directors at thelyingkind@kdctheatre.com
Tuesday 27th November – Saturday 1st December

1. Auditions

Auditions will take place from 6.30pm for a 7pm start on 17th, 18th and 19th September 2012 at the St Brides Foundation, 14 Bride Lane, City of London, EC4Y 8EQ. You do not need to register for auditions or prepare anything in advance. Please come on whichever day suits you.

Recalls will be on Saturday 22nd September at the Clean Break Studios, 2 Patshull Road, NW5 2LB. If we’d like to see you at the recalls we’ll call you on Thursday 20th September to let you know. Again, there’s nothing you need to prepare of you’re recalled.

Both first round auditions and recalls will be a mixture of improvisation games and script work. You’ll be given time to prepare everything. We’ll be looking for comic timing, physical comedy, good partnerships and most of all, enthusiasm.

Check the KDC theatre website for maps of both venues – www.kdctheatre.com

2. Show Dates

There will be two dress rehearsals and we’ll need you all day for both of those – Sunday 25th November and Monday 26th November. If you’re a working person that will mean taking Monday off.

We’ll be performing from Tuesday 27th November to Saturday 1st December at The Lion & Unicorn Theatre in Kentish Town. The shows will start at 7.30pm and you’ll need to be at the theatre at least an hour beforehand.

3. Rehearsals

Rehearsals will be in Farringdon/Blackfriars (locations TBC) on Sundays (midday-4pm or 4pm-8m), Mondays 7pm-9pm and Wednesdays 7pm-9pm. We’ll work around any prior commitments you have as much as possible but please note that in the last fews weeks we’ll need everyone for all rehearsals.

4. Synopsis

Its Christmas Eve and well-meaning but inept coppers Blunt and Gobbel have one last job for the night; tell impossibly old couple Garson and Balthasar that their only daughter has died in a car crash. Understandably they’re not too keen on the idea and when they finally get the words out, the elderly pair gets completely the wrong end of the stick.

Desperate to set the record straight the blundering twosome set in a motion a chain of unexpected events which need covering up, and quickly. Mild-mannered Reverend Shandy has popped round to offer his condolences, potty-mouthed vigilante Gronya is on the hunt for the local paedophile, and her equally unpleasant daughter just so happens to have the same name as the deceased.

First performed at the Royal Court in 2002, The Lying Kind is a deliciously dark farce that we’ll be playing for laughs. We’ve been inspired by comedy new and old from the League of Gentlemen and Black Books, to Monty Python and Morecambe & Wise.

It’s also a really physical piece so we’ll be looking for people who can throw themselves into a fight with an imaginary dog, or take a knock from a truncheon and fall to the floor like a stack of bricks.

Finally we’re on the lookout for people who’ve got ideas to share – we know how certain aspects of the piece will look but we need actors who’ll play around with our ideas and fill in the gaps.

5. Cast

We’ve listed playing ages below and that’s exactly what they are – we’re very happy to cast younger people as Garson and Balthasar if you can master the physicality. Equally the two policeman and Reverend Shandy can be any age. It’s only Gronya and her daughter Carol that need to have the appropriate age gap between them.

Gobbel (m/f, playing age 20-40) – The more excitable and less able of the two policeman. Think Father Dougal from Father Ted, or Alice from The Vicar of Dibley.

Blunt (m, playing age 20-40) – Sees himself as the senior officer of the pair but there’s not much in it. Think Bernard from Black Books or Ernie Wise.

Gronya (m/f, playing age 35-50) – A formidable woman with a filthy mouth and a temper to match. Think a foul-mouthed Mrs Trunchbull from Matilda.

Garson (f, playing age 60-80) – Elderly and easily confused. Garson has a habit of hallucinating and a penchant for showing her undies to anyone who’ll look. We’ll use make up to make her look old but you’ll need to be able to get the physicality right. Think Julie Walters in the Two Soups sketch.

Balthasar (m, playing age 60-80) – Garson’s husband. Exasperated by the interruption to his evening and almost as confused as his wife. We’ll use make up here too but again you need to get the physicality right. Think Victor Meldrew.

Reverend Shandy (m, playing age 20-60) – Every inch the model vicar until provoked when he reveals a surprisingly powerful voice. Gets hit over the head more than most. Think Father Ted.

Carol (f, playing age late teens) – Gronya’s daughter and you can tell – she’s got some choice phrases up her sleeve. Think Vicky Pollard from Little Britain.