The cast of Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night talk about their favourite part of the rehearsal process:
Spring Season posters
All the publicity posters are available for download:
Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night – Director’s Blog
You’re crazy
“Improvise a new full-length play every night? You’re crazy.”
That was pretty much the response I got from everyone I told about my idea to direct a full-length improvised play. And there was some sense behind that. They knew I’d previously directed five devised pieces in the KDC Studio programme, but devising is different from on-stage improvising. In devising the actors are using improv techniques in rehearsals to create the story, but that story is then captured in a script, edited, redrafted and then learnt and performed just like any other play. In improvising, there is no script. No editing. No redrafting. A line is created live in front of the audience and it cannot be taken back. The performance goes where it goes and no one – not the audience, not the cast, not the director – knows where it will end up.
So they had a pretty good reason for calling me crazy. But despite that, they were still interested. They wanted to know how. It was that spark of interest which gave me hope that – at the end of this weird, unique rehearsal process – there would be an audience for what we had created.
The first person who didn’t say I was crazy (and still hasn’t) was Kim Morrison. Kim is the Artistic Director of KDC and is overall responsible (with the help of others) for programming each season. She and I met to discuss the show at KDC’s home-from-home, the Hoop & Grapes pub on Farringdon Street. There was a slot open in the Spring Season and – between the drama and heavy subject matter of The Children’s Hour and Woyzeck – she was open to something lighter to balance the season. She had acted in and directed several devised pieces over the previous years and was interested – just as I – in taking it a step further. I remember it as a conversation all about the practicalities of the show, never questioning whether it was even possible for a cast of actors, working in their spare time, to create something so different from what KDC had done before. From her prior experience with devising she knew how far actors could be pushed and how quickly a show can come together when the cast were so deeply involved in its creation.
I gave my pitch and answered her questions as best I could. She seemed satisfied and left saying that she would need to talk it through with Emma, KDC’s chairperson. Not long after she emailed me to tell me that the show was accepted and whether I would be available for the following dates for Newcomers, auditions, committee meetings etc.
With that, it was official. The idea that Allan had brought along to a game design jam one day was now going to be a week-long production running at the Rosemary Branch Theatre the week before Easter. Kim had been confident in it and myself for the company to book the theatre and organise rehearsal and audition space, all for this play of which I could not show them a single line. But then I was confident as well. Except for once.
It was KDC Newcomers. The Newcomers event is both a chance for the committee to introduce the company to interested new joiners, but also the next season to everyone. It’s each director’s chance to encourage the actors to audition and to answer the questions they had. Ironically for an improvised show, I’d prepared a page-long script of what I would say and arrived, waited and listened. The director before me spoke for a while, perhaps ten minutes, and had several questions from interested attendees which took another five or so. I then got up. Turns out that my page-long script took about sixty seconds to deliver and, when I finished, I felt that it had been the same length as my predecessor’s opening remarks. I asked for questions. I knew that this was unlike any show KDC had done before and sounded very ambitious. Surely, people would want to know how I planned to make this fanciful idea a reality.
There were no questions. Not one. I finished up by saying that folk could also grab me in the break if they wanted (no one did) and sat down. It was right then that the thought hit me ‘Maybe I am crazy.’ Maybe this is the first KDC show ever that gets zero auditionees and has to be cancelled through lack of actors. One of the committee asked me privately if I knew anyone that was auditioning or was there anyone I could call. I replied, oh yes, I know a good few gamers into improv who might be interested (yeah, one or two, maybe).
Even though this was my tenth show as director, I arrived at auditions more nervous than ever before. Would anyone come? I wanted ten actors total. Would I even get that many auditionees over the three nights of auditions?
I ended up seeing seventy-four and had the incredible luxury of not having to cast for particular characters, but instead pick those who – in the limited time I could see them – I thought would respond well to both the acting and creative demands of the piece and work well together. One of the ten was Kim, who decided that she wanted to see this strange type of show up close and from the inside. That next Monday, these courageous actors and my production team started down the road to becoming a single troupe of performers. I might well be crazy, but I would not be alone.
Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night performs at the Rosemary Branch Theatre on 22-26 March 2016. http://www.rosemarybranch.com/index.php/programme/82-dreaming-on-a-midsummer-s-night
Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night – More cast interviews
See the cast discussing how doing a long-form improvisation differs from their expectations.
Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night – Director’s Blog
What do you mean, based on a game?
“On the poster, it says the show is based on a game. Do you mean it’s like those crappy movies that are based on video games?”
No, not at all. Not even a little bit.
Dreaming is based on a story game. Story games are played around a table and – rather than a game – could perhaps be described as an activity that helps a group of collaborators create a story together that none of them would have created on their own.
Part theatre improv, part roleplay, part board game – story games provide a structure and rules by which a group can create a particular type of story. There are hundreds of these games out there, covering genres as diverse as horror, romance, crime, noir, supernatural, spy, adventure, sf and fantasy. They’re intended as an activity that – like a board game – can simply be enjoyed with others. But each game is also a tool with which two or three or more creators can work together to create something new.
My history with story games goes back to when I was developing the Studio programme for KDC. The Studio Pieces were a series of devised plays in which – in the time that the other shows were learning their lines and their blocking – the actors and I created our play from scratch. Setting, premise, characters, script, everything. And then learnt it and then performed it.
I’m proud of the plays that came out of that programme, but without a doubt having ten or more people all trying to create a single play at the same time had its difficulties. Generating ideas is easy, the group is never short of ideas, the challenge is focus, the challenge is how we say ‘no’.
I wanted an approach that allowed the actors to inspire each other, rather than overrule each other. I wanted everyone to be able – to be required even – to contribute and for that contribution to stay in place as the group built upon it. I wanted an approach through which the actors would be surprised by what they themselves came up with. And I wanted everyone to feel safe and comfortable with the story that we created. This is an approach I found in story games.
I used techniques gleaned from gaming in my final years with the Studio programme and they proved even more imaginative and – importantly for me – even more collaborative than the years before.
It is with this background in mind that I met Allan Cariño at a story game design jam near London Bridge. He had brought this idea to make a game based around A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I jumped at the idea to help and he and I and a few others spent the subsequent four hours hammering out how it might work. We finished it up over the next few weeks, I’ve played it several times around a table and it works. Allan decided to title it What Fools These Mortals Be and there it might have ended.
Now this is not the first long-form improv show to use a story game for its structure. Not by a long chalk. Others have, years before, been similarly inspired as to how these games could be used in the theatre. But the first one I saw was thanks to Michael Such. Michael, an avid improviser and story gamer, had taken a story game in the road movie genre and converted it into a thirty minute long-form improv called Open Roads that was performed as part of the Nursery Originals programme at the Edric Theatre in 2015. It had three performances in its first run, I saw two of them – and coming out from that I could not help but wonder what other story games could be performed as a long-form improv in front of an audience. Of course, I thought of Allan’s game which was rooted in theatrical tradition in the first place. How perfect would it be to take that back and perform it as a show?
And that is where Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night began.
Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night performs at the Rosemary Branch Theatre on 22-26 March 2016. http://www.rosemarybranch.com/index.php/programme/82-dreaming-on-a-midsummer-s-night
Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night – Behind The Scenes
Interviews with the cast of Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night as they discuss their experience of performing a long-form improvisation.
Director pitches Summer 2016
With our Spring season fully cast and well on its way, the time has come for us to throw open our doors and invite you, our very talented and much loved membership, to help us create the magic that will be summer season 2016!
What’s the deal?
Without our wonderful directors nothing would happen. We rely on those creative geniuses to dream up the ideas and become the enthusiastic, balls of energy that inspire our actors to take those ideas to the stage. We want to hear from all budding and established directors who would be interested in pitching a play to be performed for one week in June.
What kind of thing do we want?
ANYTHING!!! We love theatre in all it’s dramatic, hilarious, touching and downright avant-garde glory. From Shakespeare to new writing, Ibsen to long-form improv, we’ve done a lot and we are always looking for the next challenge.
Things to consider
KDC prefers play with upwards of 8 roles in order to give our actors plenty of parts. However, don’t let that deter you from pitching other things, we have ways…
The theatres we use are fairly small and our show budgets are limited. If you are picturing a revolve and purpose built ship it probably won’t happen.
KDC have fantastic actors but they aren’t professionals: they have lives, families, jobs, insecurities and are doing theatre because they love it, not because they are paid for it. As a director you need to be sensitive this and create an environment where people feel safe and free to be creative. Please have a think about this because it’s very important and we will ask!
But I haven’t directed before!!
That’s fine, we have to do everything for the first time at some point. Although we do like a bit of experience, we appreciate different backgrounds bring different talent and have plenty of old hands to help you find your feet.
The Details
Summer shows will be at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in Islington. There are two weeks available week commencing 20th June and week commencing 27th June.
Rehearsals will start in mid-April.
I’m interested, what now?
In the first instance drop me (Kim – artistic@kdctheatre.com) a quick email briefly explaining what you’d like to pitch by 9am on Monday 7th March and we can take it from there.
Woyzeck Cast List
Congratulations to the cast of the last show in the KDC Theatre Spring Season 2016. Woyzeck is on 5-9 April at the Rosemary Branch Theatre:
Woyzeck – Scott Watson
Marie – Faye Pulleyn
Showmen and other assorted characters:
Alex Waddington
Mike Soakell
Ian Russell
Emmanuelle Andrews
Gareth Hugh Williams
Lionel Laurent
The Children’s Hour Cast List
Thank you to all those who attended the very busy auditions. If you weren’t successful, don’t forget Woyzeck is auditioning 25 and 26 January. Well done to the successful cast:
Peggy Rogers: Phoebe Chan
Lily Mortar: Diana Pauline
Evelyn Munn: Minnie Walker
Rosalie Wells: Izzie Price
Mary Tilford: Kimberley Marren
Karen Wright: Emily McDonald
Martha Dobie: Liz Stevens
Joseph Cardin: Keir Mills
Amelia Tilford: Julia Coleman
Director: Chris Davis
Producer: Madhia Hussain
Assistant Producer: Liz Stevens
Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night Cast List
Thank you to all those of you who attended the packed auditions for Dreaming on a Midsummer’s Night. Commiserations to those of you who were unsuccessful, don’t forget Woyzeck is auditioning 25 and 26 January. Well done to the successful cast:
Elliot Wengler
Francine Dulong
Ian Green
Kat Kilshaw
Kim Morrison
Lisa McKeown
Natasha Bergg
Ronan Harrington
Sandor Kiss
Sharita Oomeer