Behind the scenes at Court: Before the house lights fade

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 22

Behind the scenes at Court: Before the house lights fade

by

Ashley Campbell

Administration

Alex Gilchrist is the Court’s administrative director. His job is to make it financially possible to implement the director’s programme.

A major part of that job is setting budgets, both for the year and for each production. The theatre relies on Arts Council funding and has to time its financial year around the council’s requirements. So the annual budget (from June to July) has to be in by late February. Alex started working on the budget for the year beginning June 1987 in November 1986.

Although certain shows are budgetted for, nothing is certain. When “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” was budgetted for, Alex knew an overseas actor would be brought in. But sometimes major expenses can occur

after the budget has been set.

“That happens quite often. Once the budgets are set for the year, it’s quite difficult “If we agreed that something outside the budget was to be done, there are two ways of looking at it. You either rob Peter to pay Paul, or you find some extra money from somewhere.”

The first course of action is he easiest he says, but not always the most desirable. So often the promotions staff are sent out to find some more money, at very short notice.

"If you want to change a progijpmme, or change something else, it’s very difficult to quickly get some sponsorship in the true sense of the word. Where you often make up is in kind — you can save some money by, for example, the printers com-

Theatre — it presents a glamorous side to the public. This is all many patrons ever get to see — the actors under the lights, and the bar staff behind the bar.

But there is more to theatre than glamour. A lot of hard work goes into every performance. Someone cleans the floors, and someone makes the scenery. People handle the accounts, and others sew the costumes.

Behind the doors the public seldom ventures through, staff are very busy. The long corridors

ing to the party, or you might get some discounts on timber.” At present Alex spends part of every day working

and narrow stairways of the Court Theatre are seldom quiet The Court’s day begins at about 8 a.m. Usually it does not end until about 11 p.m. — sometimes not until well into the next morning. For more than 12 hours, six days a week, someone from the theatre is working. At present the theatre employs 35 full-time workers. Twelve are actors — the rest are support staff. When the house lights go down and the performance begins, it can be tempting for the audience to forget the work behind it.

out the budget for the big production of the year — “Antony and Cleopatra.” At the moment, it looks set to cost about $160,000.

The play is due to go on in October — planning began last September. After everyone else arrives in the morning, a lot of Alex’s time is spent simply answering questions. He also tries to come in some evenings to see the show.

“I think it can be a trap in theatre that the administrator can become quite isolated from the actual creative side. You could shut that door, and get your head down with figures, and never know what’s going on.”

Sara Wall, the assistant administrator, keeps fairly regular hours. She usually arrives at the theatre around 8.30 a.m. and works through until about 4.30 p.m.

While Alex takes care of budgets, Sara takes care of day-to-day administrative tasks. Wages and accounts are her domain, as are investigating the rights to plays, and making sure royalties are paid.

The amount the theatre has to pay in royalties varies. If the playwright has been dead for more than 50 years, no royalties are paid. It is a different story if the play is a recent one. Usually royalties are about 10 per cent of gross box office takings. For “Torch Song Trilogy,” an extremely successful play put on last year, that amounted to $7500. The wages bill takes up a good deal of Sara’s time

— at the moment it comes to roughly $lO,OOO every week. At one time last year, when both “Torch Song Trilogy” and “Sweeny Todd” were on, it was between $14,000 and $15,000 every week.

The theatre cannot afford a computer, so the monthly accounts are sent off to an accountant and then come back for Sara to deal with.

Her job is not limited to administrative tasks — she has some creative input as well. Issues such as how a programme will be presented can become company problems.

“It’s the sort of environment where there’s quite a bit of brainstorming. You can sit round with people and just throw ideas at them. That’s nice ... to know you have some input into that side of it.” Administrative staff often play a support role to the actors, she says. “It’s very much a people oriented business, so there’s a lot of calming of fevered tempers, and things like that. At times, it’s not totally relaxed. There are times when it’s incredibly busy. Production week (the week before the show goes on) can be frantic. It can be quite a volatile situation to work in.” Not that she minds. The job is diverse, and there is always something new to learn.

“People think of theatre, and they think of actors ... the actors are the people eveybody comes to see, but you’ve got to have the support behind them.”

Artistic director

At 9.45 a.m., when I walked in to the rehearsal room, Elric Hooper was taking Lloyd Edwards,.a trainee actor, for a class. As there are two trainee actors at the Court, Elric gives lessons twice a week, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., and then he is into rehearsals. At 11 a.m. he was rehearsing a small scene from “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” with Lloyd, Michael Billington, and Sherril Cooper. One small portion of one small scene was rehearsed over and

over again until the lines were spoken the way Elric wanted them. Half an hour later, the scene was finished.

Elric had cut the play down into 31 sections. Each section was cut down further, so the play was rehearsed in what he called "absolutely minute bits.” It had been in rehearsal for two weeks, but it had not been run from beginning to end yet. That would happen the next morning (Saturday) when everyone got together for a “put together.” Usually rehearsals go until 1 p.m. There is a break for lunch, and then it is back to rehearsing until 4 p.m. Any actors who are performing in the evening have to be released so they can go home, have a rest and a meal, and be back in the theatre by 7.30 p.m. If the actors are not performing that evening, rehearsals can continue until 5 p.m. Because the next day’s rehearsal was an important one, Elric let the cast have the afternoon off to go over their lines and have a rest. But that did not mean his work was finished. Elric is responsible for planning the year’s programme. He has to read a lot, to find out what shows are popular overseas. He also has to keep an eye out for new local productions. He also tries to visit every other department once a day, to let everyone know he still exists. “I think that psychologically it’s extremely important that I know what they’re up to, and they know what I’m up to.” After rehearsals he does some paperwork, and is home by 6 p.m. Every now and then he comes back to the theatre in the evening, to see how the current production is going. The day can be a lot more harrowing — and not only for Elric. Production week is the week everybody hates. Elric describes it as “agonising.” For the first time, all the pieces of the play are put together. The first technical rehearsals are “very long and tiring. “You stay until you’ve damn well got it finished.” Whatever hour that may be. Design Up several flights of narrow stairs, and around several corners is a little room where- the Court’s set designer, Tony Geddes, and trainee set designer, Brian McMillin, spend a lot of their time. These two men are responsible for designing all the scenery and props. At the Court, that can be difficult.

“Our main problem is that we don’t have a fly tower, like a real theatre,” Tony says. “We have to get everything in from the sides.

“In a conventional theatre the scenery can be stuck up in the air. It can be dropped down when needed, and just pulled up again.

“You could have 20 different scenes stored up in the. fly tower. Here, you have to have one or two, and make them appear like 20.”

Another problem is caused by the shape of the stage. It is, according to Tony, “very wide and very low.” There is also a lack of height for plays which need two levels.

In “Brighton Beach Memoirs” most of the dialogue on the bottom level of the set took place toward the front of the stage, while on the second level, most of the action took place toward the back.

To have the top level directly above the bottom, the floor of the top level had to be sloped. At the bottom, there was enough room to stand up at the front, while on the top level, all the headroom was at the back. The cost of materials is a major restraint. Often furniture has to be borrowed, because it is just too costly and time consuming to make.

“We’d find it almost impossible to function if it wasn’t for the various antique shops and secondhand shops that lend us furniture,” Tony says. As well as designing the sets, Tony and Brian are usually involved in building them. Earlier on that morning, Tony had spent time in the workshop, working out how the legs should fit on to a couch for “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” Their hours are fairly regular, but they, too, are victims of production week. Then whoever designed the set for the show stays until rehearsals are over, to sort out any problems that may occur.

“If the rehearsals go on to 11 o’clock, then you stay,” Tony says. “If a problem occurs, you might well end up working at night to fix it so the rehearsals can continue the next day.” Pamela Maling, the Court’s constume designer, says the main problem with her job is that she is always in a hurry. “That’s what the theatre is all about It’s just a matter of knowing what you are doing, and planning carefully so that what you want to happen, happens.” Pamela starts thinking •well in advance of any production to make sure the costumes are ready. For “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” she began thinking even earlier than usual, as many suppliers were closed during the Christmas break. Buying in Wellington is something Pamela is having to do more of these days — her suppliers

seem to be disappearing from Christchurch and heading north. “I suppose in some ways that makes it more difficult, but it also makes it more of a challenge, because you are forced to be clever.” The challenge is in trying to create the effect she wants from what is available in Christchurch. Sometimes that cannot be done, and travelling is called for. -■ Two other wardrobe staff work regular hours every day. Pamela’s hours tend to be the same, but she does not always work at the theatre. “I do my drawings at home, simply because there’s no facilities here. But as far as I’m concerned, time’s nothing, as long as the effect you want happens — and there’s satisfaction in achieving that. * The wardrobe staff do have to be flexible — there is always someone on call during production week. But once the show is playing to an audience, their work is over.

Working within the budget is also a major con-

straint on Pamela. Usually the budget is about $l5OO — the wigs for “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” cost $6OO.

The problem is partially overcome by buying material when it is cheap and keeping it in stock, or by recycling costumes. Pamela cannot define how long it takes to create the costumes for one particular show — it tends to happen in stages rather than all at once. "All I know is that every drawing gets done somehow.” Joe Hayes, the technical director, is responsible for the lighting and sound effects. He works with two technicians, Mike McKenzie and Bryan Lacey. On the afternoon I spoke to him he was working on the lighting design for “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” “You try to make sure nobody notices it,” he says. “If somebody can sit there and say ‘gee, this is really good lighting,* then you’ve stuffed it up. They are not actually watching the play, so you’ve gone too far.” When designing the

lighting, Joe has to read the script, talk to the director, and talk to the other designers to see if anything special has to be taken into account In “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” Pamela has used a very narrow range of colours which, if not properly lit, could all blend together. Joe has to make sure the audience sees them all as separate colours.

sv Lighting design is definitely not a nine-to-five job, Joe says — you design when you are able. "When I got home last night I didn't feel like going to bed. So I sat up thinking. "If we are in a production week, we probably start at eight o’clock or nine o’clock in the morning. The first couple of days you are just getting things in the right places and the right colours. You are lucky if you get home before one or two in the morning. Sometimes, a couple of times a year, we can work right through.” When asked why he did Continued next page