June 2023 ‘What’s it like to work for AJP?’ by Immy Hope
Creating and rehearsing a full Shakespeare play in ten days? Absolutely! But not just one character? At least two? Yeah, go on then. With about 3 seconds to do a costume change, pick up your props and run around a 45-foot trailer to make your next entrance, while trying to think ‘which character am I right now!?’ Ok….Through the worst hayfever season we’ve had in a long time? Wait a m-….In a temperature close to molten lava? Umm well actua—….In leather trousers.
Being part of an Aunty Jen Production is an adventure. It is not a process or an experience or a ‘play I was part of’…it is definitely an adventure. From the beginning while I trekked through the Warwickshire countryside and major roads to find this audition, to recorder lessons, to fitting five actors and a violin into a broom closet!
I will not bore you with the funny anecdotes from our rehearsals as they will most definitely be a ‘be there moment’. But one thing I have to say is ‘Aunty Jen Productions’ is not just a theatre company or community initiative, it is a family. Every person that is part of this team, from the actors, to the volunteers, to the resident techie, Craig! Or our audience, become a part of AJP. I would love to give an insight into how an AJP production is birthed, formed and the treasure map it follows to be created into a gem…but I don’t think we can even figure it out. All I know is that the family that is created in AJP, brings an insane amount of trust. Trust from the actors that each will bring their own element of fun and magic, trust in our volunteers that the design will be superb, trust that a 45 ft trailer will appear, and of course, trust from our AJP audience that they will be well and truly entertained!
This adventure finished with a whole day involving Tudors, Vikings, Morris Dancers and plenty more on our ‘Shakespearience Day’. If anything is a testament to the powerhouse AJP is, it was the collective efforts of all. The visitors/audience powering on through England’s finest rain showers, the running up and down Studley streets inviting people, the mad content created for social media and just the sheer joy shared in our final performance. The whole day showed what mad, wonderful, brilliant people and experiences AJP could bring together. It now all seems like it was a dream but ‘we are stuff that dreams are made of’…I wish I was witty enough to create a lovely link between that line from The Tempest and my memories of AJP…but I am not…so just appreciate the sentiment.
Summer 2021 – Romeo and Juliet! by Jen Rigby
It’s been a difficult year for anyone working in The Arts, but finally, we’re back!
And here at AJP we’re delighted to be performing not one, but two outdoor productions this summer. ‘Alice in Wonderland’ along with Aunty Jen’s Theatre Academy this August, providing entertainment and summer holiday activities here at Studley Sports and Social Club.
But first… ‘Romeo and Juliet’…
After the success of our production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ last year, we though we should create a tradition of performing Shakespeare, on the back of a 40ft trailer, with a cameo appearance by a Stratford District Council wheelie bin! And whilst Shakespeare wrote King Lear in lockdown, we turned to ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for our next production.
You might be wondering why we chose a tragedy rather than a comedy and the answer is quite simple… because it’s a GCSE set text. Young people haven’t really had the opportunity to ‘creep unwillingly to school’ over the last 12 months, spending the majority of the year studying at home. There has been little opportunity for extra curricular activities, theatre trips and most importantly, FUN! So, we’re combining our outdoor shows with workshops and performances for all of the local schools. It’s an opportunity to get them out of the classroom, into the outdoors, away from screens as we remind them that Shakespeare is funny, rude and still relevant to young audiences today.
In our programme we asked the actors to write travel themed biographies. We’ve just spent the last twelve months staring out of our windows with international travel banned. Well, what better then to stage a play set in the heat and the dust of medieval Italy? But how did Shakespeare know all about Italy? Not much it would seem! ‘So in the Taming of the Shrew he puts a sailmaker in Bergamo, approximately the most landlocked city in the whole of Italy, while in The Tempest and The Two Gentlemen of Verona he has Prospero and Valentine set sail from, respectively, Milan and Verona, even though both cities were a good two days’ travel from salt water.’ Writes Bill Bryson in his book ‘Shakespeare’. But Shakespeare did have an early version of Google to turn to… see the photo below which shows a beautiful book containing the ‘Theater of the worlde’ by Abraham Ortelius and Micheal Coignet. It’s the kind of pocket Atlas that would have been readily available for Shakespeare to access in the library of his neighbours, The Fields. And I’ve held it! On one side, there’s a map and opposite, a description of the country or city detailed in the map – right down to which lake is the best for carp fishing! And then there’s the thing that Shakespeare is most famous for… his imagination! An imagination that takes his audiences from Illyria to Bohemia, from France, to Egypt and Rome.
So sit back, relax and let your imagination transport you far away from Studley to a world of family feuds, of masked balls and of heady summer romance.
Summer 2020 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Jen Rigby
How to rehearse a play during Lockdown!
Our first rehearsal took place on 7th July 2020, before the announcement by the Government that Outdoor theatre could take place! We wanted to be ready to leap into action the moment the announcement was made. Little did we know it would be much sooner that anticipated! Just two days later we announced that our production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ would be taking place… we were extremely excited! But we had many challenges ahead.
Firstly, rehearsing via Zoom is utterly exhausting! Not only is it difficult to concentrate for much longer than a couple of hours (we manged 4 hours split into 2-hour sessions), but also how do you get any movement into rehearsals that are taking place in five different locations?
So, we started playing different games; our favourite was ‘one standing, one sitting, one lying and one kneeling’ which was hilarious!
We spent a lot of time discussing our individual characters, which is a luxury I’ve never had when directing Shakespeare in the past, there never seemed to be the time. This means that we really understand the characters we’re playing, found their back-stories and even created a team of bin-workers in tribute to the key workers who have kept our nation going throughout the Covid-19 pandemic (I think Shakespeare would approve)!
And then finally, wonderfully, we got together in person in my back garden for socially distanced rehearsals! Our stage is a curtainside trailer, so we marked out 8 metre squares on the lawn. And then began the task of creating movement, tension, and drama, without coming into close contact with each other! And we discovered that these restrictions, instead of being stifling, were actually liberating! Allowing us to create closely choreographed scenes, where a diagonal move has more power than a move in a straight line and where a pom pom (made by our community volunteers) became stronger than a punch in the face!We can’t wait to show you the magical, romantic, complicated play that we have created, we hope you’ll enjoy it and that you’ll join us again for future productions – we’re already planning a socially distanced pantomime here in Studley and a children’s production for next summer.
Keep an eye on the Aunty Jen Productions Facebook page for updates.
