Graeme Sanders
Hello everyone. Another week, another blog. We are now into our summer term, which means the show will soon sneak up on us!!
Hope you're all excited! In the mean time, stay up to date with our student blogs by subscribing in the top right corner.
This week's blog is written by Graeme Sanders - a student of countless years with ATS. Enjoy.
GRAEME:
Hello one and all! I'm privileged to be in my fifth production for ATS. Each year brings with it new and exciting challenges and this year is no exception. For 2019, we are staging three short plays from the collection 'Women, Power and Politics: Now and Then' and 'Gizmo' by Alan Ayckbourn.
The trilogy of plays we are performing from 'Women, Power and Politics: Now and Then' are; 'The Milliner and the Weaver' by Marie Jones, 'The Panel' by Zinnie Harris and 'You, Me and Wii' by Sue Townsend. Each play is an exploration of both the subjugation of women by a male-centric society and of women's power in spite of this.
I play the character of David in 'The Panel'. He is part of a male only team of five senior management executives from a city firm, tasked with the job of recruiting a female candidate for a top role in the company. David sees himself as the voice of decency, thoughtfulness and reason.Compared with the rest of the panel, he's probably right - with the exception of Chris, a senior member of the board with whom he can, at least partly, relate. David has a wealth of experience to draw upon but it comes at a price: nearing retirement he is seen as a dinosaur by his younger colleagues (at least one of whom is eager for his position).
David is a decent man but is also a product of his time: he is not attuned to the nuances of political correctness and has little patience for it. Conversely, he has very little time for his colleague's unsympathetic assessment and/or sexual objectification of various female candidates and the constant vying for position within the company. David is growing weary of the increasingly unrecognisable corporate world from which he is soon to retire.
I am thoroughly enjoying discovering more and more about David's character as rehearsals progress. He is older than me but he is not 'old'. He is decent but not blandly so he has plenty of light and shade (and as recently developed a bit of 'bite'!) Exploring different facets of David's personality, his reluctant acceptance of no longer being a young man and his realisation that the next generation of young hotshots on the panel simply make no sense to him, are products of Amanda Redman's detailed and expert direction spurring me to work ever harder as an actor. The more you put in, the more detail Amanda can put in, the more your performance and the production will benefit.
'The Panel' is, effectively, a fast paced non stop monologue of disagreements shared by five actors. These include Simon O'Neill, Lawrence Ellis, Dominic Rogan and Cameron Corcoran, all of whom are a genuine pleasure to work with. The pace of this play requires a great deal of trust, concentration, listening and reacting in order to render an entertaining ebb and flow of indecision and 'agreement', needling and bickering. It is a tough but enjoyable task which all the cast of 'The Panel' are capable of achieving!
In contrast, 'Gizmo' (Alan Ayckbourn) is a darkly comic exploration of the theme of control and society's dependency on technology. In 'Gizmo', I play the role of Ted, a self centred male nurse whose job it is to aid the recovery of the play's central character, Ben Mason. Ben is the unfortunate witness of a double shooting in a bar. The resultant shock Ben suffers leaves him paralysed from the shoulders down. Thanks to cutting edge medical research, Ben's body is still able to move by means of a microchip implanted in his head relaying signals to a wristwatch transponder worn by another person. Ben's body then mimics the movements of the wristwatch wearer with the aim of preventing muscle wastage and encouraging his brain to re-form the neural connections necessary for him to move once more of his own accord.
Ted is one of the medical staff entrusted with the device. Unfortunately he is more interested in when he can have his next fag break than Ben's plight and has little appreciation for the magnitude of the GIZMO project. Things don't go smoothly...
One of the biggest challenges of this play is making sure the movement of whoever wears the wristwatch is mirrored precisely by Ben. Max Polling, who plays Ben, rehearses tirelessly on physical mirroring with the several cast members whose characters wear the wristwatch at various times. Max is a real pleasure to work with and I know his hard work will be rewarded by a fantastic performance. Ted is quite the opposite of my character in 'The Panel' and it is a joy to play such contrasting roles.
Of course the level of details, precision and truth we strive for would not be remotely achievable if it wasn't for the talent, dedication, passion and generosity of Amanda Redman who, aided by Julianne White and Emily Roberts, directs us with a focus and intensity that leaves no stone unturned (as has been mentioned in previous blogs, Amanda doesn't miss a trick and won't let you get away with anything less than 100%!) The result is a level of performance you won't have come near to before.
So I advise anyone who is thinking about auditioning for ATS to stop thinking and go for it! Where else would you have the opportunity to be trained and directed over a sustained period of time by an actor with so much talent and experience? This talent and experience is a priceless commodity which is willingly given to those fortunate enough to be part of ATS.
You must be prepared to work hard, you will be pushed to new levels and you will be part of a close-knit, dedicated family of actors who strive for the extraordinary!
Hope you're all excited! In the mean time, stay up to date with our student blogs by subscribing in the top right corner.
This week's blog is written by Graeme Sanders - a student of countless years with ATS. Enjoy.
GRAEME:
Hello one and all! I'm privileged to be in my fifth production for ATS. Each year brings with it new and exciting challenges and this year is no exception. For 2019, we are staging three short plays from the collection 'Women, Power and Politics: Now and Then' and 'Gizmo' by Alan Ayckbourn.
The trilogy of plays we are performing from 'Women, Power and Politics: Now and Then' are; 'The Milliner and the Weaver' by Marie Jones, 'The Panel' by Zinnie Harris and 'You, Me and Wii' by Sue Townsend. Each play is an exploration of both the subjugation of women by a male-centric society and of women's power in spite of this.
I play the character of David in 'The Panel'. He is part of a male only team of five senior management executives from a city firm, tasked with the job of recruiting a female candidate for a top role in the company. David sees himself as the voice of decency, thoughtfulness and reason.Compared with the rest of the panel, he's probably right - with the exception of Chris, a senior member of the board with whom he can, at least partly, relate. David has a wealth of experience to draw upon but it comes at a price: nearing retirement he is seen as a dinosaur by his younger colleagues (at least one of whom is eager for his position).
David is a decent man but is also a product of his time: he is not attuned to the nuances of political correctness and has little patience for it. Conversely, he has very little time for his colleague's unsympathetic assessment and/or sexual objectification of various female candidates and the constant vying for position within the company. David is growing weary of the increasingly unrecognisable corporate world from which he is soon to retire.
I am thoroughly enjoying discovering more and more about David's character as rehearsals progress. He is older than me but he is not 'old'. He is decent but not blandly so he has plenty of light and shade (and as recently developed a bit of 'bite'!) Exploring different facets of David's personality, his reluctant acceptance of no longer being a young man and his realisation that the next generation of young hotshots on the panel simply make no sense to him, are products of Amanda Redman's detailed and expert direction spurring me to work ever harder as an actor. The more you put in, the more detail Amanda can put in, the more your performance and the production will benefit.
'The Panel' is, effectively, a fast paced non stop monologue of disagreements shared by five actors. These include Simon O'Neill, Lawrence Ellis, Dominic Rogan and Cameron Corcoran, all of whom are a genuine pleasure to work with. The pace of this play requires a great deal of trust, concentration, listening and reacting in order to render an entertaining ebb and flow of indecision and 'agreement', needling and bickering. It is a tough but enjoyable task which all the cast of 'The Panel' are capable of achieving!
In contrast, 'Gizmo' (Alan Ayckbourn) is a darkly comic exploration of the theme of control and society's dependency on technology. In 'Gizmo', I play the role of Ted, a self centred male nurse whose job it is to aid the recovery of the play's central character, Ben Mason. Ben is the unfortunate witness of a double shooting in a bar. The resultant shock Ben suffers leaves him paralysed from the shoulders down. Thanks to cutting edge medical research, Ben's body is still able to move by means of a microchip implanted in his head relaying signals to a wristwatch transponder worn by another person. Ben's body then mimics the movements of the wristwatch wearer with the aim of preventing muscle wastage and encouraging his brain to re-form the neural connections necessary for him to move once more of his own accord.
Ted is one of the medical staff entrusted with the device. Unfortunately he is more interested in when he can have his next fag break than Ben's plight and has little appreciation for the magnitude of the GIZMO project. Things don't go smoothly...
One of the biggest challenges of this play is making sure the movement of whoever wears the wristwatch is mirrored precisely by Ben. Max Polling, who plays Ben, rehearses tirelessly on physical mirroring with the several cast members whose characters wear the wristwatch at various times. Max is a real pleasure to work with and I know his hard work will be rewarded by a fantastic performance. Ted is quite the opposite of my character in 'The Panel' and it is a joy to play such contrasting roles.
Of course the level of details, precision and truth we strive for would not be remotely achievable if it wasn't for the talent, dedication, passion and generosity of Amanda Redman who, aided by Julianne White and Emily Roberts, directs us with a focus and intensity that leaves no stone unturned (as has been mentioned in previous blogs, Amanda doesn't miss a trick and won't let you get away with anything less than 100%!) The result is a level of performance you won't have come near to before.
So I advise anyone who is thinking about auditioning for ATS to stop thinking and go for it! Where else would you have the opportunity to be trained and directed over a sustained period of time by an actor with so much talent and experience? This talent and experience is a priceless commodity which is willingly given to those fortunate enough to be part of ATS.
You must be prepared to work hard, you will be pushed to new levels and you will be part of a close-knit, dedicated family of actors who strive for the extraordinary!
- Graeme Sanders
ATS' production of ''Gizmo' and 'Women, Power and Politics' directed by Amanda Redman will run from 18th - 20th July at Questors Theatre in Ealing. Tickets will be available nearer the time.
Join us for our blog next week which will be written by Kym R Brosnan.
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