New paintings and regular art updates.
Two of our (literal) stars of the Mystery Play at rehearsal today. They are only young but they have some acting knowledge, I hope they will enjoy the experience, they certainly had the enthusiasm! Things are gathering slowly but it is getting there and I hope the audience will enjoy the play. Not long to go!
Last night I thought I heard movement in the garden, a bit of noise, something rattled. I didn’t know what to do so I opened the back door. I think the noise was coming from a neighbouring property but just to be on the safe side I made a noise to make them aware someone had noticed. Then I did something strange. My phone was on charge but I pretended I was speaking to the police! I had a one sided conversation and left gaps as if I was listening to their response. It went something like this…..
Hello
Police please?
Hello, I’m ringing from…..
I can hear movement and think there is someone in my garden.
Yes it’s been happening for a few minutes.
You’ve got someone in the area?
Thank you
Ten minutes? I’ll lock the door and wait..
It was a bit like improvised acting. I don’t know why I did it. I wasn’t going to go outside, and I wanted to make anyone out there aware they might be caught. I feel a bit daft now. Was I right to do it?
At today’s rehearsal we didn’t go to the end of the play because we ran out of time. We were blocking scenes to get some idea of how to stage it. We think it will take about an hour of running time. We need to agree about staging it and what props and scenery we need. The makers who help design the sets looked at how to create the tree costumes, sorting out a wig for the witch, and have got a broom and papier mache stars, we need a cave with a canvas flap to show a boulder being rolled in front of it. Also whether people will come on and off the stage area or more sensibly to share half of the acting area as the witches cottage and the other half as the wood and cave. We definitely need people. One of the people was good as the witch and another did a good Greta (the witches assistant, I’m not sure if those people will be final characters we still need to look at who is available and happy to do it. I helped by playing a woodsman that was turned into a tree because of trespassing in the witches wood and also a girl who is helping to look for names of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent. I’ve got my fingers crossed that we can literally get our act together!
My friend designed this banner for a Mock Mayor ceremony he organised in 2021? To celebrate the ancient tradition of electing a Mock Mayor (like a lord of misrule) for a day. I’m not sure of I’ve remembered the right date. But Covid happened and a new ceremony was postponed.
That means I’m still the Mock Mayor! It makes me laugh. It’s not real or serious but it is a nice thought that I was allowed to play the part! My hubby got to wear a dress and play the lady mayoress, he revelled in it. Fun memories….
It’s been a few years since we did a full mystery play, but we are trying to put something on for it’s 25th anniversary.
We’ve lost a few people along the way through health issues and retirement, but there’s still enthusiasm there we just need to mine for it!
Currently we are looking at putting on a days entertainment but costs are staring at us, everything from insurance to road closures, hiring the hall, making props, writing scripts, organising stalls and first aid, morris dancing and a tug of war. Singing and playlets. We may miss out the play itself, it’s up in the air.
Social media helps connect us. I hope people are listening. We have an old Facebook page that was last posted on in 2019…BC…brfore covid…. Fingers crossed people get involved.
Photo is of out Johna and the whale play in 2016
Might set up a go fund me page.
Something is being planned. Over several years the Penkhull Mystery Plays involved the local community in theatrical projects to bring people together. The plays bought a mixture of fact and fiction, history and spirituality together to create a one day festival of fun to penkhull village Green. Usually in early or mid July.
Up to 400 people would be involved in making props and costumes, acting and setting up the play and other work. All these activities built around the central performance where local adults and children got together to bring stories such as the history of the Trent and Mersey canal, Jonah and the Whale, the song of Solomon, a history of the 1842 peasants revolt in the Potteries and other interesting and fun stories onto the village green as a substantial play.
The organisers also included singing and making music for the shows. Writing scripts, putting on seperate performances for the day including morris dancing, maypole dancing local choirs, brass bands, Ukelele players and a tower of song where individual musicians could perform. There was also an annual tug of war competition and circus skills workshops on the village green. A recent introduction was the Titchy Theatre where new writing was put on as playlets by a small number of volunteer actors. There were also stalls for such things as bakers and crafters and local charities together with plant sales.
It was only as Covid began that the Mystery Plays were toned down and had to be suspended. But with the 100th anniversary of the uniting of the six towns into the City of Stoke on Trent and the 20th (is it 25?) Anniversary of the Mysteries it feels like an important time to bring it back to Penkhull.
I actually wrote some 3 minute plays for the Titchy Theatre at the weekend.
One was based on Samuel Becketts “Waiting for Godot”, but my version was “Waiting for Gordon”.
The idea was that two cooks are standing outside the village hall waiting for Gordon Ramsey to come and judge a cookery competition.
First they see a man walking up the hill, but it can’t be Gordon as he’s wearing a cowboy hat and carrying a guitar. The contestants realise it’s a local man and that guitars are not cookery implements, those are called banjos!
Then they see someone else, but although he’s carrying a suitcase and has blond hair and looks like Gordon, he goes into a local bed and breakfast hotel and is not the famous chef.
One of them confesses that they are not sure if Gordon is coming today or tomorrow and cannot check as they don’t have Gordon’s agents phone number.
Finally they ask what time it is and realise that their pavlova will be ruined and their Victoria sponge will be burnt. The final line is “oh well, we will have to come back tomorrow!”
I actually got a few laughs (the script was better that the explanation, and the actors helped make it funnier!)
I treated myself to an acting workshop for my birthday. It was a bit of a random choice, but I’ve found myself stuttering more since I got Parkinsons disease and I thought it might help my concentration and confidence.
Luckily some of my friends were also there which made me feel less anxious. We started out being given various exercises. First we had to look at someone in a large circle of people and then point at them. The person had to say ‘yes’ which gave the person pointing permission to walk over to them. In the meantime that person had to point to someone new, be acknowledged with a yes and then move on.
It wasn’t complicated, but it was hard to get your head round. It’s hard to just explain it. A few people said yes and started moving themselves instead of waiting for the other person to move. We eventually went on to counting, so it was like a moving conversation with numbers instead of words. Confusing for some, and hard not to make mistakes.
At the half way point we were given short pieces of dialogue. We were then split into groups of two and asked to read through the scripts and pick out concrete facts, not opinions. So you could say those facts could ground the performance, whilst opinions in the scripts could change how you felt about your partners character.
The whole workshop showed how important listening and reacting to another actor is. I don’t know if it helped my confidence but I have to say I enjoyed it. It was run by Claybody Theatre, based at the Dipping House, at Spode Works, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent.
For several years I was involved in a local community group that produced the Penkhull mystery plays. I was impressed by how the group wrote stories from scratch, made props like this green face, and organised music and stalls alongside the plays to make a wonderful mix of fun and theater for a local audience. I was sometimes involved, helping paint scenery and took small parts in the plays.
Sadly the Pandemic stopped all of this and it’s taken a few years to try and come up with New Mysteries. Firstly we are putting on a small theatre performance called Harpers Titchy Theatre, with 3 minute plays, a few stalls and hopefully some music. The plan is that if this works we can put on a 20th anniversary year Penkhull Mystery Play in 2025. Wish us luck (or a broken leg)!
I just got back from a Claybody Theatre production, an Audience with Toby Jones. He’s the actor who recently appeared as Mr Bates (in Mr Bates versus the Post Office) the sub postmaster who was accused with hundreds of others of stealing money from the post office when it was actually the horizon computer system that had caused the problems. The ITV drama he was in really bought the scandalous treatment of sub postmasters out into the open.
He’s also been in the Detectorists, played Truman Capote, played Neil Baldwin in Marvellous and has been in many more plays, films and TV series. He also played Dobbie the House Elf in Harry Potter.
Toby Jones talked about his university experience, his further studies with a French drama school, how he went from wanting to be a director to being an actor. As he explained he doesn’t have control of what’s coming up. Actors are lucky to get parts and they have to go with whats available. He explained he’s not bothered about fame, and came across as a genuine and funny person. He had come to Spode in Stoke upon Trent to support Claybody Theatre.
His father was the actor Freddie Jones and had lived in Longton in Stoke-on-Trent. He had taken up acting quite late in life and Toby wasn’t sure if he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.
It was a thoroughly interesting evening. I was so glad to have seen him in person.
Mallaband-Brown