How to write a farce (gulp!)

I have been thinking a lot about farce recently.  We need a script for our adults’ theatre workshop next summer and comedy seems the way to go (it being the summer and all that). But how do you write a funny play? Now there’s a question (and a half).
In the name of research, I’ve been re- watching some of the episodes from “Fawlty Towers” in the hope that some of the genius will rub off on me. So things I have gleaned about a good farce:

• it revolves around a simple central idea - in "Fawlty Towers" the central theme is usually summed up in the title ("The Kipper and the Corpse", "The Hotel Inspectors", "Basil, the Rat") - and that simple idea is worked and re-worked in all it's permutations throughout.
•  the plot itself is serious (tragic even?); it is the audience that finds it funny
• similarly, the characters are funny (to us) because they are out-of-their-depth in unusual situations, not because they are comic in themselves (in fact, they ring very true-to-life)
• there is something at stake (which is very important to the characters - move that body! find that rat! - even if it is ridiculous to the audience); the more that's at stake, the crazier they act.
• much of the comedy comes from lies the characters tell (usually Basil to his wife Sybil, but John Cleese's character also lies to guests and employees alike as the need arises). The lies pile up and contradict each other and the tension escalates (all of which is painful to the characters involved but hilarious to the audience)
• pace is vital: the pressure builds continually and never lets up (this leads to panic in the characters but is key to the comedy for the audience)

So, all in all, a doddle! 

The universe, black light... and hula hoops

This years' play was set in space. Like last year, we decided to play around with black light to see if we could give some of the scenes a more "galactic" feel. Last year, we experimented a lot with using white under black light (the play was about ghosts , after all!) and this year's the theme - the universe, the stars and planets, astronauts - seemed to lend itself equally well to black light.... but it was all just as white! We were desperate to get our hands on a bit of colour, and see how that worked under the lights. So, we found a funky way to sneak a bit in (and pay homage to the iconic TV series, Star Trek, in the process):


For the psychedelic saturns, we covered hula hoops in pieces of material cut from reflective waistcoats (which react really well under black light) and we stuck circles on the kids' tummies in a contrasting colour as the planet.


When working with black light, the focus is usually on perfecting the illusion. It's all about hiding the mechanisms because the magic is usually in not knowing how the visual effects we are seeing were achieved. However, we felt this scene was actually enriched by the (inevitable) "imperfections". When a child drops their hula hoop - lets us in on the secret as it were - the magic is strangely heightened for the viewer (in my opinion). Which is why we decided not to hide the kids as they come off stage and to turn the lights up just a fraction "too soon" in order to break the spell a little... Does it work? What do you think? 

Watch the whole show here.

Prop-making IV: lava!

For the play we were preparing in this summer's workshop, we needed to represent a lava-filled planet as part of a journey through space. We wanted to find something the children could hold and move in time to Holst's "Mars the bringer of war" but we had to take into account the limited stage space we had available (with 22 kids taking part in the workshop). We looked at many different possibilities: giant flags, pool noodles, fans... and decided to use strips of lining material in different shades of red, orange and yellow.

We used a big black bin as a recipient for the "lava". Having drilled holes in the side,  we threaded strips of silky, shiny cloth through the holes:

The older kids took turns to slowly pull out the lava strips:

The smaller kids stood round the edges with lava flags, swirled in time to the music:

The lava strips were flapped up and down in time to the music. The children also moved round in a circle.

The scene really needed the outer circle of kids moving round the inner "volcano". The music (and the setting - a swirling, volatile lava planet) seemed to cry out for more movement, but the scene worked (if not completely perfectly) and, if nothing else, there was a lot of visual impact in having 22 kids of all ages on stage at once.

See the whole play here.

Making props: getting everyone involved!

This blog is essentially about the theatre workshops we run for kids in the Alpujarra mountains in southern Spain. The workshops themselves are all about helping the kids work as a team and encouraging them to see things through to the (bitter!) end; to see theatre as something they can relate to (and take part in) and to get them thinking visually and relating to music emotionally...

However, slowly over the years, a growing number of adults have been getting involved in the plays we put on. Many of them are parents of the kids taking part and others enjoy the plays we put on and just want to get involved. As far as I'm concerned, this is great news! It has made the whole project much more of a community thing - and it has opened people's eyes a bit to just how much work is involved behind the scenes (which is never a bad thing!).

So, prop making has become quite a social affair. We get together at the weekends during the six weeks of the workshop and mass produce props with impressive gusto. If you are planning a prop-making session with a group of volunteers, it's worth bearing a few things in mind:

• not everyone considers themselves "artistic" (and can sometimes feel intimidated by the idea of getting "creative") so:

• give clear instructions and think through strategies beforehand (stencils, pictures as examples etc.)
• save the basic jobs (painting base coats, cutting, sticking) for these people
• find creative ways of getting people involved (for example, someone may feel happier kicking a ball round with the kids outside, which is a great way of helping out but doesn't involve paint)

• make an extensive list of props needed several days before the first workshop (this is your chance to make some serious progress with the props, so get the most out of your help!)
• make sure you have enough scissors, paint brushes, hammers, glue... etc. for lots of volunteers to get involved
• divide up the list into jobs and if you know who is coming, think about who can do which job
• make sure you have all the necessary basic materials
• it will help your "morale" considerably to feel you are making progress with the props, so use your prop sessions (and helpers!) to tackle the bigger (or more time consuming) projects (and save easy snipping jobs for in front of the telly!)
• if your volunteers are bringing kids with them (as is often the case) think through some entertainment options - having pens and paper on hand will cut down on the number of extra volunteers pestering you to help (unless you are planning on getting the kids involved); a ball or hula hoops if there is an outside space; is there someone who would volunteer to help keep them occupied? -  and perhaps have a few teatime snacks to hand for later.

La galaxia, los hula hop y la luz negra

La obra del taller de teatro de este verano fue ambientada en el espacio. Como el año pasado, utilizamos la luz negra para realzar las escenas "galácticas". Después de la obra del año pasado, nos había quedado el gusanillo de utilizar la luz negra con colores vivos: El año pasado experimentamos mucho con el color blanco (qué remedio, ya que la obra se trataba de fantasmas) y este año, el universo, las estrellas, los planetas parecían igual de idóneos para la representación con luz negra... ¡pero igual de blancos! Así que, buscamos la manera de meter un poco de color en esta escena, que hace homenaje a la icónica serie de televisión americano, "Star Trek":

 

Para los saturnos psicodélicos, forramos unos hula hop con chaquetas reflectantes y pegamos un circulo de la misma tela (pero en otro color) a los cuerpos de los niños.

Normalmente al trabajar con la luz negra, se enfoca la energía en conseguir la perfección (en tapar, esconder, ocultar las mecanismos detrás de la ilusión) ya que la magia para el espectador está precisamente en no saber como se ha conseguido los efectos visuales que se está viendo. Sin embargo, esta escena gana mucho con las "imperfecciones" de los niños. Cuando se cae un hula hop, y se nos ve "el plumero", la magia para el espectador se aumenta (curiosamente)... Por esta razón decidimos no esconder a los niños al terminar la escena y de encender las luces un pelín antes, para romper (ligeramente) la ilusión... ¿Funciona?¿Qué opinas?

La obra entera se puede ver aquí.

Summer 2012: Props.... Making UFOs

For our galactic version of Romeo and Juliet we are working on in this year's workshop, we need 8 UFOs. These are for the smaller kids to wear during the "rivalry scene" and for a chorus of 4 of the older boys during the "love scene" choreography.
They need to be:

• lightweight
• easy to put on and off 
• cheap to make (!)

I'm thinking they can be worn around the waist, with shoulder straps to stop them slipping off. Something like this:


So we have had a series of ideas.
Idea one:
Two cardboard "cones" with tops cut off taped together, covered in tape or a thing layer of paper mache and spray painted silver

The snag:
No real snag, except finding enough cardboard boxes in a remote mountain village..... it's just too hot to contemplate at the moment (! but we may come back to this idea!)

Idea two:
We move on to a ready-made shape - the swimming ring. This, we think, might even be able to sit snugly on the hips of the bigger kids without shoulder straps. We buy two, in different sizes, wrap with tape as a base... and find them deflated in the morning. This creates a dilemma: are we back to paper mache (moving fast before the air comes out?) or should we abandon the idea?

Idea three:
Rubber rings filled with insulating spray foam! This was not an outright failure (before I embark on the debacle) but it wasn't an instant resounding success! The idea was to fill the ring with foam (blocking any air holes in the process) and wait for it to expand to fill the ring. If you are interested in this idea, a few observations:

• we filled the ring from various points, making a small hole with scissors where necessary
• you can't use th ready-made nozzle because of the valve (duh)
• the foam does not expand as expected (lack of air? foam plus air in a confined space means lack of room?)
• it takes longer to dry than expected (again, this may be lack of air - perhaps air holes would work?)
• blow the ring up first but be prepared to let air escape quickly as the foam expands - the ring will suddenly get very overfull!

In the end, after several days, the foam DID dry and the ring became firm all round, but it has air pockets (actually large gaps between the foam "blobs"). Sooooo.... if we hadn't come up with our next idea, I am confident this method would give results (in case anyone is researching the idea).... it just might need tweaking. Another idea, along the same lines (again for any foam fanatics out there) would be to blow the ring up and seal the edges and the valve with spray foam before smoothing with a cutter when dry.

Idea four (the One, if all goes well!):
Having mulled the cost of the spray foam and the swimming rings, we decided to have one last ditch attempt at finding a cheaper solution. Having rung a nearby car tyre garage, we are now the proud owners of 16 punctured inner tubes... which (once we have mended them) we will hopefully be able to inflate, spray silver and decorate with... yogurt pot "ufo lights" and the like..... We'll see how it goes...

Any ideas for making a UFO costume/prop? Ever used spray foam for a project? Tell us all about it in a comment!

Summer 2012: Eeks! What play are we going to do next?!?!

When I'm up to my eyeballs in a play, there is always a moment of panic. Are there any more ideas out there?! I become so attached to the play we're doing, the idea of coming up with a new play for next year seems impossible. but somehow, once the adrenaline has died down and the performance is behind us..... a new idea always does pop up.

Obviously, you need a theme that will capture the interest of the kids taking part. So far we've done monsters (Where The Wild Things Are), dragons and pirates (Puff The Magic Dragon) and ghosts (The Blood-Chilling Curse of the Old House on the Hill). And this year..... it's going to be aliens!

This theme lends itself to a children's theatre workshop on lots of levels. It is instantly appealing (especially to rowdy boys) and it has great dramatic potential:

• you can have fun with the costumes and props (lots of potential for kitsch comedy)
• there is an abundance of sources for inspiration: Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr Who, Flash Gordon... to name but a few
• there is a lot of great (themed) music out there: films like Apollo 13, Star Wars, Star Trek, the Alien series
• and (our pet theme!) outer space is ideal for black light! All those glow-in-the-dark planets!

 
As soon as we fix on this theme, my mind is buzzing with ideas. We can do a parody of the 1969 moon landing (and get Armstrong's famous "smallstep/giant leap" phrase all mixed up perhaps?)... we can have hula-hooping kids as blacklight saturns (hula hooping being the lastest craze with my daughters)... what the heck, we can do an alien version of Romeo and Juliet!

As usual, one play is hardly behind us, there are eleven months to go before our next workshop and I'm already looking for inspiration!

Getting going... finding the right idea

While I'm on the subject of inspiration, I thought it might be a good idea to start making a list of songs, poems and stories that would make good children's theatre scripts. I'll get the ball rolling (but please chip in!).

So, based on our own personal experience, I can thoroughly recommend:

• Maurice Sendak's short story Where the Wild Things Are
• Larry Lipton and Peter Yarrow's ballad Puff The Magic Dragon (sung by Peter, Paul and Mary)

Both have:

• a clear structure
• the possibility for varied scenes/settings
• lots of visual potentia
• underlying messages that are relevant to young people but which adults can also relate to (they have universal appeal)

Other sources for theatre scripts that occur to me:
 Image via Wikipedia

• Still on a Maurice Sendak theme, In the Night Kitchen. Tthough this has always been a controversial book, I loved it as a child and it has that same magical feel to it as Where The Wild Things Are (though perhaps best to avoid the nudity issue!)
• The Owl and the Pussycat (Edward Lear)

• Storybooks like Simon Bartram's Man on the Moon (a day in the life of Bob)

• Modern classics like Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt (perhaps changing the objective of the hunt - ghost, monster, treasure...?)

In terms of songs, perhaps:

• Space Oddity (David Bowie)
• Pierre (Carol King, but sung by The Dresden Dolls)
• The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie (Mewithoutyou)

..... I'm open to suggestions! So fire away......