Backstage Past 2

The Village Fête by Peter Tinniswood presented us with the challenge of working out how to provide ten or more sets in rapid succession to get the characters through the story - doing the play on a traditional stage could have taken several hours for the scene changes alone! So Meg Morton (Director) and Jim Ranyard (Designer) decided on a different approach - one never tried before at the Civic Centre! Jim tells the story...

The set for OLT's production of Peter Tinniswood's "The Village Fête" started life as an idea which formed in my head as soon as I read the first couple of pages of the script. Being originally a radio play, it was obvious from the start this play lent itself to a non-standard format more in keeping with modern theatre performance areas than the traditional stage layout at Otley Civic Centre. Analysis of the play revealed there were nine main acting 'areas', and many of these quite often featured in the same scene! I toyed with the idea of theatre in the round, or with the audience on two sides of a large acting area. After much deliberation, Meg Morton (the Director) and I decided on a thrust stage setting, which would allow us the freedom we needed to stage the play with minimal scene changes and maximum flexibility of movement between the acting areas.

The first plans were drawn on to a photograph of the Civic Centre hall using computer graphics, to give those involved an idea of what a larger stage area might look like.

The set consisted of a garden and shed, which were the nearest areas to the audience, the country house interior (built on the thrust stage and the front of the main stage), and a picture postcard view of a part of England loosely based around Somerset or the Cotswolds! Not a lot to ask really!

The house walls were represented by three large window frames suspended mid-stage. The only action to occur behind the windows was the appearance of village fete tents toward the latter part of the play, so for the most part the traditional stage was just a large 3-D picture, framed by black drapes and a cut away wall on the thrust stage.

The exact layout and shape of the rooms was developed during rehearsals for the play, the cast being instrumental in many decisions about the design. It was a difficult play to rehearse for them, as the rehearsal room was far smaller than the final set! We managed reasonably well by marking on the floor (using tape) the various room shapes and their positions. The cast only had two rehearsals in the main hall before the set was built, which gave them some idea of the mammoth task in hand! As we couldn't get in to the hall to build the set until after a function on February 22nd, the only preparation which could be done was the construction of three window frames, several miniature tents and the painting of the backcloth!

With the loan of stage rostra from YTV and the promise of various pieces of furniture from numerous members of the society, we began construction on Sunday morning February 23rd, two days before the dress rehearsal and three days before the opening night on Wednesday February 26th! The first task was to place the rostra and lay out the basic shape of the thrust stage.

Having done this various bits of carpet were found and laid, to represent the dining room, lounge and hallway. The garden shed facia was constructed by stage manager Eric Tomlinson and Fred Wells while I built the shapes representing the house walls from various flats, old doors and pieces of hardboard!

The whole set took three long days to construct, with Meg Morton sewing covers for settees and cushions, and Sandie Smith lighting the various areas as we built them. The windows and stage groundrows were the last pieces to be set, then the furniture was finally moved in, just in time for the opening night!

A major concern had been how to convert the London house at the beginning of the script to the country house where most of the action took place. This was achieved partly by the use of sound effects (London street noises, jets flying overhead, etc changing to twittering birds!) and partly by moving the 'door' to a different position, then covering much of the set with black cloths. The scene change from one house to the other happened during a long speech by Father (Mike Waring), during which the lounge and shed were revealed along with the country scene and windows on stage.

The finished set created a large and varied setting for the cast to play on, who rose to the occasion admirably and created a magical evening's entertainment for all who experienced it!

Construction Team:

Eric Tomlinson, Fred Wells, Peter Breaks, Judy Tomlinson, Meg Morton, Sandie Smith, Jim Ranyard

Assisted by:

Jan Hilditch, Nick Simpson, Jane Simpson, Graham Chadwick, Mike Waring

Thanks to all who helped, poured tea down us, encouraged us, and loaned furniture, props and costume items!