Exeunt
Here ends the production blog for the Traverse Theatre (Scotland) production of
Gorgeous Avatar, directed by
Philip Howard. Cast:
Pauline Knowles, Una McLean, John Kazek, Patrick Hoffman.
The script is published by
Nick Hern Books.
Jules Horne is currently under commission to write a second play for the Traverse.
Avatar on Tour - Skye
Final night on Skye, in the ridiculously beautiful setting of Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic college. I cross the road bridge for the first time, and head south. Once again, it's a scorcher of a night.
What with the heat and the start of the footie, I'm amazed that people turn out for the play at all. But it's a great end to the tour, and a responsive last audience. Responsive, that is, apart from the bloke sitting next to me. He's asleep. He wakes up every now and then, snorts a bit, then falls asleep again, despite cracking performances just a few yards away on stage. I'm wondering if the actors can see him, and whether I should stab him in the ribs. But his pal on the other side appears to be doing just that, with little effect.
In the interval, I can't resist: I tell him I'm the playwright and I'm - er - intrigued by his lack of - ur-hum - engagement with the play. Turns out he's been out in the sun all day doing a wildlife survey with a group of students, and this is the first time all week he's been able to shake them off and have a night out. Oh well. I get a free drink by way of apology.
Cheers, Mr Z. In a weird way, he becomes a handy symbol - of the sweating, snoring, cursing and coping of real, live theatre, and of my development as a writer. I realise it's the first time I've ever openly, confidently admitted to being one.
The next bit's hard. It's all over. The team pack up the set. I don't hang around. In the morning, they're off early in the bus. We're planning to meet at night in Edinburgh.
Maybe we will. But it's easier if we don't.
Technical Cooperation - Phil Turner
Phil Turner
Technical Stage Manager
I catch up with Phil on the final night on Skye at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, just before the show started. Not the best time to talk techie, but the last chance before Gorgeous Avatar deconstructs forever in a scatter of planks, soil, hats, lights, props and people. A play's an ephemeral thing. You have to catch it while you can. So returning to Phil and his role on the fast-ending tour…
I joined the tour quite late on. We found out as we toured the show – which is quite a big show - that it was too big for four people, so I came on board as a fifth person. I take responsibility for the flying of the [lighting] truss and the suspension points for the tour.
Q: How has that worked in such a variety of different venues?
The main difficulty has been that some of the venues have been a bit smaller than we thought, and it's involved adapting the system to fit in with different spaces. Some of the spaces have got sloping roofs, which have caused a bit of a problem as we don't have the height. But challenges are good…
Any last-minute problems that took you by surprise?
Carlops – we weren’t expecting it to be quite so small, basically. But we adapted. We had a half-hour think and managed to fit it in.
How has the set worked in the different spaces?
It's fitted in every venue so far. We have the ability to cut light boxes if necessary to get the width down. And we can also take it off its legs so that it sits flat on the floor, for example. We just have to adapt and improvise.
The crew hasn't had an easy time of it on this trip…
Er, no. We were unlucky with the Stornoway ferry crew giving us the
lurgy. They cancelled the ferry. Unfortunately both the girls caught it quite early on - we're not entirely sure how. They caught the stomach bug, which is really nasty. Everyone apart from Lee [stage manager] has had it to some extent – all the cast, all the crew. I caught it quite late on. Hopefully it's all blown over now, but it was a nasty thing to happen.
How did that affect you?
We had both Gemma and Hazel out for a couple of days, so the already stretched four-man crew - which went up to five – then went down to three-man, which really pushed us. Luckily we were quite into it by then and we could improvise and we knew each others' jobs, and that helped. By the time I had to sit out, everyone knew my job anyway, so it was no different, really.
Has this been a typical tour for you?
It's nice for me to get out of the office, to be honest. I'm very much building-based. So it's nice to get out and see what they're up to. Obviously, it helps me to prepare for the next tour, cos I can see what they're up against, for example. So it was great for me. And I got to see some nice parts of Scotland
How did you get into this job?
I started off doing it at secondary school, as stage manager, then I went to drama school and did a degree, and then ended up here, eventually.
What's ahead for you?
We're heavily into festival preparation - the Fringe Festival and the International Festival. And we've got the new writers' season coming at the Traverse – not sure if that's top secret or not. Lots of stuff on at the Traverse, so it's back to base!
What the best bit about your job?
The variety. Nothing's the same. It's always different. And you get to work with some interesting people.
Pics:
1. Hanging lights in Ullapool
2. Crew and actors during get-out
Avatar on Tour - Strathpeffer
Strathpeffer's show is being staged as a joint venture with
Eden Court Theatre, currently working in exile with a massive refurbishment underway at their home base in Inverness. Great news for the Traverse crew, as the Eden Courtiers are on hand with expert help for the get-in and get-out. It makes a massive difference - everything gets done far more quickly.
The venue is the lovely spa pavilion, with a high sloping roof which is a challenge for the lighting crew. Director Philip Howard arrives with a group of Japanese visitors - two theatre producers and a translator - who are in Scotland to hear two Japanese plays which are being staged in English at the Traverse as part of the Playwrights in Partnership scheme. Taki, the translator, is
passionate about Scottish drama, and has already worked on Gregory Burke's Gagarin Way and David Harrower's Knives in Hens. He's prepared a rough version of Avatar in Japanese so that the producers know what's going on. For the first time on the tour, I've the chance to talk about writing. I discover that Japanese translations make longer plays than their English originals, and have to be cut. And in Japanese, verb negation comes much later in the sentence structure than it does in English. That's interesting for a playwright - it would have a big impact on rhythm, on how a sentence might play. Language barriers or not, Avatar seems to get its message across. And Strathpeffer may be a gentle sort of tourist haunt, but this audience is one of the loudest of the tour. Go figure.
Traverse Team in Highland Plague Ship Horror
Finally, we scotch any vestigial illusions you might have about the glamorous world of theatre. Banish any such thoughts right now. Punt them over a large precipice with a red hot flow of lava at the bottom. Then run away and hide in the hills. And if you really insist on preserving any romantic notions, look away.
When we join the touring team in Ullapool, some of them seem to be absent. This takes the form of a sudden and very speedy absence, in the direction of the nearest toilets. It's assumed they've picked up food poisoning - several of the crew and actors have been feeling a bit rough in the last wee while.
Then I phone home and hear the
news that's been running on the BBC all day: the
Calmac Stornoway to Ullapool ferry has been hit by winter vomiting virus. Yep - the very one that Team Trav were travelling on. Eight of the ferry crew have gone down with the brutally contagious norovirus, and the service has been shut down. Tourists are stranded on Lewis for an extra day.
We fight off any urges to give the crew comforting hugs, and keep a respectful distance. The production team can just about manage with two people down, and an open door between the lighting desk and the back of the hall. But what about the actors? No understudies here - if anyone's laid low, the show's off. Luckily, they've been travelling in separate vans, and don't seem to be quite as badly affected. Still, one are two having to perform despite feeling pretty hideous. We only find that out after the show. There's no sign of it in the performance. Stars all. Heroes. You know who you are.
After the Ullapool show, the get-out feels more like a get-it-over-with.
Pics:1. The infected Calmac Plague Ship
2. Mark fights a lonely lighting battle
Avatar on Tour - Ullapool
I set off from Kelso in the morning and pick up two of the Traverse team in Edinburg
h, then it's up to Ullapool's McPhail Theatre and a Highland heatwave. It's not all been plain
sailing for the actors and crew, but it's a great show nonetheless - and we've a good-size audience, despite the glorious weather.
Next day, there's a writers' workshop with a extraordinary group, some of whom have travelled over an hour to get to Ullapool. 'Local' has a totally different meaning in the Highlands. We're impressed by their dedication and enthusiasm. We're also impressed by the contents of their bags, which are rev
ealed in an ice-breaking exercise. Rare curtain hooks, home-made preserves and a broken crystal necklace are just some of the items that surface from the writers' various bags and baskets. We decide it's a great way of exploring character - a single object can say a huge amount about its owner. So the less said about my strawberry kitchen timer, the better.
Moving swiftly on, some candid shots from Ullapool. It's the first time I've been able to eavesdrop on some of the audience during the interval. They're talking about the characters: How's Amy going to do next? What about Rose's past? What will the real Rafi be like? It's fantastic to hear how they've t
aken on a life of their own - and a weird feeling. A bit like being a proud parent, maybe. They're out there and walking without any help. They don't need me. For a horrible second, I suspect that maybe they never did. After all, a big chunk of act two was written by Amy and Rafi - or rather, by the two characters as played by Pauline Knowles and John Kazek. They showed up when I was writing and pretty well wrote the scene for me. I know that sounds hideously flaky. I hate flaky, believe me. Writing's a disturbing business. Don't go there unless you absolutely have to.
Moving swiftly on - again.
Writers Have Time Off Too
Sunday morning on Lewis: All the shops are closed. Even the main hotel door is shut. The manager has to let us out specially. The door closes behind us and we're out in the street, feeling like the scruffiest heathens on the planet. Stornoway is heaving with smart black-suited men and wedding-hatted women off to church. Even the wee girls wear berets to cover their heads. We shake off the merest frisson of guilt then head north to see the Callanish standing stones and the whitest, emptiest beaches on the hottest day of the year. Skylarks and bog
cotton, sand and freezing sea... Anne sends a phone-pic back to Andy at the Traverse. Evil, yes. But necessary.
A short flight back to Edinburgh, and the city is another world. Down into the guts of the Traverse into final rehearsals for three radio plays that are being recorded for BBC Radio Scotland in front of a live audience. I've cocked up the timing and missed all but the last run-through. But who needs the writer? The director, Marilyn Imrie, has phoned through with notes while I've been in Stornoway, and the actors (Louise Ludgate, Eileen McCallum, Billy Riddoch) have brilliantly populated the play with a cast of thousands. And in one of those circularities that have been appearing right through the Avatar production, it's part of a season called 'Stornoway, Kelso and Kirkcaldy' - three comedy dramas by regional Scottish writers, including Lewis' own Iain F MacLeod.
So hey! A shameless plug:
BBC Radio Scotland92-95 FM and 810 MW (each Thursday 11.30am, and following Sunday 17.05)
6 July: Sons of Star Wars - Martin J Taylor
13 July: Overdue South - Jules Horne
21 July: Gold Digger - Iain F MacLeod
Avatar on Tour - Lewis Writers' Workshop
Secret confession: when Suzanne (Graham, Literary Development Officer, on the left here) and I arrive at
An Lanntair, we're horrified that only one person has signed up for the playwriting workshop. It seems a helluva way to go for such a small number. And yet everywhere, there's evidence of the marketing team at work - newspaper copy, ads, posters. And I've done a radio interview the week before. But Alex Macdonald, the programming officer, is reassuring: 'On Lewis, people don't book in advance. They just turn up on the day.' Oh yeah, we think. And hare to the office to knock out some flyers.
The lone playwright turns up: poet David Martin, whose first collection is due out shortly. He's an experienced writer with a clear sense of where he's going. We wonder whether to ditch the workshop and head for the An Lanntair cafe. But in the end, we needn't have worried. A great group of writers turn up, some of them bilingual in Gaelic and English. It's clear there's plenty of talent around. We work together on short scenes, character-building and some writing strategies.
(An online version of the workshop will be posted here soon). Names and emails are exchanged, with hopes for the germ of a new playwrights' group. It's also a chance for Suzanne to find out more about the
Highlands and Islands Theatre Network and
Theatre Hebrides from one of its founder members, Maggie Smith. With more than twenty performing companies in the region, there's an unusual amount of opportunity for local writers - so every incentive to really work at it.
As the workshop is underway, we can see the
Calmac ferry from the window, heading off for Ullapool. The cast and crew are on board. They're due in Achiltibuie on Monday night. It's the last chance to leave the island by boat, as everything closes down on Sunday. Suzanne and I are stranded on Lewis until the sole flight out on Sunday. But there are worse places to be stranded. As it turns out, the Calmac ferry is one of them...
Developing Writers - Suzanne Graham
Suzanne Graham
Literary Development OfficerSuzanne has worked as Assistant Director during the rehearsals of Gorgeous Avatar, and is following parts of the tour around Scotland to run playwriting workshops. In her own words...
I work with people who are completely new to playwriting. So that might be through schools, community groups, or just interested writers' groups dotted about the country.
Q: What have you been doing during this tour?
We've been getting to see the show in lots of different venues, and running workshops in a number of the venues we've been stopping at: Galashiels, Dumfries, Stornoway, Ullapool and Strathpeffer. And obviously working incredibly hard!
What sort of things do you cover in the workshops?
It varies according to the playwright. With this tour, the focus has been on the strategies used to write the play, which is really interesting because we get to see in more depth how the play was created. People also like to know how things get from page to stage, how things work, and how we make decisions about the set, the acting... so they're very practical workshops – lots of really useful information. But it also gives people a chance to have a go at playwriting. The idea is that it's open to anyone who wants to dip their toe in and have a go.
So that's your work with adults. What about young playwrights?
At the moment, that's in two areas. Firstly, there's the schools project, Class Act, which is quite a big chunk of my year. Normally we work with four high schools in Edinburgh and Lothians, but this year we're working with Fife, which is quite exciting. And that's a hefty undertaking – it involves playwrights in schools, then directors and actors, and a final performance to showcase the work that the children write. Then the other area at the moment is the young writers' group. It runs roughly at the same times as the university term, and it's more like a playwriting course. That's currently being led by Alan Wilkins, and he basically runs workshops, acts as a mentor, does one-to-one work with the writers, the idea being that they're working towards writing their first full-length play. Young writers in this country unfortunately are 15-26, so really very young. We hope that we can create a lasting bond with them and help to support them if they want to take it further and pursue playwriting professionally.
What's your involvement with writers abroad?
My colleague Katherine [Mendelsohn, literary manager] does a lot of the international work, specifically through a project like Playwrights in Partnership, which pairs up Scottish playwrights with international playwrights, working on translations. In my case, I've been involved in taking Class Act abroad. It's been running for 16 years here, but for the last two years we've been taking it to Russia, which is a very interesting experience. It runs in an entirely different way to how it does here: we basically have a week to do three months' work. It's really very intensive. The kids are doing it outwith school time, which is incredible, because it's a lot of time and energy. In so many ways, they're like young people here, and they write about similar kinds of stuff – the same things are on their minds. But it's interesting the different response it gets from theatres, because it's quite an alien idea, having to work with children in that way. But it works. It's fantastic, and the kids really enjoy it. I think it's a very positive experience for everyone involved.
What's ahead for you?
I'm looking at a very busy time ahead. Preparing for Class Act, again, obviously: getting schools in place and getting all the initial paperwork sorted. I then have quite a big undertaking for the autumn, which involves the Emerging Writers' Festival which the Traverse is running. That's going to involve a lot of reading, a lot of programming, and sifting through applications to take part in a writing residency. So that's going to cover a big chunk of my time from now until Christmas.
How did you get into your line of work?
My background is as an English teacher, but I've always had a very keen interest in drama, which I was involved in as a student. Having been a teacher has been a useful bonus. But it's not essential. I think anyone who's really interested in theatre, who's gathered up a bit of experience through things like youth theatre, is in a good position to do the job. You do need to be quite well organised, because there are a lot of balls to juggle. I don't think there's any really path into it. The interest and the desire to work in this area is what will help you most.
Avatar on Tour - Stornoway
The Highlands and Islands part of the tour kicks off with a night in Ballachulish Village Hall - a well-established stop on the touring venue. For me, it's back to the day job as writer in residence for Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association, and a chance to catch up on the work that's piled up meanwhile. Fast-forward over this bit (too traumatic) and on to the weekend, when Suzanne (Graham, literature development officer) and I are heading up to Lewis for the first time, along with Birmingham Royal Ballet's Anne Gallacher, who's spending a couple of months working at the Traverse on a Clore Arts Fellowship.
The show is on at
An Lanntair, the beautiful new arts centre in Stornoway, which opened last year with a Traverse play:
I was a Beautiful Day by Lewis writer Iain Finlay Macleod. Programming officer Alex Macdonald shows us round and introduces us (not least) to the real live map-suit seen on the poster, which is now a prize exhibit (see pic).
Once again, the technical team are wrestling the set into an unfamiliar space. Each venue has its own quirks: for An Lanntair, half the Traverse equipment has been left on the mainland, to avoid the terrifying expense of transporting everything to Lewis (a three-hour trip by ferry). So the already-stretched techies are working with unfamiliar kit, too. And then there's the different acoustics, which call for almighty projection from the actors. In Lanntair, they're a fair distance from the audience - whereas in Carlops, they were practically on their laps. So again, get-in time is tight - no chance for the actors to try things out and get used to the space.
In the interval, a couple of familiar faces in the bar: writer Derek Ross and his wife Chris. I'd love to say they'd made the long trek from Dumfries to Lewis just to catch the play - but no: they're on holiday in the area. An Lanntair is hotching with visitors - there are two gallery openings the same night. Stornoway's a happening sort of place.
I'm tempted to post some pix of our post-show discussion
(eh? ed.) in the Lewis Lounge in the small hours. But after threats from the production team, here instead is an exclusive pic of the Lewis get-out: It may just look like a wild blur captured by a writer who's spent the interval propping up the bar, but no: that's what it's really like. Lee, Gemma, Hazel, Phil, Mark whirr round with by now clockwork precision, backed up by the An Lanntair team and the actors. Yep - forget all notions of the glamorous life of actors. Banish them. Now. Pauline, Una, John and Patrick don't actually
have to do any hands-on lugging. It's not part of their job. But the set's big and the night long. The more people chip in, the quicker they can all go home.
By now, I'm starting to get a feel for how it goes: Clear the set - , snow, books, carpet and all. Pack everything into crates. Strip the gaffer tape from the cables and wind them into coils. Take off the festoons and pack the bulbs. Unscrew the set elements and lower the flats. Lift the stage floor and unclip the slotted boxes it stands on. Then down come the overhead bars so that the lights can be unbolted. And everything has to be carted outside and loaded like a vast, impossible, ton-weight jigsaw into the two vans. A vast, impossible, ton-weight,
delicate jigsaw - think plasma screens, lights, plywood, leaves...
Delicate - after Lewis, that word will come back to haunt us.
What with the heat and the start of the footie, I'm amazed that people turn out for the play at all. But it's a great end to the tour, and a responsive last audience. Responsive, that is, apart from the bloke sitting next to me. He's asleep. He wakes up every now and then, snorts a bit, then falls asleep again, despite cracking performances just a few yards away on stage. I'm wondering if the actors can see him, and whether I should stab him in the ribs. But his pal on the other side appears to be doing just that, with little effect.
passionate about Scottish drama, and has already worked on Gregory Burke's Gagarin Way and David Harrower's Knives in Hens. He's prepared a rough version of Avatar in Japanese so that the producers know what's going on. For the first time on the tour, I've the chance to talk about writing. I discover that Japanese translations make longer plays than their English originals, and have to be cut. And in Japanese, verb negation comes much later in the sentence structure than it does in English. That's interesting for a playwright - it would have a big impact on rhythm, on how a sentence might play. Language barriers or not, Avatar seems to get its message across. And Strathpeffer may be a gentle sort of tourist haunt, but this audience is one of the loudest of the tour. Go figure.
h, then it's up to Ullapool's McPhail Theatre and a Highland heatwave. It's not all been plain sailing for the actors and crew, but it's a great show nonetheless - and we've a good-size audience, despite the glorious weather.
ealed in an ice-breaking exercise. Rare curtain hooks, home-made preserves and a broken crystal necklace are just some of the items that surface from the writers' various bags and baskets. We decide it's a great way of exploring character - a single object can say a huge amount about its owner. So the less said about my strawberry kitchen timer, the better. 
aken on a life of their own - and a weird feeling. A bit like being a proud parent, maybe. They're out there and walking without any help. They don't need me. For a horrible second, I suspect that maybe they never did. After all, a big chunk of act two was written by Amy and Rafi - or rather, by the two characters as played by Pauline Knowles and John Kazek. They showed up when I was writing and pretty well wrote the scene for me. I know that sounds hideously flaky. I hate flaky, believe me. Writing's a disturbing business. Don't go there unless you absolutely have to.
cotton, sand and freezing sea... Anne sends a phone-pic back to Andy at the Traverse. Evil, yes. But necessary. 
(An online version of the workshop will be posted here soon). Names and emails are exchanged, with hopes for the germ of a new playwrights' group. It's also a chance for Suzanne to find out more about the Highlands and Islands Theatre Network and Theatre Hebrides from one of its founder members, Maggie Smith. With more than twenty performing companies in the region, there's an unusual amount of opportunity for local writers - so every incentive to really work at it.
