Education Pack to accompany The Watermill Theatre’s 2008 production of Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker
CONTENTS
Resources 2 Introduction 3 Timberlake Wertenbaker (Writer) 4 Director’s Insight 8 Interview – Alex Maher (actor) Activities 7 Be the Director 10 Approaches to Design 12 Devising 13 Production Images 14 Credits & Contact
INTRODUCTION
This education pack is designed to complement your trip to see our 2008 production of Our Country’s Good at The Watermill. The text is designed to be easily photocopied. You will find information and exercises for use in the classroom, feel free to use them as written or adapt them to suit your class and/or situation. If you have any comments on either the show or the education pack please get in touch.
Robin Belfield Deputy Outreach Director
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 2
TIMBERLAKE WERTENBAKER - biography
Timberlake Wertenbaker grew up in the Basque Country near Saint-Jean-de- Luz. She was Arts Council Writer in Residence for Shared Experience in 1983 and Resident Writer at the Royal Court Theatre, 1985.
Timberlake Wertenbaker’s plays include: The Third, Kings Head, 1980; Second Sentence, Brighton Actors Theatre, 1980; Case to Answer, Soho Poly, 1980; New Anatomies, The Women’s Theatre Group, ICA 1981; Inside Out, RAT Theatre, Stoke on Trent, 1982; Home Leave, Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, 1982; Abel’s Sister (Thames TV Award) Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court 1984; The Grace of Mary Traverse, Royal Court Theatre, 1985, (Plays and Players most promising Playwright Award 1985); Our Country’s Good, Royal Court Theatre 1988 directed by Max Stafford Clark, Garrick Theatre, (Olivier Play of the Year Award), Broadway 1990, (New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award for Best Foreign Play); The Love of the Nightingale, RSC 1988, (Eileen Anderson Central TV Award 1989); Three Birds Alighting on a Field, Royal Court 1991, (Susan Smith Blackburn, Writer’s Guild and London Critics Circle Awards); The Break of Day, Out of Joint, tour and Royal Court, 1995; After Darwin, Hampstead Theatre, 1998; Ash Girl, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 2000; Credible Witness, Royal Court Theatre, 2001; Galileo’s Daughter, Theatre Royal Bath, directed by Sir Peter Hall; Jenufa, The Arcola Theatre.
Her translations and adaptations include: Marivaux’s False Admissions and Successful Strategies, Shared Experience, Lyric Hammersmith, 1983; Ariane Mnouchkine’s Mephisto and Sophocles’ The Thebans, both for the RSC; Euripedes’ Hecuba, ACT, San Francisco 1995; De Filippo’s Filumena, Piccadilly, West End, 1998/1999 and Anouih’s Wild Orchids, Chichester Festival Theatre, 2001. Timberlake received the Mrs Giles Whiting Award, (1989) for her body of work.
She has written three screenplays: The Children, (Edith Wharton Adaptation), directed by Tony Palmer; Do Not Disturb, BBC Screen 2 and Our Country’s Good, Merchant/Ivory/Bruce Beresford.
Her radio work includes: New Anatomies; Marivaux’s La Dispute; Anouilh’s Leocadia; Maeterlinck’s Pelleas and Melisanda; Madame Paradis; Five O’ Clock in the Afternoon, (Part of Better Than Sex series) and Dianeira.
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 3
DIRECTOR’S INSIGHT - Alex Clifton
The director of Our Country’s Good, Alex Clifton, is an experienced director as well as a Senior Acting Tutor at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art). He took the time to talk to me about the director’s role, his own process and the challenges he faced when working on this production.
A) THE ROLE OF A DIRECTOR
In Act Two, Scene 3 Governor Phillip says:
“A play is a world in itself, a tiny colony we could almost say. And you are in charge of it. That is a great responsibility”
What is the director’s ‘responsibility’?
“The director provides a compass point for all activity in the development of a production. It is not the director’s responsibility to know where we are all going. It is the director’s responsibility to lead the journey of discovery. The director is not a creative artist. The director neither creates nor denies, but rather discovers what is latent in a play and unique to a company’s relationship to that play. The director supports, guides and nurtures a team on towards its shared objective. They provide a shared vocabulary and communicate a common understanding amongst a company. The director must nurture a safe environment, in which others take risks. Failure must be made possible – must even be celebrated. We are not looking for the ‘right’ solution, but making room for life. When working on the play, we want to discover the unique, living animation of it, which follows from the unique community which has come together around this project. 80% of a director’s skill and ability lies in their capacity to bring together the right people to set off on the journey. Having found them, the director trusts and empowers them and communicates a direction of travel.
You get a good script. You get good people. You put on a play.”
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 4
B) DECISION MAKING
In Act Two, Scene 7, Ralph is conducting his rehearsals:
Ralph: (angrily) It doesn’t say Silivia is kissed in the stage directions! Wisehammer: Plume kisses her later and there’s the line about men kissing in the army. I thought Brazen would kiss her immediately. Ralph: It’s completely wrong. Wisehammer: It’s right for the character of Brazen. Ralph: No it isn’t. I’m the director, Wisehammer. Wisehammer: Yes but I have to play the part.
How are your decisions about performance made in your rehearsal room? You are the director and in Phillip’s words ‘in charge’, but the actors’ are the ones who actually play the parts; and how far do you stick to the stage directions?
“Sometimes a director’s process gets in the way. A director brings a philosophy of theatre practice with them, in which they passionately believe. I have mine. But sometimes it gets in the way. Because every actor has their own process too, garnered through years of practice, which must be respected and trusted if the actor is to flourish. So give them the material, support them through the process, and open this to the full company.
A decision is made by a process of negotiation.”
C) CHALLENGES
What are the challenges with directing a play within a play and how have you solved them?
“It is crucial to establish strikingly different conventions for each theatrical world.
In our case, the writer makes this easy of us. The restoration comedy works in a whole different theatrical language to her own play, with its short scenes, deliberate and complete doublings etc. They are well distinguished.”
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 5
D) PROCESS
What is the process you go through when approaching a particular scene?
i. Break the scene into units of action, marked by moments when everyone on stage has their intention (objective/wants) changed at the same time: e.g. the whipping off-stage beginning in 2.5, every entrance, Dabby telling everyone she’s going back to Devon after the performance etc…
ii. Establish each character’s objective in each unit, and explore the physical tasks associated to it.
iii. Establish absolutely the given circumstances of the scene: where, when, environment, etc. Locating the scene.
iv. Establish immediate circumstances of the scene – what happens just before the scene begins. Where the scene and each character have come from and what they expect/anticipate will be ahead of them. An expectation which the scene will not meet.
v. Improvise the immediate circumstances and run into the scene.
vi. Give notes on the scene – focusing first on adjusting the given circumstances, to condition how the actors play their objectives. Repeat this for as long as the schedule will allow!
vii. Block the scene of the theatre.
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 6
BE THE DIRECTOR
Read through Alex’s statements and views on directing. How far do you agree with what he says?
Each director has their own way of working, as Alex puts it their ‘philosophy’. There is no one way of creating theatre, no absolute right or wrong.
TASK In small groups discuss ‘the role of a director’
Alex’s process leading up to and during rehearsals has a strong rooting in the ‘System’ created by Stanislavski. He uses this system to train actors at RADA and finds it valuable for producing the best work. Try this process out for yourselves.
TASK Choose a scene and work through each stage as outlined, paying close attention to:
• Objectives • Units of action • Given circumstances • Immediate circumstances
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 7
INTERVIEW – Alex Maher (actor)
How did you first start in theatre? Where did you train etc...?
I was lucky that my school, the local comp, had an excellent drama department and an inspiring Drama teacher. I was involved in all the extracurricular drama, which was pretty much the only thing that made me want to go to school.
I got a place in the Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre the third time I auditioned and in The National Youth Theatre, which I joined at sixteen, the second time I auditioned.
When I left school, I wasn’t interested in University, so I started the process of auditioning for Drama School; which turned out to be a three-year course in itself. I graduated from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art last July.
What skills do you need to be a good actor?
Hmmm, I don’t think I know yet! - I think it doesn’t do any harm to have good listening skills and lots of patience.
I’m learning more and more about the importance of being resilient and gracious, which are more like characteristics than skills, but are essential to making life as an actor work.
Tell us a bit about the character(s) you’re playing.
Wertenbaker instructs that the actress playing Mary Brenham should play The Reverend Johnson and Meg Long as well. As with many of the other doubling combinations she specifies, these characters are in stark contrast to one another, which makes them an exciting opportunity for actors.
Mary is one of the youngest convicts and is less hardened than most, whilst Meg is one of the oldest and is so hardened she has no boundaries. The Reverend Johnson is a Yorkshire man of middle class; from a different world altogether.
Most of the company play more than one part, what are the challenges for you playing different characters and how have you and Alex (the director) solved them in rehearsals?
The play and the conventions of our production don’t allow for radical costume changes so the definitions of different characters have to come largely from the voice and physicality of the actors. However, the differences
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 8 are already there in the text, so all the answers (theoretically, at least) should be in there.
Alex presides over a very open rehearsal process; welcoming instinctive suggestions and more off the wall ‘experiments’ from the actors, yet always bringing things back to, or keeping them informed by, the text. If a particular characterisation lacks truth, he’ll chase something better that still originates from the actor.
The play looks at a particular moment in history, have you had to do a lot of research? How has that helped you in rehearsals and your performance?
Most of the characters in the play were real people and there is a huge amount of creative literature and some factual documentation about them available. However, when it comes to the performance, you have to serve the script that you are working on and so we have had to be selective about which elements of that particular area of research we wish to include.
Personally, I have found research about the conditions and the ways of life, the journey from London to Sydney, the environment, the hierarchies and the politics most useful. These factors inform my imagination and the context of the characters’ actions.
Set in 1787, written in 1988, what relevancies does Our Country’s Good hold for an audience in 2008?
I’m sure one could draw numerous political and social relevancies from Our Country’s Good but the overriding thing that springs to my mind is a message about being humane to one another - as both individuals and communities.
What has been most challenging about working on Our Country’s Good?
It’s a big play and naturally we all want to do it justice. I’ve found it very challenging to try and contain all the information we have gathered from research, the lines from the script, the subtexts, the different characterisations and the numerous relationships. It’s a very ‘full’ piece.
No rehearsal process ever feels long enough, but with this one in particular, I feel I could keep rehearsing for months!
What have you enjoyed most about working on this production?
The company - they’re all hugely agreeable (which isn’t always the case!)
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 9
APPROACHES TO DESIGN
Designers of a production’s set and costume have to work extremely closely with the director. It is their task to invoke the physical environment in which the play and its characters live.
Every designer, when approaching the set for a production must take the following into consideration: • Dates & Time – When is the play set, at what period in history? What time of day does action happen? • The Writer’s intention – what is the writer trying to say with their play? • The Director’s Vision – particular themes the director is keen to put across • Space – Size of the theatre and playing space they will be working with • Budget – How much money is there to spend on set and costumes (for example special costumes may have to be made and would therefore cost more money. Items such as uniforms are usually easily available to hire)
Original model box, created by Paul Burgess
TASK In small groups discuss: how does Paul Burgess’ set express the themes of Our Country’s Good? How does the space assist the telling of the story and create the world of the play?
TASK Work through the text of Our Country’s Good, noting down where and when each scene takes place (n.b. you may have started this process with the directing exercise, looking at ‘given circumstances’). Note down locations (e.g. the hold of a ship, a tent), dates and also time of day (estimate unless you are told specifically).
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 10 Now have a go at designing a set. How will the space look? What does it need to tell to provide the audience with the information they need? Below is a copy of Paul’s designs for the actor playing Tench, Black Caesar and The Aborigine. There are also a couple of images Paul’s found as part of his research. Each actor has a design board like this created for them complete with detailed designs and historical research.
TASK Choose another character from the play and using your own research into clothes of the time, create your own costume designs. Remember the actors have to double as two or more characters, so your designs will need to make the difference very clear.
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 11
DEVISING FROM SOURCE MATERIAL
The original production of Our Country’s Good was created by Out Of Joint Theatre Company and was born out of a devising process. Director Max Stafford-Clark and his company of actors worked with Timberlake Wertenbaker, improvising scenes and building characters.
The novel “The Playmaker” by Thomas Keneally, provided the main source from out of which the play grew. In any devising process gathering as much source material as possible is crucial.
• Historical documents • Books on the subject/period • Images (photographs, paintings) • Documentaries • Personal experiences (diaries, log books etc)
TASK In small groups devise a scene (which may be extended into more) based upon some source materials that you have found.
1) Your starting point could be anything that inspires you and your group. Some possibilities to consider are: poems, art, photographs, a myth or legend, a moment in history, a novel or short story (doesn’t have to be the whole thing, you might simply take one character as a starting point).
2) Research, research, research. Do all that you can! Pull together any relevant articles, pictures or objects that help you understand your starting point further. For example, with Our Country’s Good the actors would have researched life in England around the 1780’s; What conditions would have been like onboard a convict ship; Life in the army and so on.
3) Experiment with locations, where will your scene take place?
4) Experiment with characters, who is present, and equally significant is, who is not present and why not.
5) As you get more confident with your subject and what you would like to explore, try different styles. Perhaps include monologues, direct address, tableaux or physical theatre.
6) When you have a basic shape, write it out as a script and rehearse it, keep developing – all the time ask yourselves; is what you are doing serving your original ideas?
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 12
PRODUCTION IMAGES
Tench, Arthur Philip, Harry Brewer and David Collins
Liz Morden and Ralph Clark
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 13
Arscott and Caesar
Campbell, Liz Morden and Robbie Ross
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 14
CREDITS & CONTACT
Cast Harry Brewer/Captain Campbell/Arscott – Jason Baughan David Collins/Sideway – John Cummins Duckling/Lt. Johnston – Ruth Everett Tench/Caesar/Aborigine – Rex Obano Liz Morden/Lt. Dawes – Tanya Franks Ketch/Robbie Ross – Paul Lloyd Mary Brenham/Rev. Johnson/Meg Long – Alex Maher Dabby Bryant/Lt. Faddy – Tonya Smith Arthur Phillip/Wisehammer – Simon Thorp Ralph Clark – Orlando Wells
Creative Team Director – Alex Clifton Designer – Paul Burgess Lighting Designer – Katherine Williams
Photographs Production photos – Philip Tull
This pack was created by Robin Belfield (Deputy Outreach Director)
Contact details The Watermill Theatre Bagnor Newbury Berkshire RG20 8AE [email protected]
Our Country’s Good - Education Pack (The Watermill Theatre 2008) 15