Half A Sixpence -(4)

Hat Pincushion

This one is handmade in red velvet with satin ribbon.

Half A Sixpence is a show where you can go to town on presents that relate to weddings, favours, charms, old-fashioned wedding photos, a “ Family Album”

The period costumes (1912 approximately) lend themselves to hats, parasols and pincushions for the ladies, and cravats or straw boaters for the men.

Also picnic hampers and umbrellas,(If the Rain's Gotta Fall) even a banjo.(If I Had Money to Burn)

Sixpence coins are still available from coin dealers, or maybe you have a stash of old coins in the back of a drawer somewhere that might be worth investigating.

A crafty friend of mine made tiny (doll's house size) carrier bags with Shalford's Emporium labels, and enclosed a sixpence in the bag.

Then of course there is champagne, or bubbles and blowers in the shape of champagne bottles, or liqueur chocolates. And for those " All in the Cause of Economy", cola bottle sweets.

Have a look at the Half A Sixpence category on my website for ideas with a list of characters and musical numbers to remind you of names and relevances.

Half A Sixpence -(3)

Beside the umbrellas and telescope, there is also the incident of the broken door glass when Kipps cuts his hand... toffee glass is great, but quite often breaks while trying to get it into the door panel, cellophane just doesn't give the same effect, and you don't really want to injure your leading man.

Your stage crew and props have to be on the ball for this show!

One of the more difficult props to engineer is the camera and flash for “Flash Bang Wallop”. At the time of the story it would have been magnesium powder in a tray that made the flash, but even if you could arrange the necessary health and safety procedures to use that nowadays, there is the problem of repeated flashes in time to the music......not so easy at all. It requires your “photographer” to be able to manipulate a flash at the right time, yet still appear to be an integral part of the action. In our original production we used flash cubes linked to a hand held flash, but with the advances in digital photography these are no longer widely available, so a different strategy needs to be employed, and the inventiveness of your stage crew tested. Like any props that require some kind of action “Murphy's Law” is bound to be involved. (That is the one that says “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and it is rarely the thing that you are prepared for”)

This can be quite a heavy show for props, the set dressing can be quite lavish; for Shalford's Emporium, there is a requirement for more than one counter which has to be dressed with goods, and covered and uncovered with dust sheets during the action, then the upper crust cricket match and party with ornate seating and champagne being served. Never mind the pub, with bar and tables for the customers, and the classroom with the practical door as above. The action moves through many different scenes, some of which are merely suggested by the scenery and differentiated by the props.

It really is worth being nice to your stage crew and props people, at least get to know their names and say “Thank you” . Most crews for amateur shows are only around for the week of the production, and are friends or colleagues of the Stage Manager, and if they are good at what they do, you really want to keep them on-side ; good volunteer crew are worth their weight in gold.

Once upon a time the crew were presented with a case of beer at the after show party, and that was their thank you for the week. Times change, and nowadays fewer crew members are beer drinkers, and they too appreciate a memento of the show as much as the cast.

One of the things we as a company did on “ Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” was to set up a Lumberjack's Tea for the crew between the matinee and evening performance; providing sandwiches and cake (and pies for Sevens) and serving them as our customers.

This could be done as a cricket match tea when doing Half A Sixpence, or a garden party style tea with cucumber sandwiches etc., although maybe avoiding the champagne between shows.

Half A Sixpence -(2)

Following a successful week's run at our local community assembly rooms, we were lucky enough to be invited to take our production to Malta; to the Manoel Theatre in Valletta. This beautiful theatre usually houses professional opera and dance companies and orchestras, so we were thrilled to have the chance to perform there.

Naively, we hadn't realised that we were going to be performing on the weekend of one of the most important elections in Maltese history, nor did we realise the passions involved in the politics – until we got there, that is. For a contingent of British people who were quite used to laid back political voting, and low turnout at elections, the rallying and 96% turnout were a revelation; not to mention the fact that once the result was announced there were cavalcades of trucks and lorries banging dustbin lids and firing rockets into the air that went on all night. A public holiday was announced, and suddenly our two performances were reduced to one because the orchestra (the house orchestra of the theatre) were not going to work on a public holiday. OK, we thought, we'll cram as many people into the theatre for our one performance as possible, and therefore announcements were made on the local radio and the news that anyone wanting to see us had only this one chance.

There were many things that we had not considered in advance, it had all sounded so easy...

We were a large group of families and singles, all booked into the same accommodation (a hotel for the first few days, and then an ex-army sergeant's mess, I believe) which was great, we would all be enjoying a holiday and topping it off with a fantastic performance at the end of the week.

Except that our plans for scenery that had been sent ahead, and we expected to be done when we arrived, had not translated into action by our hosts in Malta. They hadn't understood how to turn our drawings into scenery, but had happily answered “No problem” to every request. So all able bodied men and women were roped in to paint scenery for the first few days, and to rummage through the theatre's props department for anything that would help to create the atmosphere of Folkestone in 1912. A promenade telescope? A white railing fence? The theatre basement was an Aladdin's cave, but mainly of things none of us recognised.

With the help of MADC  (Malta Amateur Dramatics Club) we managed to find enough props, and to paint some flats. We had brought our costumes with us in our normal luggage, but had also flown in some back cloths. These were discovered to be being held at customs, and were only released on payment of a bond, on the understanding that we were not bringing them in to sell at a profit. We finally got them a day before we were due to perform. You can imagine the scenes of our director and stage manager tearing their hair out.

Still, we had a fabulous time, spending glorious days at the beach, or exploring the beautiful islands of Malta and Gozo. Those of us with young children hired cars and shared the babysitting so that we could all enjoy a proper holiday. One of the highlights was our visit to the “Popeye” village... Sweethaven was the film set built for the live action film of Popeye starring Robin Williams, and is still there as a tourist attraction.

We rehearsed in the foyer of the theatre, which is all marble staircase and statues, and it felt as though we could have been in a Degas painting of a rehearsal. Our dressing rooms had windows that opened out over the street, with tiny wrought iron balconies, and were miles away from the stage. So we had to re-time our quick changes and entrances to allow for rickety staircases and mazes of corridors.

We also had to pack our costumes as we took them off, and rush to carry everything to the bus which we had hired to take us back to our residence, because the bus driver wasn't going to work after midnight, and we had to meet him at the bottom of a run of steps.(Valletta is pedestrian friendly. The streets being so narrow it is impossible to drive through them, so motor vehicles are banned. And it is set on a high promontory, so the only way to move around is up and down steep sets of steps) So at the end of the performance everyone was loaded up and sent as quickly as possible to relay everything we had brought, including rolled cloths that were huge. Running up and down stairs in the dark!

The after show party back at our residence was raucous and adrenaline fuelled, everyone had a tale to tell, and we all needed to let off steam. Some of our older more staid members had never been seen to be so “tired and emotional”.

Despite all our difficulties in getting on stage we were incredibly proud to have been invited, and to play to a full house in this glorious old theatre. It was an experience I wouldn't swap for anything, and the memories are flooding back as I write.

Amateur drama has given me so much to enjoy and share, I would recommend it as a hobby (lifestyle choice; obsession) to anyone.

This Month's Show - Half a Sixpence

Set in the early 1900's and having for its theme the difference between the middle and the working classes of Folkestone. This was originally a vehicle for Tommy Steele as the hero Arthur Kipps, who inherits a fortune and loses it again. The man who plays this part is almost never offstage, and requires a lot of stamina to keep up with the many musical numbers. There is a new version which I have only seen and not performed in, which has some big changes to the score from when I was taking part so some of the numbers I mention may not be familiar to those who come to perform now. For instance “The Party's on the House”, a big production number, is no longer in the new version, and “The Old Military Canal” has been replaced with a cricket match.

A bit off topic but  you might like to read “The Cricketing Versions” by Wendy Cope, a gently humorous poem from her anthology Serious Concerns (there is a quote on this forum)

All that said, and despite being a show depending on the strength of the actor playing Kipps, there is a lot of chorus work, and some decent supporting roles in the apprentices and shop girls, and the Walsingham family.
Costume varies from fancy bustles and parasols for the upper class ladies and morning suits or tail suits for the men, to blazers and whites, or shop uniforms and summery dresses for the working class. We had umbrellas for “If the Rain's Gotta Fall” which had to withstand being twirled and opened and closed in time with the music and dance steps, and to mimic the design of parasols, so being lacy or frilled.  For these we found some children's toy umbrellas and lengthened the handles with wooden dowelling. Covering the clear plastic with fabric to make them look right. Great! Until the week of the show, when in performance the spokes started to break and had to be mended with whatever was to hand....gaffer tape of course. I found myself going home every night with two or three umbrellas to mend or to cannibalise from some spares that hadn't been used. All part of the fun, and a big lesson in making sure that props/costume are fit for purpose. This became even more important when we were invited to take our production of Half A Sixpence to Malta.... more of that next time.