Statement re Covid-19 situation
We regret to announce that due to the ongoing health emergency, all our activities are on hold until we are advised that it is safe to resume. Watch this site for updates and Thursday throwbacks.
Thursday Throwback 2 April 2020
Although we usually spend 6-8 weeks rehearsing each production, there have been some memorable productions that took just 24 hours to put together. Starting at 10.00pm, after the normal rehearsals have finished, writers work away putting together a unique storyline, using all the actors who have signed up for the play. By 6.00am, as the actors arrive for breakfast, there is a complete script in outline; no actual lines of dialogue have been committed to paper as it more successful when they are improvised. During the day, lines are learnt, costumes sourced and altered, music and lighting chosen, and props and a set constructed. Then there is advertising, front of house, programmes and catering all to be organised. By 8.00pm the curtain goes up on a world premiere. As it ends everything is packed away before the 24 hours is up. It's as if it never happened. The photos shown are from a 2013 production of Torn, about a family devastated by war.
Our Curtain Raisers presented this exciting new play as part of the NT Connections Festival 2020. The play, especially commissioned and written by John Donnelly explores how careful we need to be with the language we use, and the resulting problems when we aren't. Unfortunately the planned Partner Theatre Festival is Southampton is currently on hold, together with the Fesitval at the National Theatre.