saturday nights' story

1982

It rocked the 70's now we activate the 80's

Our strap-line for the production of Godspell I was in back in the eighties.

Unity Players

Windsor Arts Centre

13-18 September 1982

I was 16, had just sat my O levels, and that summer of '82 was a dream: my first swimming pool party; my first sauna; my first jacuzzi; my first 'real' kiss; pints of larger and lime (!) at the Duke's Head; cycling across Slough to The Rotunda to rehearsals; everyone trying to get my bike in the back of their cars at 11.30 at night after the pub to get me home; working at C&A during the day; and my first proper, and perhaps even last, musical theatre experience as an actor / performer.

My solo in the show: We Beseech Thee ...

The first part of this last weekend was spent with people I hadn't seen for 27 years!

One of our company, a rugby man AND a musical theatre man, Carl Smiter, died of a heart attack earlier this year and we all re-united, revived most of the musical numbers from the show, added a lot more besides, raised some cash for the British Heart Foundation, reminisced, enjoyed the nostalgia, celebrated his life with his family and friends, and told many stories.

It was good to see you all: to laugh; to remember being 16 again; actually being 16 again; and to once again be reminded what it is like to sing, dance, act and perform.

My second time 'on stage' again in just two weeks...

Gary, Roma, Helen, Denise, Annie, Steve, Peter and Liz et al: thank you for some wonderful memories and for reminding me where it all - kinda - seriously began.

PEACE BE WITH YOU

in celebration

Co-directing

The Desborough Suite

Maidenhead Town Hall

Raising money for the British Heart Foundation

In memory of CARL SMITER

the blanket play 2010

The Rock

(Fragment of a Ritual)

unmoved

from time without

end

you rest

there in the midst of the paths

in the midst of the winds

you rest

covered with the droppings of birds

grass growing from your feet

your head decked with the down of birds

you rest

in the midst of the winds

you wait

Aged one

[adapted from Alice C. Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, 'The Omaha Tribe', in Twenty-seventh Annual BAE Report, Washington D.C., 1911]

disposable-performance-cameras

three goldfish missing...

Photos: Daniel Austin

where's the goldfish kettle?

Photos: Daniel Austin

notes to a goldfish

Can you remember the instant you forgot the event of your birth? I cannot remember ever having been here before. I have always been here. Yes, I believe you. It seems to be about faith. In front of you, of course, you remember. Here I am, always being born. Watch me be born. I believe you! Yes, time is so swept up and for us, here, simply an ornament, where we are. In this dark, without windows, time serves to add decoration to a stage of untraceable events. And you must forget. Forget so that we can be born, together. I see through the glass. You must forget. Is that my purpose? To forget everything that has gone before, forget that things will keep happening after, to forget that I forget. Is forgetting possible in the water? The water will remember for us, remember so that we can forget. We ask that you truly forget your birth every minute to be born. And keep being born and untraceable and forgetting. Things will happen, you can be sure, but know there is nothing more than you and I, surrounded by the chaotic game of song and language tracing untraceable, unpredictable events.

TOMAS WEBER

understudy goldfish

Your understudy

Today your understudy will be playing you.
Do not be alarmed.
Your understudy will attempt to replicate your physical appearance
but please be patient.
Despite the best endeavours of the costume and make-up departments
your understudy may not quite achieve perfect physical verisimilitude
but, as time and budget will allow,
your understudy will aim
to give a reasonable number of people a reasonable impression of you.

Your understudy may make mistakes - please be patient.
S/he may not quite get your manner of greeting
the way you swing your bag as you walk
the way your hair curls gently on your shoulders
the way you sometimes snap or flirt
shade your eyes from the sun
or scrunch your face when you don't know something.
Your understudy has strict instructions
not to try to impersonate you but
to try to find your essence
not to wander off-script
not to compromise you with friends, lovers, family
by going in directions you would never explore.
Those that know you well may notice
some slight errors in your understudy's performance
(in the timbre of voice, in the delicacy of movement)
but please ask them to be polite.

And would it actually be so terrible
if your understudy stepped slightly
out of your careful little life
out of your tight routines, patterns, scenarios?
We've watched you exiting your house at 7:27 each morning for example
for precisely the same journey to work/school
sitting next to the same shy boy who smiles
but to whom you never say hello.
Say you are a B+ student and your understudy is an A?
Say you are a virgin and your understudy is
shall we say, a little more friendly in that department?
Would it be so terrible?

Let's face it
we've given you a perfectly good life
and maybe you're not using it properly
maybe you don't deserve this perfectly good life we've given you.
Maybe your understudy will be better than you at being you?
Do not be alarmed.
Today your understudy will be playing you.

JACQUELINE MEZEC

shalom 48

Photo: Bruce Liron

Dear Mr Wicks
Janette, Yildiz, Rachel, Jack, Andy,
Francesca, Lucy, Teal, Aaron, Craig,
Nathan, Steven, Robert, Josh
and Lawrence

THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH

I loved acting / performing / dancing / running / talking / improvising / playing / rehearsing / creating / doing / debating /and being scared - but good-scared - ALL OVER AGAIN.

It was a truly intense / experimental / exciting / experience for me; it had been too long...

I hope it was all as incredibly creative for you as it was for me.

SHALOM

D A N I E L