WHAT A YEAR
by Max Brandt
Week production and sometimes we would love to say that we just sit back and relax. Not so, unfortunately, and even less so this past year. We usually do have a small break after a show then have the wash-up meeting, where we discuss the good, the indifferent and the points-to- improve-upon and elect which charities and causes we are going to support that year. We already know what our next DSW production will be. After ‘King Lear’ in 2013, we knew that this year it would be ‘The Taming of the shrew’ and that Jane Windsor- smith, this year’s director, would be using Commedia Dell’arte to enhance and excite the production – more of that anon. However, for reasons too
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convoluted to go into here, instead of resting on our laurels, we decided to take a production on tour through the winter months. We settled on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’; perverse, perhaps, considering the time of year, yet it seemed oddly appropriate. We
IT’S BEEN!
eople often ask us what we do between each Dartmouth Shakespeare
took the show to Hazelwood House, the Bike Shed Theatre in Exeter and finally, at the beginning of May this year, we played the final performance, promenade style, in two and a half acres of gardens and woodlands at Hole Farm, near Newton Abbott. This show was put on specifically to support Rowcroft Hospice.
of effort that went into getting that show on the road! What else? Oh yes. We had also decided that it would be a brilliant to work with Royal Shakespeare Company again. so we filled in all the forms, went to the meetings and, happy to say, we are once again affiliated to the RsC for the next three years. We have already attended some superb workshops at the sherman in Cardiff with some of the foremost theatrical practitioners in england – probably the world! – and we have the honour of hosting, at points over the next three months, Michael Corbidge, one of the country’s finest text coaches. Thoroughly nice bloke, too! We have, as part of our remit for
To say the tour was a success
would be to understate the case and the last show was entirely magical, despite the fact that we had already launched rehearsals for The shrew and many of the cast of The Dream were involved in that process too. We succeeded in raising over £400 for Rowcroft – worth every ounce
RsC collaboration, been working with external facilitators to help us brush up on our physical theatre skills. This is particularly relevant for this year’s production, because Commedia Dell’arte is, in its purest form, complex mime and physical theatre of the highest order. It’s pretty funny as well. We’ve spent the winter months learning an huge amount from some very special people. What else have we achieved?
Well, we launched the Inn Theatre Company Bursary for Young People. As mentioned earlier, we always support local charities and causes after each DsW, but we got to thinking: wouldn’t it be great to support a youngster in some way; one who is passionate about performance in theatre or musical theatre and help them achieve their goal? We discussed the parameters of the Bursary and what we came up with, we think, is something genuinely helpful. As a company, we have always strived to encourage and support local youth
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