Jim Bywater

I've just taken part in my first workshop. The RNT are developing Michael Morpurgo's Story 'War Horse' for presentation in 2007. There are some brilliant life sized horse puppets and shadow puppets and fascinating use of video and computer graphics. It promises to be a theatrical extravaganza with content. Hope I'm not giving too much away.
Last Friday we went to see Stephen Berkoff in 'Massage', wot he wrote. He played a masseuse, resplendent with middle aged spread and a panto performance. Not brilliant - when he could have been. A disappointment!

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I went to see Bob Carlton's MacBeth at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch last night (Monday 20th March). It was set in a drug dealing, gangland world which, in my opinion, highlighted the cut-throat world of the mediaeval times in the original play. No show of nobility, apart from a smattering from Banquo. What a liberation for the actor - the freedom to play with the visceral, violent, sentimental, paranoid, scheming qualities in the characters; to feel the pressures that push them 'over the edge'.
The witches, part of the drug culture - dealers and users - use their drugs to produce Mac's visions towards the end of the play. Minimal music, guitar, violin and drums, provided atmosphere. I liked the set, too - minimal black, grey and white - austere yet grand. But, the pleasure with a production such as this, proving the quality of the writing - if proof were necessary - is that the language sits happily in the setting and is also liberated from the shackles of the 'Shakespearian performance' without having to sacrifice the pulse. Nice one, Bob.

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Do you know any exercises/drills to help an actor speak slower so that ALL the words are heard, particularly the important ones? Speaking louder seems to have helped - marginally. Only rote learning has made any significant difference and, no director has the time to learn an actor's lines - for the actor. Anybody???

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It's great working at the Queens Theatre. I started there in 2000, after an interminable period of unemployment. As a new member of the company of actor/musicians I appeared as Ernie Nearmiss in my first ever musical, 'BLITZ' by Lionel Bart and have , thanks to the patronage of Bob Carlton, the Queen's director, (no puns, please) ended up being the, sort of, resident TiE(Theatre in Education) adapter/writer/director.
I start my next assignment at the Queen's on Monday the 13th., directing Mark Wheeller's TiE piece called 'MISSING DAN NOLAN'. This wil be my seventh assignment directing for the TiE department. We've gathered a little pool of actors who are prepared to carry the set, costumes and sound gear from the van into the school, set it all up and then start performing at 9.30 am, bless them. It's very much a young person's job, more's the pity.

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