Interview with Nadine Beasley (12/ May/ 2011)

Tonight (Monday 23rd May 2011), Leicester's beloved Little Theatre opens its doord for its 1000th production. The production is Our Town, and I caught up with the director, Nadine Beasley, at a rehearsal of the play.
The production runs from tonight, the 23rd, to Sunday 28th May, and I would urge everyone to get down and see it! If you are intrested then follow the link.

My name is Nadine Beasley and I’m directing a play for the 1000th production of the Little Theatre. It’s a play by Thornton Wilder. It’s probably the most produced play in America. It’sa play about life in a small town in America- but it could be anywhere in the World. And it’s about life and how we live it, and how, whilst we live it, never see it. We never stop to see what’s going on. We’re all so busy with our life and what we’re interested in, we don’t actually notice people around us: People that we love and people that we don’t like very much. But life, very much, around us, until it’s too late.

What do fell contributes to its popularity?

Because it has so much in it. At its heart there is alove story of two young people who grew up together, who fall in love and marry. I’m not going to tell you what happens after that because I’m hoping people will see it, so I don’t want to ruin it for them. It’s a play we can all identify with. We’ve all done that, we all come from families; we all have that love within families, and then the problems within families when we grow older and want to do our own thing and our parents aren’t so keen on us doing that. And it’s just a play about life that we can all identify with but it’s done in an unusual way. I think that’s part of its strength. You’ll notice while watching, this is what you get. This isn’t just a rehearsal room- There is no scenery, very little scenery and very few props at all, they just mime what they’re doing. Thornton Wilder’s idea was that scenery blocks like small things in life stop us from seeing what is actually going on. He’s done it like this, so the actors actually have to tell the story. They can’t rely on the set they are given or the props they have to tell the story, they have to tell it themselves from they’re hearts. And that’s why it must be such a successful play.

Do you think that actually made it harder to cast some of the characters?

Not really, actually. I’ve been very lucky in that regard. I can see what you mean. It might have done. It might well have done because you need 23 people, for a start-23 people who can work without a set and without props and can mime. It was a huge ask, but I’m very lucky that lots of people wanted to be involved so I had a very good choice of people to choose from- and I’m very pleased with that.

This is the 1000th production. Was there any specific reason this play was chosen?

I don’t think so. I think when arranging a season of play here, the team that are choosing them that particular year will choose a selection of plays for the year and then they have to be put in order throughout the season and why they are put in a certain place depends on a lot of things. You can’t put two large cast plays together, because we don’t have enough people, perhaps. Or you can’t put two costume plays together because the wardrobe department would struggle. All sorts of reasons. Whether or not we have the rights to do it. Sometimes if there is a professional production of a play, we can only have right at certain times to do it. So there are lots of reasons as to what’s chosen. And we knew where the 1000th production had to go on, just happened to be this play.

Do feel that puts any extra pressure on the cast?

I’ve tried not to let that happen. And I’ve tried not to let that happen to the cast. I haven’t told them anything about what’s going on about the celebrations, because I don’t want them know who’s coming to see it or what’s going to happen, because I want them to give the same performance every night, regardless of who’s coming. There are a lot of people who have been invited. People who are have been very helpful to us over the years. Obviously as any company that reaches this milestone wants to celebrate it with people who have worked alongside you for a number of years.

Any chance of finding out who those people are?

No. *Laughs* Not because I’m keeping it a secret but because I’m not entirely sure I could remember the list.

 

Being so close to the opening show how prepared do you feel?

I think it’s going very well. Nerves start kicking
in a little bit at this stage. And you start wondering whether you’re going to get it right or not. But I think it’s going very well. When you’re in rehearsal you get to a stage, where the production really needs to go on stage. They get tired of rehearsing- They want to do it! And they will sometime get a bit tired. This hasn’t happened yet with them. They’re still on the up and they’re working very well. But we’re ready to go on stage, to get the lighting, and the sound and everything that goes with it which makes them feel more at home.

 

How consistent, and how professional do think the performances are, bearing in mind there is a large cast, with a large age difference?

That’s the one thing about theatre is that any production will have people of a variety of ages. So in a society like this, or any theatre company, you’ll have people in their 70’s who are close friends with people in their teens because what joins them together is their passion for what we do. It’s the passion for theatre. And age simply doesn’t matter. Age is irrelevant. What happens is that those with experience, and that’s not entirely related to age, they help those with less experience. And a lot of our younger actors, certainly our main two young actors, are just naturally talented.

What is your previous experience in theater and directing?

I’ve been doing theatre since I was 7- and I’m considerably older than that now. With this theatre, I can’t remember how many productions I’ve directed. I usually do large-cast plays. Ive done Voyage Round My Father, I’ve done Journey’s End, all sorts of productions here. This is probably my 15th or 16th play that I’ve directed here. I also act, and I’m a trustee of the theatre, so I’m very heavily involved, as are many castmembers here. I’ve got more directors in this play than you can shake a stick at. So they are all very experienced and very involved members of the theatre.

 

Could you give me one line to persuade people to come see Our Town at Little Theatre.

One line. It’s fantastic. It’s a brilliant production. Come and see it. Come and see live theatre.               

Interview with Gavin Smith (7/ May/ 2011)

Leicester's Starbase recently ran a Sci-Film Festival at Phoenix Sqare. Covering the event for the Wave, I met locally-based Sci-Fi author, Gavin Smith, who has just released his debut novel, Veteran. I took the opportunity to interview him. If you want more information you can visit his site here.   

Hi, my name is Gavin Smith. I’m a science-fiction author. My first book, ‘Veteran’ came out last June. The novel version of it is coming out next week. My second book, ‘War in Heaven,’ which is a follow up to Veteran is coming out in September, and as I said I am a science-fiction author based here in Leicester.

When did you first get into Sci-Fi?

A very, very young age. I’m from the Starwars generation, but it wasn’t actually Starwars that got me into Science Fiction. I grew up in Dundee in Scotland. My Gran used to come over and babysit for us on Friday nights and she worked, or knew people who worked, for one of the magazine publishers in Dundee, and they used to get DC and Marvel comics from America, which was like gold-dust in Scotland in the 70’s. So I think that was the first thing that got me interested, and then from there, Starwars came out. I’m now not a very big Starwars fan, but Starwars led me onto 2008D and 2008D to the whole world of literary Science Fiction. And come the 80’s we saw films like Terminator, which I’m introducing tonight, which I’m very excited about. So things got darker and more grittier and that was the sort of thing I was interested in much more than the shininess of say Starwars.

And what do you think really makes the Sci-Fi genre?

That’s a good question. It’s something a lot of people talk about. Particularly at conventions, and it’s something that I think I, as a writer, have got wrong because a lot of people feel its technology that leads the genre and I’m much more interested in the character side of it. So I think if you get your society and imagine what it’s going to be like with technology in that society and then you drop people in it to navigate it. It depends on how you look at it. There’s lots and lots of different types of science fiction- there’s room for it all. Personally, I just love it if there are spaceships and aliens. *laughing* A very simple approach to it.

Looking at today’s society, how close do you think we are to what Science-Fiction has been in the past?

I remember being in a nightclub just as it turned to the new millennium, and speaking to a friend of mine and going: “Where are the flying cars? Where are all the people wearing silver jumpsuits?” And a girl walked past us in a silver jump suit. So there! I don’t even think it’s before my time. I think in the early 80’s I was reading a lot of William Gibson and Walter Jon Williams, all the cyber-punk authors. Have a look at all the technology we’re using now, we are appear to be living in an almost cyber punk age, where we have very high technology, but at the same time we have serious societal problems with the ongoing recession, cultural wars, things like that. So I think Bryan O. said ‘A science fiction author’s job isn’t to predict, A science fiction author’s job is to warn.’ It’s not so much of a case of getting it right , you are living in the futre, you are living in a science fiction age now. But what would be brilliant, from my perspective, would be more space exploration. I would love to see that.

And in terms of Sci-Fi writing and films, what do you think we should be looking to avoid in the future?

What do I think we should be avoiding for the future? Things like Terminator and The Matrix, where the enemy is technology gone mad. I don’t think that’s something we need to necessarily worry about. I think our greatest enemy is going to be ourselves to some degree or another. My science fiction is quite slam-bang high adventure stuff, but in terms of warning, where the lust to make money overwhelms human compassion or care for our fellow people, I think any civilization should be judged on how it treats the least fortunate in that civilization.

Do you think science fiction is getting phased out (I did, in this question, quite ashamedly, mention X-Factor as being perceived as cool- Please don’t judge me!)?

No, I don’t think science fiction is getting phased out. In fact, it seems to me, since I was a kid, you go to a bookshop, there’s much more and much more varied science fiction, fantasy and horror available. Now X-Factor might be a popular show, but so is Doctor Who. If you look at the summer’s blockbusters, most, if not all of them, will be either science fiction or fantasy based, to some degree (Things like the next Pirates of the Carribean film; We just had Tron, Sucker Punch, things like that). So it’s difficult to imagine science fiction being phased out when we rule the cinema.

Wow! That’s a really good answer. So what do thing of all these new movies? Do you think all this, I’m going to say, technology, special features, everything, do you think that’s making Sci-Fi better or do you think it’s drawing away from the storyline?

That’s actually a very good question. I think one of the knock-on effects of Starwars is that science fiction cinema became about the cinema of spectacle. And it might have lost some of more science fiction elements in big starship fights and things like that. Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that! That’s why I think that the choice of films here, this weekend, has been excellent. Because if you have a look at them, they are all proper science fiction films. They are films that can be told in no other genre than science fiction. They’re some of the more surreal films. There’s a good mix of the classics and some of the newer films, like Moon, which is an incredible piece of work. Again, I think they’re both there, because for every third Matrix film there’s a Donnie Darko. So there’s room for all of it. In terms of computer generated graphics, I’ve heard a lot of people complain about it. I think it’s an amazing thing, because some of the really, really big stories in science fiction can now be shown on screen in a way that they wouldn’t be before.

As an author, would you want to see your books being produced for the cinema?

Yeah. Yeah, that would be great. Because when I write, I’m writing down the film that’s going on inside my head. There always a risk that you’re going to see and go: “That’s not what I saw in my head! It’s completely different to the way I imagined it.” No, but I would love to see that.

So do you prefer books or movies?

It’s two very different experiences. I don’t think it’s one thing or the other. It should be about both. Each one has its strengths.

What do you see as your next couple of ideas for books?

Right, I don’t actually tell me editors my ideas. I just give them a rough outline and then the completed book, hopefully before the deadline. But the next book is ‘War in Heaven,’ and that’s a follow-up to Veteran. It’s going on in the same universe, with some of the same characters. The book after that, I can tell you what it’s called, and I’m not even sure I’ve told be editor this. It’s called ‘Age of Scorpio.’ It’s in a completely different universe to what I’ve written before, and that’s probably all I can tell you.

There are no other hints you can drop?

                Umm…

One of the characters, maybe?

One of the character’s names or something like that? Yes, I think. One of the characters is almost certainly going to be a small lizard in a top hat.  

That’s really interesting. I think I’ll leave at that, before try to pry too much more out of you. Anyway it’s fantastic to meet you. And thank you for your time.

                Thank you. That’s actually the first interview I’ve ever done.