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.