Becky Luffman (Set designer)
We’ve been building the set for the last three days, and it’s shaping up quite nicely. Having never even handled a handsaw before, I am learning a lot of things quite quickly. It’s great to watch the set being made, though seeing it in in reality is strange; my 2D sketches are now something that people – actor people – will actually need to walk around in. I just hope that once it is finished I can begin to get excited about the show happening, right now it’s more of an impatient child demanding my attention that I’m shushing with one hand as I drill with another. This is the first Playhouse show that I’ve been involved in, so the pressure is on!
Jack Sain (Director)
With less than two weeks to go, it’s quite a long time since I drifted into my friend’s room and told him about a play I thought was fantastic. Now we’re knee deep, I can’t believe so much has been achieved in such a relatively short space: Angels is an amazing play, but nothing if not a challenge.
DESIGN TEAM: “So does the Angel actually have to fly?”
ME: “Yes.”
DESIGN TEAM: “I don’t think that’s actually been done by students before, Jack.”
ME: “Cool.”
Asking a twenty-year old girl to play an octogenarian rabbi is equally hard, to say nothing of onstage nudity and putting some very confidently heterosexual men very far out of their comfort zones (which in fairness they’ve done with admirable zest). And it’s a brilliant play: I can shroud it in many layers of pseudo-intellectual bollocks, but that’s the simple fact. Yes, it’s about social issues, yes it’s about politics, yes it may cause some schoolboy giggling (bloody hope so too), but it’s also a really, good play. And that makes it all worth it: I’ve loved every second. Fingers crossed you guys do too.
Jessica Campbell (Associate Artist)
I came on board as the dubiously-named ‘associate artist’. It’s turning out to be one of the best roles in student theatre: helping with rehearsals, watching runs and offering comments – or keeping schtum as one sees fit. The Angels cast shows off the absolute best – though the seven (brutally charming) men outnumber the three (equally impressive) women, so one leaves the rehearsals drenched in thespian testosterone. The play’s homosexual relationships make for some of the most interesting confrontations and its surprising to see how even Oxford’s finest are at times unnerved by the gay scenes. In rehearsals these are often followed by a short exchange of notes from the lucky participants: ‘No more pre-kiss peanuts, ok?’, ‘No Thai sweet chilli crisps’, ‘Don’t be so awkward with your arms…’ I won’t reveal which performers test their heterosexual nerves, but rest assured, watching their relationships form and break apart is devastating – and also pretty sexy.
Holly Morse (Costumier)
The challenge: source costumes for a play set in 80s NYC featuring a fantastic array of characters including a rabbi, a drag queen, an Eskimo, an angel…. This should be easy, right? In the weeks leading up to opening night of Angels in America I have found myself doing some weird and wonderful things in the name of costume; spending hour after hour at the Oxfordshire Drama Wardrobe Collection and finding myself up a ladder in the National Theatre Wardrobe contemplating Eskimo costume (That’s right, they have more than one!) I’ve also became addicted to eBay, doing victory dances each time I win another unforgivably 80s item of clothing. At moments like these I’ve wondered whether this costume sourcing business is messing with my mind. I became sure of that fact when, on a freezing December morning, I got up at 5am to go costume hunting at a vintage market… in the dark. Everyone else had torches. FML. But it has not been in vain; the wardrobe for Angels in America is coming together beautifully. Bring on the quick changes!
Nathan Klein (Composer)
When composing to a deadline I am so terrified of not getting a good idea that as soon as one comes, getting it down in any shape or form has to be the only priority. I would love to say I’ve sketched melodies on matchbook boxes on the way to sessions at Abbey Road—as I am informed is a rite of passage for all the greats—but unfortunately I neither smoke (sorry girls), nor have the budget to record at such a premises (cheers Simon). Instead, I leg it from the piano to the computer, smash in the idea on my keyboard and sit in a euphoric state with the playback on loop.
Next the idea has to be developed. I find there is about a 30 minute time period from the initial conception where things happen, but after, a 3-5 hour break ensues as I force anyone within a mile radius to listen and praise (only praise is accepted at this fragile time). For these 30 minutes, you need tunnel vision. This works okay in Oxford as you can shut yourself away reasonably easily, but imagine the dilemma of a nagging family over Christmas. For these reasons, I entered my lowest state of creativity over the holidays by simply playing everything straight into Logic (the music software I use). So now 0th week must be spent re-interpreting all of the ideas onto paper so that others can interpret them into sound during the recording session in 1st week. I hear that this is a similar method to Hans Zimmer, except that he whistles around 3 notes into his iPhone and emails them off to an army of composers and orchestrators. Magically, an hour of music is spun out of those three notes. Clever idea. I wish I had an army of orchestrators. Any volunteers?
Katie Ebner-Landy (Marketing Associate)
As Marketing Associate, or using my preferred ex-title, “Stunt Manager”, I believed I wrangled myself one of the coolest roles in this production. Although I don’t quite pull any stunts – my original title was rebuked for this very reason – I have had the opportunity to organise a couple of events, about which the party planner in me gets quite excited.
I was keen to use some of the marketing to emphasise the political edge to Angels in America, and after bouncing around ridiculous ideas with Simon, we decided on three, relatively optimistic, objectives.
- Get the Union involved.
- Have a university wide “Queer Bop” in 1st week.
- Keep our print material in people’s wallets and out of the recycling bin.
Cue lots of carefully worded emails – be warned: don’t miss the Q off ‘LGBTQ’ – and meetings with senior Union officials. Objective 2 didn’t go fully to plan, Entz reps are actually much busier than I had previously assumed, but Objective 1 was achieved in its entirety. We have a partnered Union debate in 1st week: “THW be glad to have gay parents” and, although we didn’t get 38 colleges involved, we do have a series of collegiate LGBTQ events coming up, including a Queer Bop at Trinity. And, a deal at Angels cocktail bar in Jericho which is on our business cards. Just a heads up.
Hannah Hurley (Co-Producer)
Producing at this stage of a production is somewhat of an odd role to fill. Tuesday was spent papering Oxford with posters, whilst yesterday I was knee-deep in saw dust, helping make set. Of course, this follows months of preparation: in places, my endless to-do lists look utterly mad: comments about meeting playhouse staff and finding rehearsal rooms are in several places sat next to the phrases like ‘Find bald cap and call RE coffin.’
In general, these lists have been characteristic of my life for the last six months. Jack quite concisely told me that we absolutely needed to fly an angel in the playhouse and, in the same breath, asked for on-stage snow. Along with the Production Manager, we’ve so far managed to make both things happen. Snow machines, power tools and flying angels are just part of what has made this a wonderful show to produce; I just hope you enjoy the production as much as I’ve enjoyed the process.
Selali Fiamanya (Actor)
As the only science student in the play, and one of two who’s a Playhouse virgin, I figured I had some catching up to do. Affirmative action can only get you so far, y’know? It’s time to research how the pros get down. And who better to learn from than these cats, who are more comfortable on the Playhouse stage than in jumpers from this millennium. First things first: get a moleskine. All the best actors have moleskines. Secondly, I heard one of them talking about method acting. I gave it a go over the holidays, and I feel being caught by your father in his wife’s tights and heels watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s will not only make me a better actor, but a better person. Long live the theatre.
