The
Barn Theatre,
25 Bluehouse Lane, Oxted, Surrey
RH8 0AA.
Tel:
01883 713669
Email: Barntheatre
@btinternet.com
The
Young Oxted Players
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THE YOUNG OXTED PLAYERS SUMMER WORKSHOPS
Director - David RowanThe Oxted Players have been arranging Summer Workshops for the younger members of the Society since 1999. We were extremely fortunate to be put in touch with David whose first project for The Young Oxted Players was adapting The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe with 24 children taking part. This was the fist public performance by The Young Oxted Players and followed some "brainstorming" sessions to ascertain just what our young members wanted from their Society. Each year since they have suggested what should be done, and each year David has managed to provide us with a suitable script.
First of all they want to have fun - and even with the numbers growing steadily each year, David has kept them amused but busy, giving them all a sense of their own achievements and a wonderful grounding in theatre stagecraft.
The children really work well together as a team and get heavily involved with his or her own part contributing to the portrayal of the character, helping each other with ideas. David is always willing to listen and to incorporate the ideas flowing from the children. On occasion our young members get the opportunity to take part in one of our adult productions and it is due to David's introduction to stage craft and theatre work that shows through when they audition for those roles.
In 2000 David adapted The Jungle Book - an ideal classic - with 21 Young Players on stage and two behind the scenes involved in Lighting and Sound. The NODA rep wrote - "I was very impressed with the standard that had been achieved in the short period that had been allowed for casting, rehearsing and finally performing".
Just William was the choice for 2001. Every one of the children taking part had a speaking role and David had cleverly cast four boys in the main character part of William. The twenty five children played fifty five parts (including three trees) with two boys taking four different parts each with four different costumes! Again we involved the children in back stage duties - Stage Manager and Sound, with two others assisting Front of House.
The Marvellous Land of Oz was the popular choice for 2002 with twenty seven children - the word is getting around! One of David's great assets is the ability to involve every member of the workshop - sharing out the major roles, some main parts being played by two children, some children playing two parts. Even with the classics he has captured the imagination of the youngsters by introducing modern characters, such as for this production Poosh, Sportee, Babee Scaree and Sergeant Spears.
2003 saw a very clever adaptation of the well known Robin Hood tales - the title chosen was Robin Hood and the Children of Sherwood thereby providing the opportunity for many parts, keeping twenty three children fully involved in twenty eight parts.
The children met our challenge in 2004 with a wonderful interpretation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. David coped magnificently with thirty three children on stage, again each one having his or her own part with one or two of the main characters being played by two different actors - four actors taking the part of Puck!
August 2005 saw David's adaptation of Animal Farm - another demanding script. Our numbers are increasing - thirty five children took part, again each with a speaking part and costume. It was rewarding to see how the children coped with the animal/human aspect of their characters, at times emotional, strong, weak and humorous.
Our summer workshops are getting more and more popular with the children. David brings out the best in them - they have lots of fun while learning not only to be in front of an audience but some of the children are showing an ability for humour, others very dramatic roles. The attempt at Shakespeare in particular was particularly pleasing for the Society. It is obvious that we have outstanding talented future adult Players. Some of the youngsters have been in every one of David's productions and indeed summer family holidays are planned to avoid the last week in August.
Music also plays a large part in the productions - again David's talent shows in this area - while the children thoroughly enjoy dressing up. The Society is very fortunate to have a fairly extensive wardrobe, and the adults have had almost as much pleasure finding suitable costumes for the varying roles over the years as the children.
A read through of David's script is held on the Sunday afternoon, the Workshops running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. A Dress Rehearsal is held on the Saturday afternoon or morning, with the performance starting at 7 p.m. on the Saturday evening. It is a very busy and tiring week, but the pleasure and satisfaction everyone gains after the performance is huge.
Muriel Lister August 2006.
