“Sewing up Loose Ends” series of articles

2014

2014 Jun

Jun 07 Sat

It’s going to be brand new, it’s going to be spectacular, it’s going to be the work of talented artists... and unlike the titular attire it’s actually going to exist. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Jigsaw Music Theatre’s latest production (and their last production assisted-directed by me): “The Emperor’s New Clothes”!

Jigsaw are back, following the success of March’s “The Firebird”, and it’s another fairytale, but this time it’ll be a Hans Christian Anderson one (as was 2011 Dec’s “The Snow Queen”), and performed outdoors (as was “The Snow Queen”), and entirely in song (in a Jigsaw first, for plays longer than five minutes anyway).

It’ll be performed by eager young actors (as was “The Snow Queen”) but not including me (I’m assisting‑directing and that’s totally a verb). Hopefully the weather will be kinder to us than it was for “The Snow Queen”.

But anyway, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is going to be performed in three different locations, one inside, two outside, in what may be a Jigsaw first. I’m still not sure what vain and vainglorious emperors have to do with WWI (perhaps it’s escapism from the horrors of history), but on Thursday Jul 03, it’ll be performed as part of the centenary concert at 7pm, at the Blue Coat Primary School on Walpole Street.

Then, on Saturday Jul 05, it’ll be performed three times: twice outside the town hall (at 11am and 11:45am), then as part of the Garden Quarter Remembers festival, on the Cambrian View stage at 1:30pm.

So, there are plenty of opportunities to see this magnificent creation. You’d have to be a fool not to!

Jun 16 Mon

Oh mercy, mercy, mercy me! I’ve just watched a run-through of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and that ending... half the kids don’t know the choreography, and even fewer know the words. The first performance is two weeks on Thursday in front of hundreds of people and I don’t want the Jigsaw name tarnished or the kids to make fools of themselves (except for our Emperor, of course - that’s kinda the crux of the story). What am I to do?

There’s little I can do. Little except trust that they’ll all take the time over the next couple of weeks to master their lines and cues and movements. There’s a little more I can do. While they’re waiting to go on, I can and will proffer a few words of encouragement and a few reminders to be loud as a lion, proud as a peacock, and (for the most part) face the front.

Beyond trust and verbiage, there’s nothing I can do. No reason to beat myself up about it. And no reason to beat the actors (metaphorically!) up about it either: it is true that we only blocked the finale on Saturday, and I know their youthful brains are really absorbent, even of the alliteration- and archaism-filled tongue-twisters I call lyrics, and they will make sure they’re fully prepared.

So now it’s time to relax, and anticipate the superbness of another Jigsaw show.

Note from Thursday 3rd July: They were superb. This article is just me being a drama queen.

2014 Jul

Jul 05 Sat

Jigsaw had three performances of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” today, as per the promotional poster I designed. Two were in front of the Town Hall; the other was on a temporary stage set up on Cambrian View for the Garden Quarter Remembers Festival commemorating the start of the Great War 100 years ago and celebrating the successes the eponymous suburb has enjoyed since. I guess in doing the festival gig Jigsaw were celebrating themselves: they are one of the greatest successes to originate from and rehearse in the area. While the Emperor’s finery may be illusion, Jigsaw’s is certainly not.

After the Jigsaw shows were all over, one of the cast told me that, as excellent as my lyrics were (his adjective), he hoped for even better ones next year. I suppose it’s a testament to how focussed Jigsaw are on the play at hand that very few of them know I won’t be coming back in September unless I have such a disastrous run of exam-results that no acceptable universities accept me. I am of course still happy to contribute the odd set of lyrics, and to design more posters and programmes, and I extend my offer of lyrics and designs to Jigsaw’s sister Quartz, and Jigsaw’s/Quartz’s next rehearsal should be before Freshers’ Week so I’ll probably be at both drama-groups one last time, but until then I have four things to say: “Thank you extremely very much”, “You’re exceedingly welcome”, “Goodbye”, and, in the words of Bachman-Turner Overdrive (covered by the act performing on the Cambrian View stage after Jigsaw), “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Jul 06 Sun

Below is a table listing every one of the twenty plays I’ve been involved in with Jigsaw Music Theatre (acting 2004-2012, assisting-directing 2012-2014) or its sister group Quartz Youth Theatre (acting 2013-2014). Not particularly rivetting reading, but it may of reference value. I apologise for my lack of precision (or any lack of accuracy) with some of the dates. Songs I lyricised are in this shade of blue.

#	Play		Performed
1	Big Nose		2005 Spring
I was a human cannonball in this play about a lonely circus clown.
2	Charlie Prince: Rock Idol of the Town		2006 Spring
An adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s short story “The Happy Prince”
3	The Twelve Days of Christmas		2006 Dec
I think it was about pagan winter festivities, though I played a professor.
4	Call to Merlin		2007 May 10-11
Looking at how Arthurian legend relates to the present day
5	The Invisible Girl		2008 Jan 16-17
A story about the elusive peace-maker between two hostile towns
6	Chester Mystery Plays 2008		2008 Jun 26 - Jul 19
Quinquennial biblical re-tellings with a community cast (I turned down being in the 2013 cycle)
7	1001 Nights		2009 Apr 01-02
I played Sinbad the Sailor and a guilt-stricken tailor.
8	The Canterbury Tales		2010 Feb 23-25
I lyricised “Chanticleer’s Song” for the Nun’s Priest’s Tale.
9	CMP Reprise: Noah’s Flood		2010 Jun 18-20
A repeat of a play from the 2008 cycle
10	The Crash of the Rhinos		2010 Jul 01-02, 04
An original tale celebrating an exhibition of rhinocerical sculptures
11	The Court of King Ludvig		2011 Feb 08-09
I lyricised “The Musicians’ Tango (The Rat Song)” for this original comedy.
12	The Insect Circus		2011 Jun 18-19
I played a sadistic wasp-tamer.
13	More Than Salt		2011 Aug 04
Jigsaw were invited down to Porthleven to devise this fairy-tale with ISTA.
14	The Snow Queen		2011 Dec 08-09
A Hans Christian Anderson adaptation performed on Eastgate Street (Chester), in literal snow!
15	Unsinkable		2012 May 28-31
A collaboration with Theatre in the Quarter and the Hammond School, on the Titanic
16	CMP Reprise: Noah’s Flood		2012 Jun
Another repeat from 2008, though I was promoted to playing Cam, son of Noah

17	Ghosts of the City	2013 Feb 07-08
This collection of local lore was my first production as assistant director; I also lyricised “Ace of Hearts” and designed the poster and programme.
18	The Firebird	2014 Mar 04-05
A Russian folk-tale for which I was assistant-director, designed the poster and programme, and lyricised “The Golden Garden”, “She Enters Her Wonderful Garden”, “Heaven For Me”, and “Turn His Death Around”.
19	Masque	2014 Apr 08-09, 11-12
Not Jigsaw, but its newly-formed sister Quartz Youth Theatre, with a piece on the English Civil War that I performed in and did the poster and programme for
20	The Emperor’s New Clothes	2014 Jul 03, 05
Entirely in song, and 49% lyricised by me (including such scenes as “Enter the Emperor”, “You’ll Have What You Deserve”, “The Tricksters’ Escape”, and “Procession and Outcome”). I also assisted-directed, and designed the poster and programme.

Fun fact: Jigsaw does not have its own website (neither does Quartz for that matter); googling “Jigsaw Music Theatre” (with quotes) yields 66 web results, of which I’m responsible for three, 268 image results, of which I’m responsible for 33, and five video results, of which I’m responsible for five. See the website of TiQ, the umbrella-group for Jigsaw and Quartz, and that of the Chester Chronicle for official updates.

Years after I stopped writing the Childhood Blog, I made a more comprehensive catalogue of my TiQ endeavours.

Jul 09 Wed

In case it’s not clear, this song is about me graduating from my high school - the King’s School Chester - and therefore leaving the drama-groups Jigsaw Music Theatre and Quartz Youth Theatre (whose parent organization is Theatre in the Quarter). As a classicist, I’m comparing myself to the mythical figure Aeneas deserting the Carthaginian queen Dido.

2014 Aug

2014 Aug 14

A-level results came out today, which is nice. Nice in the sense that I fulfilled my desire to know my results, and also in the sense that they were nice results. Latin was an “A”; Maths and Physics were “B”s: I’d done well enough in Maths last year to preemptively compensate for an atrocious performance in that subject this year. I think the exam-board’s to blame for getting the balance of easy, intermediate, and advanced questions wrong in the Core 3 and 4 papers. (If you get the chance and the desire, see Question 8 of the Core 4 EdExcel paper. Nasty.)

The good news is that my preferred uni, St Andrews, seems to have also noticed this, and reduced entry requirements as a result. Thus I’m in, with an “A” in Latin and “B”s in Physics and Mathematics. Yippee! Laetissimus sum, είμαι χαρούμενωτερος, and A’m vera blithe. Strangely enough, the Scots translation of “I’m very happy” is the one I’m least confident with.