The Jungle Book: Now the fun starts

So it’s been a busy couple of weeks in the strange and exciting world of youth theatre. The auditions were fantastic and so much fun, lots of monkey-ing about to be had!! Then came Dan’s task of actually casting it, which I didn’t envy him having to do as there was lots of difficult decisions to be made, but in the end we were confident in the choices that had been made, now the fun could really begin. Me and Louise then spent the next couple of days sending out all of the Jungle Book information and PARTS to all the actors which was extremely exiting and everyone seemed genuinely happy with them which is always good to hear!

So we had a complete technical team list and a full cast list, it was time for the first rehearsal and read through!! The read through was fantastic and it was such a conformation that all of the right decisions had been made; it was also amazing to see the entire cast together in one space to really get an idea of the show.

Our second rehearsal was filled with exploring characters and generally creating the jungle in the theatre, pesky monkeys stealing shoes, the wolves holding them hostage and bears just minding there own business! All in all it was great to see the whole of youth theatre interacting with each other as their animal alter-ego’s! we also discovered some exciting physicality that could be used be used for the wolves and also Queen Cobra. Its nice to discover new things and watch as Dan creates something out of it.

So that’s us up to the day! Back to sourcing props and materials and everything we need to make such a huge production come to life!

Amy Pattison

Assistant Director

The Jungle Book: Auditions and Casting

The Auditions for the Jungle Book have gone fantastically well and we have a very strong cast all round.  Having the added complication of working out a cast for the Marwell version has been tricky and as ever with this fantastically talented group of young people, the decision making process is always very difficult and emotional.

But with the show now cast, we can finally let everyone know what they have got and that for me is when the show really starts to come alive. It is so important that the production goes beyond me as a director; creating a show is a collaborative process between the cast, the creative team, the stage management and ultimately the audience. This first stage of handing the responsibility of portraying each character from the page to an actor is one of the most important as the dynamic of the company and therefore the show is untimely affected by that combination of individuals.

And so it gives me great pleasure to list the company below:

Guy Anderson, Maddie Bidmead, Aidan Cooper, Millie Dale, Phoebe Dalgas, Lauren Davies, Millie Dowse, Grace Drinkwater, Benjamin Farnes, Jodie Farrell, Beth Folan, Olivia Forde, Lily French, Andrea Gillespie, Monica Greep, Richard Gunston, Conner Handstock, James Henderson, Gemma Higgins, Heidi Jones, Sydni Jones, Simon Keene, Ellie Kenna, Jonathon Knapp, Kate Koetsier, Farran Lee, Adam Leppard, Edie Lipton, Oliver Lyons, Tyler Maskall, Lucy Merry, Jessica Millicent, Anthony Moses, Daniel Page, Emily Pauley, Mollie Philips, Chelsea Quinn, Romalie Rees, Leah Reeves, Alana Sketcher, Ben Sutcliffe, Rejoice Tambayi, Izabella Tomassi, Lucy Warne, Isabel Wealleans, Catherine Wooldridge.

Daniel
PYT Director

The Jungle Book: pre-production

This week we have started rehearsals for our summer production of The Jungle Book, our very exciting promenade production taking place at Itchen Valley Country Park from the 2^nd – 7^th August. This first blog is a rundown of everything we have been up to over the last few months getting to this stage. We will then be regularly updating with all things Jungle Book and I hope that this will give you an insight into the backstage processes and what goes in to putting on a production with The Point Youth Theatre.

Pre-production on any show requires a lot of planning the logistics and also the dreaming up of many ideas. Before we can get creative however all the crucial jobs have to be done like sorting out budgets and writing contracts, then we can get on to thinking of far-fetched initial ideas - the early stages of projects like these are always extremely exciting!

Carl Davies, the designer and I did a site walk at Itchen Valley Country Park to work out the route of the performance and also decide locations for every scene. From here we could work out what kind of infrastructure is needed and more importantly, where in the park to put it! As we are creating a show outdoors we need to bring in all the necessary facilities for dressing rooms, production office, work spaces, toilets and interval setup, on top of all the set and LX. After this I was able to take the rest of the team round the site, Elliot our lighting designer and tech manager so that he can start thinking about all things electric and Ivan our Composer and MD so he can think about all things music.

So from then on it’s a cases of prioritising what we need and start the process of obtaining quotes and speaking to companies about how they might be able to help us with all this infrastructure. We are very fortunate to have RBS Scaffolding and Sellwood on board who are both supplying us with equipment in kind.  This sort of generosity is what make our shows on limited budgets possible.

Elliot and our technician Luke measured the whole site and mapped it out on an arial photograph of the park, this has proved a really useful task, and it made the project seem surprisingly less daunting as distances  between locations aren’t as long as I thought.

Also I have been talking to the guys at Aurora Metro Press.  They have decided that Neil’s script of The Jungle Book is going to be published for general release and they have asked to use our production as the published version, which is absolutely brilliant but means that I have had to sort out all the creative team and cast lists, images and content for the book so that it can be sorted, printed and published in time for the summer.

On top of all this we will also be performing a reduced version of the show with 6 actors at Marwell Wildlife for two weeks after the show at Itchen Valley.  This means casting two shows and sorting out everything for that alongside the Itchen Valley show!  We are very excited about having the opportunity to perform at such an amazing venue. This partnership meant that myself and some members of the Youth Theatre took a trip to Marwell as we needed photos for press and publicity. The whole team at Marwell were great and really supportive, we were met at the gate by head keeper Bill who walked us around the park, on our way we encountered a number of animals, and some got a little close for comfort as one member found when a giraffe dribbled down her neck! We also managed to take a look at the proposed site for the Marwell performance; it looks great and has a power supply which will keep Elliot more than happy.

The first few months leading up to a show are always pretty admin heavy, but also very exciting, and its during this time I get the creative team on board, who are:

Director - Daniel Hill

Designer - Carl Davies
Composer/Musical Director - Ivan Stott
Choreographer - Vicki Hargreaves
Fight Director - Hugo Jackson
Lighting Designer - Elliot Carmichael

Assistant Director - Amy Pattison

Assistant Musical Director - Marie Negus

Production Manager - Tim Slater

Technical Manager - Elliot Carmichael
Stage Managers - Tiff Jackson / Stacy Peters
Deputy Stage Manager - Louise Rickwood
Assistant Stage Managers - Lauren Banks / Claudia Hodgson / Amber Holland / Shante Nicholas
Costume Supervisor - Verity Sadler
Technicians - Josh Whittlesea / Luke Hornbuckle
Wardrobe Assistant - Zelina Rebeiro
Head Chaperon - Julie Folan

Rehearsal Production Assistant - Elliot Churcher

Rehearsal Directors Assistant - Daniel Fulton

Rehearsal Researcher - James Markiewicz

Daniel
PYT Director