Church Hall betwcen February and July. The characters chat before and after classes and, of eourse we see the classes in progress. It is basteally a com­edy but there Is a lot of pathos

and some tense moments. It would be possible to play just for laughs but that, I think, would be a mistake as the eharacters are well defined and each has a "story" to tell. The play would lose In richness if this aspect were glossed over. There is no story as such; the characters are presented and we get to know them In Increasing depth as the

play progresses. They all come to the class for some kind of therapy. as a break from their routine, or escape from some problem. For Mavis her greatest "buzz·, as she says, is to see

them enjoying themselves. The classes are easy-going and re-

STEPPING OUT by Richard Harris

Alan Kenworthy discusses his productiDnJor Guide Bridge

Theatre, Audenshaw, Manchester

M y wife has run tap dance class a

the theatre for some fou years and when MSteppin Out" became available. dealing as it does withJUs such a group of amateu dancers. it seemed read made for us. The cast calls for seven wome members of the class and on man. Mavis, the teaeher. an ex­pro daneer, and Glenda the pi­anist. We decided to cast fro daneers who eould act or acto who could dance, eonsidering I Impossible to train someon adequately in the rehearsal tim to do justice to the standar

nceded for thc finale. We hel~ two auditions. the first for aetin ability and a second for th dancing. We were fortunat

enough to be able to cast fro~ within the society apart fro one - Rose. a West Indian. Th London setting for the play Is ir ­

relevant so we set It locally thu

avoiding the additional unnec­essary problem of accent. The only one who had some trouble with her accent was Rose who. born locally, had to learn a plau­sible Caribbean accent! The form of the play Is simply a

series of classes held in a

lay Produced

Amateur Stage September 1990

fairs . She Is a compulsh~ forever with a waste- pape.­ket In her hand collectin reUe paekets. apple Sylvla's ehewing-gum and It upon herself to clean make eurtainsfor the v.;

and bring a fan. She is a fa" ous dresser and has social rations and an artifieial at:.

which Irritates the others. Interfering ways succeed I: &;

tlng everyone's baek up a t point and she is the cause: drama on two occasions, when she asks If "we are ba proper music or just the p In Glenda's presence, and a when she provokes Andy : . hysterical outburst of peru· anger. And yet the others moved to sympathy for her it Is revealed that hcr dau who is the same age as sh .. when she re-married, has eome the focal point of stepfather's life, leaVing Vera merely the home-maker. Maxine is a good dancer. bra, ­and pushy. She is In the trade and brings her busin the classes. forever flogging wares to the others. much to t..­disgust of the dlsappro , Glenda, She is a souree humour with her voluble s treaJ:' of Jewish self-deprecating bar. ­ter. For her the classes are 'oasis' in the midst of her hee work and despair of coping wit;:

her feckless stepson Wonder­boy', Andy is the most complex cha.:-· acter. She is a hopeless dancer lacking In self-confidence ane withdrawn. She devotes her llk to good works and charitab.c activities and comes to the class because it Is the only thing In the week she does for herself. We gather that hers Is an unhapp. marriage and that she is treated by her husband. Sill! makes tentative moves towards. friendship with Geoffrey. t.h.: other odd one out. Dorothy is another somewha:. pathetic character, Quite a gooC. dancer but given to wildly exa..; gerated movements. A danger over·actlng here. She is a sp ­ster devoted to looking after '

PAG:'­

laxed but the crunch comes when the class Is invited to per­form at a big Civle Charity Show and from then on they have to take their daneing mueh more seriously and 'step out' of them­

selves to produce a standard well above their norm. The comedy arises from the eharacters and their idiosyncra­des, the contrast of types and clash of personallcs:-MaviS. the teacher. must of course have good dancing abil ­Ity. She must also have author­Ity and be able to chivvy the class effectively. We must also believe she has the ability to bring the class to the high stan­dard required for the finale. She Is good-natured with the class but can be sharp when provoked and In one scene snaps under the stress of their mistakes and banter and the tension of a sus­pected, unwanted pregnancy. Sylvia is a souree of constant fun. She Is vulgar and outra­geously outspoken with a ready jokey comment for all situ­ations. She Is amply propor­tioned and must be prepared to joke about this too ­Sylvia (regarding herself unlov­Ingly in the mirror): "What's another word for grotesque?" . Rose: Think positive Sylvia: Right. You are positively grotesque. Vera Is the archetypal busybody with her nose In everyone's af­

aged mother. She is naive, al ­ways nice to everyone and has thc infuriating habit of echoing one's final words and even at times anticipating them. She is a source of much humour but care should be taken that she does not become caricature. Rose is a happy-go-lucky, un­complicated West Indian, an abandoned and untidy dancer. She refers to herself quite hap­pilyas "the tokcn spade". She is everybody's friend and a peace­maker. Wc fcltltwasessentlal to have a coloured girl play the part both for the contrast she brings and because the part would have had to be rewritten for a white actress. Lynne is a good dancer. As a young nurse she is the most straightforward character in the play, sweet, polite, providing a foil to the more exuberant char­acters. Geoffrey is an cnigmatlc charac­ter. He keeps to himsclf and is non-committal when asked for an opinion. Being the only man in the class he is often the bu tt of some indelicate humour which he takes in good part. However, when tackled about his detach­ment he defcnds himself sharply and takes pride in the fact that they know nothing about him. He has a rapport with the othcr loner, Andy, but this is not de­veloped. Glenda is a sort of second mother to Mavis and Is protec­tive towards her, which Mavis takes as interference. She Is cantankerous and given to sar­castic asidcs throughout the playas she reads or knits at the plano. She is prone to tantrums and at onc point stonns off stage when her playing is criticised . According to Sylvia she is "going through the change of key". Shc must be a good pianist, able to accompany tap. Dancing rehearsals started nine weeks before the show so that when acting rehearsals began four wccks latcr the dancing was already set and known and could be incorporated easily into the action. We had in all some fifty hours of acting rehearsal, the stage not being availablc until four weeks before the show because of the preceding pro­duction. We felt It was essential to perfect the dancing first so

that it could be "unlearned" for rehearsal in the play, shOwing a steady improvement as time progresses. What was interest­Ing was that characterisation developed in rehearsal so it as relkcted In the style of dancing.

Apart from two short tap rou­tines at the beginning of the play and the opening of the Stepping Out dance, which are taught by Mavis on stage as part of the script, the tap work is left to the choreographer. It is important to remcmber when setting the Stepping Out dance that refer­ences are made in the script to certain groupings as the dance is rehearsed, so thesc must be included in the chorcography. The encores and curtain call were incorporated in the final number as part of thc dance. The biggest problem with the costumes was gcttlng in and out of thcm during the brief fades between scencs . The cast ap­pears in outdoor clothing which must vary suitably from wintcr to summcr. Onec on stage they change into praeticc costumc ­leotards, leg-warmers, tap shoes etc. to reappear within seconds after the scene, oncc again in outdoor clothing or vice versa. All changes took place Immediately bchind the set with a team of helpers at hand. No time to get to the drcssing-rooml The most demanding changes wcre for the last two dances. Some of the cast had to part ­dress for the finale (fishnets, leotards) at the interval and cover this with practice drcss. Stepping Out simply ealled for blazers and cadies with black leotards. For the final number they had to put on a white

sleeveless shirt, open at the back, with white tie attached, and fastened with vclcro, plus a tail-coat and top hat - all in thirty secondsl For the music bctween scenes we made our own recording of tap-dancing to thc tune Happy Feet and for the two final dances we also made our own tapes to suit the choreography. We played Fred Astaire records be­fore the play and during thc interval. The set for 95% of the play is simplicity Itself. A drab Church Hall with a 14" platform upstage with a step across the width of the stage for easy acecss at any point. The 'fourth wall' is the mirror. Scattercd chairs, a pi­ano, a small table, a free-stand­ing notice board, and two heat­ers comprise the furnishing. 1\\10 entranccs, one stagc R from outside and one upstage into the dreSSing-room, and onc unused firc door stage L. The technical problcms come with the last two dance numbers when the set has to become the stage of the Civic Hall. For these the front curtains were drawn for the first time leaving thc 4'

apron in front of the curtain for dialogue betwccn Mavis and the lighting box prior to the dance. For this, the Stcpping Out dance, a blue tab curtain was drawn across the stage in front of the platform and black draped flats concealed the sides. Thc front curtain was drawn again at the end of the numbcr and while the stage was being set for the finale an amusing "fill-in" was

prOvided by Glenda appearing on the apron with a tea-tray, trying to get through the cur­tains in the dark, tormented by a mischievous follow-spot. For the grand finale, the top hat dance, the blue tabs had been drawn back to reveal a wall of glitter slash which had been set up during Stepping Out, and the side flats reversed to complete the glitter slash down the sides. The visual transformation with thc cast in pOSition in black tails and pink toppers, surrounded by glitter slash in full production number lighting, was stunning, and was achieved in thirty sec­ondsl To sum up, for us this play pro­vided a happy amalgam ofacting and dancing. It calls for good characterisation and slick danc­ing which must reach as near professional standard as pos­sible for the finale. This appears a year later at a second Charity Show where precision use of hats and canes and a more advanced pattern of movement and tapping ability must indi­cate their improvcmcnt over twelve months.

The enthusiastic response of the audience and near-capacity houscs over scven perform­anccs are a measure of the suc­ccss and appcal of this show. This was due in no small meas­urc to the team spirit and enthu­siasm of the cast itsclfwho with us enjoyed every moment of re­hcarsal and performance. It is a lot of funl o

Amateur Stage September 1990 PAGE 15