KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN by Kander amp Ebb

James Cross discusses his production for HumDrum AmDram at the New Theatre Royal Portsmouth

100 YEARSHisTORY~~ On the 6 August 1900 the ew TheHre Royal in Portsmouth was reshyopened fter Frank Mltcham completed its third major redesisn Nearly 2000 people filled tile baroque-rococo auditorium to see Sudermanns Mflgdfl on th 65ft deep stage

In rapid succe5poundion the grea t actors perfomled there Sarah Bernhardt Henry Irving John Gielgud In 1932 as w ith Ports mouth s Princes and Kings thea tres t 0 years ea rlier the Royal was converted to II tearshyprolcction cinema In 1948 the bui ding -vas le-opened as a va riety thea tre but wa s given over to wres tling (with sating and rin~ on the middottage) until its closure in 1966 O er fhe n x t SIX ca rs thIeves removed most of the orlss ancllend Ittings

In ovember 1972 chi ldren broke into the building and firt-vorks middotvere rclc~ sed on the stilge destroying the stage roof and techJlica l block The fo llowing year vandals des troyed the bulk at the plas terwork in the audituriulll

The New Theat re Royal Trustees purchased the building in 1980 and have commenced rEs toratlon A temporary s tage was built in front of the prosceniu m arch and the theatre can nOW hos t 00 people sea ted in the stalls and its first ticr

HumDrum AmDram has used the New Theatre Royal Portsmouth since the group was formd in 1993 Th is July we presented Kandel amp Ebbs Kiss of the Spider Woman our 14th show

During the week of the sow the Arts Council ilnnounced that both of Portsmouths remaining venues the New Thea tre Royal and the Kings wCre no longer to be considered lor Lottery hlnding This news was a terrib le blow to our members having seen such grea t improvements in the thea tres facilities Local press coverag proved to be 1 doublcshyedged sword while milny people were determined to support the theatre by att(nding our performance that we(k others assumed the building has already closed

CHOOSIN~~ HumDrum is a re latively young and small theatre company The group was formed with three main aims to improve the performance skills of its members to portray well-known pieces in a new light and to bring under-produced works into the City of Portsmouth HumDrum has specialised in small-scale presentations of musicals and plays from Stephen Sondheims Illto tIle Wnods to Willy Russells Shirley Vaell fine

Kiss of the Spider Woman was first suggested to us folluwing our second presentation It has a smilll cast of six men (two non-s inging) and three women plus a chorus of malE prisoners and at the time was ideal

for a company of our size We firs t sought to perform Kiss of tile Spider Wamnll in 1995 and three veals later we were info rmed that permiSSion could be granted

Without being hassled by the female membership the director and choreogra pher wove severa I additional women into the shows fantasy scenes bringing the entire cas t to a total of 24 Further de tails on fanta sy women to follow

It should be noted that it is becoming increasingly difficult to select smallshysca le musica l pieces that will ensure reasonable audience figures We would welcome nny sLlggestions from similar groups

Kander ilnd Ebb and their director Harold Prince developed this musical version of Manuel Puigs dark novel through a series of workshops in 1992 After the shows initial development Kiss of tile Spider Womall was tlken from Canada to the UK The show immediately won the Evening Standards wltud for Best Musical

The novel concentrates o n two characters sharing a South American priso n cell Molina a 37 year-old gay wi ndow dresser and Vlentrn a young politicil l activist As the novel closes Molina declares that he is the Spider Woman waitin) for mCn to become trapped in hIS web The

subsequent film with the same title casts Valentins upper class girlfriend Marta in the role of the Spider Woman and won an Oscar for William Hurst for his portrayal of Molina

Molina survives within the jail through a series of fantasies about his screen heroine Aurora In one of he r films Aurora played the Spider Woman who brought death to everyone she kissed Molina believes that the Spider Woman will one-day ki ss him

At a crucial turning point Valentin decides to ignore his dis trust of and distaste for Molina and embrace him Once hes been kissed Molina now released from prison passes vital information from Vakntin to MMta

THE LOVE SCENE Ask any hot-blooded malt actor if he would like one of two lead ing roles that encompass nearlv all of the dialogue and most of the songs in a musica l ~nd his answer will probably be yes Then tell him that half way through Act II he will kiss another male actor in front of his mother (in the audience) Meanwhile tell one of them that he must remove his trousers and underwear during the first act to be cleaned by the other acto r after being seriously poisoned by the Prison Warden Are they still interested

This is a g ritty piece of thea tre that makes no concession to hide the

brutalitv within the prison There it

marked contrast between the physical ordeal of prison over-crowding and the perceived tenderness tha t grows between the two men Sccncs of violent beatings are interlaced with epic musica l scenes from 305 movies - bound together by Aurora the Spider Woman

HumDrum was formed when two groups of fricnds were brought toge ther to produce the 70s musicd Godspdl As the company has grown our dirEC tors hilve continued to select the mOst suitable people for each rol on the basis of merit ability and artistic development ew membcrs are genera lly encouraged to meet the existing cast l nd crew before joining the group and usua ll y work backstage during a performance before being cast Tn this way they are introduced to our resident directo rs lnd choreographer and can disc uss the ir aspirations and previous experience

Whilst one of HumDrums original members was asked to crea te the character of Molina his counterpart Valentin was played by a recent recruit in his second musica l role As one of our main aims we success hlllv coached this perfo rmers vocal technique and skills during the rehearsal period The part of Aurora requires a female range down to the E berow middle C (in fact the entire Plrt is scored Bba) As with Valentin we cast an actress who has been with HumDrum a coup le of years thoug h she has a g rea t deal o f experience in musica l thea tre having worked with many amateur companies within driving d ista nce of Portsmouth

There are fo ur other main singing characters within the piece two women Molinas mother and Marta and two men the Prison Warden and Molina s former cell mate Gabriel

bullbull With only one relatively large-sca le musical per year HumDrum was keen to ensu re that the female members were given the opportunity to perform The director wrestled with the notion for many months wh ile reading the script

Most people wo uld agree tha t it is inappropriate simply to include extra people in the cast solely because your membership exceeds the number of characters

Whilst listening to the score the choreographer began to see images of lavish l3usby BerKley mOVIes and It was suggested that a limited number of women were included as Auroras on-screen entou rage Six of the major production numbers could readily include these ladies without detracting from the rea lity of Molinas fantasy life

It should be noted that while the main characters and to a certain ex tent the male prisoners were aware of the

NOVEMBER 16

twists and turns in the sto ry the fat broads in leotards (as they lovingly dubbed themselves) throu gth a ttending sepa rate danCe) rehearsals found themselves working in almos t complete isolation from the plot Of co urse this was the directors intention as they only appeared while Molina as re la ting a lllo vic to Valentin

The girl s noted that they were simply used as moving scenery - some thing pre tty to look at however if an yone e lse referred to them b their ow n pe t-name they had a tendency to become as violent as th prisoners played by the men

Though the directors worried bout the ir addition of female scenery the aud ience Sen- thenl as an cx tension of Aurora fI part of Mo linas v iv id iInagination

MAKING lli Seven month s of p lann ing fi ve months of rehearsal two hec tic days of get-in techn ical rehearsal and last minute costume alte rations brought Spider WVlllnn to its iirst pe rformance 1[os t of the de tails will b familiar to an y amateur theatre conlpilny however it is unusual to work on a perfonnClncc space vith no wings no flies and no dow n-s ta ge access

The back stage at the 1 ew TheatrL Royl fit s below the orig ina l p roscenium rch It extends forward approximately 20 fmiddot t into the stall s and filns out below tilt now unused boxes (a pair on both s tage left and ri ght) Towards the front the s tage is tapered to permit audiencE aCcess to fire escapes This is also the only way that the actors can approach the stage climbing treads up to the acting area

ModiJiClt1tions to the building four yea rs ltlgo (due to fire regulations) mean tha t the audience in the first tier ca n a lso u e the s talls stage le ft em rgency exit This new ro ute runs behind the Dress C ircle boxes with a dear view of the s tage With a clever combinMion of custom-built blocks and scaffolding the director requested a rmsed s tage left entrance to a fourshyfoot deep platform running the entire width o f the s tage At the stage left end o f thls platform a set of treads was placed runnin g out towards the front of the s tage

Of course when the scaffold was brought to the theatre a few critical pieces vere n1iss ing We ere incredibly pleased when our friendly scffolde r who had g iven up his Sunday morning lie- in loaned us the missing pieces This fortunately was our only panic The scaffo ld was complete within two hours of entering the building and the treads and walkway from the stage le ft box complete by noon While the stage

~VEMBER

wilS beinQ painted and va rni shed with acryhc (to keep the pa int where we wanted it) the lights and sound were rigged and by 3 pm the cast called to work through the technic1 rehea rsal

--E---~-

THE BORING BIT- Half an hour late r the cas t were of course bored by the technical people While everyone understands tha t it is important to make sure that the actors are correc tly lit this can be quite tedioLls A large spider web was pa inted in white UV paint across the black floor and w hite cyclorama such that it would glow under UV lipht Of course so did the white underwear wo rn by the dancin g g irlies - a good job they attended the tech rehearsill

With the lightinlt queues programmed the gain on the radIO mics set correctly and the Cilst in black underwear a half hOLlr break was ta ken and by 730 pm - around 12 hours since the thea tre doors were opened - we ran a fuJI dressed rchea rScll

Sunday evenings rehea rsa l brough t a few Froblems out in the open As usua I not enough time -Vcl S ( lIoved to make entrances - given the climb out the box ac ross a two foot wide seven foo t high walkwav onto the rea r pla tform or the mad dilsh into the sta lls to access the stage The South Amer ican cicad a sound effect p layed throug h a Ro land MS-1 sa mpler tended to appear during the wrong moments And as for the two shooting scenes

The Warden releases Molina so tht he ca n visit his sick mother in the hope that cruciil l information will be passed fro m Va lentin to the resistan l Once Molina has made his te lephone call he is captured and brought before Valentin The Warden threa tens to shoot Molina (Talk you fing fa~got Or Ill blow your fing head off) unless he names Valentins contact

Valentin begs Molina to co nfpss however Molina only replies with I love you at which point the Warden kills hun

Afte r Molinas death we see a reshyenactment of his last moments as per a 30s movie culminilting with the Warden shooting Molina who then receives the Kiss of the Spider Woman

Originally we were going to use a s tarting pis tol for these shootings Three years ago HumDrum used one for off-s tage shots in A Little Night Nlusic During one performance the

pistol jammed and Frederik had to take the outcome of his due l We were ve ry worried about syncing an off-stage g unshot with an on-stage actor (obvious ly he could not hold Ifie pistol to Molinas temple and fire it) and optpd to use th e sampler Recorded gunshots must be played very loud to give the correct effect shyhence the problems when the crickets wouldnt be quieti

The only other sound problem was the DJ in the pub nex t door using a radio mic on the same frequency as one of ours i1l1d the occilslOnal taxi radio il nd mobile telephone caus ing disturbing inte rference These problems were readily sorted o ut but had us worried for a couple of hours

The love scene rehelaquorsed in seclus ion during the month before the show doubled in leng th once the g uys had plucked up eno ugh courage to pe rform it in front of the res t of the compan y much to the a rmoyance of the Musical Director who had to hastil y rev ise the scene s unde rscoring

If th Y were worried about nudity and kiss ing it did not show These are issues not often tackled by amateur companies and it seemed that Spider W Ollltlll wo uld open w itho ut any hi tches

A m ajor pa rt o f the budget for HumDrum 5 shows is no rmal ry spent on ad vertising We felt that we now had it large enough audierlce base to sta rt to rely 0 11 past ticke t sales and word o f mouth Of course Spider WOlllan was p romoted locall y through the media and use of posters and handbills We were delighted to find tha t our figures w ere up on the prcvioll middot years Jnus icat and as the smoke effec t cleared on o pening night we could tell tha t we had a decent ho use

Given the nature of the performance space the Dre Circle is only a dozen feet fro m the front of the stage As the first few notes of the Prologue were heard the cas t could see the whites of the a ud iences eyes through the smoke Though unnerving for om newcomers this gives the cas t and audience an incredible intimacy not normall y experienced in it Victorian theatre

The reviews in the loca l press ranged from a factua l HumDrum AmDrams producti on makes effective use of the limited New Thea tre Roya l stage to a jubilant The result is an oddshycouple romance as the cellma tes dis ilke and d istrus t gives way to love and respec t with spectacula r musical interludes

The audience reac tio n was also mixed Many people were unprepa red for ha rd-hitting theatre po rtra y ing gove rnmenta l killings gay men ilnd manipulating charnc te rs Musica l the tre is supposed to be a combina tion of light and frothy songs and eas il y unders tood chilracte rs Others were engrossed in the story delighting in the so ngs and surprised by the chOleography But no one sa id it was bad ly staged poorly pe rfo rmed or let down by the technical aspects

For all of the New Theatre Royal5 difficulties this is a working theatre with amnteur reperto ry and

profess iona l perfo rmances We were contracted to be out of the building by midnig ht of our last show

HumDrum has a his torv of everyo ne pitching in and a tter d quick ce lebratory drink in the theatre bar the entire ca s t and crew wo rked toge ther to un-rig the sound and lights dismantle the se t and clear the d res ing rooms Since the thea tre is in the middle of one of Portsmouths busiest night time areas (with owr a dozen pubs in the block) we were permitted to remove the dismantled set first thing Sunday mo rning wh ile the next company m oved in That afternoon the company gathe red for its traditional afte r show Sunday lunch - this time a barbecue in the co untry followed by a game o f ro unders using a piece of scaffold offshycut as a bat

Two days to get the show into the theatre Total get-o ut time two and a half hours

ANAFTERT~ Next year the Royal Shakespeare Company is bringing Taming of the Shrew to o ur city Neithe r o f Portsmouths hvo historica l buildings will hos t this presentation Ins teild the RSC will perform in the Citys main sports complex In the meantime o ver pound70m of Lo ttery ass isted money is be ing spent on a vertical drop ride ilnd shopping complex a t the ha rbour en trance

For further d eta ils conc rni ng the New Thea tre Royal please call Mr Gareth Vaughn on (023) 9264 6477 Fo r further in formation abo ut HumDrum AmDram visit wwwhantsorguk humdrum

All SCRIPTS SCORES AND LIBRETTI FEATURED IN

THE PLAY PRODUCED AND THE MU ICAl P ODUCED

CAN 8TA OM

TEL 0171-837-5655 FAX 0171-833-0609

17

twists and turns in the sto ry the fat broads in leotards (as they lovingly dubbed themselves) throu gth a ttending sepa rate danCe) rehearsals found themselves working in almos t complete isolation from the plot Of co urse this was the directors intention as they only appeared while Molina as re la ting a lllo vic to Valentin

The girl s noted that they were simply used as moving scenery - some thing pre tty to look at however if an yone e lse referred to them b their ow n pe t-name they had a tendency to become as violent as th prisoners played by the men

Though the directors worried bout the ir addition of female scenery the aud ience Sen- thenl as an cx tension of Aurora fI part of Mo linas v iv id iInagination

MAKING lli Seven month s of p lann ing fi ve months of rehearsal two hec tic days of get-in techn ical rehearsal and last minute costume alte rations brought Spider WVlllnn to its iirst pe rformance 1[os t of the de tails will b familiar to an y amateur theatre conlpilny however it is unusual to work on a perfonnClncc space vith no wings no flies and no dow n-s ta ge access

The back stage at the 1 ew TheatrL Royl fit s below the orig ina l p roscenium rch It extends forward approximately 20 fmiddot t into the stall s and filns out below tilt now unused boxes (a pair on both s tage left and ri ght) Towards the front the s tage is tapered to permit audiencE aCcess to fire escapes This is also the only way that the actors can approach the stage climbing treads up to the acting area

ModiJiClt1tions to the building four yea rs ltlgo (due to fire regulations) mean tha t the audience in the first tier ca n a lso u e the s talls stage le ft em rgency exit This new ro ute runs behind the Dress C ircle boxes with a dear view of the s tage With a clever combinMion of custom-built blocks and scaffolding the director requested a rmsed s tage left entrance to a fourshyfoot deep platform running the entire width o f the s tage At the stage left end o f thls platform a set of treads was placed runnin g out towards the front of the s tage

Of course when the scaffold was brought to the theatre a few critical pieces vere n1iss ing We ere incredibly pleased when our friendly scffolde r who had g iven up his Sunday morning lie- in loaned us the missing pieces This fortunately was our only panic The scaffo ld was complete within two hours of entering the building and the treads and walkway from the stage le ft box complete by noon While the stage

~VEMBER

wilS beinQ painted and va rni shed with acryhc (to keep the pa int where we wanted it) the lights and sound were rigged and by 3 pm the cast called to work through the technic1 rehea rsal

--E---~-

THE BORING BIT- Half an hour late r the cas t were of course bored by the technical people While everyone understands tha t it is important to make sure that the actors are correc tly lit this can be quite tedioLls A large spider web was pa inted in white UV paint across the black floor and w hite cyclorama such that it would glow under UV lipht Of course so did the white underwear wo rn by the dancin g g irlies - a good job they attended the tech rehearsill

With the lightinlt queues programmed the gain on the radIO mics set correctly and the Cilst in black underwear a half hOLlr break was ta ken and by 730 pm - around 12 hours since the thea tre doors were opened - we ran a fuJI dressed rchea rScll

Sunday evenings rehea rsa l brough t a few Froblems out in the open As usua I not enough time -Vcl S ( lIoved to make entrances - given the climb out the box ac ross a two foot wide seven foo t high walkwav onto the rea r pla tform or the mad dilsh into the sta lls to access the stage The South Amer ican cicad a sound effect p layed throug h a Ro land MS-1 sa mpler tended to appear during the wrong moments And as for the two shooting scenes

The Warden releases Molina so tht he ca n visit his sick mother in the hope that cruciil l information will be passed fro m Va lentin to the resistan l Once Molina has made his te lephone call he is captured and brought before Valentin The Warden threa tens to shoot Molina (Talk you fing fa~got Or Ill blow your fing head off) unless he names Valentins contact

Valentin begs Molina to co nfpss however Molina only replies with I love you at which point the Warden kills hun

Afte r Molinas death we see a reshyenactment of his last moments as per a 30s movie culminilting with the Warden shooting Molina who then receives the Kiss of the Spider Woman

Originally we were going to use a s tarting pis tol for these shootings Three years ago HumDrum used one for off-s tage shots in A Little Night Nlusic During one performance the

pistol jammed and Frederik had to take the outcome of his due l We were ve ry worried about syncing an off-stage g unshot with an on-stage actor (obvious ly he could not hold Ifie pistol to Molinas temple and fire it) and optpd to use th e sampler Recorded gunshots must be played very loud to give the correct effect shyhence the problems when the crickets wouldnt be quieti

The only other sound problem was the DJ in the pub nex t door using a radio mic on the same frequency as one of ours i1l1d the occilslOnal taxi radio il nd mobile telephone caus ing disturbing inte rference These problems were readily sorted o ut but had us worried for a couple of hours

The love scene rehelaquorsed in seclus ion during the month before the show doubled in leng th once the g uys had plucked up eno ugh courage to pe rform it in front of the res t of the compan y much to the a rmoyance of the Musical Director who had to hastil y rev ise the scene s unde rscoring

If th Y were worried about nudity and kiss ing it did not show These are issues not often tackled by amateur companies and it seemed that Spider W Ollltlll wo uld open w itho ut any hi tches

A m ajor pa rt o f the budget for HumDrum 5 shows is no rmal ry spent on ad vertising We felt that we now had it large enough audierlce base to sta rt to rely 0 11 past ticke t sales and word o f mouth Of course Spider WOlllan was p romoted locall y through the media and use of posters and handbills We were delighted to find tha t our figures w ere up on the prcvioll middot years Jnus icat and as the smoke effec t cleared on o pening night we could tell tha t we had a decent ho use

Given the nature of the performance space the Dre Circle is only a dozen feet fro m the front of the stage As the first few notes of the Prologue were heard the cas t could see the whites of the a ud iences eyes through the smoke Though unnerving for om newcomers this gives the cas t and audience an incredible intimacy not normall y experienced in it Victorian theatre

The reviews in the loca l press ranged from a factua l HumDrum AmDrams producti on makes effective use of the limited New Thea tre Roya l stage to a jubilant The result is an oddshycouple romance as the cellma tes dis ilke and d istrus t gives way to love and respec t with spectacula r musical interludes

The audience reac tio n was also mixed Many people were unprepa red for ha rd-hitting theatre po rtra y ing gove rnmenta l killings gay men ilnd manipulating charnc te rs Musica l the tre is supposed to be a combina tion of light and frothy songs and eas il y unders tood chilracte rs Others were engrossed in the story delighting in the so ngs and surprised by the chOleography But no one sa id it was bad ly staged poorly pe rfo rmed or let down by the technical aspects

For all of the New Theatre Royal5 difficulties this is a working theatre with amnteur reperto ry and

profess iona l perfo rmances We were contracted to be out of the building by midnig ht of our last show

HumDrum has a his torv of everyo ne pitching in and a tter d quick ce lebratory drink in the theatre bar the entire ca s t and crew wo rked toge ther to un-rig the sound and lights dismantle the se t and clear the d res ing rooms Since the thea tre is in the middle of one of Portsmouths busiest night time areas (with owr a dozen pubs in the block) we were permitted to remove the dismantled set first thing Sunday mo rning wh ile the next company m oved in That afternoon the company gathe red for its traditional afte r show Sunday lunch - this time a barbecue in the co untry followed by a game o f ro unders using a piece of scaffold offshycut as a bat

Two days to get the show into the theatre Total get-o ut time two and a half hours

ANAFTERT~ Next year the Royal Shakespeare Company is bringing Taming of the Shrew to o ur city Neithe r o f Portsmouths hvo historica l buildings will hos t this presentation Ins teild the RSC will perform in the Citys main sports complex In the meantime o ver pound70m of Lo ttery ass isted money is be ing spent on a vertical drop ride ilnd shopping complex a t the ha rbour en trance

For further d eta ils conc rni ng the New Thea tre Royal please call Mr Gareth Vaughn on (023) 9264 6477 Fo r further in formation abo ut HumDrum AmDram visit wwwhantsorguk humdrum

All SCRIPTS SCORES AND LIBRETTI FEATURED IN

THE PLAY PRODUCED AND THE MU ICAl P ODUCED

CAN 8TA OM

TEL 0171-837-5655 FAX 0171-833-0609

17