20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2016

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

 It’s that time of the week again and, this time, we’re looking back on 2016 and our 15th Anniversary Season.

 2016 began with a project cementing our long-standing relationship with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s MA Classical & Contemporary Text course. Since 2011, we had welcomed acting & directing students from the course on placement to Bard in the Botanics each summer and in 2016 we became co-producers of their Renaissance Text Productions. Bard’s Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, directed a haunting production of “Hamlet” while Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, took on a joyous & heartfelt production of “Much Ado About Nothing”. We have a great passion at Bard in the Botanics for working with actors in training and supporting their development in performing Shakespeare and the team thoroughly enjoyed working so closely with the MA CCT students and team.

Samuel Pashby as Laertes & Hannah Parker as Ophelia in “Hamlet” at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

 The summer’s “Vaulting Ambition” season featured four titles where central characters brought about their own downfall through overreaching – the title characters of “Macbeth”, “Coriolanus” & “Dr Faustus” and Malvolio in the season’s opening production, “Twelfth Night”.

Jennifer Dick’s take on “Twelfth Night” paid homage to the great TV writer & director, Dennis Potter, creator of “The Singing Detective”, “Pennies from Heaven” and many more. In his shows, characters would often break out of their own reality into fully choreographed, lip synced musical numbers. Jennifer would use the same device in her 1960’s set “Twelfth Night” to highlight the characters hidden inner desires, to both hilarious and touching effect. The production also saw its central romantic quartet – Viola, Olivia, Orsino & Sebastian – all played by actors of the opposing gender to the character, a nod to the play’s gender confusion and a recognition of the play’s underlying message that we fall in love with the individual, not their outward trappings. If Orsino can fall in love with a girl disguised as a boy – why can’t he played by a girl and fall in love with a boy playing a girl playing a boy – or, in other words, Orsino loves Viola no matter who they are!

The company of “Twelfth Night” (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 Meanwhile, in the Kibble Palace, Gordon Barr staged our first ever production of “Coriolanus”, with the mighty warrior and most traditionally “masculine” of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes, Caius Martius Coriolanus, reinvented as a female character for actor, Nicole Cooper. Her breathtaking performance in the role cemented her position as one of Scotland’s leading classical actors and saw her win a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland for Best Actress – a fitting celebration of her immense talent. She was supported by a tremendous cast, including the Bard in the Botanics’ debut of Scottish theatre legend, Janette Foggo, as Coriolanus’ fearsome mother, Volumnia. The play’s politics took on an incredibly timely edge when the production’s opening night coincided with the result of the Brexit referendum – Shakespeare’s central arguments about the elite vs. the popular vote spoke to audiences so vividly across the centuries!

Nicole Cooper as Caius Martia & Alan J Mirren as Tullus Aufidius in “Coriolanus” (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 In the second half of the season, Gordon Barr directed his first production of Shakespeare’s ever popular tragedy, “Macbeth”, for the company. Set in a dilapidated nursery and utilising only 5 actors, the production played out as a living nightmare for the Macbeths (Kirk Bage & Nicole Cooper), grieving for their lost child and attempting to fill the void in their lives by reaching for the ultimate prize – the crown. The central couple were haunted throughout the play by the character of the Witch, as played by Robert Elkin. Caked in flaking white make-up, sometimes taking on other characters in the story, sometimes appearing as a spectral force visible only to Macbeth or his wife, this terrifying figure was perhaps the creepiest creation ever to grace the Bard in the Botanics’ stage.

Nicole Cooper (Lady Macbeth); Kirk Bage (Macbeth) & Robert Elkin (The Witch) in “Macbeth” (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 Finally, the 2016 season saw us introduce a new strand to our work – “Writing the Renaissance” – an opportunity to explore the other writers of the Renaissance period, who might have influenced or been influenced by Shakespeare. We kicked off this new strand with a production of Christopher Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus”, an epic battle between heaven and hell for one man’s soul – an appropriately ambitious play for us to launch this new endeavour! Jennifer Dick’s ingenious adaptation cleverly reimagined the play for just 3 actors – Adam Donaldson in the title role, Stephanie McGregor as the demon Mephistopheles and Ryan Ferrie as her opposing force, the Good Angel. Under Jennifer’s direction, the power of their collective imagination took audiences on a journey that spanned the globe and 25 years, all without leaving Faustus’ study.

Stephanie McGregor (Mephistopheles); Adam Donaldson (Faustus) & Ryan Ferrie (The Good Angel) in “Doctor Faustus” (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 In 2016, our “vaulting ambition” didn’t confine itself only to Glasgow. After the summer season, “Macbeth” headed out on the road, visiting theatre spaces, castles & Botanic Gardens across Scotland, from Dundee to St Andrews to very apt Cawdor Castle. As Bard in the Botanics cemented its place as Scotland’s premier Shakespeare company, we were delighted to share our work with audiences across the country.

Christmas saw us return to the Byre Theatre in St Andrews for our fourth annual panto – “Aladdin”. With the popularity of the shows building year on year, “Aladdin” saw us break all previous box office records for a Byre panto – even without the means to feature a flying carpet! Many of Bard’s regular faces returned for another year of Christmas mayhem, showcasing their incredible versatility as performers – Alan Steele shifting effortlessly from the urbane, witty senator Menenius in “Coriolanus” to belting out “Proud Mary” in full Tina Turner get-up as Widow Twankey; Stephanie McGregor relinquishing Mephistopheles’ demonic powers to play the hapless Wishy-Washy and Robert Elkin shedding the Witch’s creepy skin to become the most friendly and ebullient of panto pals as the Genie of the Lamp.

Robert Watson (Aladdin), Christina Gordon (Jasmine) & the Young Cast of “Aladdin”

 FUN FACTS:

- Jennifer Dick’s production of “Much Ado” at RCS included one of our favourite ever random props for a Shakespeare play. In this version, Dogberry & the Watch were imagined as groundskeepers for a great Highland Estate and in their offices was a shrine to the god of gardeners – Alan Titchmarsh! The production also managed to incorporate a game of “Pop-Up Pirate”! What would Shakespeare have made of it all – we reckoned he’d have loved it!

- One of the many “lip sync” musical numbers in “Twelfth Night” was “Twitterpated” by Betty Driver – a popular singer from the 1960’s, she would reach greater fame in “Coronation Street” as the iconic hotpot maker & barmaid, Betty Turpin

- After 15 years of staging outdoor theatre, we know very well that bad weather can randomly strike at any time during a performance – but some scenes just feel cursed. We lost count of the number of times that Adam Donaldson (Malvolio) & Stephanie McGregor (Feste) would get soaked during the “dark house” scene – even on a completely dry night, it felt like the heavens would open for just that one moment. It wasn’t pleasant for Adam & Stephanie but it did get a big laugh for Samantha McLaughlin’s Sebastian when her first line of the following scene was “This is the glorious sun” – yeah, right!

- Kirk Bage became the first Bard actor to play the same character in two completely different productions when he returned to the role of Sir Toby Belch in “Twelfth Night”, six years after first playing it in 2010. To differentiate his takes on the character, Kirk requested that this time he wore his Falstaff fat suit for the character – he’s a brave man putting that costume item back on again!

- “Coriolanus” is one of Shakespeare’s most physically demanding roles – her skill & prowess on the battlefield is essential to the character. So it was terrifying when Nicole, after filming the shows trailer, fell down some steps and sprained her ankle. Thankfully it only took her out of action for a few days, but both she & director, Gordon Barr, had a sleepless night trying to work out how to tell the story of Rome’s mightiest warrior without ever seeing her fight!

- The sound of a crying child was a recurring motif in the soundscape for “Macbeth” but with the Botanic Gardens being a popular spot for families with young children, it was often difficult to tell when a sound cue had been mistimed or a real crying baby was nearby. The phrase, “Real baby? Fake baby?” became a regular cry during rehearsals!

- “Macbeth” is often considered as a cursed play in the theatre and, as rehearsals went on, the company became increasingly convinced that there was some truth to the legend. Every time that Robert Elkin’s Witch would cast the famous spell – “Hubble, bubble, toil & trouble” – heavy, dark clouds would roll in, often from nowhere. We really began to believe we were summoning some dark forces – not helped by the fact that, at the same time, Adam Donaldson’s Faustus was conjuring the devil in another rehearsal space – spooky times!

- “Macbeth” also featured some of Bard’s most gruesome moments – whether the bloody entrails which the Witch pulled out of a baby doll; the childlike bones & dust which tumbled out of the swaddled baby clothes that Lady Macbeth had just lifted from their crib or the spectacle of Macduff’s son being smothered to death with his own teddy bear – it was a pretty dark show!

- “Doctor Faustus” remains our most popular Kibble Palace production ever, just edging out 2019’s “Richard III” & 2018’s “Antony & Cleoptra” in terms of audience attendance. “Macbeth” proved to be one of our most popular outdoor shows ever as well. Who knew that making pacts with evil forces was so popular?!

2016 COMPANY:

The “Vaulting Ambition” Season:

Gillian Argo (Design – Macbeth; Set Design – 12th Night); Kirk Bage (Sir Toby Belch / Macbeth); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Esme Bayley (Antonia); Nicole Cooper (Coriolanus / Lady Macbeth); Jennifer Dick (Director – 12th Night & Dr Faustus); Adam Donaldson (Malvolio / Faustus); Robert Elkin (Viola / The Witch); Ryan Ferrie (Olivia / Good Angel); Janette Foggo (Volumnia); William Foote (Sir Andrew Aguecheek); Suzie Goldberg (DSM); Duncan Harte (Virgilius); Eleanor Henderson (Sicinia); Carys Hobbs (Design – Faustus; Costume Design – 12th Night & Coriolanus); Kylie Langford (Costume Supervisor); Stephanie McGregor (Feste / Mephistopheles; Choreographer – 12th Night); Samantha McLaughlin (Sebastian); Alan J Mirren (Aufidius & Brutus / Macduff & Duncan); Andrew Mundt (Valentine); Samuel Pashby (Titus Lartius); Emilie Patry (Orsino & Maria / Banquo & Lady Macduff); Juta Pranulyte (Composer – Macbeth); Sam Ramsay (Festival Manager); Jake Robertson (Cominius); Bobbi Jean Shields (Wardrobe Assistant); Marc Silberschatz (Fight Director); Alan Steele (Menenius); Laurie Sutton (ASM); Lisa VillaMil (Assistant Fight Director)

“Hamlet” / “Much Ado About Nothing” RCS Company: Gordon Barr (Director – Hamlet); Esme Bayley (Don John / Georgia Seacole); Zoe Bullock (Margaret / Dogberry); Danielle Calderone (Friar Frances / Verges); Jennifer Dick (Director – Much Ado); William Foote (Claudio); Chris Ginesi (Polonius); Suzie Goldberg (Production Stage Manager); Katherine Haan (Leonata); Duncan Harte (Benedick); Simon Hayes (Lighting Design); Eleanor Henderson (Beatrice); Carys Hobbs (Designer); Ellen Jerstad (Assistant Director); Alice Langley (Assistant Director – Hamlet); Fiona McWhirter (Wardrobe Supervisor); Andrew Mundt (Don Pedro); Tierney Nolen (Horatio); Samantha McLaughlin (Hamlet); Amelia Noble (Hero); Hannah Parker (Ophelia / Player Queen); Samuel Pashby (Laertes / Player King); Kaija Pellinen (Marcellus / Rosencrantz / Gravedigger); Juta Pranulyte (Composer – Hamlet); Jake Robertson (Claudius / Ghost); Rachel Schmeling (Ophelia / Player Queen); Marc Silberschatz (Fight Director); Sally Simpson (Composer – Much Ado); Olivia Stevenson (Borachio); Emily Anne Strong (Barnardo / Guildenstern / Osric); Lisa VillaMil (Gertrude)

“Aladdin” Company: Stephen Arden (Abanazar; Choreographer); Gillian Argo (Set Design); Gordon Barr (Writer & Director); Rory Beaton (Lighting Design); Samantha Burt (DSM); Robert Elkin (Slave of the Ring / Genie of the Lamp); Ashley Foster (Young Cast Liaison); Christina Gordon (Jasmine); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design); Kylie Langford (Deputy Wardrobe Supervisor); Stephen Roberts (Composer & Musical Director); Alan Steele (Widow Twankey); Sam Ramsay (Stage Manager); Robert Watson (Aladdin)

20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2015

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

 This week’s “Throwback Thursday” takes a look back at 2015 and our “Unlikely Wonders” season.

 But before we reach the summer, we were thrilled to receive funding from Creative Scotland to remount and tour our 2013 production of “Romeo and Juliet” in the Spring of 2015. Stephanie McGregor returned to play Juliet for the third time, this time opposite Terence Rae as Romeo. Robert Elkin also returned to the production but this time taking on the role of Mercutio while Adam Donaldson took over Robert’s previous role of Benvolio, with the cast completed by Ewan Petrie as Tybalt. This marked our first ever nationwide tour and it was a real joy to bring our work to communities across Scotland, from Aberdeen to Stranraer, from Musselburgh to the Isle of Mull.

Terence Rae & Stephanie McGregor as the title roles in “Romeo and Juliet”, 2015 (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 And so we come to 2015’s “Unlikely Wonders” Season. Each of the summer’s four titles featured characters who come up against the unexpected, sometimes joyous, often harsh realities of the world in ways that change them profoundly – these were the “unlikely wonders” which gave the season its title.

 The opening production of the season saw promenade performance return to Botanic Gardens for the first time since 2012, as “Love’s Labours Lost” made its professional Bard in the Botanics debut. In the play, the King of Navarre and his cohort of young lords fashion a world for themselves that excludes pleasure, joy and love – only to have their carefully constructed idyll shattered by the arrival of some of Shakespeare’s smartest and wittiest women who teach them about life in ways they never expected. Often dismissed as a lesser comedy because of the formality and density of its language, this modern dress production brought the play to vivid life through deft characterisation, witty performances & fully realised environments. When the play is literally set in a park, what better setting for it than the Botanic Gardens!

The company of “Love’s Labours Lost”, 2015 (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 The production was led by Stephanie McGregor as the Princess of France and Ben Clifford as the King of Navarre but every character in the 14-strong cast was fully realised by an exceptionally strong acting company, including Kirk Bage’s fantastical Spaniard, Don Adriano de Armado (complete with Salvador Dali moustache); Alan Steele’s pedantic professor, Holofernes (making some of Shakespeare’s most impenetrable language not only understandable but genuinely funny!) and Robert Elkin & Tori Burgess’ cheeky “neds”, Moth & Jaquenetta.

 Our second outdoor performance in 2015 was “The Merchant of Venice”. Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, revisited and redeveloped his 2008 concept for the play which saw the action set in 1930’s Europe. In this stark reinvention of the play, the characters found their comfortable lifestyles and easy assumptions challenged and shaken to the core when they discovered that their casual disdain and abuse of the “outsider”, Shylock, had far-reaching consequences. The prejudices, attitudes and buried secrets exposed by the tense trial scene cast a long shadow over the play’s final act. Usually played as a return to romantic comedy, here we saw the characters – especially Nicole Cooper’s Portia – struggle to reconcile their previous attitudes with their new understanding of each other and the world they live in. There were no happy endings here!

 Gillian Argo’s stunning set referenced the Brutalist style of mid-20th century architecture while simultaneously evoking the bridges and canals of Venice and Carys Hobbs’ costumes, delivered in shades of grey, artfully created the glamour and decadence of the 1930’s “smart set”. A quartet of stunningly nuanced performances led the action – Kirk Bage’s Shylock, Nicole Cooper’s Portia, James Ronan’s Bassanio & Alan Steele’s Antonio – bringing out all the subtleties of these contradictory characters. Meanwhile the authentic 1930’s Berlin cabaret songs, delivered by Stephen Redwood & Chloe-Ann Taylor’s Salerio & Solanio, provided a cynical commentary on the venal attitudes & dark undertones of a society poised to tip into Fascism.

The final act of “The Merchant of Venice”, 2015 (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 The Kibble Palace in 2015 played host to Jennifer Dick’s new adaptation of “Richard II”, another title making its Bard in the Botanics debut. This emotionally charged production saw the King – God’s anointed vessel on Earth, or so he firmly believed – come face to face with his own weakness & humanity as he found his authority challenged and his kingdom & closest relationships in peril. Taking her cue from hints found in the original text, Jennifer flushed out the relationship between Richard (Robert Elkin) and the Duke of York’s son, Aumerle (Adam Donaldson), to create a fully-fledged central relationship that delivered a heartbreaking human dimension to Richard’s fall from grace. And as our tradition for cross-gendering major roles gathered pace, Richard’s nemesis became the Lady Bolingbroke, played powerfully by EmmaClaire Brightlyn.

 Robert Elkin’s central performance as the doomed King Richard was a revelation. Mercurial, passionate, selfish, decadent but always very, very human, the audience might not always have loved Richard (Shakespeare doesn’t mean us to) but in Robert’s performance, they could not fail to understand and empathise with his personal tragedy as his own actions lost him everything he held dear. Very few audience members reached the end of the performance without shedding more than a few tears!

Robert Elkin as the title role in “Richard II”, 2015 (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 The final production of our summer season saw the continuation of our Emerging Artists Directors Scheme, as Emily Reutlinger gave that perennial summer favourite, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, a makeover to bring its harsh treatment of women – particularly Hermia – into sharp focus and explore the freedom that dreams can provide for those facing a stark future. A very talented cast, led by Meghan Tyler as Hermia & Bottom, provided plenty of laughs and a little bit of food for thought in a highly energised, ultimately celebratory production.

At Christmas, the company returned to the Byre Theatre in St Andrews for our third panto – “Cinderella”. This new version of the classic tale by Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, was heavily influenced by “Strictly Come Dancing” and saw famous star, Prince Colquhoun, searching for his new dance partner. But perhaps, more significantly, it was a version of the story which finally saw loyal friend, Buttons, rewarded for his devotion to Cinderella as she realised that it was him, and not the Prince, who was her true love!

Alan Steele as Windolene, Robert Elkin as Harpic & Donna Hazelton as Mme. Diabolique in “Cinderella”, 2015

 A year of smart, powerful, funny & touching productions saw Bard in the Botanics finish 2015 on a high as we headed towards our 15th anniversary year.

 FUN FACTS:

- Adam Donaldson’s return to the company for the tour of “Romeo and Juliet” to play opposite Robert Elkin as best friends Benvolio & Mercutio marked his first appearance with us since 2011’s Hamlet – where the two actors had again played a double act (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern). They would be cast opposite each other again later in 2015 as lovers, Richard & Aumerle in “Richard II” and most recently have appeared as the dastardly double act of Richard Gloucester & Buckingham in 2019’s “Richard III”. What can we say – they just make a really good pair!

- The tour of “Romeo and Juliet” was supported by a range of backstage interview and videos exploring the creative process, all filmed by Associate Artist, Tom Duncan, as he continued his move away from our stages and behind the camera! These fascinating insights into the production can all be seen on our “Romeo and Juliet” YouTube playlist at Romeo & Juliet Videos - YouTube

- So last week we introduced the concept of “invisible” characters in Shakespeare. Well, in 2015’s “Richard II”, the cast went so far as to create a whole new character. Richard’s line “Mark, silent queen” steadily evolved into imagining an unspeaking, camp figure who would lurk in the background of scenes, silently judging the characters. Not that the character actually ever appeared in “Richard II” but Mark, the Silent Queen has become a firm fixture at Bard in the Botanics – never seen but always there, always judging! (What? Producing Shakespeare’s a very serious business!)

- “Love’s Labours Lost” & “Richard II” both made their Bard in the Botanics debuts in 2015, bringing us 2 steps closer to the goal of staging all of Shakespeare’s works. To date, there are only 8 titles which have never been seen at Bard in the Botanics – All’s Well That Ends Well; Cymbeline; Henry VIII; King John; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Troilus & Cressida; The Two Gentlemen of Verona & The Two Noble Kinsmen – but we have plans for many of those!

- “Love’s Labours Lost” featured one of the most extensive sets ever to appear at Bard in the Botanics. The story played out across 5 different locations in the Botanic Gardens and each was meticulously dressed to support the action – from a full campsite for the Princess of France and her ladies (complete with tent and washing lines of “intimate apparel”!) to a fully set outdoor banqueting table – and even a (fake!) dead dear, christened “Tina the Pricket” by the cast!

- We love a random prop at Bard in the Botanics and the 2metre long snake wielded by Jaquenetta in Love’s Labours Lost’s play-within-a-play, “The Pageant of the Nine Worthies” is definitely one of the stranger objects to grace our stages!

- Our own fairytale couple, Lynne Jenkinson & Tom Duncan, met on “Snow White” in 2012 and were married just two weeks before starting rehearsals for 2015’s panto, where they would play Cinderella & Buttons, respectively.

 2015 COMPANY:

The “Unlikely Wonders” Season

Gillian Argo (Set Design – Merchant of Venice; Designer – Richard II); Kirk Bage (Don Armado / Shylock); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); EmmaClaire Brightlyn (Bolingbroke); Iona Buchanan (Peaseblossom); Tori Burgess (Jaquenetta); Ben Clifford (King of Navarre / Gratiano); Nicole Cooper (Rosaline / Portia); Jennifer Dick (Boyet; Director – Richard II); Martin Donaghy (Theseus & Puck); Adam Donaldson (Aumerle & Mowbray); Fergus Dunnet (Design Associate – Dream); Robert Elkin (Moth / Richard II); Robert Ginty (Lorenzo); Suzie Goldberg (DSM); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design – Love’s Labour Lost & Merchant of Venice); Francesca Isherwood (Maria); Lynne Jenkinson (Choreography – Love’s Labours Lost); Sophie Kisilevsky (Katharine); Gabrielle Kitson (Mustardseed); Dan Klarer (Dull); Andrew McGregor (Music arrangements – Dream); Stephanie McGregor (Princess of France / Jessica); Finlay McLean (John of Gaunt & York); Christopher McLeish (Cobweb); Sam Ramsay (Production Manager); David Rankine (Lysander & Quince); Stephen Redwood (Launcelot Gobbo & Salerio); Emily Reutlinger (Director – Dream); James Ronan (Berowne / Bassanio & Morocco & Aragon); Lloyd Ryan-Thomas (Longaville); Alan Steele (Holofernes / Antonio); Chloe-Ann Taylor (Nerissa & Solanio); Joanne Thomson (Helena & Titania); Meghan Tyler (Hermia & Bottom); Cameron Varner (Dumaine); Josh Whitelaw (Demetrius & Oberon)

 “Romeo & Juliet” Touring Company: Adam Donaldson (Benvolio & Capulet); Gordon Barr (Director); Tom Duncan (Video & Digital Content); Robert Elkin (Mercutio & Friar Laurence); Robbie Fraser (Production Manager & Relighting); Suzie Goldberg (DSM); Carys Hobbs (Designer); Stephanie McGregor (Juliet & Lady Montague); Ewan Petrie (Tybalt & Nurse); Terence Rae (Romeo & Prince), Marc Silberschatz (Fight Director)

 “Cinderella” Company: Stephen Arden (Prince Colquhoun; Choreographer); Gillian Argo (Set Design); Gordon Barr (Writer & Director); Gary Cameron (Musical Director); Tom Duncan (Buttons); Robert Elkin (Harpic – Ugly Sister); Ashley Foster (Young Cast Liaison); Donna Hazelton (Mme. Diabolique); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design); Kylie Langford (Deputy Wardrobe Supervisor); Alan Steele (Windolene – Ugly Sister); Sam Ramsay (Stage Manager); Matt Wilson (Lighting Design)

20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2014

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

 Our “20 Years in 20 Weeks” continues with a look back to 2014 for a momentous year for Scotland. The eyes of the world were on Scotland as Glasgow got ready to host the Commonwealth Games and the whole country prepared to go to the polls for the referendum on Scottish independence.

So, under the heading of the “What We May Be” season, Bard in the Botanics presented a series of plays which investigated notions of identity, nationality & leadership at a time when those issues were at the forefront of Scottish life – plays which asked questions about how a person, a community, a nation define their identity. What are those costs and compromises a person or a nation has to make to define or defend that identity? What should leadership look like and what should we demand of our leaders and ourselves?

But before we reached 2014’s summer season, the year kicked off with another incredible fundraising concert. “Bard on Broadway” took a witty, irreverent and heartfelt look at the songs and musicals which have been inspired by musicals. “Kiss Me, Kate” (inspired by “The Taming of the Shrew”) and “West Side Story” (inspired by “Romeo & Juliet”) were in there, of course, but also numbers from “Hamlet: the Musical” (yes, really!), “Return to the Forbidden Planet” (a rock & roll, sci-fi take on “The Tempest”) and songs from artists including Rufus Wainwright and Mumford & Sons. Four brilliant performers – Stephen Arden, Darren Brownlie, Lynne Jenkinson & Louise McCarthy – sang up a storm, compered by Jennifer Dick, with musical staging by Stephen Arden & musical direction by Linda Stewart. A brilliantly fun evening, it was the perfect start to our year.

The “What We May Be” season opened with a riotous take on “The Comedy of Errors” which reimagined Shakespeare’s wild farce of identical twins separated at birth into a very tongue-in-cheek vision of Scotland. A door-slamming, Mondrian-esque set by Gillian Argo was complimented by over-the-top costumes by Carys Hobbs in every colour of tartan under the sun to create a cartoonish world of larger-than-life characters and madcap action. Vivid images encapsulate one of the craziest, most hilarious shows ever seen at Bard in the Botanics – Nicole Cooper’s Adriana making her dramatic first entrance to lament her husband’s late arrival to dinner complete with blackened, smoking chicken (“It’s burnt!” she wailed to the audience while tottering on insanely high heels) – Kirk Bage’s sleazy Vegas-styled “healer”, Dr. Pinch, resplendent in gold sequins, attempting to conduct an exorcism in the form of a full musical number to the strains of Annie Lennox’s “Talking to an Angel” – or Robert Elkin’s Dromio of Syracuse returning from a trip round the town looking like an Edinburgh gift shop had thrown up all over him (complete with “See you, Jimmy” hat and new best friend – a stuffed Nessie!)

The company of “The Comedy of Errors”, 2014 (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 The second half of the season saw us produce one of our largest and most ambitious productions ever – “Henry V”. Staged to commemorate the centenary of the First World War, Jennifer Dick’s production began at a Glasgow school’s end of year fete & prize-giving ceremony in 1916, complete with stalls and games for the audience to enjoy. Shakespeare’s play was presented at the fete by the staff and students of the fictional “Gardenhill Academy” in medieval pageant costumes. As the play progressed, elements of these pageant costumes were slowly replaced by First World War uniforms and at the end of the play, we were left with the haunting image of the male students & teachers in uniform marching off to the front – a striking reminder of the reality of war and the sacrifices made by so many young men a century before.

The company of “Henry V”, 2014 (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 As a companion piece to “Henry V”, our Lesser-Spotted Shakespeare series continued in the Kibble Palace with a new adaptation of both parts of “Henry IV”, following the journey of Prince Hal as he becomes King Henry V. The production featured just 3 actors – James Ronan (Hal); Kirk Bage (Falstaff & King Henry IV) and Tom Duncan (Hotspur, Poins & the Earl of Westmorland) – switching effortlessly between the easy camaraderie of the Boar’s Head Tavern, the formality of the king’s court and the powerful energy of the battlefield, all in the Kibble Palace’s narrow strip of playing space. It is a testament to their immense skill that they captured perfectly for audiences both the epic sweep and the personal detail of what many consider to be one of Shakespeare’s best stories.

Kirk Bage (Falstaff) with James Ronan (Hal) & Tom Duncan (Poins) in “Henry IV”, 2014 (Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan)

 The final production of the season saw us resurrect our Emerging Artists Directors strand, providing a platform for young professionals with a passion for classical theatre. Director Alasdair Hunter was given a slot at the season and production support to create a new staging of “Hamlet”, with an immensely dedicated ensemble of actors led by Alan Mackenzie in the title role.

Last week, we spoke about the sad news in 2013 that the Byre Theatre – home of our annual panto – had been forced to close. Thankfully, it was to open its doors again in 2014, under the new management of the University of St Andrews, and we were delighted to return with “Jack & the Beanstalk” as the theatre’s opening production that Christmas. It was truly emotional to watch audiences react to the show’s final line – “And we’ve brought Christmas back to the Byre” – each night, a real testament to the importance of theatre to local communities. It meant so much to us to be able to return to the Byre and to re-establish the panto as an important annual tradition for St Andrews.

The company of “Jack & the Beanstalk” at the Byre Theatre, 2014

 Looking back on 2014, Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, had this to say:

“2014 was a pivotal moment in Scotland’s history and it’s really heartening to look back and see that we matched that epic moment in time with a suitably epic year of work. Yet again, the whole team – from our actors to our designers to our production staff – rose to the challenges of these huge stories and created a really special season. Adapting two of Shakespeare’s plays – Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 – into a show for just 3 actors could have been a total disaster but I’ll always remember Nicole Cooper watching the first rehearsal run-through and just being overwhelmed by the performances of Kirk, Tom & James. They encapsulate the bravery of all our artists and the trust & belief they show in Jen & I and our crazy ideas – it’s what makes Bard in the Botanics such a special place to work.”

FUN FACTS:

- In “Bard on Broadway”, Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, not only displayed consummate hosting skills but had a chance to show off her pipes too as she sang “Honeysuckle Villain”. 11 years earlier, in 2003, she had broken audience hearts as Mistress Quickly in “Henry V”, in a speech describing Falstaff’s death – she reprised that performance here and followed it up with this heartbreaking lament to Falstaff’s dubious charms from the musical of “Merry Wives of Windsor” – not a dry eye in the house!

- Our core acting company are slightly obsessed with finding the “hidden” characters in Shakespeare’s plays – names that are spoken as though everyone should know who they are even though they have never been mentioned before and never will be again. In “The Comedy of Errors”, there is one fleeting mention of “Duke Menophon” and, each night, Nicole Cooper and Jennifer Dick (playing sisters Adriana & Luciana) would pay tribute to this unknown figure with a subtle onstage salute to his name.

- “Henry V” featured the most costumes ever seen on a Bard in the Botanics stage. More than 40 individual costumes had to be created for this one production – we’ve no idea how our small but dedicated Wardrobe team always manage to rise to the insane challenges that we set them!

- James Watterson first worked with the company as a teenager as part of our “B in the Big Show” initiative back in 2009, playing the “Boy” in Macbeth, and we were thrilled to welcome back as a professional actor to play the Dauphin of France in “Henry V” in 2014.

- The significance of our “Lesser-Spotted Shakespeare” series can be seen by the fact that our 2014 adaptation of “Henry IV” was the first time that a Scottish theatre company had staged the plays in more than 40 years!

- While we love a heatwave at Bard in the Botanics, the extended period of sunny weather experienced during the run of “Henry IV” was not pleasant for Kirk Bage in his dual roles of Falstaff & Henry IV. Given that the Kibble Palace is a glasshouse, it heats up extensively in the sunshine and Kirk was wearing a heavy fat suit as Falstaff, over which he had to layer up thick period clothing to swap between his two roles. To prevent him overheating and passing out, ice packs were sewn into his fat suit for each performance – and even these had to be swapped over at the interval. Kirk didn’t have time to remove his costume during the interval so our valiant stage manager, Suzie Goldberg, was the one responsible for fishing around in the sweaty fat suit to remove one set of icepacks and replace them with fresh ones – the glamour of working in theatre!

- 2014 saw the company introduce production trailers for the first time. As if performing in two shows wasn’t enough, Tom Duncan also worked with us to create brilliant video trailers for “The Comedy of Errors” and “Henry V”. Each perfectly captured the essence of the shows and Tom’s video work would become a mainstay of the Bard in the Botanics’ marketing campaigns from that year on.

2014 COMPANY:

The “What We May Be” Season

Gillian Argo (Set Design – Comedy of Errors & Henry V); Kirk Bage (Egeon & Dr Pinch / Falstaff & Henry IV); Gordon Barr (Director – Comedy of Errors & Henry IV; Designer – Henry IV); Kenny Boyle (Angelo); EmmaClaire Brightlyn (Fight Director – Hamlet); Darren Brownlie (Choreographer – Comedy of Errors); Graham Burk (Balthasar); Daniel Campbell (King Henry V); Amy Conway (Horatio); Nicole Cooper (Adriana); Paul Cunningham (Canterbury); Euan Cuthbertson (Nym); MJ Deans (Berri); Jennifer Dick (Luciana, Director – Henry V); Amy Drummond (Duchess & Luce); Tom Duncan (Antipholus of Ephesus / Hotspur & Poins & Westmorland); Robert Elkin (Dromio of Syracuse / Boy Chorus); Suzie Goldberg (DSM); Amy Hanlan (Westmorland); Tommy Herbert (Osric & Player); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design – Comedy of Errors & Henry V); Alasdair Hunter (Director – Hamlet); Joe Johnson (Guildenstern); Alexandra Kirby (Grey & Governor of Harfleur); David James Kirkwood (Dromio of Ephesus); John Love (Polonius & Gravedigger); Rachel Macallan (Deputy Wardrobe Supervisor); Alan Mackenzie (Hamlet); Keith Macpherson (Pistol); Jasmine Main (Ophelia & Fortinbras); Lewis McCutcheon (Bardolph & York); Ishbel McFarlane (Player & Priest); Barry McGinley (Bourbon); Finlay McLean (King of France & Fluellen); Kirsty Miller (Gertrude & Francisco); Emilie Patry (Montjoy); Joshua Payne (Music Supervisor – Comedy of Errors); Debi Pirie (Cambridge & Le Fer); James Ronan (Antipholus of Syracuse / Prince Hal); Marc Silberschatz (Fight Director); Jamie Smyth (Scroop & Gower); Flora Sowerby (Aemilia & Officer); Jessica Thigpen (1st Merchant & Courtesan); Wendy Turner (Assistant Director); Jason Vaughn (Claudius & Ghost); Amandine Vincent (Katharine); Ross Watson (Exeter); James Watterson (Dauphin & Ely); Alfie Wellcoat (Laertes & Player); Matt Wilson (Production Manager)

“Bard on Broadway” Company: Stephen Arden (Performer & Musical Staging); Gordon Barr (Director); Darren Brownlie (Performer); Jennifer Dick (Performer); Lynne Jenkinson (Performer); Louise McCarthy (Performer); Dara Stewart (Musician); Linda Stewart (Musical Director)

“Jack & the Beanstalk” Company: Stephen Arden (Jock; Choreographer); Gillian Argo (Set Design); Gordon Barr (Writer & Director); Simon Batho (DSM); Tom Duncan (Count Olaf von Moneybags); Robert Elkin (Jack); Ashley Foster (Young Cast Liaison); Sarah Haddath (Jill); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design); Rachel Macallan (Wardrobe Assistant); Lindsey Miller (Musical Director); Lucie Thaxter (Fairy Baubles McTwinkle); Alan Steele (Dame Nellie Numpty); Sam Ramsay (Stage Manager); Matt Wilson (Lighting Design)

20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2013

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

 This week’s “Throwback Thursday” is looking back to 2013 and the “Edge of War” season which began a new era for Bard in the Botanics.

 The company started the year in a difficult position. The unprecedented bad weather experienced in 2012 had left the company with a significant financial deficit and then came more bad news. Just days after completing our run of “Snow White” – the Byre Theatre’s most successful panto ever – we heard that the venue had been forced to shut its doors. The loss of the Byre was a real blow to Scottish theatre and to Bard in the Botanics - it looked like our new Christmas tradition would be cut off before it had even begun! Thankfully, the Byre would reopen under new management the following year and panto would return to St Andrews – but more of that next week!

Meanwhile, the company embarked on a major fundraising drive in 2013 – led by a concert version of our musical “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. 19 actors and musicians (including original cast members Nicole Cooper, Beth Marshall & John P Arnold) generously donated their time and talent to rehearse and stage the concert at Oran Mor and we will be forever grateful to them for doing so. This was followed by a gala dinner, hosted by Kaye Adams. Together these sell-out events made a major contribution to securing the company’s future.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Concert” (2013)

 The summer of 2013 saw us stage a season of plays – Othello, Much Ado About Nothing & Julius Caesar – all of which took place either before or after a period of conflict. Conflict was central to the action of each story too – whether the insidious war waged by Iago against his general, Othello; the “merry war” between Benedick & Beatrice (or, in this case, Bertram – more on that later!) or the personal & political conflict between Brutus, Cassius & Caesar that leads to the play’s infamous assassination.

The season opened with Gordon Barr’s production of “Othello”. As in his first production of the play back in 2007, the story was slimmed down to focus on the central characters and the company of 6 actors was led by Bard stalwarts Kirk Bage as a chilling Iago, Nicole Cooper as Desdemona & Jennifer Dick as Emilia, joined by James Ronan as Cassio, George Docherty as Brabantio / Montano and Matthew Wade in the title role. “Othello” was the company’s first – and to date, it’s only – production to be staged in full Elizabethan dress, with the majority of the beautifully detailed costumes created from scratch by costume designer, Carys Hobbs, and her assistant, Kylie Langford.

Kirk Bage (Iago) & Matthew Wade (Othello) in “Othello” (2013)

 This was followed by “Much Ado About Nothing”, again directed by Gordon Barr. In this exuberant modern dress production, Beatrice became Bertram and the play’s central romance was reinvented for a gay couple. Actually, “reinvented” is not quite the right term – as Bard in the Botanics has proven many times over the years, Shakespeare lends himself to interpretation with no significant changes required to his writing. In this instance, Benedick & Beatrice’s cutting wit, sharp banter and their reluctance to publicly admit their feelings for each other all sat just as comfortably in the mouths of Benedick & Bertram – and the production became a touching, funny & joyous celebration of two people, who just happened to be men and who were perfect for each other.

James Ronan as Benedick & Robert Elkin as Bertram in “Much Ado About Nothing” (2013)

 Both “Othello” and “Much Ado About Nothing” took place on the same set. It is a testament to the incredible talent of set designer, Gillian Argo, that an Elizabethan military outpost in Cyprus and a modern-day Italian villa could both inhabit the same physical space that, in both cases, looked like it had been created specifically for that story.

Meanwhile, in the Kibble Palace, Jennifer Dick created a fast-paced thriller out of “Julius Caesar” for just 4 actors. An extraordinary quartet of performers – Paul Cunningham as Brutus, Nicole Cooper as Cassia, Kirk Bage as Mark Antony and Tim Barrow as Caesar – kept audiences on the edge of their seats throughout the finely judged, modern dress production. And while an audience of 80 might be a smaller mob than Mark Antony’s famous “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech would have originally been addressed to, the close-up, intimate nature of the Kibble Palace involved them completely in the action and created the populace of Rome through nothing more than an active, intensified relationship between performer and audience.

Kirk Bage as Mark Antony & Nicole Cooper as Cassia in “Julius Caesar” (2013)

 A successful summer season, during which a bout of glorious weather boosted audience numbers and further secured the company’s finances, was followed by our first ever Autumn tour. 2012’s sell-out production of “Romeo and Juliet” was revived in a new physical production and toured to venues across Scotland’s Central Belt. Stephanie McGregor (Juliet), Robert Elkin (Benvolio) & Luke McConnell (Mercutio) all reprised their roles, this time joined by Ross Mann as Tybalt and Scott Fletcher as Romeo.

Robert Elkin as Benvolio in “Romeo & Juliet” (2013)

 The “Edge of War” had been chosen as the 2013 season title to reflect the stories being told but the idea of being on the edge of something would filter through to the company itself. The beautifully performed but quite classic Elizabethan take on “Othello” gave way to what, at the time, was a fairly radical take on “Much Ado” (reinventing two of Shakespeare’s most famous lovers as a gay couple). Similarly, Nicole Cooper’s casting as Cassia in “Julius Caesar” marked our first major cross-gendered character for some years – something the company would rectify in the years to come. Ultimately, the overwhelmingly positive response to “Much Ado” encouraged the company to take more risks with our work in the future and our enduring motto was born – “Be bold, be brave”.

So a year which had started with a slightly bleak outlook turned into one of our most successful ever and the company looked to the future with renewed confidence and vigour.

Looking back on 2013, Robert Elkin had this to say:

“Playing Bertram in Much Ado will always be a standout moment in my career. Not only was it the first real opportunity I’d had to tell what felt like MY story on stage, but it was my first experience of working on a production that seemed so timely. During the rehearsal period the UK government passed the Marriage of Same-Sex Couples Act. Suddenly our little show felt like less of a protest or an avant-garde interpretation and more like what theatre is supposed to be: telling the stories of real people, real lives, real love. Kissing Benedick to the rapturous cheers and applause of the opening night crowd will stay with me forever. Oh, and my costumes were GORGEOUS.”

 Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, echoes his thoughts:

“Much Ado became the most personal play I’d ever directed – as with Rob, it was the first time I was telling my story, as a gay man, onstage. That became something really emotional and touching for me. I think it’s a mark of how far we’ve come that, back in 2013, it felt transgressive to see a Shakespeare play build to a kiss between two men. Thankfully, and I believe in part because of our work, that no longer feels so radical or odd. But it really made us aware of how important it was to use Shakespeare to tell everyone’s stories and that remains a core principle of our work today.”

FUN FACTS:

- The 2013 season definitely featured the youngest person ever to grace Bard in the Botanics’ stage. Nicole Cooper’s daughter, Io, was in fact still in her mummy’s tummy – Nicole was three months pregnant while playing Desdemona & Cassius that year! Morning sickness & Shakespeare is definitely not an easy combination to manage!

- Nicole understandably didn’t want to disclose her pregnancy until after her 12-week scan which left the wardrobe department initially puzzled as her intricate costume for Desdemona mysteriously had to be altered after every fitting – Elizabethan corsetry was yet another hurdle for her to overcome in the early stages of her pregnancy!

- In a play focused on the tragic results for women of toxic masculinity, it is perhaps understandable that the most powerful moment in Othello for many was the quiet scene which gave space for the 2 female characters – Desdemona & Emilia – to give voice to their own experiences, with the beautiful performances of Nicole & Jennifer often reducing audiences to tears. Associate Artist, Robert Elkin, who was performing in “Much Ado” later in the season, came back night after night just to watch that scene and still cites it as one of his favourite ever Bard in the Botanics moments.

- Bard in the Botanics loves a modern-dress Shakespeare but that brings its own headaches for the costume department. While the Elizabethan characters of Othello could conceivably wear the same clothes for the entire action of the play without comment, it would have looked very strange if the characters of the modern day Much Ado had worn the same clothes for daytime, a masked ball, a wedding and a funeral! Consequently, Much Ado had one of the longest costume lists in Bard history – many of the characters had at least 5 costume changes and Robert Elkin’s Bertram was never to be seen in the same clothes twice – giving him 8 individual outfits in the one show!

- We were delighted to welcome comedy legend, Louise McCarthy, to the Much Ado company in the roles of Margaret and Dogberry. Best-known to audiences as one half of “The Dolls” and for her work on “Scot Squad”, Louise is not only a great comic but a phenomenal actor and brought both hilarity and heartbreak to her performance in Much Ado.

- Scott Fletcher took over the role of Romeo from James Rottger for our Autumn tour, but previously they had worked together on the final series of “Gary: Tank Commander” – the Scottish acting industry is a small world!

2013 COMPANY:

Stephen Arden (Choreographer – Much Ado); Gillian Argo (Set Design – Othello & Much Ado); Kirk Bage (Actor); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Tim Barrow (Actor); Ben Clifford (Actor); Nicole Cooper (Actor); Paul Cunningham (Actor); Jennifer Dick (Actor; Director – Julius Caesar); George Docherty (Actor); Robert Elkin (Actor); Rory Fairbairn (Actor); Scott Fletcher (Actor); Robbie Fraser (Production Manager – Romeo & Juliet); Suzie Goldberg (DSM – Romeo & Juliet); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design – Othello & Much Ado, Designer – Romeo & Juliet); Lauren Hurwood (Actor); Kylie Langford (Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor); Hayley Ingram (Actor); Mark Jeary (Actor); Ross Mann (Actor); Louise McCarthy (Actor); Luke McConnell (Actor); Stephanie McGregor (Actor); Sam Ramsay (Production Manager); James Ronan (Actor); Andrew Rothney (Actor); Pete Searle (Lighting Design – Romeo & Juliet); Marc Silberschatz (Fight Director); Matthew Wade (Actor); Vicky Wilson (DSM – Othello & Much Ado)

 “A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Concert” Company: Stephen Arden, John P Arnold, Darren Brownlie, Nicole Cooper, Euan Cuthbertson, George Docherty, Zoe Halliday, James Hamilton, Lucy Hutchison, Alissa Keogh, Beth Marshall, Louise McCarthy, Eilidh Trotter, John Scougall, Robert Sharpe, Alan Steele, Steven Wallace

20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2012

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

It’s “Throwback Thursday” time again and, after the excitement and triumph of the 10th anniversary, we turn our attention to 2012 and one of Bard in the Botanics’ most difficult years featuring a villain more potent than any of Shakespeare’s creations – the weather!!!

As the company entered its second decade, we looked to the future with a season themed around concepts of discovery, exploration and new horizons under the title of the “Brave New World” season. Physical journeys took the characters of “The Tempest” and “As You Like It” to new locations (Prospero’s island and the Forest of Arden) that revealed something about themselves while the season’s third production, “Romeo and Juliet”, saw its young protagonists encounter new emotional landscapes that would impact their lives forever.

The season opened with Jennifer Dick’s radical new take on “The Tempest”, the first time we had staged the title since our inaugural season back in 2002. The production saw Prospero’s island littered with the flotsam & jetsam of a shipwreck in Gillian Argo’s set design – a landscape inhabited by spirits, led by Ariel and each representing one of the Elizabethan “elements” that make up all matter (Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Sulphur, Mercury and Aether). Only Prospero and Caliban were flesh and blood creatures with the spirits taking on all the other roles in the story. In the production’s final act, we suddenly realised the shocking reason behind this. A flashback showed us Prospero’s journey to the island many years ago and we discovered that his infant child, Miranda, had been swept overboard and lost. The whole narrative of forgiveness and reconciliation played out in Shakespeare’s story became a fantasy created by Prospero and Ariel’s magic to give his daughter the happy ending she could never have in reality – an absolutely heartbreaking take on the play. An ensemble of some of Bard’s core acting company (including Nicole Cooper as Miranda, Tom Duncan as Ariel, Paul Cunningham as Caliban & Kirk Bage as Alonso & Stephano) were led by Stephen Clyde, proving as emotionally powerful as Prospero as he had been hilarious as Bottom in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” the year before.

Stephen Clyde as Prospero in “The Tempest” (2012)

 Meanwhile, Gordon Barr’s production of “Romeo and Juliet” was also haunted by ghosts. In a ruined landscape of wire fencing, junk metal and even a burnt-out car, the one young character left alive at the end of Shakespeare’s story – Benvolio – had to face his survivor’s guilt as the ghosts of those who had died (Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio & Tybalt) confronted him with the events of the past. Five young actors (led by Robert Elkin as Benvolio) each took on one of these young characters while also playing one of the story’s older characters in a production full of the fiery energy of youth. Filled with passion, humour and sickeningly realistic violence, the production was a hymn to wasted youth, failed by their elders and condemned to die in a cycle of violence that was not of their making.

Romeo (James Rottger) & Tybalt (Daniel Campbell) fight in “Romeo and Juliet” (2012)

 “The Tempest” and “Romeo and Juliet” were productions that the company are incredibly proud of but both shows suffered incredibly with bad weather – the worst the company had encountered in its history and, empirically, the wettest summer that Scotland and the United Kingdom had seen in the 21st century.

“The Tempest” lost 50% of its performances (our average is 15%!) and would have lost one more if we hadn’t moved its final performance across the road to the venue for “A Play, A Pie & A Pint” at Oran Mor (which by some miracle happened to be free that night – it’s normally booked out by bands months in advance!). It was a crazy move to take the show to a completely new venue with minimal rehearsal time but desperate times called for desperate measures and we really wanted the cast to actually finish the show’s run and for more audiences to have the chance to enjoy this stunning production. One of the unforgettable sights of 2012 was the production team (Artistic Director Gordon Barr, Stage Manager Suzie Goldberg, Associate Director Jennifer Dick and current Festival Manager Sam Ramsay – who wasn’t even working on that season and had only come to see the show that day!) manoeuvring a wooden sailboat across the busy junction of Great Western Road & Byres Road on a tiny trolley in the driving rain. It’s maybe no surprise that the company is now very superstitious about staging “The Tempest” again!

Meanwhile, “Romeo and Juliet” was due to play under the tent canopy that we had used for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 2011. This was meant to give shows and audiences some protection from bad weather – unfortunately the consistently high levels of rain that summer flooded the space and made it completely unusable – so much for that idea! The production lost its entire opening week of performances before the decision was made to restage it (with 1 day’s rehearsal!) for the Kibble Palace Glasshouse and move the whole show indoors. The run was extended by a week and every show sold out – so victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat but it was a tough time for everyone!

The weather had improved slightly by the time our final show of the season – “As You Like It” – opened but only just – the entire company were still staring nervously at the sky throughout its run and more often than not, actors were huddled behind trees with extra coats & umbrellas to shelter them from the continued unpredictability of the weather! This promenade production was set in the Victorian period with the Botanic Gardens doubling beautifully as an idyllic Forest of Arden, populated by a host of vivid characters. From Nicole Cooper’s passionate Rosalind to Jennifer Dick’s cheeky Celia, from Kirk Bage’s cynical Jaques to Finlay McLean’s cameo as the drunken vicar, Sir Oliver Martext, every character was individually drawn and given real humanity by 2012’s acting ensemble. In the face of a wet, dreich summer, audiences could at least have their hearts warmed by this tale of community and love triumphant.

From L to R: Paul Cunningham (Touchstone), Jennifer Dick (Celia), Nicole Cooper (Rosalind) & Beth Marshall (Audrey) in “As You Like It” (2012)

 So the summer saw an artistically successful season beset by weather problems – but the year managed to end on a real high as we headed to the Byre Theatre in St Andrews to co-produce our first panto there – “Snow White”!

Lynne Jenkinson (Mirabelle) leads the Young Cast in a musical number for Stephanie McGregor’s Snow White (“Snow White”, 2012)

 Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, had been involved in pantos since he was a child (his dad was a renowned panto dame on the Northern Ireland amateur theatre circuit and Gordon started writing panto scripts at the age of 14) but this was his first chance to write and direct his own panto professionally. A number of Bard core company members (including set designer Gillian Argo, production manager Sam Ramsay and actors Stephanie McGregor, Alan Steele, Tom Duncan & Luke McConnell) made the trip to St Andrews and started a tradition for the company which continues to this day with our annual pantos now as important a part of our work each year as the summer season.

 Looking back on her first season with the company in 2012, Associate Artist, Stephanie McGregor, had this to say:

“I felt so nervous! I remember wondering if I would be able to do it (especially playing an iconic role like Juliet) as it was my first Shakespeare since Drama School but the company were so welcoming that my fear very quickly disappeared. I remember just being able to play in the room without any judgement and if I didn’t understand something, I wasn’t afraid to ask. 9 years down the line, this lovely company have become like my family here in Glasgow.”

 FUN FACTS:

- Other than Robert Elkin (who was establishing himself as a core Bard company member in this his third season), the other 4 young actors in “Romeo and Juliet” – James Rottger (Romeo), Stephanie McGregor (Juliet), Daniel Campbell (Tybalt) & Luke McConnell (Mercutio) - were all making their Bard in the Botanics’ debut, emphasising the production’s focus on the potential of the younger generation.

- Stephanie McGregor would go on to play Juliet in 2 further tours of “Romeo & Juliet” for the company (in 2013 & 2015), giving her the record for the most performances played by an actor at Bard in a single role – she played Juliet for the company in more than 60 performances.

- Since then, Stephanie has gone on to play many major roles for the company and is currently one of our Associate Artists. Her recent roles include Rosalind (As You Like It), Ophelia (Hamlet), Kate (The Taming of the Shrew?), Regan (Queen Lear), Feste (Twelfth Night), Princess of France (Love’s Labours Lost), Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) and her personal favourite, the demonic Mephistopheles in Doctor Faustus.

- When working outdoors over long distances, actors often can’t hear their entrance cues – so our Stage Manager, Suzie Goldberg, cues them by means of arm signals. In “As You Like It”, however, the gathering dark in one of the later performances led to some confusion over who was being cued for entrance and Steven Rae’s Oliver managed to arrive in the Forest of Arden at least 2 scenes early. He came confidently bounding down an entire lawn before realising his mistake, slowing down, doing a quick U-turn and bounding straight back up the lawn again without saying a word – just another of the unexpected perils of working outdoors!

- “As You Like It” featured not one, not two but 3 incredibly quick changes all happening at the same time. Stephen Clyde, doubling as Duke Frederick in court and Duke Senior in the forest, and Stephen Grawrock & Steven Wallace, doubling as his lords in both court and forest, (apparently 2012 was the season for actors named Stephen!) were the last to leave the stage in our first promenade space and the first to enter the second promenade space (as completely different characters) – and they only had the time it took the audience to move between spaces to change costume completely. A lot of underdressing and “stripper” trousers (held together by Velcro) made the quick changes possible – they got so good at it that sometimes they even managed to arrive before the audience!

- While many of Bard’s acting company have appeared in our St Andrews pantos, only one has appeared in all 7 to date. Alan Steele made his debut as Nanny Ticklepenny in Snow White in 2012 and has been our dame in every Bard / Byre Theatre panto since – it wouldn’t be Christmas without him!

- “Snow White” would prove to be responsible for our second Bard marriage! Tom Duncan (playing Prince Valiant) and Lynne Jenkinson (playing Mirabelle, the Magic Mirror) met on that show and we were thrilled to celebrate their wedding just a few years later in 2015. They even timed their wedding so that they would be back from honeymoon in time to start rehearsals as Cinderella & Buttons in that year’s panto – now that’s dedication!

2012 COMPANY:

Stephen Arden (Choreographer – Snow White); Gillian Argo (Set Design – The Tempest & Snow White); Kirk Bage (Actor); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Phil Bartlett (Assistant Director – As You Like It); Daniel Campbell (Actor); Stephen Clyde (Actor); Nicole Cooper (Actor); Paul Cunningham (Actor); Jennifer Dick (Actor; Director – The Tempest); Tom Duncan (Actor); Robert Elkin (Actor); Gillian Ford (Actor); Chris Fulton (Actor); Suzie Goldberg (Stage Manager); Steven Grawrock (Actor); Simon Hayes (Lighting Designer – Snow White); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design – The Tempest & As You Like It); Lynne Jenkinson (Actor); Deanne Jones (DSM – Romeo & Juliet); Ashleigh Kasaboski (Actor); Kylie Langford (Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor); Beth Marshall (Actor); Luke McConnell (Actor); Finlay McLean (Actor); Stephanie McGregor (Actor); Lindsey Miller (Musical Director – Snow White); Levi Morger (Actor); Iain Orr (Production Manager); Steven Rae (Actor); Sam Ramsay (Stage Manager – Snow White); Socks Rolland (Wardrobe Assistant); James Rottger (Actor); John Scougall (Actor); Marc Silberschatz (Fight Director); Alan Steele (Actor); Steven Wallace (Actor); Alice Wilson (Designer – Romeo & Juliet)

20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2011

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

This week we reach a major milestone in Bard in the Botanics’ history – our 10th anniversary season in 2011!

The company’s work that year would see us stage plays from every genre in Shakespeare’s writing – comedy (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream); tragedy (“Hamlet”); romance (“Pericles”) and history (“The Wars of the Roses”) – celebrating the breadth of the Bard’s genius.

The year began with our first co-production with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s MA Classical & Contemporary Text course. Artistic Director Gordon Barr had already directed productions for the first two years of this course – “King Lear” in 2009 and “The Winter’s Tale” in 2010. In 2011, he was joined by Bard’s Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, and recent recipient of our Emerging Artists Directors Scheme, Marc Silberschatz, to direct an epic cycle of 3 plays under the title of “The Wars of the Roses”. Shakespeare’s Henry VI Parts 1, 2 & 3 were condensed into 2 plays and joined by Richard III to tell a story which spanned from the death of Henry V to the ascension to the throne of Henry VII as England saw itself consumed by civil war and political strife. Each part of the trilogy played separately before coming together to tell the whole story across one day – with Part One starting at 11a.m. and Part 3 finishing that same evening at 11p.m. – an epic and thrilling undertaking and fitting start to our 10th anniversary year.

 To celebrate our milestone anniversary, the company launched a vote to find the “People’s Shakespeare”. Audiences were invited to vote for the title they most wanted to see at the 2011 summer season and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” emerged as the clear favourite. Given the popularity of our 1920’s set musical version from 2003 & 2004, director Gordon Barr chose to offer up a fresh reimagining of this riotous interpretation. The 1920’s setting was retained but the musical numbers were no longer confined to the jazz standards of the Great American Songbook and instead took inspiration from pop songs across the decades. This led to Helena (Nicole Cooper) singing a heartbreaking “torch song” version of Kylie Minogue’s “I Should Be So Lucky”; Puck (Robert Elkin) making his entrance to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and Bottom (Stephen Clyde) letting rip with a full-throated version of Andy William’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” to enthral Beth Marshall’s Titania – it shouldn’t have worked but it did!

 Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, took the reins for Bard in the Botanics’ first version of “Hamlet” in 2011, with Paul Cunningham taking on the title role in a heartbreakingly human and personal take on Shakespeare’s tragedy. Set in a crumbling court reminiscent of the last days of the Russian Czars, the production had exquisitely beautiful designs by Gillian Argo (set) and Carys Hobbs (costumes) which fully embodied the sense that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. Paul Cunningham’s brilliant performance in the title role was matched by a phenomenal ensemble, including Nicole Cooper’s broken Ophelia in her dead mother’s wedding dress, Tom Duncan’s powerful Laertes heartbroken by the death of his father & sister, Finlay McLean’s Doric gravedigger and Robert Elkin’s wonderfully funny cameo as camp courtier, Osric, complete with excellent furry hat!

 In the Kibble Palace – continuing our “Lesser-Spotted Shakespeare” strand of work – Gordon Barr directed the Bard in the Botanics’ debut of “Pericles”. One of Shakespeare’s late “romances”, the fairytale-esque story of Pericles crosses oceans and many countries as the title character finds, loses & is ultimately reunited with his family. It is widely thought that the play was co-written with another writer, George Wilkins, and it is fair to say that there are some pretty wild shifts of tone in the story, possibly a result of the collaboration. The detritus of a shipwreck littered the Kibble Palace and audiences entering the space encountered four 20th century archaeologists shifting through the wreckage. A book is found and one of them begins to read from it the opening narrative of the play. As if under a magic spell, the 4 characters (played by Kirk Bage, Beth Marshall, James Murfitt & Amie Burns Walker) begin to act out Shakespeare’s story, swapping effortlessly between characters and worlds. The production was not afraid to embrace some of the sillier aspects of the play – never more so than when a “tournament” to win the hand of the princess, Thaisa, played out like a school sports day complete with sack & beanbag races, with James Murfitt’s Pericles competing against Beth Marshall, playing 3 different knights from 3 different European countries – “It’s A Knockout” Shakespeare-style!

 6 different productions performed by more than 50 actors and spanning the full range of Shakespeare’s work, both in terms of genre and in encompassing his entire writing career (from some of his earliest plays in the 3 parts of Henry VI to one of his latest in Pericles), Bard in the   2011 was a suitably epic celebration of 10 years of Shakespeare in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens.

Looking back on the 2011 season, Costume Designer Carys Hobbs remembers the challenges and rewards of working on such big productions:

“Ah the 2011 season – I’m so excited to look back at this one for our Throwback Thursdays.

I remember in 2011 feeling like I’d started to find my feet as a designer but when Gordon told me quite how many costumes needed to be made for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, my brain went into overdrive. But the aesthetic became really clear very quickly which helped a lot and gave me a good prep period to work out how to get everything we wanted on a pretty tiny budget.

Jen also had a very clear idea for Hamlet, with the quote “There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark” being a key influence in the design. That allowed me to do some textile embellishment work with burning layers of stacked fabric to create the rotted pieces of clothing.

It was the first year I had placement students from the course I had studied on myself at university. I was no longer working completely alone on the season and so was born the first year of what we now call “The Kingdom of Wardrobia”.

I think we ended up making well over 45 costumes in a 6-week period which meant a lot of long days and sore fingers but the contrast between the bright riot of 1920’s circus for Dream and the dark blues, greys & blacks for Hamlet gave such a lovely group of palettes to work on and the season is looked back on as bonkers but beautiful.”

 FUN FACTS:

- 2011 saw our first acting placements join the season from the MA Classical & Contemporary Text course at RCS. Three student actors joined the company of “Hamlet”, including Associate Artist, Adam Donaldson, who made his Bard debut playing Guildenstern & Barnardo. Adam has gone on to play many major roles for the company, including Benedick (Much Ado), Enobarbus (Antony & Cleopatra), Malvolio (Twelfth Night) and the title roles in “Henry V” and “Dr Faustus”.

 - “The Wars of the Roses” was perhaps the most epic production ever undertaken by Bard in the Botanics. 21 acting students took on more than 100 roles across the trilogy, rehearsing all 3 plays simultaneously. Rehearsal schedules had to be timed to the minute with, for example, an actor working on Queen Margaret in Part 3 before dashing across the hall to suddenly switch and take on the role of Joan of Arc in Part 1 at a moment’s notice – it was a huge ask for actors in training and they rose to the challenge with exceptional aplomb!

- And if that wasn’t enough for them to deal with, the company of “The Wars of the Roses” also had to take a crash course in stage combat to manage the violence which formed an integral part of the story, from full on battles to 3-way swordfights to numerous murders (including beheadings, throat slittings and throttling) – more than 25 stage fights across the trilogy!

- The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland wasn’t the only training institution we were proud to work with in 2011. Students from the Costume Design & Construction course at Queen Margaret University – headed up by Bard’s former Head of Design, Sarah Paulley - designed and made well over 100 costumes for “The Wars of the Roses” – with one student costume designer (Nikita Cabeli de Mascarenhas) responsible for creating a coherent world across 3 plays with 3 different directors. The impeccable quality of their work is a testament to the quality of training available in Scotland!

- The core company for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” were joined by students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s BA Musical Theatre programme to create one of the company’s largest ever ensembles. We’ve been delighted to watch so many of those students go on to deservedly successful careers over the last ten years – including, amongst many others, Lawrence Robb who can currently be seen as troublemaker, Mackenzie Boyd in “Emmerdale” and Scott Gilmour who is one half of “Noisemaker”, a brilliant company creating new musicals in Scotland (most recently “Oor Wullie” for Dundee Rep).

- Stephen Clyde’s side-splittingly hilarious performance as Bottom (including invisible horse, sports car & speedboat – don’t ask!) was a highlight of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and we were delighted to see him recognised by the Critics Awards for Scotland where he won “Best Actor” for the role.

- Each of the 4 actors in Pericles had to play a dizzying array of roles but Beth Marshall perhaps holds the Bard record for the most accents employed in a single production – from the RP of Pericles’ right-hand man Helicanus to the Hebridean brogue of healer Cerimon to the harsh cockney of the brothel-owning Bawd and, of course, those 3 comedy knights from France, Italy & Germany – all perfectly rendered and individualised and a testament to her incredible skills as a performer.

2011 COMPANY:

Craig Anderson (Actor); Gillian Argo (Set Design – Hamlet); John P Arnold (Actor); Kirk Bage (Actor); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Bay Bryan (Actor); Amie Burns Walker (Actor); Stephen Clyde (Actor); Carrie-Jane Connor (Actor); Nicole Cooper (Actor); Carol Ann Crawford (Actor); Paul Cunningham (Actor); Sarah de Tute (Musical Director – Dream); Jennifer Dick (Associate Director); Adam Donaldson (Actor); Tom Duncan (Actor); Robert Elkin (Actor); Alana Gibb (Actor); Scott Gilmour (Actor); Suzie Goldberg (Deputy Stage Manager); Sophie Griffiths (Actor); Zoe Halliday (Actor); Joseph Hawkins (Actor); Carys Hobbs (Costume Designer – Dream / Hamlet); Rosie Ladkin (Actor); Kirsty MacLaren (Actor); Beth Marshall (Actor); Karen Martin (Choreographer – Dream); Finlay McLean (Actor); James Murfitt (Actor); Sarah Paulley (Set Design – Dream); David Pica (Actor); Steven Rae (Actor); Sam Ramsay (Production Manager); Lawrence Robb (Actor); Socks Rolland (Costume Props Assisant); Claire Seddon (Actor); Robert Sharpe (Actor); Marc Silberschatz (Fight Director); Andrew Fraser Thomas (Actor); Charlotte Vlaanderen (Wardrobe Assistant); Julian Wejwar (Actor)

 “The Wars of the Roses” Company:

Actors: Pola Anton, Jessica Bathurst, India Crawford, Adam Donaldson, Jessica Fay, Rachel Handshaw, Charlie Hanson, Joseph Hawkins, Rachel Sarah Henderson, David Hooley, Kevin Leask, Amy J Ludwigsen, Rose McPhilemy, Francois Menard-Noens, Kimberley Miller, Andy Paterson, David Pica, Charlotte Purser, Pamela Reid, Amandine Vincent, Jayme Wojciechowski (also Co-Fight Director)

Gordon Barr (Director – Part 3); Nikita Chabeli de Mascarenhas (Costume Designer); Jennifer Dick (Director – Part 2); Debbie Hannan (Assistant Director); Claire Moyer (Assistant Director); Sam Ramsay (Stage Manager); Marc Silberschatz (Director – Part 1), Charlotte Vlaanderen (Wardrobe Supervisor); Laura Grundy, Amber Corbett, Victoria Claire Hammond, Charlie Sobanski, Lucy Deady, Chloe Whittaker, Daisy Balderstone, Harriet Salisbury (Wardrobe Assistants)

20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2010

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

 This week’s Throwback Thursday is heading back to 2010 and a season that saw some of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays programmed alongside some rarely-seen gems.

The season opened with Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, directing Shakespeare’s great tragedy, King Lear, in its full-scale outdoor debut for the company. Led by a powerful, heartbreaking performance from George Docherty as Lear, the acting company featured a number of Bard in the Botanics’ stalwarts, including Beth Marshall as Goneril, Nicole Cooper as Regan, Kirk Bage as Edgar, Alan Steele as Gloucester and Stephen Clyde as Kent. Beautiful period costumes from costume designer, Carys Hobbs, helped this formidable group of actors bring some of Shakespeare’s most vivid characters to full-throated life. Utilising the natural scenery of the Botanic Gardens as its backdrop, the production featured only minimal scenery – a throne and a large metal wall that could be pounded to generate the sounds of a storm when Mother Nature didn’t make her entrance on time! With such a thrilling story to tell, such magnificent language to tell it with and such a strong group of actors, the production didn’t need much decoration – it was a testament to the storytelling skill of Shakespeare and a group of talented artists.

George Docherty as Lear, with Alan Steele as Gloucester & Kirk Bage as Edgar (King Lear, 2009)

 Meanwhile, in the Kibble Palace, our “Lesser-Spotted Shakespeare” series entered its second year – and in typical Bard fashion, our ambitions for what could be achieved in this small space skyrocketed! Director & adapter, Jennifer Dick, took one of Shakespeare’s most amazing female characters – Queen Margaret – and excavated her story from the 4 plays in which she appears (Henry VI Parts 1, 2 & 3 and Richard III) to tell a thrilling story of a powerful, complex woman negotiating the power struggles of a male-dominated world. Love, marriage, motherhood, civil war, grief, loss, political machinations – you name it, Margaret experienced them all in the course of the play – and in Sarah Chalcroft’s breathtaking performance, brilliantly supported by Paul Cunningham & Tom Duncan, audiences lived every moment of her turbulent life along with her. Queen Margaret really set the standard for the ambitious, emotionally bruising, politically charged adaptations that would become the hallmark of our work in the Kibble Palace ever since.

Sarah Chalcroft as Queen Margaret with Paul Cunningham as Richard of Gloucester (Queen Margaret, 2010)

Photo credit: Pete Searle

 Our second outdoor production of 2010 was Twelfth Night with Nicole Cooper and Stephen Clyde leading the company as Viola & Malvolio, respectively. Set in the late Victorian period, the production featured another set of gorgeous period costumes from Carys Hobbs and, like King Lear earlier in the season, the production had minimal staging – just a round piece of decking to define the playing area, a small garden table and 2 chairs. But with an ensemble full of brilliant Bard performers, including Kirk Bage as Sir Toby Belch, Paul Cunningham as Feste, Tom Duncan as Orsino, Beth Marshall as Maria and Alan Steele as Antonio, audiences were guaranteed an evening as rich as the most sumptuously staged Shakespeare could ever hope to be!

From L to R: Beth Marshall (Maria), Paul Cunningham (Feste), Kirk Bage (Sir Toby Belch) & Stephen Clyde (Malvolio) in “Twelfth Night” (2010)

Photo Credit: Douglas McBride

 Our final production of 2010 saw our Emerging Artists Directors’ Scheme resurrected for the first time since 2006 as we welcomed recent Royal Conservatoire of Scotland graduate, Marc Silberschatz, to direct a production of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy, Titus Andronicus. Together with a brilliantly committed company of actors, he created a full-blooded, action-packed, mud-splattered version of this Tarantino-esque revenge thriller and gave audiences a welcome opportunity to enjoy another rarely-seen title.

From L to R: Mitchell Grant (Chiron), Sam Spanjian (Aaron) & Euan Cuthbertson (Demetrius) in “Titus Andronicus” (2010)

 Simple staging, vivid characters & exquisite acting combined to create a season of powerful work for audiences.

Looking back on 2010, Associate Artist, Nicole Cooper, had this to say:

“2010 was my first full season with the company. I was thrilled to be back and also really excited to work on King Lear - a play that I had got to know and fell in love with the previous year when I worked with Gordon as his assistant director on a production with RCS students. It's such a perfectly written and I was so excited to be working with some of the core company members, who I had seen performing in 2009. Beth Marshall is still someone I idolise and I was very nervous to work alongside her! As heavy as the material was, I remember the rehearsal period being a lot of fun but also such a huge learning curve.  I spent a lot of time watching my fellow cast members and learning everything I could from them. Alan Steele's Gloucester was heart breaking - I found it really difficult to hate and torture him as Regan!!!!

 I was lucky enough to put everything I'd learned from that experience into the next show - Twelfth Night. Playing Viola was a dream come true. I was very nervous but Gordon and I had already established a symbiotic way of working so I trusted him to steer me correctly.  And yet again - I was surrounded by such accomplished actors that every day was a school day. Even during the show...every night I stayed backstage, as long as I could before running off for a costume change, because I wanted to hear Stevie Clyde's Malvolio. I also loved the setting of that show. It was up in the rose garden and the space was just enchanting. Looking back, Twelfth Night was a great show to cut my teeth on, in terms of playing a lead character. It's a real ensemble piece - so I didn't feel the entire weight and pressure of driving a story so early on in my career with Bard. I was able to just trust the writing, trust the experience of the cast around me and enjoy every minute of it.”

 FUN FACTS:

- 2010 saw more of our current Associate Artists make their Bard in the Botanics’ debuts. Alan Steele played Gloucester in “King Lear” and Antonio in “Twelfth Night”. Since then he has played a number of roles for the company, including another Antonio in “The Merchant of Venice”, Polonius & the Ghost in “Hamlet” and Menenius in “Coriolanus” – a sharp contrast to his other life as our beloved panto dame at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews!

- Robert Elkin, another Associate Artist, also made his Bard debut in 2010. He’s well-known to our audiences now for playing major roles such as Richard III, Richard II, Bertram (Beatrice) in Much Ado and Viola in Twelfth Night – but he first joined the company while still in training to play the relatively small role of Valentine in 2010’s Twelfth Night. Valentine wasn’t in that many scenes and many company members have a vivid first memory of Rob as “that lovely, shy boy who sits in the backstage tent and knits” – he still knits a lot but he’s definitely not as shy anymore!

- 2010 was the first of 2 outdoor productions of Lear’s story that we’ve staged at Bard in the Botanics – the other being 2017’s “Queen Lear”. Both runs featured a performance in which Lear’s exhortation to the heavens to “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!” was the cue for a real storm to kick off – one of the coincidences which come with outdoor performance or something more mystical? We prefer to think of it as mystical because, you know, it makes a better story!

- King Lear proved that stage management are always great at multitasking. At one point in the production, hidden behind a small screen, stage manager Sam Ramsay could be seen using both hands to smear make-up over Kirk Bage’s Edgar for his quick-change into the alias of “Poor Tom” while simultaneously blowing a hunting call into a bugle – the strange skills stage managers need to develop!

- Our Emerging Artist Actors in 2010 were Pierce Reid (playing Oswald in King Lear and Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night) and Camille Marmie, who was engaged to play the challenging dual role of Cordelia and the Fool in King Lear. Both were brilliant young performers and Camille did such a tremendous job that when another actor was forced to pull out of playing Olivia in Twelfth Night, we were delighted she could extend her contract to appear in that show too!

2009 COMPANY:

Kirk Bage (Actor); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Sarah Chalcroft (Actor); Stephen Clyde (Actor); Mark Coleman (Actor); Nicole Cooper (Actor); Wendy Crosby (Actor); Paul Cunningham (Actor); Euan Cuthbertson (Actor); Jennifer Dick (Director – Queen Margaret); George Docherty (Actor); Tom Duncan (Actor); Eve Everette (Actor); Alex Fthenakis (Actor); Lucy Goldie (Actor); Mitchell Grant (Actor); Kay Hesford (Festival Manager); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design – King Lear, Twelfth Night); Camille Marmie (Actor); Beth Marshall (Actor); Steven McMahon (Actor); Gilchrist Muir (Actor); Gavin Purdie (Actor); Steven Rae (Actor); Sam Ramsay (Stage Manager); Pierce Reid (Actor); Eric Robertson (Actor); John Scougall (Actor); Marc Silberschatz (Director – Titus; Fight Director); Sam Spanjian (Actor); Alan Steele (Actor); James Watterson (Actor)

20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2009

 It’s Throwback Thursday time again and this week we’re looking back at 2009 – a year of new artists, new creative voices and a brand-new initiative that changed the course of Bard in the Botanics forever.

The season opened with Artistic Director, Gordon Barr’s new production of “The Taming of the Shrew”. Building on his 2004 version of the controversial comedy, the modern dress production set the play in a vacuous image-obsessed modern world where conformity to the “norm” was prized and marriage represented an opportunity to solidify status and wealth. In this superficial society, Kate & Petruchio were two larger than life figures, both damaged and difficult but infinitely more interesting than the people who surround them. The play became a story of two outsiders, struggling to break down their barriers, to communicate and treat each other with respect – and while the production did not shy away from the horrible way in which Petruchio treated Kate, the ending suggested a new beginning for the pair on a more equal footing away from the societal constraints of their “friends” and family.

Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, was persuaded back to the stage to play Kate and achieved a minor miracle in turning the character’s final speech of capitulation into a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of the society she lived in – shaming Grant O’Rourke’s Petruchio into considering whether he really wanted a wife who would sublimate her personality to play the “game” society asks of women. It was a stunning reinvention of a deeply troubling piece of writing and a reminder of what a powerful performer Jennifer is, in addition to her creativity & skill as a director.

Jennifer Dick (Kate) & Company in “The Taming of the Shrew” (2009)

 That skill would be on display in the show’s second outdoor performance – “Macbeth”. This would be Jennifer’s first “mainstage” production for the company and she created a powerful version of Shakespeare’s well-loved tragedy. Staged on the back lawn of the Botanic Gardens, this “Macbeth” was set firmly in its period, in a world of clans where witches weren’t sinister, occult figures but healers and members of the community with sight beyond the norm. The sense of a community was important to Jennifer’s concept for the story. As she wrote in her Director’s Notes – “With this production I want to create a sense of community. A feeling that these characters don’t function in a vacuum but are part of a tribal culture. That they are connected to each other and that one person’s actions reverberate throughout the community.”

The company of “Macbeth” (2009)

 Bard in the Botanics Associate Artists, Paul Cunningham & Beth Marshall led the company as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, utilising their incredible talent to bring a real depth of humanity to the pair and their relationship. The ensemble was augmented by a new strand of our “B in the Park” programme – this time entitled “B in the Big Show”, it saw 3 young performers join the main acting company to portray the show’s younger characters.

The third show in the season saw the company return to the Kibble Palace as a performance venue but offered something new for audiences. 2009’s “Richard III”, directed by Gordon Barr, would become the first in a long line of “Lesser-Spotted Shakespeare” shows staged in the glasshouse. With a smaller audience capacity and a traverse seating arrangement, the Kibble Palace would become the company’s studio theatre space, allowing us to stage titles that are less well-known to audiences and, consequently, introduce them to a wider range of Shakespeare’s work. Small casts & small production budgets were necessary to make these studio shows work and “Richard III” – with a cast of only 3 actors and a budget of £200 – established a template which continues today.

Seeing a show in the Kibble Palace is a unique experience for audiences – they are often only inches away from the actors and the intensity of sharing a story so intimately is like nothing else. What began as an experiment with “Richard III” – can you stage one of Shakespeare’s longest plays that has one of his most extensive cast lists with only 3 people? – has become a core part of our work and it is a testament to that first Kibble Palace acting company (Grant O’Rourke in the title role, Nicole Cooper & Mark Prendergast) that the show was such a huge success.

Grant O’Rourke in the title role of “Richard III” (2009)

  Looking back on 2009, Associate Director, Jennifer Dick, had this to say:

“2009 was such a significant year from me at Bard in the Botanics.  It was the first year I directed a full production for the company and I had a blast working with some very talented performers, who taught me so much about directing. That summer also marked a return to acting for me, after a few years away. I was initially hesitant to take on the role of Kate, because the play is problematic for me. But it felt like a challenge I couldn’t miss out on. I found a way of playing her that I felt utterly empowered by, in the end, which I’m still very proud of. I also remember we had a heatwave while rehearsing Macbeth during the day, and playing Shrew in the evenings, which was both wonderful and completely exhausting!”

FUN FACTS:

- 2009 saw a number of our current Associate Artists make their Bard in the Botanics’ debut. Two recent design graduates joined the company that year – Carys Hobbs designing costumes for “Shrew” & “Macbeth” and Gillian Argo, designing the set for “Shrew”. Their creative brilliance belied their early career status and their work has established the visual aesthetic for Bard in the Botanics ever since, with Carys currently operating as the company’s Head of Design.

- The company’s current Production Manager, Sam Ramsay, also joined us for the first time in 2009 as Deputy Stage Manager for “Shrew” & “Macbeth” while core Acting Ensemble member, Nicole Cooper, made her Bard debut in “Richard III”. Nicole has become a firm fixture at Bard in the Botanics since then, taking on many of Shakespeare’s greatest roles, including Viola, Ophelia, Rosalind, Cassius, Portia, Timon of Athens, Isabella, Cleopatra, Beatrice, Hamlet and her award-winning performance in the title role of Coriolanus.

- Nicole shares the record for the most characters played in a single production with her “Richard III” co-star, Mark Prendergast. They each played 6 individual characters in the show!

- We were delighted to welcome Grant O’Rourke to the 2009 company to play the roles of Petruchio & Richard III. Grant is an award-winning stage & screen actor, equally at home in both comedy & drama – and is perhaps best-known for his much-loved role as Rupert MacKenzie in 3 seasons of “Outlander”.

- 2009’s “Macbeth” featured, perhaps, the most thrilling piece of stage violence seen at Bard in the Botanics. From opposite ends of the lawn, the murderer Seyton hurled a dagger at Tom Duncan’s Banquo, stabbing him in the chest – of course it was a clever piece of stage trickery (we try not to actually stab actors!) but we’re not going to reveal how we did it – suffice to say, it never failed to generate gasps of shock from the audience!

- The period costumes of “Macbeth” led one reviewer to comment that the production must have been sponsored by a maker of Harris Tweed – we didn’t like to reveal that they were actually made from “removal blankets”, all dyed by hand to give a luxurious look to the outfits!

2009 COMPANY:

Gillian Argo (Set Design – Shrew); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Kenny Blyth (Actor); Amie Burns Walker (Actor); Kerry Cleland (Actor); Nicole Cooper (Actor); Paul Cunningham (Actor); Jennifer Dick (Director – Macbeth; Actor); Tom Duncan (Actor); Jonathan Fegan (Actor); Kay Hesford (Festival Manager); Carys Hobbs (Costume Design – Shrew & Macbeth); Beth Marshall (Actor); Stephen McGonigle (Actor); Trish Mullin (Actor); Grant O’Rourke (Actor); Mark Prendergast (Actor); Sam Ramsay (Deputy Stage Manager); Gillian Smith (Set Design – Macbeth); Ben Winger (Actor)

20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2008

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

We continue our weekly Throwback Thursdays this week by looking back to 2008 and the beginning of a new era for the company.

After facing the difficulties of 2007 – a summer of bad weather and accumulated financial uncertainty – the company was determined to move forward and make real strides both artistically and organisationally. It must be said that without the support of a dedicated Board of Directors it wouldn’t have been possible. Our voluntary Board of Directors have all shown incredible loyalty and support for the company throughout the years with current Chair, Val Atkinson, having sat on the Board since our very first year – her dedication makes her as much a key part of the company’s success as any performance you see on stage and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Val and everyone who has sat on the Board of Directors across the past two decades – we wouldn’t be here without them!

Fundraising efforts; a reinvigoration of our “Friends & Patrons Scheme” and a new corporate sponsor in the form of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau all helped the company to navigate our way through to a more secure situation than we’d had in recent years and so the stage was set for our 7th annual Bard in the Botanics summer season.

The season opened with Artistic Director, Gordon Barr’s production of “The Merchant of Venice”. The production, led by Sarah Chalcroft as Portia & John P Arnold as Shylock, fully embraced the play’s contradictions to create a complex rendering of the story. Set in 1930’s Europe, the production acknowledged the simmering racial tension and anti-semitic feeling bubbling under the surface that would, historically, produce such terrifying results. In his Director’s Notes, Gordon Barr wrote that “this play throws up more questions than it answers, it has the potential to make us confront our own prejudices just as its characters must do but…at its heart is a plea for understanding and a warning of what happens when, for whatever reason, we lose a sense of our own humanity.” Portia had the last line in this version – “It is almost morning” – and as the strains of “The Clouds Will Soon Roll By” floated out ironically from a gramophone and Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, stood clutching the yarmulke ripped from her father’s head in the trial scene, the audience were left wondering just what that coming morning would bring with it!

The company of “The Merchant of Venice” (2008)

From L to R: Sarah Chalcroft (Portia); Stephen Clyde (Antonio); Nicholas Cowell (Bassanio); Tom Duncan (Gratiano); Jennifer Bates (Nerissa); Roisin Gallagher (Jessica); Stuart Martin (Lorenzo)

Photo credit: Pete Searle

 The second show of the season – “Much Ado About Nothing” (directed by Gordon Barr) – saw a promenade production return to Bard in the Botanics for the first time since 2005. The Botanic Gardens became a perfect stand-in for Leonato’s estate and the beautiful 18th century costumes from Designer, Kirsty Mackay, and Wardrobe Supervisor, Fi Carrington, created a fully-realised world in which audiences could bask in the perfectly-balanced comedy & drama of this great play. Beth Marshall returned for her 3rd consecutive season to play Beatrice and was joined, in his first season, by Stephen Clyde as Benedick – both actors would become Associate Artists and play a major role in shaping the artistic identity of the company.

“Much Ado About Nothing” (2008) - Beth Marshall as Beatrice & Stephen Clyde as Benedick

Photo credit: Pete Searle

 Our summer school for young people – “B in the Park” – returned for a second year, with directors Jennifer Dick & Sarah Chalcroft creating a new adaptation of “Love’s Labours Lost”, with many of the cast of 2007’s “Twelfth Night” returning to prove just how skilled they had become in performing Shakespeare as they tackled one of his trickiest and most beautiful scripts. Meanwhile, in Stirling, we were delighted to team up with Macrobert Arts Centre to run a second “B in the Park” summer school that led to a vibrant production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, directed by Kirstin McLean.

The company of “B in the Park: Love’s Labours Lost” (2008)

   Looking back on 2008, Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, had this to say:

“It absolutely typifies the resilience and spirit of Bard in the Botanics that, after facing a crisis like we had in 2007, the company should then choose to look to the future with optimism & determination – and that really paid off in 2008. The shows felt richer and fuller than ever before, the cast were exquisite and firing on all cylinders and the designs were absolutely stunning. The company had looked disaster squarely in the face and said, no, we won’t buckle under – we’ll come back better and stronger than ever before. It was a thrilling season to work on.”

FUN FACTS:

- The 2008 production of “The Merchant of Venice” was the first to be staged on our purpose built outdoor stage at the end of the Botanic Gardens’ Main Glasshouse – now the regular performance space for the vast majority of our “mainstage” productions. Building an outdoor stage opened up Shakespeare’s repertoire for the company, allowing us to produce plays which had a more “urban” or “city-based” feel, like “The Merchant of Venice”.

- 2008’s Benedick & Beatrice – Beth Marshall & Stephen Clyde – have been partners for many years and their real-life chemistry brought the characters to life in a brilliantly vivid manner. In subsequent years, they were often cast opposite each other in antagonistic roles – perpetual enemies Malvolio & Maria in “Twelfth Night” (2010); warring siblings Prosporo & Antonia in “The Tempest” (2012) but perhaps their most memorable pairing was as the lovestruck Titania and the hapless Bottom in 2011’s 10th anniversary production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – they managed to be both hilarious and sexy, all at the same time!

- Love must have been in the air in 2008 as the season also ultimately led to Bard in the Botanics’ first marriage! Associate Artist, Sarah Chalcroft, met husband Andrew Root that summer when she played Portia and he played Solanio in “The Merchant of Venice” and we were thrilled to be able to share in their wedding a couple of years later.

- 2008 saw us fully launch our Emerging Artist (Actors) Scheme, with 4 recent graduates – Jack Brear, Roisin Gallagher, Stuart Martin & Andrew Root – joining the company. We’re thrilled that they have all gone to fruitful careers – you might have seen Stuart Martin in leading roles in a number of TV series, including “Medici”; “Jamestown” and, most recently, one of the title roles in “Miss Scarlet & the Duke” (he was the Duke, not Miss Scarlet!)

 2008 COMPANY:

Gillian Argo (Designer – B in the Park); John P Arnold (Actor); Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Jennifer Bates (Actor); Sarah Bloomfield (Stage Manager); Jack Brear (Actor); Fi Carrington (Wardrobe Supervisor); Sarah Chalcroft (Actor – Merchant; Director – B in the Park); Stephen Clyde (Actor); Nicholas Cowell (Actor); Jennifer Dick (Director – B in the Park); Elaine Diffenthal (Stage Manager); Tom Duncan (Actor); Roisin Gallagher (Actor); Kirsty Mackay (Designer – Much Ado); Beth Marshall (Actor); Stuart Martin (Actor); Iona McCallum (Wardrobe Assistant); Kirstin McLean (Director – B in the Park); Sarah Paulley (Designer – Merchant); Andrew Root (Actor)

20 Years in 20 Weeks - Looking back to Bard in the Botanics 2007

20 YEARS IN 20 WEEKS

This week we continue our look back over 20 years of Bard in the Botanics by reflecting on our 2007 season – and 6 years in to the journey of the company, we hit some stormy waters!

The year started with another successful collaboration with Cumbernauld Theatre and North Lanarkshire Council – this time a staging of Joe Calarco’s brilliant “Shakespeare’s R&J”. The play sees four young students at a repressive boarding school sneak away one night to read a banned text – “Romeo and Juliet”. As they act out Shakespeare’s tale, their own stories become intertwined with the original text, creating a powerful exploration of repressed desire, youthful passion & rebellion against authority. Originally written for 4 male actors, we couldn’t resist – in the grand tradition of Bard in the Botanics – exploring the play from the perspective of 4 female characters. Sarah Chalcroft played Romeo; Michelle Wiggins was tempted back to the company to play Tybalt & the Nurse; newcomer Rebecca Sloyan was cast as Juliet & Benvolio while Jennifer Dick took on the mammoth task of playing Mercutio, Friar Lawrence and both Lord & Lady Capulet (she’s always up for a challenge!). The show played at Cumbernauld Theatre before touring venues across North Lanarkshire.

The cast of “Shakespeare’s R&J” at Cumbernauld Theatre, 2007. From L to R: Sarah Chalcroft, Michelle Wiggins, Rebecca Sloyan, Jennifer Dick

 As we moved towards the summer season, trouble began to loom for the company. Huge  expansion in our early years had placed Bard in the Botanics firmly on the map but had also accrued a financial deficit which we were still struggling to manage. In order to secure the future of the company, 2007 would have to see us stage a reduced season of work.

And so that year’s season saw us stage two of Shakespeare’s most well-known titles – “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Othello” – with a company of just 5 actors (with a sixth joining for Othello).

In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, each actor took on a character from one of the 3 worlds of the play – the mortals, the fairies and the “rude mechanicals” – with Puck acting as a mischievous “ringmaster” of proceedings. He began the play lurking near the playing space, looking like a threatening “ned”, bouncing a football repeatedly and often making the audience feel quite uncomfortable. Then, suddenly, he invaded the space, drew four apparent audience members up into the action and magically sent them spinning into Shakespeare’s story. It was an inventive take on this popular title and even if the restrictions of the small cast stretched credibility perhaps a little too far at times – Duke Theseus could only appear as a disembodied voice emanating from a nearby tree! – the energised, versatile performances of Paul Cunningham (Bottom & Demetrius); Beth Marshall (Hermia, Titania & Starveling); John Macaulay (Lysander, Oberon & Flute); Lisa Gardner (Helena, Fairy & Snug) and Ewan Donald (Puck) kept the action clear and the audience engaged throughout.

The company of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, 2007 (Photo credit: Pete Searle)

 While the reduced cast size and popularity of the title were designed to ensure “Dream” could help the company through a difficult financial year, the weather had other ideas! The run of “Dream” saw us face the wettest weather Bard had experienced to date, leading to 5 performances (a third of its total run) being cancelled – the outlook was beginning to look bleak!

So it was a real blessing for the company that 2007 saw the reopening of the Kibble Palace, after a 3-year renovation. The gorgeous new glasshouse, recreated from its original design, was and still is a sparkling jewel in the Botanics’ crown and “Othello” was the first show to play in its new incarnation. The intimate domestic action of “Othello” had seemed unsuited to outdoor performance so the reopening of the Kibble Palace was a perfect opportunity to stage our first production of this powerful tragedy. Paul Cunningham, after his stunning debut as Leontes in 2006’s “The Winter’s Tale”, led the cast as Iago in a chilling performance in this pared-back, modern dress production.

John Macaulay (Othello) & Lisa Gardner (Desdemona) in “Othello” (2007)

 Perhaps the project we are most proud of in 2007 was our “B in the Park” summer school. 9 young people came together to create a new production of “Twelfth Night”. Watching their love of Shakespeare grow, their confidence develop and their performances as young actors blossom under the tutelage and direction of Associate Artists, Jennifer Dick & Sarah Chalcroft, was incredibly rewarding.

Christine Park as Malvolio in “B in the Park: Twelfth Night” (2007)

 But the bad weather experienced during “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” had taken its toll by the end of the season. Despite our attempts to manage our financial issues with a reduced season etc., the company still ended up in a worse situation than before and our future was in jeopardy. Of course, we’re still here so clearly we were able to navigate those tough times and the following year, 2008, really turned the company’s fortunes around but more on that next week!

Looking back on 2007, Artistic Director, Gordon Barr, had this to say:

“There’s no doubt that this was a difficult year for Bard in the Botanics and for me as Artistic Director. I remember spending nearly as much time dealing with financial crises as directing the shows, which is not what anyone wants! Thankfully, some brilliant actors and creatives meant that the work did not suffer and I’m proud of what we staged but I learned some tough lessons that year. And I think it’s important to acknowledge the difficulties we faced in 2007 because the history of a company is not just its triumphs but its trials as well – and we’re incredibly proud that we survived and have gone on to thrive as a company – it’s a big part of our story.”

FUN FACTS:

- “Shakespeare’s R&J” allowed the company to begin introducing a wider representation of queer identities in classical text – something that has become core to our identity in subsequent years in characters including Benedick & Bertram (originally Benedick & Beatrice); Timon of Athens; Richard II; Hamlet & Ophelia; Angel (2018’s version of the Nurse in another Romeo & Juliet); Touchstone, Andrey (originally Audrey); Silvia & Phebe in 2019’s “As You Like It” and many more.

- The random items which made up the set for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”  - a ladder; a large scramble net; interwoven straps hanging from tree branches – might have looked eclectic but were all carefully chosen to enable the show to stay at eye level for the audience. Dream is a play with a lot of “lying down” – for sleeping or perhaps other purposes(!) – and in a site-specific setting where audience & performance are on the same level, it can disappear into the ground. The more “vertical” set pieces prevented the actors from spending most of the play rolling on the ground, out of sight of the audience – the things you have to consider when working outdoors!

- Returning to the Kibble Palace for “Othello” was a steep learning curve for the company. We tried to use the space like a traditional theatre with rows of audience facing the performance area, all on the same level – which meant that the majority were just staring at the head of the person in front! When we next returned to the Kibble Palace in 2009, the audience configuration had changed to the traverse seating (i.e. audience on 2 sides, facing each other) which we have come to know & love – and which ensures everyone can actually see the play!

2007 COMPANY:

Gordon Barr (Artistic Director); Fi Carrington (Wardrobe Supervisor); Sarah Chalcroft (Actor – R&J; Director – B in the Park); Paul Cunningham (Actor); Jennifer Dick (Actor – R&J; Director – B in the Park); Ewan Donald (Actor); Brian Gardiner (Designer – Othello); Lisa Gardner (Actor); Kenneth Harvey (Actor); Emma Hullin (DSM); John Macaulay (Actor); Beth Marshall (Actor); Barry McCall (Stage Manager); Sarah Paulley (Designer – Dream & R&J); Pete Searle (Lighting Design – R&J); <slight> (Sound Design – Dream & Othello); Rebecca Sloyan (Actor); Laura Walshe (Stage Manager  R&J); Michelle Wiggins (Actor)