theatreVOICE

An amazing week last week: finally, after months of preparation, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The Urban Scrawl project - a partnership between TheatreVOICE, Theatre 503 and Rose Bruford College - went into major recording mode in Sidcup. Which meant that Gene David Kirk, indefatigable programming director at 503 - and newly appointed artistic director of the Jermyn Street Theatre - took command of a logistical operation that would have perplexed a battle-commander. Just as well he used to be in the RAF.

Morning, noon and night - Gene was pretty much camping out at Rose Bruford College’s New Media centre - he oversaw the arrival and departure of different groups of actors, writers and technicians - all of them required to finish a brand new segment of audio drama within the allotted time period. In total, there will be 53 new dramas, each lasting up to about 15 minutes in length, tracing a unique journey across London along the snaking course of the Piccadilly Line. Hundreds of characters, hours of drama.

I dropped by on Thursday - when Gene was putting the finishing touches to Hounslow by Daryl Bennett, hunched over a sound-desk with studio manager Elayne Hall, one of many trained students taking part in the project. In a nearby room, director Steve Harper, tasked with overseeing another batch of recordings, conducted a series of read-throughs.

I’m going to have to say it - it was like Piccadilly Circus in there; but without people bumping into each other and getting annoyed. It all went incredibly smoothly. That’s down in part to the experienced radio-production hand of in-house expert Marina Caldarone - but it’s remarkable how people can pull together when the stakes are high. I don’t want to spoil the surprises that lie in store for TheatreVOICE listeners over the coming year by revealing which plays are coming first - and what they contain. Not generally given to shouting excitement from the rooftops, I am, however, really REALLY excited about what I’ve been hearing. And you ain’t heard nothing yet. Watch this space - for further announcements…

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 6:18 pm, by Dominic Cavendish and is filed under Audio 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.