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EVITA - MINACK STYLE

INTRODUCTION There can’t be many amateur companies fortunate enough to secure the rights to perform this iconic classic of musical theatre. Likewise there are few who are lucky to be able to play at the prestigious if challenging out door Cornish theatre at The Minack.

BROS Theatre Company is doubly blessed therefore to have been able to do both in one hit. SHOW SELECTION The process began after a successful run of Man of La Mancha at the Minack in May 2007. Sitting over a cup of tea in the café there, after most of the company had gone back to London, the theatre manager and a small group of BROS members bandied around ideas of possible shows for two years hence. Somewhere the word Evita dropped into the mix. It was like a light bulb going on!

SECURING the RIGHTS Initial contact with The Really Useful Group Ltd. elicited a polite but emphatic “Sorry, No. We have no plans to issue amateur rights for the foreseeable future.” So do we let it go then? We have a good case: Stunning and unique venue about as far away from any major theatre as one can get in the UK, and, the chosen production would be the first of the company’s second century of performance.

The next step was the personal approach. By strange co-incidence Sir Tim Rice has his London home a stone’s throw from one of our rehearsal venues and we knew he was a regular visitor to The Minack. Letter duly hand delivered. Dialogue begins. A draft contract arrives and stipulations include use of a full orchestra, at that time 21 players, plus a delay in public announcement. All accepted. At our Centenary Gala in October 2008 at Richmond Theatre

our Patron and long time member Alan Titchmarsh announced the project formally and we were under way.

AUDITIONS & CASTING Inevitably as the word spread the audition list lengthened and in due course included two Argentineans who had found our website in searches. A surfeit of riches resulted in the agonising choices of who and how many. Many amateur companies would have been delighted to have had any one of the many superb auditionees we saw for Eva and Che but clear winners emerged. Second auditions for Peron were called and again we could have cast any one of several.

Perhaps the most difficult choice was where to limit the ensemble. Minack is a large but irregularly shaped stage and lends itself to bigger casts, so the decision was made to cast numbers and create smaller groups within the bigger chorus. So after countless hours

Staging an outdoor production of any kind can be fraught with difficulties. BROS Theatre Company discuss their recent open air production of Evita at the Minack Theatre.

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of auditions our final numbers were 52 adults including 22 men and a pool of a dozen children with 3 licensed for all 7 half term performances.

STAGING for MINACK There are numerous complexities and differences in staging at The Minack but fortunately for BROS the production team selected were all seasoned veterans of the venue.

In many respects Minack is a reversal of ‘normal’ proscenium arch theatres. Yes, it has a rake, but sloped away from the audience (useful when it rains!) which plays havoc with dancers’ legs I’m told. Principals are encouraged to work and position further away from the audience to create better sight lines for the steeply raked seating. Choreography is all viewed from above so patterns replace lines to best advantage.

To accommodate the larger cast the full chorus was split into four base groups by gender. The men were either rejected lovers or officers & oligarchy, while the women were either workers or posh! Across and within these groupings were

11 dancer pairs, and of course everyone was in the full company numbers. Initially this gave rise to a few moans about who was singing what, but as the 18 week rehearsal period unfolded it became clear that with costume changes and no dialogue to give time, it had been a wise decision.

The only scenery we constructed was a simple, permanently sited, wooden balcony to represent the Casa Rosada. The remainder of the action was played using hand props and easily carried furniture all moved by cast to create swift flowing seamless scene changes.

CoSTUMES, WIGS & MAKE-UPWe hired the base set from our favoured suppliers The Costume Workshop on the Isle of Wight (we believe only the third time this set has been used) and augmented these with numerous accessories and additional hats to ring the changes. Eva had a personal off stage dresser for the week and two on stage dressers for the many ‘hidden’ changes directed into the action. For example during the opening Requiem our Evita was an anonymous member of the

chorus only revealed in the final bars as her black headscarf & coat were removed to view the teenage Eva Duarte beneath.

Many of the women needed wigs to create a better 40s/50s look and several of the men grew moustaches and hair for a more period style. Eva had 3 wigs to show the changes from dark haired youth, to 40s styled blonde, to the recognised swept-back bun of later years.We were able to secure the services of two delightful newly qualified make-up artists from the world renowned Greasepaint school of make-up to assist with hair & wig styling and make-up for the run.

TECHNICALS Our lighting designer is an experienced Minack veteran and ex chief electrician from a major London theatre so we knew we would be in good hands. Three follow spots were hired and position strategically to cover the whole playing space. Additional balcony up-lighters were hidden within the theatre structure and colour washes created for mood. He also designed Flambeaux from copper tubing to allow the cast to carry flaming

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torches on stage for the final vigil and extinguish them as Evita’s spirit moved among them during the Lament.

Our sound designer, while new to Minack, is also a seasoned professional and a master of radio mic technology (useful in windy conditions!). 11 mics were used with Evita having two to cover for any problems with the first. One of our Argentineans recorded the voice over for the opening scene giving it an emotional authenticity. The theatre’s float system worked as efficiently as ever and the band/player balance and reciprocal fold-back systems proved very effective giving confidence to performers and musicians alike.

Our stage management team was a combination of Minack vets and virgins and included six men press-ganged & drilled into being our pall-bearers for the funeral procession. This resulted in an on stage cast of 70 for the opening sequence, making for a startling and attention grabbing impact at the onset of

the piece.

MUSIC & BANDIn January we were delighted to learn from the RUG that we were to be permitted to use the 2006 revision which includes the additional song You Must Love Me written for Madonna in the film, and has a slightly reduced orchestration of 18.

Using two local fixers our MD booked 14 local players who were sent their pads a couple of months beforehand to aid familiarisation. These were augmented by 4 London players all of whom are regulars in West End pits as players or MDs in their own right. Two hours worth of sung through rock opera required a five hour band-call to gel the players into a cohesive unit, but from that point on the pit became a joyous place to sit in as the players revelled in the delights of a fantastic score that they may never have another chance to play again.The company has a reputation for its quality of choral work and this piece gave

it every opportunity to shine vocally. This opportunity was grasped with both lungs, and with an assistant MD conducting from the tech balcony within the audience a truly memorable sound was created.

CONCLUSION Unlike previous visits to this wonderful venue, this piece sold rapidly from the day the box office opened and resulted in a complete sell out one week prior to opening night. Word of mouth after the dress rehearsal meant that we had up to 100 people queuing for returns at each performance - a testament to the public perception of the piece itself and an acknowledgment of the quality of our final production on-site.Rave reviews followed which further lifted a highly motivated cast, and with the blessing of fine weather an exhausting but undeniably wonderful week eventually came to a close.

Financially this was an expensive project to tour and required an investment by the Society even with the hoped for sell-

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out run. The specific License granted precluded us from performing beforehand in London to spread the rehearsal and production costs all of which were therefore to be balanced by income from Cornwall. We raised some sponsorship to offset a band double our normal Minack pit size and the additional costs of transport and lodgings for the London players.

The company can now feel proud and extremely fortunate to have been given a rare opportunity to perform this extraordinary piece of theatre and to have enhanced its reputation both at home in SW London and in Cornwall.

CONTACT INFO:For more information on BROS TC visit www.brostheatrecompany.org For more information on The RUG visit www.reallyuseful.com For more information on Minack visit www.minack.com

Photos: Lynn Batten

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