Interview with Giles Croft, Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse

Giles Croft is the Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse; we met up with him for a chat about what new writing means for him, how his role has allowed the Playhouse to find and foster emerging talent and what the future holds for new playwrights in the region.

Weasel under the Cocktail Cabinet: What, for you, is the importance of developing local theatre writing talent?

Giles Croft: I am a firm believer in theatres making connections with the community in which they are based and speaking directly to their audience in work relevant to them and their lives. Local writers are central to this and to the life of an arts organisation like ours, I would hope that people who come to Nottingham Playhouse see and appreciate this. There are many other organisations serving and supporting new playwriting regionally such as the Lakeside Arts Centre, New Perspectives and Theatre Writing Partnership, and their work, in tandem with us, is creating brilliant new drama. The projects we and others have embarked upon with local talent have been very fruitful and the graduates of which have proven there are careers and futures to be made from their talents. In short, it’s a great time to be an artist in the East Midlands.

Weasel: What do you see as Nottingham Playhouse’s role within this?

GC: We have to be able to provide opportunities for new writers to have their work produced. It is great for writers to develop their plays with local theatres and agencies through readings and workshops but this ultimately lacks a full audience response. We have worked closely with the other organisations in the region and fostered the work of many writers: Michael Pinchbeck, Andy Barrett, Amanda Whittington, Leah Chillery, Nick Wood, Stephen Lowe, Laura Lomas and, in the last season, Michael Eaton and Michelle Vacciana. Some of these writers have been more established than others and maybe in different fields but I believe they will all say the same thing, when writing for performance you gain most through seeing the work on stage with actors and an audience. We see this as part of our contribution to our commitment to new work.

With the unsure financial situation all arts organisations have found themselves in at the moment our ability to produce may become more limited but we are exploring different ways to have new work performed in the region. We have plenty of projects in the pipeline, many emerging artists already working with us and our partner organisations and we will find clever way to invest in local writing talent over the next few years.

Weasel: What have been the real success stories and which new written shows have you been most proud off?

GC: I believe that the real success stories are not actually the plays themselves. This is not to say that the plays have not been good, they have been excellent, but what I am most proud of is our steadfastness to making a commitment to new writing, mounting these shows and now having a group of writers who are proud to say that they have had their work produced by Nottingham Playhouse.

Shows which are personal highlights for me have been recently directing Families of Lockerbie by Michael Eaton. Whilst the play was seen as an odd hybrid between verbatim, documentary theatre and the individual tragedies of the characters Michael created, I knew that the intent and the delivery were absolutely right. It also further demonstrated our continued commitment to producing innovative, different and challenging work. Last year’s Garage Band is another show I enjoyed. It was Andy Barrett’s second show with us and showed a clear development in his craft as a writer, highlighting the importance of having work performed. The show was also bloody good fun; it was a really enjoyable place to be with the audience dancing and cheering every night. Finally, Laura Lomas’ The Island which I see as a perfect example of Nottingham Playhouse’s ability to sustain a working relationship with an emerging writer and help them towards a successful career. Laura, after doing the show with us, has now gone on to work with New Perspectives and the National Youth Theatre whilst we have continued to stay in contact. A possible commission in the future? I hope so.

Weasel: What are in Nottingham Playhouse’s plans for new writing and new playwrights in the future?

GC: We have five writers under commission currently: Amanda Whittington, Andy Barrett, Michelle Vacciana and Micheals Pinchbeck and Eaton. Some of these writers are moving in new directions such as Andy who is adapting an Ibsen piece for the ETC conference here at Nottingham Playhouse in May 2011 whilst Michelle is doing further development on Fakebook. We have our Summer Readings events where we will hear the work of some very different playwrights over the course of a week, this due to be repeated in the autumn, plus we are delivering this year’s Peter Wolff supports The Whiting Award in association with Theatre Writing Partnership.

When you look at it a lot of what we are going to produce, whilst taking a small step back, shows that in spite of the financial climate there is a real push here to keep producing and investing in new theatre writing talent throughout this period and to encourage the relationship we have with the writers we already work with, those we are interested in and those we are yet to encounter. It is important to acknowledge the work of people like Gavin Stride, who when I arrived was the Artistic Director of New Perspectives, it was his energy and drive which brought much of this early progress together. Since then Ester Richardson, Matt Aston, Daniel Buckroyd and Kate Chapman, at the helm of the current incarnation of TWP, have continued to develop great work and this vibrant new writing community we are very proud to have in the East Midlands.


Giles Croft directs a script-in-hand performance of Stasiland, adapted by Nick Drake from the book by Anna Funder, as part of the Nottingham Playhouse Summer Readings season on Saturday 24th July at 7pm. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance by calling Box Office on 0115 941 9419.

For more details see www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

Interview originally carried out for Theatre Writing Partnership in association with Nottingham Playhouse.
Image courtesy of Robert Day.

Review: Quartet, Nottingham Theatre Royal

Ronald Harwood, when asked about his inspiration for Quartet, recalls a scribbled note which grew into a more fully formed piece: “home for old opera singers, end with the Quartet from Rigoletto.” It is these old opera singers which he presents his audience with, warts and all, and, in a business dominated by young up-and-comings, it is a pleasure to see some seasoned pros shine in a play tailored to them.

Though none of the cast are still waiting to receive their bus pass they perform with an energy that belies their years. Gwen Taylor’s Cissy is a constant bustling presence, welcoming back absent friends from imagined Indian sojourns or chasing the handsome gardener. Equally, Michael Jayston’s clean cut Reggie, whose diatribe on the shortcomings of apricot jam when compared to lime marmalade is very neatly observed, impresses in his reserved characterisation. However, the undoubted star turn comes from Timothy West with his Wilfred Bond, a gruff and ribald baritone, constantly humming, coughing or chuckling at a smutty wisecrack; many directed toward the blissfully unaware Cissy. The three’s tranquil world is disrupted by the arrival of Reggie’s ex-wife and former operatic superstar Jean, played here with icy certainty by Susannah York, and her refusal to join them in the singing of Rigoletto for their gala performance.

Harwood creates a world retirement homeliness where the audience truly believes that greying artistes can come for their twilight years; there is in fact a real comparison: Brinsworth House, a home in Twickenham for members of the entertainment community. The play is clever too in its construction with the action opening on the current ‘quartet’ a voice short and awaiting their fourth; in fact, more sombrely, they are all waiting in a literal sense. Yet in spite of this the play’s possibilities never truly deliver, the relationships are touched upon only fleetingly with too much of the stage action spent on the repetition of gags which tire quickly. In the quartet’s triumphant ‘return to youth,’ recorded heckles from the audience detract from a moment which should be handled in a more sensitive, touching way and with many questions left unanswered the play ends far too abruptly. In all, it is a show lacking the sheer entertainment of the markedly similar Forever Young, staged earlier this year at Nottingham Playhouse. Whilst Quartet did have moments of real tenderness and a cast which made light of what the script might have lacked, the high notes of their swansong were never quite hit.

Quartet: ***
Image courtesy of The Ambassador Theatre Group.

Interview with Laurie Sansom, Artistic Director of Northampton Royal & Derngate

Regional new writing is currently taking centre stage at Royal & Derngate with their ‘celebration of Northampton’, the HOMETOWN festival, showcasing the best artistic talent the town has to offer. Northampton audiences will be treated to 10 vibrant and exciting shows, each rooted in local issues, being performed over the project’s two month run. The theatre’s Artistic Director Laurie Sansom is rightly very proud of the project which has grown from its initial premise to become one of the biggest new writing projects in the East Midlands and, certainly, the largest concerning issues directly relevant to those living in the region.

Laurie and I discuss the festival, those involved and how new writing will be encouraged after HOMETOWN comes to an end. Laurie, who is instantly engaging and enthusiastic, is quick to acknowledge the input of the writers involved in the project, especially returning local favourite D C Moore who wrote the festival’s centrepiece Town, reviewed in an earlier post. The play, originally conceived to address Northampton’s unenviable moniker of The Binge Drinking Capital of England, soon became the spine of the festival which has widened its scope now to look at what modern Northampton is and who Northamptoners are. Around this central core in the program, Laurie and his team have managed to craft an admirable festival rich with local talent in all its aspects and chock full of new work from regional writers or those with long standing relationships with the Royal & Derngate.

Phil Porter’s From Out of This World considers an alien invasion of the town; then Northampton can either be squashed to become a two-dimensional play-world in Daniel Jameson’s Flathampton or transported into the comfort of your own living room, literally, in Chris Goode’s Henry and Elizabeth, a play delivered direct to your door. There is also Jo Blake, the theatre’s resident storyteller, giving a guided walking tour of the town and, most importantly to Laurie in terms of new writing development, New Town.

New Town is a platform event allowing new local playwrights still learning their craft to have their work performed by the theatre’s youth company of which many of the writers are graduates. Other pieces have been brought in from elsewhere but have that feel of an authentic local voice talking about contemporary issues. The award winning Scots company Grid Iron perform their Decky Does a Bronco in a local park whilst Theatre IS bring Epiphany to the festival which looks at how local urban culture like MC-ing, street dance and graffiti art can translate into a theatre space. With the popularity of groups such as Britain’s Got Talent’s Diversity, Epiphany is both a piece of theatre well aware of the current climate in performance and prudent bit of programming, added to which the company have been running a series of successful workshops with young people within the town.

This interest in urban arts is something which Royal & Derngate are going to be continuing with their new venue, The Theatre at Corby Cube. Working on a remit of making participatory and locally orientated live arts, the Corby venture will be an embarkation into new territory for the area with the venue being, according to Laurie, the first fully focussed artistic performance project for the community bringing together music, visual arts and urban culture.

Corby is not the Royal & Derngate’s only new creative venture in the near future. Laurie is always on the lookout for new writers and very keen to continue working with both D C Moore, he is secretive about the project but hopes there will be a new play for the 2011-12 season, and the writers with work involved in the New Town event. He cites New Town and the work which Theatre Writing Partnership is doing local writers in Northampton, such as Subika Anwar – one of our Young Writers who has an extract in New Town, as key to the development on talent in region. For Laurie TWP’s projects which have a focused outcome like Momentum provide grassroots support, drive and a goal for young and new writers to work toward which may not be available in their local, regional theatres. He also discusses Tommy Murphy. Although not local, Murphy hailing from New South Wales, Australia, he is an exciting new playwright whose work fits into what Royal & Derngate are looking to do next.

Laurie goes into this further stating that core to the theatre’s ideas of working with developing theatre makers, including writers whilst also talking more broadly, is finding an artist with whom a collaboration with Royal & Derngate would, beneficially for both parties, create interesting work. This is often a slow-burning partnership but will rarely give poor returns and is some thing Laurie himself has been on the flip-side of. His recent success in the staging of two lesser-known plays by Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill, respectively Spring Storm and Beyond the Horizon, has been a project he had been trying to get off the ground for over 10 years. With other examples of these long developing projects becoming seemingly more common, Tom Morris’ Juliet and her Romeo springs instantly to mind, I ask Laurie about how these things can come about. He shoots me a characteristic smile, ‘you have to be a Katie Mitchell,’ he replies with his smile widening ‘or become the Artistic Director of your own theatre.’

HOMETOWN continues throughout July with Flathampton, Henry and Elizabeth, and youth theatre productions of Our Town by Thornton Wilder and Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle. The New Town platforms continue also with performances on 8th and 15th July at 19:30.

For more details see www.royalandderngate.co.uk

Interview originally carried out for Theatre Writing Partnership in association with Northampton Royal & Derngate.
Image courtesy of Robert Day.

Review: Ten, Lakeside Djanogly Theatre

Taking the form a performance lecture, Hetain Patel’s Ten looks at what it is to be Indian, or indeed of any mixed heritage, in modern Britain. Patel leads his audience through the rudiments of traditional Indian Tabla drumming with its 10 beat structure, the ten of the piece’s title, and the syllable note-names given to each beat. The layers of the performance and its structure all follow the non-pervasive rhythms of Indian classical composition, the piece’s route is that of Hetain’s teaching and relaying the process of learning the Tabla drums set to this ten footed beat.

The striking visual image of the piece is the tray of kanku, the red powder used for the Hindu tilaka - the dot upon the forehead, which is daubed across the performers by the end of the action. The powder becomes a powerful cultural artefact within the discourse and comes to represent distinct elements of Patel’s heritage. As stated by all the performers, who repeat the same lines to give them an eerie resonance that reinforces the ‘imposterhood’, to gain an insight into Indian rhythm is to gain an insight into Indian thought.

He uses this idea to ask the question of whether our culture is in fact the rhythm by which we live and conduct our lives – is this our cultural rhythm to which we choreograph the Self? The show continues to interrogate this with the aid of drummers-cum-dancers Dave "Stickman' Higgins and Mark Evans, their non-dancing background giving the piece a strange feel of authenticity. Patel’s voice, a soft north-eastern burr, guides the audience through the dance, the conflicts of identity which are part and parcel of our multi-cultural society and how something, once hidden, becomes overtime a badge we learn to wear proudly but with an air of ‘imposterhood’ knowing we had kept it obscured. This falsity contrasts with the truthfulness of the movement to the extent that it creates an effect in which the choreography drives forward the discourse over the confusion of the repetitive language sections – the words unimportant when said and performed in the rhythm.

This first showing reveals a piece of dance-theatre which aims to discuss the conflict of identity within communities in Britain and give us an insight into their cultural rhythms. Although at points this becomes buried beneath the stage action, most notably when Patel jogs around the space in the ten pointed rhythm whilst the other two throw the kanku or attempt to join in, Ten goes a long way toward achieving this.

Ten: ****
Image courtesy of Hetain Patel.

Review: Town, Northampton Royal & Derngate

Written by Northampton native D C Moore, Town follows the difficulties faced by twenty-something John upon returning to his hometown, again Northampton, after spending five years behind the desks of some London office. Back living with his parents and claiming jobseekers, a detail brilliantly and comically exploited by Moore’s writing, John finds ways of coping with a place that has both seemingly changed and remained unaltered in his absence whilst also coming to terms with his journey back. Played with great conviction by Mark Rice-Oxley, John strikes the audience as instantly sympathetic and has great foils in his jovial, if a little bigoted, dad and uptight but caring mum.

Yet the most interesting characters are those outside of John’s familial circle, and even those outside of his consciousness. Anna, the school friend and secret crush who got left behind after his migration southward; Mary, a brash 17 year old with problems of her own and an aspiration to leave Northampton for anywhere else; and the tall ominous presence of a man, suited and stern, mirroring John’s moves in the moodily lit transition states and acting as an agent of his possible downfall – plying him with booze and a Stanley knife. The man feels, for much of the play, as if he is an echo of John’s former self, the powerful London young professional – as Anna says toward the end ‘there are no young professionals in Northampton’ – yet this is never made clear and is even further confused by John’s revelation about what triggered his return.

The design too felt confused, the traverse audience behind the proscenium of Royal theatre worked but the flagstone styled floor and sliding sides added little extra. The plain block representative furniture, whilst versatile, jarred with the over-complicated set; almost crying out to be done in reverse: a black box with a real sofa, bench or bed. The triumph of the design however was the flown light fittings especially the halogen tubes for John’s dead-end job at Homebase.

Director Ester Richardson’s clever use of what felt an ungainly set and precise choreography between scenes, no transition uncovered with stylised movement between John and his co-characters, was excellent and gave the piece an exciting physicality to compliment the authenticity of the writing, but the play itself left questions. Whilst possibly never wanting to be a ‘well-made play’ in the traditional sense, the open-endedness of John and Anna’s reconciliation and the lack of character context revealed about John’s past both in London and his childhood gave the piece a certain unfinishedness in both its past and future. Its present through made for a fascinating hour and a half in which the audience, Northamptonite or otherwise, can watch the personal struggle of a man on the edge, the universal qualities of family or friendship and the affectionate relationship we all keep with our roots.

Town: ****
Image courtesy of Robert Day

Bruce Guthrie on Theatre Directing

Bruce’s route into theatre directing began at drama school. Starting out as an actor, he then began his own small scale company of few like minded friends and peers from the Guilford School of Acting where he had studied. This group then began to mount work on a small scale and Bruce started his directing journey when approached by his housemate who asked him to direct Frank McGuiness' Someone Who'll Watch Over Me at Guildford. This production, financed by countless hours of shelf stacking in Tesco and beset by problems when venues or programmers tried to pull the show, then used the money from each run of performances to invest in its next mounting, treating this as an investment in future careers. The show went to Edinburgh with the Guildford profits and the Edinburgh cash was spent on a London transfer. The whole process took around 18 months; this not including the time spent working in the supermarket, and taught Bruce a massive amount about theatre directing and the creating of work. He has since gone on become a staff director at the National Theatre working with the likes of Howard Davies, Deborah Warner and Sir Richard Eyre.

Bruce: Work hard, harder than anyone else, so that you know that you will be the person with the most drive to achieve. Get outside advice from people you respect, trust and have a knowledge of the industry as their insights are invaluable. Get them to see your work and ask their opinions.

It is important to marketing your show well, especially at the Fringe. I usefully lived near Edinburgh when I was growing up and had made great friends with the local bus company drivers on football trips when I was young. Using this connection, I packed buses from my home town full of family and friends, sent them to the show and sold out the first week. We could then flyer on the Royal Mile with Sold Out on our publicity which helped us sell out the second week. When we transferred back to London, we did it as a one-night, free show and invited everyone we could from the theatre community, whilst it cost us money we gained a profile and recognition we wouldn't have got otherwise. After we'd done this came the ‘problem second album' stage of my career, proving that the first show wasn't a fluke and doing work of a high, if not higher, standard again and consistently.

After directing work myself I then found it useful to get further experience by being an assistant director for those already established in the industry. The most important thing to take into a rehearsal room with you when assistant directing is an openness to other people's work, you may not agree with things but keep that quiet, take the director to one side later on and explain your reasons for the disagreement. In my experience directors are more than happy to explain why they have made the decision and it will help you marry up yours and their visions for the piece. Make notes meticulously when you are working as an assistant so you can see the similarities and differences in your working practice. The differences can help you add to your palate whilst the similarities reassure you that what you were doing was OK. A good assistant director is able to anticipate what their director will need so prepare as thoroughly for assisting as you would if you were the director and you'll be able to see things before they arrive. Being well prepared also demonstrates your commitment to the project. As an assistant I found it useful to attend the show two or three times per week and then write a detailed show report for the director, this is hard work but you have to graft to get to where you want to be.

Next, and importantly, as a director is the delicate ways of working with actors. You must have a respect for actors as what they do is hard and revealing which can leave them vulnerable. Always have a solution for your actors - don't just say that's wrong. Try and have a range of solutions, something I call the rule of three - having 3 possible ways of resolving the problem; all three may be rejected but it gives people options. Notes are difficult too and I would recommend never over doing them. Always review your notes before relating them to the actors, sit down somewhere quiet the morning after the show with a cup of coffee and choose the notes that will remedy several problems and that give the actors a link or connection to make too as this will help.

Key things to remember are to use your instinct; you will work out very quickly if people like you doing things in a certain way. Be patient and don't panic - if you panic you don't think clearly and can often miss an obvious solution. This also applies to the director's persona and it is crucial to maintain a professional relationship with your actors, especially if they are friends too. Find the right job; don't just settle for what comes around first, as everything you do says something about what you. Watch a much as you can and, most importantly, if you want to be a director, get experience directing. Theatre companies now are interested in people who have the talent, will thrive in the supportive environment they offer and have the potential to mount work at the highest level.

Image courtesy of Creative First.

Blanche McIntyre on Fringe Theatre Directing

Blanche began directing theatre, aged 15, whilst at school and continued this through university. She stuck with directing after graduating and started putting on fringe shows by raising the cash and her overdraft limit, performing them then doing it again. From here she went to study directing at The Drama Studio, gaining experience, contacts and confidence. After graduating, Blanche returned to fringe theatre putting in the graft and taking everything going as contacts were made in every one. She eventually applied for the The Leverhulme Bursary for Emerging Directors at the Finborough Theatre and National Theatre Studio; she went on to win. Blanche is now continuing to make work for producing theatres and, keeping to her roots, is a fully paid-up member of the fringe theatre fan club. Here are her tips on directing for the fringe.

Blanche: The two great things about fringe theatre is that its a jungle so you have to make your self stand out as there will be loads of other people trying to get audiences too, the other, more a piece of advice but its also one of the best things about fringe, is learn everything as you may end up having to be the lighting designer/sound designer/technical operator but this will help later in your directing career as you can tell your tech team exactly what you want, you will know if there's too much back light and be able to get that across.

The first things to consider are the practicalities of getting a show on, especially the venue. The thing about venues is that although not an absolute certainty, you might get some mad-cap Artistic Director who gives you a fantastic theatre on the cheap, is that you get what you pay for, the more you spend the greater level of support available. It's also useful to get on the good side of the venue's staff - they can give you pointers from their experiences at that theatre and warn you of potential problems before they arise. You can often do this before arriving at the venue or even before choosing where you are going to perform by researching what theatre's are into, what they usually produce and what their artistic interests are. Other non-theatre spaces are available for you to mount your work in and are usually a bit cheaper as you have more ability to negotiate but these come with their own small setbacks - pubs, for example, often have upstairs rooms which can be used as impromptu theatres but will be unlikely to have any tech equipment. Also with site specific work, although you may not need much in the way of lighting or sound gear there and they can often be free regarding hire, there can be problems with licences and insurance. In the case of venues there is always a trade off between the cost to you and the support you receive from where you are putting on your work. One of the best things to do regarding all of this is to team up with a young, switched-on producer who is in the same position as you careers-wise and let them take the logistical and organisation strains off you, leaving you free to be creative.

Next comes funding. This is always a difficult part of putting on theatre as it does cost money. There are various places you can apply to and try and get them to fund you. If your show has a possible educational angle then running schools workshops around the text can make you money and be really rewarding. Also, educational charities and local funding bodies are a more likely to give you some cash toward the project if it can demonstrate you are doing more than just putting on a show, you're providing a learning opportunity too. If you're a student then applying for money from your university's alumni foundation can be a great source of cash toward taking shows to fringe festivals. Sponsorship and links with businesses can help with cost but you have to be careful with this and work out how much money is worth a small logo on your marketing or in the programme. Don't harm the artistic integrity of your piece by having to use it as an advert for the company who've helped you get the funding for the show. If your show is based in your community and uses local people and their skills then your district council or other public bodies may offer funding too. The Arts Council are another group who you can contact and ask for funding but they are likely to give money to projects which they deem artistically exciting and worthwhile. One of the best ways to see if your work would fit this brief is to download the Arts Council's accounts from their website, as this information is in the public domain, and then you can see what projects have gotten funding.

After getting funding you need to decide how you're going to spend the money. Fees will be crucial to this budgeting and whether you pay your actors or ask them to work for free. In this profession many people are willing to work for free but in my experience you get better work from people who are paid as they feel what they are doing is valued and I've have always paid my actors as much as I can afford to. Profit sharing is a good way to offset some of this expense until the end of the run and getting them to agree that you will evenly split the takings between the team does bring the group together knowing that the better they do the better reward they could receive. Always try and pay them in other ways too, this can be a sandwich, a cup of coffee, a travel card or a beer down the pub but it all goes toward making your actors feel valued and that their work is important to you. Try and do the same for your tech team but in my experience there are fewer technician and designers than there are actors and even fewer willing to work free as they know their skills are more specialised, this allowing them to ask for payment. Other costs that can catch you out are public liability insurance as some venues don't have this and PRS fees which relate to any recorded music you play in the performance so be wary of them.

Rehearsal venues are similar to performance venues in you get what you pay for. Try local colleges and schools for spaces or, like performance venues, the upstairs rooms of pubs - sometimes these can be free or a landlord will ask that you have a drink afterward - and willing keep costs down. Professional rehearsal spaces do exist and can be hired; some like the Jerwood space in London can knock money off your hire costs if you explain your budget to them as they are a charitable foundation and you can get a room next to where the Donmar are rehearsing which is exciting.

Next: marketing. This is where you've got to sell your play and it is important to know who you're aiming it at. Your blurb on the play is key to this and in my experience there's no harm in selling your play on one core aspect. It's also important not to scare your audience with the blurb, don't be over-wordy as people will switch off and think the play will be too intellectual. I've found that flyer distribution companies aren't really worth it and I've never seen a show because I pulled a flyer out of a rack. One of the best ways I've found to market is free, the internet. Using Facebook and sending out emails to people is a great way to get the information directly to an audience. With a venue, a rehearsal space, funds, a team to put the show on with and an audience to watch it then you should have a piece of theatre.

Finally, always remember that your role as a director is as somebody who reminds an actor of something they know but might have forgotten; this is my approach to the work. Otherwise, I'd also recommend that although you can learn everything in theory nothing beats seeing how it works live so get out there and do it.

Image courtesy of Elixir Theatre Company