Have you ever wondered what happens when the lights go out on the final performance of a play at Chads? Once the cast have taken their final bows and the audience have left, that isn’t actually the end of the story.
Last Night Party
Although there is a lot to do – before we crack on with the work we take the time to celebrate the play that has just finished. Cast, crew, director, and a few others usually gather in the bar after the show. It’s a time when we say our thank yous. The cast thank their director and there is usually a little gift and card for the director. In turn the director will often make a short speech thanking everyone who has contributed to making the show a success.
Following this, it’s party time, drinks from the bar and a “bring and share buffet” – hopefully not everyone has brought quiche! If a play mentions a particular food item in the script, often someone will bring that item to the buffet – if it is practical and appropriate. For example “Pack of Lies” mentions a chocolate honey cake that “Aunt Sophie” used to bake, and sure enough our fantastic prompt baked one and brought it for us to enjoy.
Set Strike
After Saturday night comes Sunday morning, and at CHADS that means “Set Strike.” For those who might not know, Set Strike is when we dismantle the set and clear the stage so that the construction team can start building the set for the next production.
Generally, all the cast will turn up to help. While it’s not actually compulsory, cast members would need a pretty good reason for not being there. In the case of Pack of Lies, Sarah (who played Julie in the play) turned 21 during the run of the play – so she had had to postpone celebrating with her family until the Sunday. She was of course excused.
Although we refer to this work morning as Set Strike (and this is the biggest and most important job of the morning) there are lots of other tasks that need to happen. Props need to be returned to the props store. The dressing room needs cleaning, and rearranging so that it can be used as rehearsal space. Also wardrobe department will gather up the costumes and arrange for anything that needs it, to be washed or cleaned before it goes back on the racks.
Internal Review
While we strive to make our productions as good as we can, we are only human and sometimes there will be things that could have been done better. So typically various groups within the theatre will meet not long after a production to review what worked well and what didn’t.
For example the marketing and publicity team have already met to talk about lessons learned from how we publicised the show. The things that worked well we will do again for the next show, things that could be improved on we will try to do better on for the next show. The finance team will look at what the show cost to put on and compare it with the ticket sales. Did the show break even? If not, how does that affect our future productions?
The Adjudication/Critique
CHADS like many other local theatres is a member of GMDF (Greater Manchester Drama Federation). As part of the membership an independent adjudicator will come and watch our shows and provide a written critique of the show. This is valuable independent feedback for actors, directors and others involved in the production. It’s referred to as an adjudication because the best shows, performances etc are recognised at an annual awards ceremony each year – a sort of local theatre version of the Oscars. Last season CHADS received several nominations and we won an award for our production of “Entertaining Angels”.
This adjudication/critique generally arrives a week or two after the close of the play – but can occasionally arrive earlier.
