Here are some pictures of the cast of Twelfth Night coming on for their curtain call. It not only gives you an idea of the scale but also a clue to the amount of work that Jenny and her team put into the costumes. You meet more of these amazing actors further down the page. The pictures above will scroll through every ten seconds or so. Enjoy.
There have been, over the years since the company was formed, many different people involved in many different ways. Acting, building sets, lighting and sound, costumes and the dreaded 'paperwork'. Some of the original team are still with us, some have, as previously stated, gone on to professionalism, others have moved away and some, sadly, have passed away. Gone, perhaps, but certainly not forgotten. Here are five of our much-missed friends and it is to them that this page is respectfully and lovingly dedicated.
Left to right we see:
Em Jeffries at the second DSW for Taming of the Shrew;
Gordon Martin, Dartmouth's thespian clergyman;
and the inimitable and lovely Paul Wonnacott, who graced so many of the productions.
Above from right to left are: Susan Stark Humphreys, one of the original committee members; Margaret Rowe, who appeared in many productions and was the most amazing prompt at rehearsals; Jake Olivier-deNiro, canine thespian super-star
Since the founding of the Company in 2002 and our first production in 2003, with Twelfth Night, there have been well over 200 people involved in getting the show on the road. On this page, hopefully in some sort of chronological order, are just some of those people.
Above: David Fallow as Sir Toby Belch in 2003's production of Twelfth Night, our very first!
And below are, on the left, Victoria Lethbridge, and on the right Clare Hollett, in the 2004 production of The Taming of the Shrew
Above is Tony Tucker as The Pedant in Taming of the Shrew
Below is Luke Trebilcock as Grumio in Taming of the Shrew.
Luke is another of our members who has taken the plunge and gone into the professional theatre
The top picture is Craig Bowles, very nice earring, as Lucentio, in
The Taming of the Shrew.
And below is Ken Hayden-Sadler,
very nice ruff, as Hortensio,
in The Taming of the Shrew
Toby Davies as Bassanio in Merchant of Venice
Gareth Ballyn as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet
Katherine Cohen as Ariel
On the left is Gil Garland as Caliban
To the left is Adam Dodd in Taming of the Shrew;
above, Max Brandt as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice - an original painting by David Fallow; on the right are Abbie Evans as Nerissa and Georgia Elson as a serving maid in Merchant of Venice.
Sarah Welsh as Portia in Merchant of Venice
Left: Emily Fricker as Juliet
Above: Romeo - another actor gone professional;
Right: Mark Riley who has appeared in Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest and Macbeth
Original design for Lady Montague's dress by Marilyn Bird
Clockwise, left to right, from the 2007 production of Midsummer Night's Dream:
Jane Windsor-Smith; Harry Satloka; Gil Garland; Nick Crosley; Jon Miles; Jack Corrigal; Jill Brock; Gay Brent; Sophie Griffiths; Georgia Elson;
Tinah O'Reilly; Lizzie Busby and Nick again with his asses head on, which was leant to us by
the Tolthorpe Theatre Company.
Mark Riley as Ferdinand and
Corrina MacIntosh as Miranda.
Left is Sally Feetenby as Beatrice with Phil Scoble as Benedick; above is Phil Braakenburg as the Priest and on the right, in the middle, is
Vernon Davis as Claudio, along with other actors that you've already met!
These shots are from the 2009 production of
Much Ado About Nothing.
Gil Garland as Solario in Merchant of Venice
Sarah Marshall as Lady Montague
Left to right: Mike Roope as Gonzalo;
Nick Teage as Alonso;
Ben Hamilton as Sebastian
This is the magnnificent galleon that was built for the 2008 production of The Tempest, along the specially commissioned wind and rain machines, replicas of those which were used at The Globe in the original production of the play.
From the 2010 production of Macbeth, left to right: Anthony Hamilton; Jim Romanus; Shahar Lashkor; Rob Wilcock; Larry Murphy; Max Brandt,
Malcolm MacIntosh; Ernie Wingeatt and Mark Riley.
Below are some moody publicity shots, taken by PHIL SCOBLE, when we all had a day out on Dartmoor. The weather was suitably moody as well!
On the left, The Witches, left to right: Lel Ash, Xowie Brandt and Jill Brock.
Above, the phenomenal Gina Carter as Lady Macbeth
The Witches Coven, in no particular order! Tinah O'Reilly; Mary McCall; Sally Feetenby; Lynne Deller; Lucy Saad;
Ellie Brock; Pam Braakenburg; Josie Hanrott; Daisy Carter
Above: Banquo (Phil Scoble) appears to Macbeth at the celebration of Macbeth's acquisition of the crown
Below: 'Not of woman born' Macduff and Macbeth in their final confrontation
' 'The time is free!' Macbeth defeated; Macduff revenged. Donalbain lured to the Pit of Acheron - here we go again
By way of a contrast, below are some shots from the rehearsals of As You Like It and a couple of clips from the rehearsal videos.
Here's Jack Corrigal, who played Amiens and wrote the tunes! Sally Feetenby, Max Brandt and Lel Ash - tomfoolery.
Several of the faces that you've already met, and the director, Maloclm MacIntosh, who stepped down as Artistic Director in 2012 but is making a guest appearance in the 2013 production of King Lear. Which only goes to prove that you can't keep a good man down.
Another of our players, Gavin Alston, on the left, as Duke Senior Very fetching in blue, Shahar Lashkor as the Le Beau - dandy!
Seated are Jon Miles, Kate Horton and Xowie Brandt The fabulous Ellie Brock, here dancing the Lion and fighting Orlando
Well, the director seemed to enjoy it; if you want to see the scene for which we were rehearsing here, have a look at the clip from As You Like It that's on the home page...the sheep are particularly good.
Introducing on the left, Tamsyn Smith, and on the right, Lucy Nichols, two great actresses. Unfortunately, Will didn't write huge numbers of female parts...but I suppose the ones he did write were pretty special!
And, finally, below you can see a storyboard from Twelfth Night, comprising some fabulous pictures taken by Keith Gould and giving you an even better idea of how well Shakespeare presents in the open-air at Dartmouth Castle.
You really should come and experience Shakespeare in this glorious setting.
There were still more actors in there that have yet to be mentioned: Eve Walker (also in Macbeth), Nigel Way MBE, (oh yes, we have an MBE with us, who has also been in The Tempest and As You Like It and Midsummer Night's Dream) and finally, Dylan Wilde, another first timer but, we hope, not the last!
In 2013, after much deliberation and navel-gazing, we took a bold step...some would argue dangerous...and decided it was time to step a little further out of our perceived comfort zone and present one of Shakespeare's darkest tragedies: King Lear. Although well-known (and not always for the right reasons) it is, perhaps, one of the least audience-friendly plays in the canon. It's themes of madness, jealousy and lust for power are staples in the plays that are labelled 'tragedy', but it has poignancy and redemption at it's heart.
We were fortunate enough to welcome several new actors to the company for this produciton and discover hidden depths in some old friends who took on parts that were difficult to learn and emotionally challenging. We had the best time putting it all together and the audiences were more than up to the challenge of watching what is an uncomfortable play and joining us on the journey of discovering characters
that are amongst some of the finest ever written by Shakespeare.
In the left-hand picture are (L to R) Sally Feetenby as Cordelia;
Ellie Brock as Cordelia's maid; Fred Radcliffe as Brugundy (who also played several other roles) and Jason Smith as the King of France (he too played several otehr roles).
In
this picture are Simon
Fox as Oswald and Shaunagh Radcliffe as Goneril. Shaunagh also
designed the fabulous cover/poster painting for King Lear, which
you can see elsewhere on the site.
In these pictures are two actors who took on roles with very different and diffcult challenges. In the left-hand picture are (L to R)
Ben Hamilton as Edmund and Sam Duberly as Edgar.
Both great actors and both really lovely guys. Ben needed to get his evil mojo working for Edmund and he pursued the character with a determination and dedication that was both admirable and incredibly sucessful. He really became a nasty piece of work.
Sam had a completely different, but no less challenging, task to accomplish: going from the naive and gullible Edgar and
transforming himself into Tom O'Bedlam, who you can see in the RH picture with the other Bedlam Beggars.
All the actors in this production were stretching themselves in ways that went against the grain. From left to right are
Ernie Wingeatt as the Duke of Gloucester, Jon Miles (who is directing 2016's production of Romeo and Juliet) as King Lear
and Jill Brock (who directed the phenomenally sucessful Merry Wives of Windsor in 2015) as Regan.
Another welcome addition to the company in this produciton was James Osben (seen here on the far left with Gil Garland, who played Kent) in what can only be described as an amalgam of characters that we chose to call, rather imaginatively, Knight One!
And finally a picture of The Fool. Here was yet another amazing example of an actor going above and beyond,
because Sally Feetenby not only played Cordelia but The Fool too.
It was an amazing production, full of some of the best performances we have had at the castle.
The whole team were just incredible. See what you missed?
2014 and we're stepping away from the comfort zone yet again. Some might say we are glutton's for punishment! This year saw our Artistic Director Jane Windsor-Smith take the directorial reins for a complete departure from the norm: a Commedia dell'arte production of The Taming of the Shrew. We welcomed yet another fine addition to the company in the form of Rich Turley, seen above with Jill Brock (Katherina), who played Petruchio. It was only his second time on stage having been co-opted in to play Lysander in the touring production of The Dream that year. He was magnificent.
As well as welcoming Rich to the Company, we said hello to a couple of other very fine actors for their debut at the castle. In the picture on the left, amongst some the people you've already met, you will notice the trio of rather bored (intentionally so!) bushes. They are, L to R, Shirley Tonkin, Ellie Brock (who you know) and Rheanne Derby. Shirley's son Ben, has been in several shows with us and now Shirley, who was one of the Bedlam Beggars in King Lear, has been persuaded to become one of the chorus in Shrew (and a fairy in The Dream!). Rheanne's fiance is James (front and dentre of this picture, playing Lucentio), who proposed to her on-stage on the last night of The Shrew. They get married in 2016 - which is nice.
In the picture on the right is another very welcome newcomer, Clare Purdy, who is seen playing another 'amalgam' part, that of Columbina. She has also pitched in enthusiastically and learned the part of Hermia in The Dream for one show! Dedication to the craft - gotta love that!
As a company, we are truly blessed with an abundance of talent and, it seems, every year we find even more talent to utilise! Two cases in point are featured in the above pictures. On the left are Inn Theatre stalwarts Shahar Lashkor (The Tailor) and Max Brandt (Grumio)
and in between them, a gentleman who was persuaded to appear by James Osben...it wasn't until he'd agreed that we told
Dan Fleming he'd be wearing a dress as the Tailor's Assistant. Probably not the wisest decision as Dan is a Personal Trainer and built....
In the right-hand picture are two more well-known Inn Theatre actors: Sam Duberly (L) as Biondello and BenHamilton (R) as Tranio.
In the middle is the wonderful James Tabor as The Merchant. He too was talked into appearing by a friend, loves Shakespeare and ,as he puts it, 'meaty roles for short, fat men are rare and every opportunity should be taken'.
We had a fabulous time putting this show together...and everybody learned a huge amount about the physicality of acting. Words are, obviously, important, but the way actors are on stage, how they walk, hold themselves and react (particularly in a form as physical as Commedia) is of equal importance.
Couple of really important things to mention here: 1) it was because of the ambitious nature of Jane's vision for Shrew (and because of her behind the scenes work) that we were accepted once again onto the RSC's Open Stages Project and are afflilated to them until the end of 2016; and 2) Shaunagh Radcliffe not only designed and painted the poster/cover for this production, but she pretty much single-handedly made all the pierrot chorus costumes and Grumio's Arrlequino costume as well. Another storming year then!
You may recall, in previous musings on this page, that our company 'comfort zone' has been alluded to more than once. Well...here it is again!
In 2015 we asked Jill Brock (you'll recall that she has played Katherina in The Shrew and Regan in King Lear) if she would like to choose and direct the 2015 production. She said yes.
And boy! Are we glad she did. We were not only asked to step outside that fabled comfort zone, but to run away from it and call it names!
Jill had just completed a stint as AD for the KATS production of Oliver; she that show and straight into The Merry Wives of Windsor. She brought with her, as her AD, our lovely Lynne Deller, but also drafted in a professional choreographer in the form of Suzie Boyle, who had also worked on Oliver. So why was this so far out of our zone? Dancing: check. Modern dress: check. Set in the 1950's: check.
How's that for outside the zone?
Jill's vision for The Wives was ambitious, detailed and incredibly exciting! And, once again, we welcomed a raft of new actors to the company, some of whom, whilst experienced on stage, had never 'done' Shakespeare. Double daunting, then! So, from top left, going clockwise (and L to R in the pictures!) allow us to introduce: Lauren Pomfret (also a dancer in the Fantasy sequence) and Clare Purdy as Anne Page: Ellie Brock as Sarah Simple, new arrival Joe Tapper as Slender and Clare once more; Dan Sinott as Doctor Caius (frist time doing Shakespeare!) and Sally Feetenby as Mistress Quickly; Sally again, with another addition to the Inn Theatre, Jacob Seldon as Master Fenton.
The set was designed by Jill and built, in the main, by her incredibly versatile and skilled husband Chris - whose ability with some wood, screws, a saw, the odd hammer, drill and a fertile imagination, never ceases to amaze us all.
The attention to period detail was astounding and the costume team of Jenny Gould,
Jane Windsor-Smith and Christine Brooker, under the guidance of Jill's expert eye, came up with some fabulous costumes, which more than matched the spectacle of the Elizabethan costumes usually on show
at the castle.
Not only did Chris build the wonderful Garter Inn (seen above) but he constructed the apron performance area (seen on the right) that can be collapsed, stored and used again in future shows.
Above are the Fantasy Dancers (accompanied by Rich Turley, in the mask, as the Host of The Garter Inn), taking part in the Suzie Boyle choreographed sequence, when the townsfolk take it upon themselves to teach Falstaff a lesson. The Fantasy Dance itself was choreographed by Ellie Brock (seen on the far right) and her co-dancers were, in no particular order, Kitty Rear, Olivia Squire and Lauren Pomfret.
Below is a picture of the choreographed curtain-call (thanks again Suzie!) with just a few of the amazing cast that helped to bring Jill's vision of Windsor in the Fifties alive. It was the most different we have ever been and the audience loved every minute of it...as did the cast!
Special mention needs to be made of Ben Malley and his musicians. Ben wrote all the music for this production - some of it played live - and it became another character, in this silliest of Shakespearean farces, that lifted everybody.
Ben's on-stage musicians, along with himself, were Jess Heywood and Louis Carr.
AND, lest we forget, this would have not have been the production that it was without the amazing and talented techie-type, who lit it all on his own, Mr Ben Sinott. And also a huge thank-you to another returning member of the company, Larry Murphy, who was last with us as Donalbain in Macbeth...then went away for five years (three of which he was studying at L.I.P.A.)...and returned to stage-manage the show.
There are more fabulous pictures of The Wives' production, just follow this link, and you can see them.
Huge thanks, yet again, go to Keith Gould for all these amazing shots.
Next year, it's Romeo and Juliet...and we will, I have little doubt, introduce you to yet more talented people.
