Director keen to get theatre started again
Director Kate Bennett says she takes the view: “If not now, then when?”
She is keen to get amateur theatre rolling again – and she is pleased to be kick-starting the Arundel Players after a long hiatus. Their Arundel FestivalproductionwillbeYou’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, book, music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, additional dialogue by MichaelMayer,additionalmusic and lyrics by Andrew Lippa.
Thestoryisan‘averagedayin the life of Charlie Brown’, a day made up of little moments from Valentine’s Day to the baseball season, from wild optimism to utter despair, all mixed up with the lives of Charlie and his friends.It will run at their Arundel base the Priory Playhouse from August 25 to 28, a shortish run with a smallish cast, but the point is simply to get things going again, says Kate.
The Arundel Players were building up to their March production last year when the lockdownshit.Andthathasbeen it… until now. The production itselfisKate’schoice:“Weneeded something with a small cast, and this one is only six – simply because I wasn’t sure whether anyactorswouldberushingtoget backtoit.Augustisstillveryearly (in terms of theatre resuming), and there are a lot of amateur companies that haven’t started up at all yet.
“But to be honest, I don’t know what they are waiting for. Personally I take the view ‘If not now, then when?’
“I was due to do Barnum this year for the Arundel Festival, but thedecisionwasthatwewerenot sure that there would be enough audience confidence for us to put on such an expensive show. Barnum is expensive whereas CharlieBrownisrelativelycheap in theatrical terms – or at least cheaper. We have postponed Barnum until next year.
“I chose Charlie Brown instead for this year because it is light and it is light-hearted and it is funny and because hopefully people will know the characters from the cartoons. It is a musical and it is basically a day in the life of Charlie Brown.
“The characters include Charlie, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder and even the dog, Snoopy.
“Lucy dreams of being a queen and bossing the world. Linus sings of his need for a security blanket, Snoopy plans to capture the Red Baron while a baseball game degenerates into a poll gauging Lucy’s popularity.
“In the end the youngsters and the dog each give his or her idea of what true happiness is with Charlie Brown concluding ‘happiness is anything and anyone that’s loved by you.’”
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