Spot the difference – The Production Blog

24 November 2011

For those who saw The Clodly Light Opera and Drama Society you will have probably recognised parts of the set. It is very easy to talk “green” but takes a great deal of skill and energy to make it happen. James Cotterill, our designer, certainly had that skill and imagination. We met a few months ago to look at his original designs which I priced in the thousands. We then spent a day at our stores and he imaginatively reworked the final design to the mere cost of the consumables. ‘Moody’, our carpenter, and Laura the scenic artist with their skills, then crafted components from previous shows to produce a set that looked as good as any we made from scratch. (Hedda did offer a bottle of wine to anyone that could name all the original sources – slightly unfair as only 2 of us have been here long enough!)

Today we open what for me is our most important show The Wind in the Willows. I love our Christmas shows, for many young people this is the first live show they have ever seen, this is entertainment in real 3D. Watching their expressions open mouthed as they see a squirrel play a saxophone or see a boat rowed up through the auditorium by a rat and a mole, fires their imagination in a way only theatre can.

These will be our designers of the future, the ones who will take a plastic toy out of a box and with that box make a spaceship or a watermill, watching their imagination grow is a joy to see. Hayley, the designer of our Christmas shows, always try to feed that imagination. So many of the magical props onstage still have an obvious source, so you can recycle and old scooter with a bit of cardboard and hey presto you have a wonderful motor cruiser it just takes a bit of imagination …….

Lawrence T Doyle
Production Manager