Stan's Cafe Theatre Company

Made In Birmingham

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:13:59 +0000

Those living in and around Birmingham will have noticed a massive push for the Birmingham Made Me exhibition. It turns out there is also an awards ceremony connected with this. Stan’s Cafe has been nominated. We’re there for our innovative education work. Public voting has just opened and we’re in the lead; because I’ve voted for us and no one else has voted for anyone else. I’m cherishing the moment as I expect all this is about to change.

If you are minded to vote we’d be grateful. This is the link we’re in the Best Collaborative Design category. If you need some persuading to vote for us here is where you can look over our education history.

Final Adjustments

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:56:50 +0000

(photo credit Graeme Braidwood)

Today we ran a dress rehearsal of The Cardinals. It’s difficult to assess if the changes we have made qualify as a whole new O.S. upgrade (2.0.4) or if we have merely been de-bugging the original (1:3.4). The biggest outstanding question involves the interval – with or without? Following consultation with venues we are currently with, though my suspicion is that it should probably be without. It will be interesting to garner some audience feedback tomorrow at Warwick Arts Centre; which I believe is pretty much sold out.

O.B.1

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 17:36:58 +0000

BBC Radio 3 are ready for The Voyage tomorrow, possibly slightly more ready than we are, but only slightly. Everything is under control.

Line Run

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:38:39 +0000

The Cardinals cast are doing the equivalent of a line run for a show without words “then I do this”, “and I do this”, “this comes in”, “that goes off”, “I change the music”. It’s a lot quicker than doing the actual show.

People

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:52:22 +0000

In 2005 Theater Der Welt arranged to have 104 tonnes of rice delivered to the Wagenhalle – a disused tram shed – because the world’s population was 6.2 billion and we were about to perform the first full version of Of All The People In All The World. In 2008 we came to an arrangement with a wholesale rice supplier to effectively rent us 112 tonnes of rice. As we aspire to do a third full version of the show somewhere and the world’s population is announced as 7 billion we are looking for 116 tonnes. 12 extra tonnes of rice in 7 years at a gain per person: the logistics are getting ever more challenging and I’m not necessarily just referring to our show.

Ready to Roll

admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:45:03 +0000

It’s a thing of beauty. The seating bank for The Voyage is very close to being complete. It’s movable on your own but who knows how many folk will be require to shift it once fifty folk are sat on it.

Slow But Sure

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:01:57 +0000

It is taking a while but slowly and surely we are making The Cardinals significantly better than it was. There are no massive changes, just tweaks, tightenings and adjustments; moments and glances inserted here and there. Things that were held together with sellotape and hope now screwed down and nailed on. It’s fun to do. Hopefully it will be fun to watch.

Yesterday Graeme Braidwood was in taking some snaps of rehearsals – he is a master of his craft. The one above is one of his (savagely cropped for our site’s cinema-scope format).

Billy’s Birthday

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:56:02 +0000

On Saturday in Stratford-upon-Avon and at the RSC lots of people were celebrating the Birthday of WIlliam Shakespeare as a side-effect of this more than 800 people visited Of All The People In All The World in the PACCAR room. We’ve had an angry letter in a local paper (food used for art – starving people in the world Etc.), a huge number of positive comments from people who’ve actually seen the show and another great write up in The Guardian Guide.

A good start for a long run.

Run Through #1

admin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 18:18:02 +0000

After four days work, on Friday we were finally in a position to attempt a run through. To say it went smoothly would be to overstate things, but it wasn’t as far off as we had feared it might be. Fortunately we still have five days of rehearsal to go.

Documentation

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:52:11 +0000

Whilst the audience view of The Cardinals is fairly well documented on video and with a familiar spreadsheet style script, logging props, movement, costume changes and script, we now realise it would have been valuable to have recorded backstage action equally diligently. The team are currently trying to work out how key props are concealed and revealed.