ON-CUE - The Green Room

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Amateur Drama is full of stories of mishaps and gaffs that pass into folklore in the group concerned. We are anxious to hear your stories. You don't have to name names. Send an email to this website ... drama@on-cue.org.uk
TALES from the GREEN ROOM

STRANGE EFFECTS
(Or keep an eye on the backstage folk)

Years ago, one of the first plays the TOWN HALL group presented was "Love's a Luxury". I have seen this farcical comedy several times since and on the last occasion I saw it presented at the Boscombe Centre for Community Arts and I was happy to see that it went down as well as ever.
This comedy was so well received at St Peters Hall that a scoutmaster from Moordown who was in the audience on one of the nights persuaded us to repeat the performance in his local Methodist Church Hall, on behalf of one of his scouting projects.
I must say that it didn't take much to twist our arm, as the group was keen to take plays into the wild blue yonder. If someone had asked us to go to Timbuctoo, I'm sure we would have gone!
We only made one stipulation, and that was that the scouts built the set. They made a really solid job of it too. The scenery didn't shake when you slammed the door. Doorknobs didn't come away in your hand and pictures didn't fall off walls. The only slight problem was that the furniture was rather large and the small stage looked and felt rather cluttered. So we removed a piece or two of superfluous furniture and pronounced ourselves satisfied and sloped off to the dressing rooms to makeup and change.
What we didn't realise was that the scoutmaster, who was acting stage manager, had artistic pretensions and after we left, moved the furniture around to make the set more aesthetically pleasing.
The result was when Len Ruffell (as Bentley) and I opened the cottage door, we found a sofa across the doorway and had to step over it before we could get on stage. We spent the first part of the play, not only setting the scene, but resetting the furniture!
In the interval we were glad of the respite and enjoyed the buffet the scouts had laid on for the cast and backstage crew. My son, who did the lighting and sound effects for this play, had put all the incidental and interval music on to one reel of tape, and I do mean all the music. I think he used a semi-professional reel to reel recorder for the job. While we were enjoying the sandwiches and finger rolls, he suddenly shot off. I thought he looked a little sheepish when he returned, but nothing was said.
Next day Len phoned me. He said, "The old lady next door to me left after the first act?"
"Why was that?" I asked, "didn't she like the play?"
"Oh, she liked the play all right", he said, "but she said that after the interval had been on for about ten minutes, the music stopped and then the National Anthem was played! Everybody stood and after it finished she thought the play was over and she left! She said she thought that it was rather short!"
As Eric Morecombe was fond of saying - There is no answer to that!

RAY SMITH

Incidentally, why was it that the practice of playing "God Save the Queen" at the beginning (or end) of every performance gradually fell away and now the National Anthem is never heard?