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Adam Somerset interviews Anthony Williams, director of 'Chess' at Aberystwyth Arts Centre |
Q&A with Anthony Williams 30th June Aberystwyth Arts Centre has been producing its summer musical for thirty years. The productions have gone from strength to strength. Now a fixed part of the theatre year in Wales, Aberystwyth attracts its audience from a huge catchment area. Coaches are regularly to be seen in the car park from fifty or sixty miles away. Viewers are known to have travelled from England. In 2010 the Arts Centre reached a new peak with its production of “Chicago”. A critical hit it was an easy contender for the best Welsh production of the year. It also took a nice £170,000 at the box office. Anthony Williams was director and choreographer in 2010 and has returned for this year’s production of “Chess.” I met him three days after his arrival in Aberystwyth. AS: Right now, in three weeks, six hours and twenty minutes, the ushers at the Arts centre will be closing the doors, the first note for “Chess” will be just about to play. How are you feeling? AW: Good. I love coming to Aberystwyth. Three days down. It’s going very well. AS: Where have you been since leaving Aberystwyth last August? AW: I’ve never been busier, partly I have to say due to the profile of “Chicago”. Eight productions, panto, another “King and I”… AS: A summer in Aberystwyth is by now nothing new for you. How many musicals is it that you have you worked on? AW: Starting with “Singing in the Rain” this is the eighth. As director and choreographer the third. AS: Is the combined director and choreographer role a bit like bifocal glasses? The view changes depending which part of the lens you look through? AW: Absolutely. There’s a lot of nonsense talked about the different disciplines. The show is all one. The bad side is there’s only you. So there’s never a time when you’re not on call. AS: Aberystwyth theatre has a unique feature in that the professional actors are blended with local performers, even school children. How does that work for you? AW: Great. Last year there were more. It takes more rehearsal of course. This year, there’s only one graduate. And Rachel Crane. I’ve seen Rachel develop and grow so much over the years. To tell you the truth I don’t even think of her from Aberystwyth. She’s just one of the team. AS: A consensus seems to have formed that two productions in Wales hit the heights last the year. “Chicago” could not be more different from “the Persians” which played out on the top of Mynydd Eppynt. What was it lifted “Chicago” into greatness? AW: You think so? AS: Good, great. It’s a subjective view of course. But it seems to have been a general view. You might say a gifted director was at work. AW: It was a great cast. They worked and they took risks. I think I wanted to prove something to myself. We all took risks but then we had a fantastic designer. It was a joy to work on that set. And Michael Morwood, musical director.., AS: He was even put on stage delivering the opening words. AW: That’s right. The relationship we have now, it’s one of trust. That trust is total. AS: I saw the show-stopper number “We Both Reached for the Gun” three times. It lasts maybe four minutes and represents how much work to get it where it ended up? I appreciate you’re not timing it. AW: Four minutes. I would say eight hours of rehearsal. AS: Is there a point in a number where you know you have reached the balance? Where it is absolutely rehearsed but still fresh and dynamic? AW: I suppose so. AS: There are touring shows where a musical number has lost it. There is a kind of automatic quality to it. AW: Knowing when to leave it. It’s a fine judgement. But then the audience will tell you. I stay here the whole summer and see the show six times a week. I watch and when the audience smiles you know you’ve got it right AS: Before you have an audience? AW: I always try to get people in for rehearsals. Cleaners, porters, bar staff, anyone who is around. I watch them. AS: When did work on “Chess” begin? AW: February. Auditions March. One thousand applications for seventeen parts, the highest ever. That’s the reputation Aberystwyth is getting. AS: So you don’t have to go to the auditions with a road map and magnifying glass? AW: No, Aberystwyth Arts Centre is right up there now alongside the Menier and Watermill as a producing venue. AS: “Chess” is very different, even though it was only written ten years after “Chicago”. Are there particular challenges to this piece? AW: It’s so different. “Chicago” is all about dancers and singers who can act. “Chess” needs actors. Actors who can sing, who can really sing. And the cast. The show has attracted people who’ve performed in Australia, done Broadway. The cast we have this year… AS: You have three weeks before production week. You are not going to spend ten days in character analysis. What techniques do you use for getting it up and going? AW: I’ll start with a key scene with each of the main characters. We’ll do everything, the character, blocking, and get it right. So when we come to do other parts it’s connecting to what’s been done before. AS: “Chess” is twenty-seven years old. The cold war was a real background in the eighties. Is there a difficulty in presenting this to a new audience for whom it is now history? AW: Not at all. I did a lot of research on the Cold War. Chess really did play a role. And the main character is based around the real-life Bobby Fisher. AS: So the script is looking good still? AW: It makes perfect sense still. It’s a clever piece of theatre. I’ve done some re-writes, seven in all. Some restructuring to bring out the clarity, to really focus on the narrative. AS: And the music? AW: Michael has a big job. It’s music for a symphony orchestra and it has to be turned into music for the band that we have. But the show has it all. Dance. Ballads. A classical ballet. AS: I saw the first production. I had totally forgotten the ballet. Changing shows you’ve been involved with Mal Pope’s “Cappuccino Girls?” What’s the latest? AW: It has had its appearance in the US, the mini-tour of Wales. It will be back in Wales in the Autumn. AS: I lent the producers here late last year the music of “On Your Toes”. It was only because I would love to see the jazz ballet “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” that Richard Rodgers wrote back in 1936. Any chance of us seeing it one day? AW: I’d love to do it. AS: The producers said that they need a musical that people know. I’m inclined to the view that they have earned a kind of franchise and can take their audience with them. AW: The summer musical is a huge financial risk. But I think the Arts Centre is beginning to realise they do have what you call this franchise. I think that we, as directors, sometimes do under-estimate our audiences, the intelligence they bring. AS: And a Sondheim maybe? Not just “West Side Story.” Not the urban stuff. That wouldn’t fit. “Into the Woods” is one stream of melody. AW: It’s wonderful. AS: How many hours a day do you anticipate working over the next three weeks? AW: Seventeen? Eight-thirty start. Midnight last night I was still doing emails on some stage management stuff. AS: How many hours sleep do you anticipate? AW: Last five days, production week, five hours a night. AS: I’ll let you get back. I don’t think I even have to say enjoy the time here. AW: I love it. I have to say that the technicians here are second to none. The show is using the lot, including video. The quality of skill is the equal of anything in London. It’s hard to find that sheer level of expertise. Aberystwyth has a huge place in my heart. |
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Wednesday, July 6, 2011 |
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