Stags and Hens Wraps, Thanks

That’s a wrap on Stags and Hens. Saturday was the final night of the production. The celebrations went into the wee hours of Sunday morning but were much curtailed compared to previous productions thanks to our early start on Sunday to empty the Watergate Theatre in Kilkenny. Pizza and an attempted post clearout pint helped us out, with the final moving and shifting of sets and materials taking place right up to 6pm today. Bar washing a few costumes, we’re done and dusted until our next production.

What can you say really?

It’s been a wild ride. You’ll gather comments from some of the coverage from posts during the week or the snippets we posted on Twitter during the running of the show. We began the post-mortem this afternoon, continuing through to the end of the week when we revise the financials, goals that were achieved, what worked and what didn’t work, get the invoices paid etc. While we work through all of that during the week, we’ve got some people to thank.

Firstly, we’d like to give our thanks to those of you who came out and saw the show. Stags and Hens was a different step for us. But we’re devious in that way (hell, we even dipped into Shakespeare earlier in the summer). People were beginning to paint the company as “shock theatre” following the blood and gore of Cannibal, the nudity and heroin addiction of Trainspotting but the surprise in this one comes from the fact that we chose a conventional play by a conventional and very well respected playwright. The show is just over 30 years old but given the time we’re living in, a lot of the content is still relevant. What’s more, we had a fantastic time in producing it and trying something a world apart from our previous productions. The feedback (both positive and negative) has been superb, further helping to shape the company and give us an insight into our audiences. So if you made the trip to the theatre (and some of you went two and three nights out of five), we thank you and geniunely hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did in bringing it to you.

After the audience comes the cast. They’re the ones who put the hours in. Myself (Ken), John, Paddy and Niamh busted our asses in producer capacity, Kev took command of the ship, dodged the fizzy icebergs and steered us to port, but outside of the committee, the show can’t go on without the cast. We were fortunate enough to be joined by two great female actors from Dublin in the form of Ciara Donegan and Roisin O’Reilly (playing Bernie and Linda respectively), along with familiar Devious faces in the forms of Stephen Colfer (since Cannibal), John Doran (Cannibal), Mairead Kiernan (Trainspotting), Lynsey Moran (Smitten), Eddie Murphy (briefly in Cannibal), Maria Murray (Cannibal, Trainspotting, Smitten), Geoff Warner Clayton (Smitten) and Paul Young (Trainspotting). We’ve been fortunate to have some good casts but this one gelled incredibly quickly and paid dividends.

Our thanks too to the Watergate Theatre – Gerry Cody, Dick Holland, Amy Dunne, Maurice Drohan and co. For a week each year they allow us into the theatre to do with what we need. We decorate the lobby, comandeer the green room, but overall, when you’re working in the Watergate space as we do you’re given a great sense of ownership over the space. Yes, there are definite rules you must work within but we’re given a home for the week and we treat it as such. They’ve been great to us and great supporters of Devious since 2006 and we’ll do it all again next year (or maybe sooner).

This we we also used the Watergate Theatre’s gallery space for an official launch of the first part of our 2009 programme of events. We revealed Shakespeare In Bits (June), Stags and Hens (July) and our Friends of Devious Theatre scheme. The scheme, based on a fund of €50 or €100 entitles someone to poster and programme packs, complimentary tickets for shows and the likes. The scheme is about to take off and get some more additions (a bonus to existing friends) but we would like to thank Cleere’s, Arthur Drohan (Ryan’s), Event Media, Tom & Alice Kiernan, Enda McEvoy, Gemma McGirr, Geoffrey & Alice Rose, Kilkenny County Council Arts Office and Rothe House for becoming Friends of Devious Theatre. We feel that while the launch of the program allows us to attract financial investment (however big or small) for the company, it is also a signal of our commitment to growth and continued development of a program of new, fresh and innovative theatrical productions.

Our thanks also go to the technical team working behind the scenes on Stags and Hens. Gerry Taylor has been a source of illumination for Cannibal, Trainspotting, Smitten and now Stags and Hens. We’re a good looking bunch of guys and gals, but Gerry has the ability to make anything look exceptional, whether it’s a sunrise in Colorado, a screamish gore-fest, a shitty toilet in the back of a bookies or a run down Liverpool nightclub. Let it be a lesson to other theatre companies – if you’ve got the budget, don’t skimp on your lighting. If you’ve not got the budget, then go get it. So Gerry, thanks again for lighting up our week (no pun intended).

Our art director for the show (and set designer) was Tommy Dowling who did some sterling work from the get go right through to leaving the Watergate yesterday evening; Colm Sheenan ran the ropes back stage as he did last year on Trainspotting; Jimmy Trigger (aka James Doran) had those club entrances timed to a T while Aileen (Johnson) and Jodie (White) made sure we looked “epic” in terms of makeup for the stags and hens each night.

While we’ll reserve a wee post for themselves, a special thanks to Culch.ie for plugging away, running the competitions and making the trip to KK for the final night of the show. Next production is on us (or maybe a round of pints in Kilkenny, whichever comes sooner).

We started rehearsals for Stags and Hens in Young Irish Film Makers before taking up residency with Barnstorm Theatre on Church Lane in Kilkenny. Barnstorm, for those not in the know, are currently Kilkenny’s only professional theatre company and they’ve been incredibly generous and supportive to Devious since our inception, allowing us to take over their theatre from mid June right up to the weekend we moved into the Watergate. Our thanks to both groups for their help and support during the running of Stags and Hens.

Thanks also go to Niamh Moroney who started working on Stags and Hens as assistant director, producer and costume queen only to run away and join a Canadian circus for a few months, Philip Hardy, Trish Hayden Drenna, Ronan MacRaois, Vincent Dempsey, Mike Kelly, Angela Walsh, Kate St. John, Darragh Byrne, Dreamstuff Youth Theatre, Angela Barrett, Tess Felder, Edwina Grace, Brendan Maher and Start Magazine, Sean Hurley, Aisling Hurley, Mary Butler, Niamh Finn, Cathy Fitzgerald, Mycrofilms, Alan Slattery, Samuel French LTD, the Drama League of Ireland, St. Canice’s Credit Union, KilkennyMusic.com, The Field, The Kilkenny People, Kilkenny Alive, the Kilkenny Advertiser, Dee Gibney Properties (for arranging accommodation for our traveling cast members – life saver), KCLR 96FM, Newstalk, Tom Dunne, Paddy Dunne Snr, Sean and Gráinne Moroney, Conor Mahony, The Dowling family, Laurent Murray, Jack O’Leary, John Cleere, David Galster, Ross Costigan, Biff Walsh, Teagan Jermun, some man Eddie Brennan, Anthony Majony and anyone else that was involved in the Stags and Hens process at some stage.

If I’ve forgotten anyone, it’s only through sheer tiredness now the production is over. Don’t be offended. It’s the internet, we can amend this kinda thing. Thanks and crew credits are also available in the programme and we’ll be publishing everything from it online during the week.

It’s been a wonderful ride, once again but while we spend the next few days analysing what’s gone before us, we’ve already got an incredible amount of wheels in motion with regards to upcoming productions. You’ve been warned.

On that note, like we did in the programme, we’ll leave you with a quote. I bet you didn’t know that we’ve been doing this for quite a few productions now. As I said, we’re devious in that way.

“It’s my dream to play a judge. But I’m too young. Maybe one day.”

And So We Face, The Final Curtain

Some of the cast and crew chatting in the green room at the Watergate

It’s been a great week.

Fact.

Looking at the show with a producer’s hat on and an actor’s hat on, it really been a great week for us. The show has gone down surprisingly well, last night bringing yet another completely different (and slightly older) audience, further highlighting different opportunities for comedy throughout the script. With tonight being the final night, we’ll be looking to go out in style and deliver the top performance of the week. Not that the other performances during the week haven’t been great – they have – but we’ve only got the one show left. When the curtain closes tonight, we move into exit mode, stripping the set, bagging costumes, cleaning, sweeping, painting, the whole nine yards.

The feedback has been great throughout the week. Aisling Hurley had some nice words to say in Kilkenny Alive earlier in the week while long a supporter of Devious Theatre, John Cleere made a strong pitch in yesterday’s edition of the Kilkenny Advertiser.

And so we face the final curtain. All week long, the cast and crew have been walking around the green room quoting select lines from Hardy Bucks so it’s only apt to say that tonight should “bring a tear to a shtone”.

The night is about celebration, that will come in due course, but the day is about preparation. Once again we meet (as a committee) this afternoon to discuss last night’s performance, review the week of the show, outline our plan for getting out of the theatre and set a plan in motion for the weeks ahead. Yes, it’s the final curtain, but we’ve already closed out one show this year and there’s a sneaky feeling within the group that we’ll be closing out a further show before the year is out.

To each and all who have come along to Stags and Hens, to those who have offered up their feedback and thoughts throughout the week and to those who took the step in becoming a Friend of Devious Theatre, we thank you. You can follow the preparations for the final night of the show on Twitter (or by following the #stagsandhens hash tag) or better still – join us in the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny from 8pm tonight where tickets for the show are only €12.

We’ll see you on the other side.

Reaching The Midway Point

You know, it seems like forever ago that we had our first script reading (above). Some of us have worked on every production, some made their debuts late last year, others have just joined us since June. As a group, it was a new gathering of people, getting familiar with each other, trying on the accents, making nervous conversation (though maybe the nervous bit is just my imagination).

Flash forward a few weeks and that “new” group have become a tightly nit family of actors. That’s what living in each others pockets for the past fortnight or so will do to you. It also sees us at the midway point in our production run, with tonight marking the third of five nights at the Watergate Theatre with Stags and Hens.

Opening night was great, a real buzz from everyone off the stage, an audience who lapped up and laughed their way through the show. Yesterday was another good run, completely different audience, a gradual build up to the second act where the cast burst with energy through to the finale. Tonight will be another different show. Every night will, on some level. And while there were some celebrations to be had on Tuesday night following a successful opening, things were a bit more muted last night we conserve energy and work towards the weekend.

One person after last night’s show commented “I don’t know how you do it. I don’t know how ye can sustain the level of lines you’ve got in that play.” Today we’ll be doing it by resting up. Any tweaks we needed to make to the set were done yesterday, a new floor fitted in which was absent for those in attendance on Tuesday night and with no futher additions (barring a little bit of repainting here and there), it should mean a later start for actors and crew today.

These production runs just aren’t long enough. We started with three nights on our first production in 2006, upped things to four in 2007, starting running five-night productions in 2008 and last night spoke about seven-night runs. We’re planning all the time, kind of devious in that way, but there’s more on that in the next few weeks.

Back to today and the countdown is already on to 8pm. The call is for 6, makeup and hair by 7, warmups, costumed by 7:30, side stage by 7:50 and out through those night club doors for 8pm or so. Join us.

You can book tickets in advance by phoning 056-7761674 or by calling to the Watergate Theatre on Parliament Street in Kilkenny. See local press for more details and comments.

Win Tickets for Friday Night with Culch.ie

Those lovely lads and ladies over at Culch.ie are giving away tickets to Stags and Hens – the cheek! If you want in on the action and fancy a shot at winning tickets for the FRIDAY NIGHT performance of Stags and Hens at the Watergate Theatre in Kilkenny (that’s this Friday night), check this post on Culch.ie.

One lucky winner will get

• Two tickets to the Friday night of the show
• Two signed programmes
• Two signed glossy posters

You’ll want to move quickly thought, the competition ends at 7:30pm tonight. To those of you who were giving your answer via Facebook and Twitter yesterday following the updates, you’ve got to enter by leaving a comment on the Culch.ie blog post with your answer!

Stags And Hens Interview (Listen)

Earlier this morning, Kevin Mooney (director), Ciara Donegan (Bernadette) and Mairead Kiernan (Maureen) made an appearance on The Sue Nunn show on KCLR96FM in advance of tonight’s curtain-raising performance of Stags and Hens.

We open the show tonight at the Watergate Theatre on Parliament Street at 8pm and tickets are available from the Watergate box office by calling in person to the theatre or phoning 056-7761674. Doors open each night at 7:30pm.

If you missed it, you can catch the Stags and Hens trailer here, or better still, follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day and over the week of the show.

Listen below to the clip (approx 8 minutes)

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On The Record with Stags And Hens

The Devious Theatre Company feature on the new Sue Nunn Show on KCLR 96FM tomorrow, Tuesday. The show follows an all-new format for what was previously On The Record on the Kilkenny and Carlow station.

Heading to the studios in Kilkenny tomorrow morning will be Kevin Mooney (director), Ciara Donegan (playing Bernadette) and Maria Murray (playing Frances).

They’ll be on the air tomorrow for about 9:50am to talk about the show itself, how things have been going rehearsal-wise and to perform a segment from the show. If you want to pose anything to the actors ahead of tomorrows show you can text the station on 083 3069696. In Kilkenny you can listen to KCLR on 96 and 96.6FM with Carlow picking the station up on 96.9FM.

Alternatively you can listen online via KCLR96FM.com (streaming link).

Settling Into The Theatre

So we’re finally in the Watergate Theatre. Note to self – get the wifi access for the theatre tomorrow as the O2 connection is quite rusty in the main theatre area.

We’ve been on the go since 9:15am, starting things in Devious style with a breakfast at The Field when, after almost two years and seeing four productions planned around their breakfasts, lunches and dinners, it finally clicked with them that “we run a business or something”. A business possibly, a theatre company most definitely.

What you see in the picture above is the first stage of the sound design for the theatre. I’ve put a few sessions together in ProTools for rehearsals, changing venue changes the mix so give it about two hours and we’ll have plenty of healthy club-sounding 70s tunes echoing around the Watergate. The sound setup itself has been a relatively simple process (though owning your own gear and being familiar with the operating of mixing desks does certainly have its benefits) – new desk to multicore, wrap it around the theatre, to the stagebox on stage left, back up to the control room two stories up and out into the house sound. Oh yes, it’s been fun.

We’re midway through the day, the set itself has been assembled, sanding has started, painting and decorating likely to commence before 4pm and move into the night.

Tomorrow, lighting takes priority in the morning, front of house gets dressed, photographs get taken, we stock the fridge up with Red Bull and milk for the copious amounts of tea.

For now, it’s a lunch break, then back into things for the night. We’re keeping you posted via Twitter as well, with photos going up on TwitPic from the workings back stage. Follow us on Twitter.

Follow Stags And Hens on Twitter, A Day Off

If you’ve been following the Devious Theatre Twitter stream over the past week or two, you’ll have noticed an increase in the Stags and Hens related tweets including some last-minute shots from the final rehearsal in The Barn here, here and here.

We’ll be covering the “get in” stage at the theatre tomorrow (Sunday), maybe a little live video, some more photos, that kind of thing. But for those of you on Twitter, we’ll be using the #stagsandhens hash tag so you can get all your updates in the one spot. (See here on Twitter search).

In other Stags and Hens related news, last night was indeed the final night of our residency in The Barn, the playing space owned and operated by Barnstorm Theatre in Kilkenny who have been incredibly generous to us over the past three years. Just after John’s post hit the blog on Thursday, we managed to get the set transported to The Barn for two days of raw rehearsal, initial set up, getting actors used to the actual set before moving it to the Watergate Theatre tomorrow.

The set itself will look great. Thom and Frank (Dowling) have done a great job in getting it together based of Kev and Eddie’s designs (Devious Theatre Construction Inc) and in contrast to previous productions, it’s been great to have the set for a few days before the dress and tech rehearsal, something we’ve not been able to do before. It also means that we get to give cast and crew a day off (today). It’s been an action-packed two weeks of solid rehearsal, some going into the wee hours. There’s been highs, there’s been lows, more highs, laughs, strong words, sneaky pizza runs so when it comes around to Saturday, it’s nice knowing that you’ve got a day to put your feet up.

Because it all kicks off tomorrow. Come 10am we move into the Watergate Theatre for a week’s residency – set moves in, early rehearsal, evening tech, repeat and flourish on Monday.

Stags and Hens opens this coming Tuesday night at the Watergate Theatre and yes, tickets are on sale. They can be purchased for the recession busting price of €12 (one of the most affordable productions for it’s size in the theatre this season) from the Watergate box office or by phoning 056 7761674.

If you’re following us on Twitter, you’ll have a chance to bag yourself a pair of tickets for the final night of the play as well. Just add @devioustheatre to your friends and keep an eye out for the question!

The Big Day Is Approaching…

Going by our very specific banner,  Stags and Hens will hit the stage in 5 days, 4 hours, 2 minutes and 34 seconds.  And production has been ramping up in a big way as we approach the final strait.

8 weeks of rehearsal and prep have whizzed by at a startling speed. We’ve been doing a full week of dress rehearsals which has been exhausting but exhilirating to see the play coming together. The costumes are quite comfortable although I don’t pity the girls having to manage all those heels. All of the gents remain unshaven and by Sunday a fine selection of sideburns, moustaches and handlebars should be on display. Herbal cigarettes are absolutely fucking disgusting. There’s going to be a lot of slightly nauseous cast and audience members next week, believe me. Kevin is taking the fine tooth comb to the production and the creases are being ironed out. He’s also tightening up the soundtrack for the play and it’s going to be a fantastic one. If you’re a 70s music aficionado you will most definitely not be disappointed. Paddy has put the finishing touches to our show programme. We’re going full colour baby so, in the parlance of Stags and Hens, it’s going to proper smart.

The actors are starting to speak exclusively in Scouse accents which is providing quite annoying for anyone not working on the play. Colm is also trying to master a Scouse accent when he’s not chalking the specifics into his bible and looking for a 70’s shirt befitting a stage manager. Speaking of the stage, Thom and Kevin are moving the set into The Barn today so we’ll get a full run at it. Especially looking forward to using the toilets.

On the promotional front, the promo trailer has been spreading around the internet and we’ve got some wonderful feedback on it. Myself and Ken did a spot on Tom Dunne’s show on Newstalk yesterday to promote the show and Kevin had a lovely interview printed in the Kilkenny People yesterday. Can’t say we like the picture that was used but hey, any publicity is good publicity, right?

So we’re nearly ready to roll. All we need now is something borrowed and something blue!

Stags and Hens will play The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny from July 21st – 25th at 8pm nightly. Tickets are 12 Euro. Bookings can be made on 056 – 7761674.

The Blood Brothers

With a cheeky nod to Willy Russell, we unveil the final character from Stags and Hens, the lead singer of The Blood Brothers, Peter Taylor.

Played by Eddie Murphy, Peter is the cocksure, charming, lead singer of this up and coming band. A band unfortunate enough to be booked into a dive of a Liverpool club before their single became a hit. Fulfilling their dates, Peter finds himself back in the hometown that he managed to escape years ago for the bright lights of London. And now that he’s back, he can see why he left. But there’s also the one girl that could have made him stay. And she just so happens to be on her hen night in the same club. Eddie Murphy has previously appeared with Devious Theatre in Cannibal! The Musical.

Also featured in the band poster are Laurent Murray, Kevin Mooney (our director) and Jack O’Leary. And don’t they look hardcore? Paddy also snuck in a few nods to two other well known Willy Russell plays into the poster. Who says we’re not suckers for detail?

Stags and Hens will open this day next week, July 21st and run until July 25th in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Tickets can be booked on 056 – 7761674.

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