GIRLS NIGHT OUT by Dave Simpson

David Hawksworth discusses his production for Woking Youth Theatre

In m111 Y res pects Girls Night Oll t is in th egt genre of Tile FJlIl MOlltlj Four girls embark on a hen night to ce lebri1te tillt wedding next day of Jane w ho is hewily pregnant Once at the nightclub it soon becomes a ppa rent th t the four young men in 1he Ftast of Fles h s trip routine Me

known to the girls - one is the son of the hen night orga nislr and the others are fo rmer l H curren t boyfriends of the o th r girls

rile b rst hJlf of the ply sets the scene and lays the plot w hil middott the second half deals with the inevi tabt

howdolVn backstage in the boys dressing w o m Although the pl) is n bawdy comedy there is a sub-plot which m kes some important s tatements about the sort of lives such people liV e Kicking o er the tracES and doing you r own thing M tw o themes which pring to mind

--- CAST

The play requires four men and four women Ivy is the middle-aged ilunt w ho has organised the hen night for he r pregnant soon to be morried niecE Jane N icola is engaged to Ivy s son Tony but it is doubtful if s he will eve ry marry since her aim in life se middotms to be to try and build up the biggcs t bo ttom drawer eve r 0 bargains can ever be res isted by Nicola SMa is the cynical one of the group and has some of the best comedy lines in the play

Dc1rren is a sort of leader of the pack of the men intent on telling everyone that he is a new man and an expert on relations hips with women Robbie spends most of his time d eflecting Darren s questions about his sexuality a nd fina lly admits that he is gay Phil is the deep thinker nice guy of the pack and Tony is the newcomer who is s tanding in fo r a member of the group who is ill

Apart from Ivy who is about early forties a ll the other characters are late teensearly twenties All four men need to be able to do solo dance routines and a collective one

reminiscent of the sort of titillating numbers d o ne by the Chippendales They need to be totully uninhibited and shou ld be capable of g iving the women in the audience that smouldering come to bed look The contract states that no-one in the play has to ta ke their clothes of completely but they do get very close

tI 9WIPr-

We had a total of twelve rehearsals over a six-week period The fir st

three rehearsa ls ere spent entirely on teaching the routines to the men The nex t three rehearsa ls were split so that W( repeated and polished the routines and also blocked the dialogue ln the first act it is possible to be blocking girls dialogue whils t the boys learn the dances since the tw o groups d ont meet up on stage until the end of Act One For the rest of the sched ule we ran the entire play slotting in the dan ce routines as they occu rred

Th(gt dialogue is easy to learn and is

very ca n veuro rsa tiona However the com d needs careful plotting m timing and delivery anu pace need to be W L

orchestrated To make Ih laughs come the cast nee to work hard n concentration has tl bo high To give realism tl the p iece the boys need Ii be happy walking abou t i their dress ing room witl very little on fo r mos t the tim e o therw ise the p ieCe is stilted and fore

We gathered e vpry n who was intE(ested il being auditioned to a fu reading of the p lay Thl was to ensure tha t concerned knew (X ii tl wha t they w ould be in f bull if cast We the n ch o a udition pieces an auditioned the bo 1gt am the g i rI s After this all th boys w ere given a impl dance routine to lear which included taking ( bull T-shirts a nd trou sershyFrom these auditions 1 ashywas chosen The bn shyauditioning were kemiddot and in fact uninhibit~

enough to give us a n~ choice when casting

SCENER

The pia y has a seri( scenes set in a s ubu rba lounge a nightcluL dress ing room and tll nig htclub itse lf The 5h rr prologue in Ton shybedroom needs only a fl with a mirror on it ltvh c can be cleilred quickl y

We put the lounge an dress ing room sets ~

trucks stage left and ri hr This works well in the fi r -hal f beca use each se t

used twice and then need s to b cleltlred away for the final scene i the nightclub In the second act t lounge is not used so the actiltgtr a lternates betw een dress ing mOlT and nightclub

The finale to each act is the d ane routine in the nightclub so need the maximum space p05sib We had a (Ostrum three feet hi) across the back of the 5t ge fact w itb a false proscenium A slashycurtain was used and all t1gt routines started eithe r with t middot

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boys coming through the slash or with the s l ~ 5h curtain ri s ing to reveal the bOys behind In front of the rostrum was 1 central four-foot square platform wi th i se t of tread s down to the s tage proper The girls tobl l (the only one that is need ed) was se t s tage left of the steps to give ea y access for tlw boys to play to the girls in the dlncls

For the l(lun g simpl e intcrior ligh ting is sufficient The lights in the d r si ng room need to be a bit dingy wi th the lit dressing table mirror having one or two bul bs missing to g ive a touch of rea lity The nightcl ub needs low level a ll over COVlf jut pnollgh for th girls sitting at their table tn be seton proper] htll bright and glitzy Iightillg with lo l() spoh i ~

needed for the routines wi th plenty of dtl110spheric changes o f colour to llit the mood s of the dances

COST

e ked the gi rls in the ca~t to go out and get ~ny glitzy over tht top costu me fo r themsel ves Thev seemed tl) njoy th i ~ ltmel tht resul ts were exact ly right for the c11iHacltrs they portrayed Ivy was vcry done up in poor taste ieo la W1S understa ted as If frigh tened to let her elf go and Sa ra fou nd it twoshypiece ~uit with it very short ski rt with wbich she wore boots and looked g re) t Jane ne~ds an evening outfit and it wedding dress both of which hJve to cover her bump

The boys all pro vided their OWI1

day outfits which WNe T-shirts je)ns jackets crnd trJ incrs Fo r tlllir rou tines we had to provid James Bo nd dinner su its mon ks md highwaymens outfits The James l30nd dinner suit trous~rs had to be

fitted wi th velcro 50 tha t they could be ripped off at the lppropriate moment in tht strip wutint Under the trousers the boys wore purple posillg pouches purchased from an Ann Summers shop in Soho

Some of th music is referred to in the script so we used that Other routines had no particular music mentioned so we had to find music for the mon routine (Fnitll bv Ccorg Michael) the highwayme) (Stlllld nlld Deliver by Adam Ant) Tonys solo (Rllmp nlld Gri ll d by R Kelly) ~ nd the Diet oke break lt1dvertisement mllsic All the music ha~ tLl be of an appropriate Itnglh as no routi ne mus t go on too long and bore the aud ience by feeling r pl htious

SPECIAL EF~CTiS

PROP

1 the dam routin need to b s taged eff tively otherw is th e do bec()m very sim ilar We found a motor cy Ie for R bbie solo 1 coil of thick rope for Darrens solo and we rnLlde Tonys routin become a weigh tlifting bodvshybui ld m session whicl ~ V r) suggestive in its m emtnt~ The finale to each act needs rna d lighting and fo llow spots backed by colourfu l d isco lighling

All o ther props Me fa irly straightfo rward In Ivys lounge 1 grea t deal of pre-night lub drinking goes on and brandy and Babycham is referred to in the script as are nibbles to consume with the drinks

The boy need a large number of personal belongings iII the dressing mom which must include cloth ing dressing gow ns jackets bags of personal props such as deodoran t magazines and so on Towels

EMBER Imiddot

stra ttg ically pre-set p roved a godsend to providc shelter

e had ltl g reat deal of fu n with Girls iglit Ollt To do credit to the piece you must have it cast who a re totally committed to it They need to bond in a way not so necessary perhaps in more s traightfo rward play TI1e girls need to be cohe ive un it out for a laugh and drin k prio r to the wedding The boys a re a team despi te some friction within their ranks Whcn they perform thei r routines th y must be highly professiona l and strut their s tuff in an unlnhibited a They hould be ompl tell a t ea~e with hardly any clothes on or many of the second act dr sing room c nes Tony has the diffi ult job of being the temporary s tand-in w ho must get bits of the carly routines muddled up but who comes into his own in the second act showdown with icola

Rehemsals were great fun You have to let the cast ge t aU the laughter ou t of their systems first in order to take the comedy timing as seriollsly as is required The girls mllst be fully relaxed about seeing the boys in next to nothing and li kewise the boys have to be at ease with very little on We got this completely from our cas t

The show was slow to sell at the s tMt but middotales picked up quickly in the week before the production We even had four real hen night bookings who came away satisfied (if thats the right word l ) Audience reaction is absolutely vita l in this play Once the cast hear that first belly laugh from the audience in the first scene they know that thlty are there to enjoy themselves and you are on a roller coaster of fun from then on

Our audiences screamed for more and stamped and cheered at each performrnce I like to think that this was in part acknowledgement of the shter cheek of the compa ny for taking on such a play For me the audience reaction proved that

the time spent on timing IJugh Iints in an empty rehearsal room had paid off The company did great credit to Dave Simpsons script

vVe only had two complaints from the public Both surprisingly took excep tion to our pos ters On these we used a seaside postca Id type car toon of a deligh ted woma n clutching her handbag and looking at a muscular mans legs from upper thigh down to ankles from the back view and anything offensive must have been in the eye of the beholder The two complainants did not see the show

Al l SCRIPTS SCORES AND LIBRETTI FEATURED IN

THE PLAY PRODUCED AND THE MU ICAl PRODUCED CAN BTAl ROM

TEL 0171-837-5655 FAX 0171middot833-0609

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