THE MUSICAL PRODUCED

AMATEUR STAGE | FEBRUARY 201014

THE MUSICAL PRODUCED

PARADEJason Robert Brown’s award winning

musical Parade has won acclaim worldwide. Nicci Hopson discusses the recent production staged by Ariel Theatre Company.

THE GROUPIs one of the key theatrical companies in the

Mid Sussex area. Ariel offers an exceptionally broad range of the highest quality productions and participatory projects designed to engage and inspire the surrounding Sussex theatre audiences, children and young people alike, being foremost in producing modern professionally ethical and honest productions designed to enhance audiences and actors experiences alike.

Established in 1991, Ariel has achieved genuine acclaim and recognition within the theatre industry for our shows and professional approach in producing these productions. As such, Ariel draws upon unparalleled experience in generating memorable creative entertainment for our audiences, by staging primarily modern Musicals, Concerts and Plays in professional theatres.

Neil and Nicci Hopson run Ariel Company Theatre and their 300 strong ‘Ariel Drama Academy (Ariel Drama Plus)’ in Burgess Hill and East Grinstead. The theatre company is proud to have Nigel Harman as their patron. Nigel continually supports and enriches the students with his active involvement in the Academy.

Ariel is a non-professional company with a professional attitude, who hold open auditions for most of their main productions. Ariel believes in enabling performers both adults and young alike to really stretch their acting

potential, by generating a hardworking and fun team spirit from the very start. Everyone who takes part on & off stage in our eyes are all the shining stars of each performance.

Never scared to try new projects and to stretch their actors, Ariel have tackled many shows not normally tackled as large scale productions such as ‘TOMMY’, ‘RENT’, ‘WE WILL ROCK YOU’, ‘RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET’ – with the cast playing all the instruments live at every performance.

THE PLAY Parade was first produced on Broadway

10 years ago, winning two Tony Awards for Book and Score, and described by Clive Barnes in The New York Post as A defining moment in Broadway musical theatre. It’s first outing in the UK was in the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, followed in 2007 by the critically acclaimed production at The Donmar Warehouse. Parade is based on the true story of Leo Frank, a New York-born Jew, living and working in Georgia, who in 1913 was accused of the murder of a young girl.

Rare among musicals for its serious subject matter, the audience experiences an uncompromising account of a disturbing episode from America’s recent past. Parade is a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The musical was first produced on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on December 17, 1998. The first major production in the United Kingdom played at the Donmar Warehouse from September 24 to November 24 in 2007.

STAGING AND LIGHTINGThis show is best done with true simplicity,

we decided to use scaffolding with a hint of broken picket fencing, which was whitewashed to reflect the Southern image. This helped greatly when lit as it reflectedl lighting patterns of gold’s and reds that were required to make the audience feel the humidity and intense heat during most scenes. A simple confederate flag was used on a few occasions, poignant use of VT projections occurred three times during the production to establish time frames and then one at the end to allow the audience to think about what had happened and how the case would have been received now in our time frame.

CASTINGWe decide early that the production would

be performed by our Ariel Young Actors and not the adult cast. Having seen it tackled brilliantly by the West Sussex Youth Theatre a year before, Ariel did believe that it could be tackled by a mature cast, however felt that the casts’ age range needed to be from 15 to 22 years of age. The feeling behind this was that our young actors are of a very high standard and we therefore felt we wanted to stretch them dramatically, vocally and intellectually, therefore giving them the opportunity to perform in a show rarely seen and thus allowing them the freedom to explore a more mature approach to acting, as well as being true to the historical, political, racial and moral attitudes of that time.

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AMATEUR STAGE | FEBRUARY 2010

THE MUSICAL PRODUCED

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CONCLUSION‘This is a hard piece of theatre as previously mentioned rarely tackled in the UK. Now we can say that it is a masterpiece that has proven to be one of the most rewarding our Young Ariel Actors have been involved in to date. Our cast were selected very carefully over several months and we also needed to find black actors to portray a dark time in American history. We were extremely privileged to cast 5 fantastic young actors to fill these roles. They showed such depth and maturity, especially as the subject matter they were representing was so alien to them, re-telling the racial intolerance in the Deep South of America around that time. However the production needed to ensure that remained true and accurate to the historical content of the Musical. ‘This team has been on an emotional journey and one we shall never forget’ . Nicci Hopson Director.

Parade is licensed in the UK by Josef Weinberger

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