PILOT THEATRE AND NORTHERN STAGE PRESENT The Season Ticket by Jonathan Tulloch adapted for the stage by Lee Mattinson Directed by Katie Posner
EDUCATION PACK
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Contents Introduction and Synopsis: About the Play
4
Who’s Who
5
Interview with the Director, Katie Posner, and Playwright, Lee Mattinson Interview with the Designer: Jean Chan
11
Meet the Stage Manager: Ellie Pappworth
12
Rehearsal Photos
13 - 16
Feature Article: Theatre and Football (with pre-show classroom activity)
17
Workshop: A practical approach to adaptation
18
Workshop: Improvising from the text
The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
6 - 10
19-20
Review writing (GCSE)
21
Writing about live theatre (A Level)
22
Tour Dates and Venues
23
Supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
This education pack was compiled by Helen Cadbury www.theatrestudy.com. Photography by Ben Pugh and North East Chronicle. The material in this pack may be reproduced for classroom use only and not for resale or reproduction in print or electronically without the prior permission of the author or photographers. With thanks to the cast, creative, production and admin teams.
Introduction and Synopsis: About the Play Adapted for the stage by Lee Mattinson from the novel by Jonathan Tulloch Directed by Katie Posner An incredible staging of the story that inspired the hit film Purely Belter. A play about love, friendship, hardship and the priceless currency of hope. It’s a very funny, very sad and utterly compelling human story. Everyone needs a dream. For lads Gerry and Sewell, it’s watching their beloved Newcastle United play for a whole season. To get into the sacred St James’ Park - where Gazza once graced the field of dreams, Shearer smashed a total of two hundred and six goals, where Kev was King and Sir Bobby was a god - they only need one thing: a season ticket. In a world of payday loans and cash-on-credit, how easy is it to make a cool grand? Can you sell ‘magic pennies’ for a pound on the streets of the city? Gerry and Sewell try every trick in the book but find that making money is much more complicated than avoiding school. At home, Gerry, his mum, Dee and sister Clare, live in fear of his dad finding out where they live. That doesn’t stop Dee enjoying herself, and Clare working for her exams, but it’s a tough world, and one that makes Gerry want to follow his dream of a season ticket to the Toon all the harder. Will Gerry and Sewell’s friendship survive the arrival of bright and studious Gemma? Will Dee’s new lover, Dan, ever be good enough for Gerry? Growing up, getting by and dreaming of a better time, we follow Gerry and Sewell through a cityscape of tough choices and strong words.
The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
THE SEASON TICKET
Will Graham - Sewell
Victoria Elliott - Dee/ Paula/Miss Moon
KATIE So how did it feel when I called you up to ask if you’d be interested in adapting The Season Ticket? LEE I couldn’t believe my actual luck. I’m a big fan of the film and I’d never adapted a novel. I thought that’ll be interesting challenge – I wouldn’t know how to begin even doing that. But I wondered how you would do that? I thought, that’ll be a crazy puzzle to crack. I’m in. Laila Zaidi - Gemma/ Clare/Shanice
Joe Caffrey - Terry/ Mike/ Stephen/ Elmo
Kevin Wathen - Dan/ Paul
Creative Team Director – Katie Posner Designer – Jean Chan Adapted by – Lee Mattinson Lighting Designer – Alexandra Stafford Sound Designer – James Frewer Fight Director – Renny Krupinski
What attracted you to the novel? KATIE In 2013, I had a meeting with Lorne Campbell and we talked about a potential collaboration between Pilot Theatre and Northern Stage. He was really interested in that being based on developing an idea for the main stage and gave me the following task – ‘how do you get the people off the Metro up the big steps to Northern Stage?’ I’ve always had a massive affection for Newcastle, having worked at Live Theatre in the past, and my connection with the city has always been a really positive one. I looked into the mechanics of the city – it’s industry and politics – and ended up asking myself, what’s the religion of the city? And it was football. Which led me to Purely Belter – the screen adaptation of The Season Ticket – watched it and instantly fell in love with the story. That led me to the novel and I just adored it. It was packed with such domestic poetry and beautiful metaphors, I felt like it painted Gateshead in a very truthful and authentic way. And you were the ideal person to translate that world onto stage.
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The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
Niek Versteeg - Gerry
Interview with Katie Posner (director) and Lee Mattinson (playwright, who has adapted the novel by Jonathan Tulloch)
The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
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WHO’S WHO Cast
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KATIE How has it felt working with me for the fourth time?
KATIE It’s really hard to answer that.
LEE It’s been an absolute joy, obviously.
I don’t think I have one. But I guess I have a real soft spot for Gerry. He’s just a really lovable lad – he’s cheeky and charming in equal measure and just as misunderstood.
We have a short-hand now since we’ve worked together so much and we really needed that with this process. Because we started with a whole novel of ideas, we needed to be able to quickly kill the right darlings. It was an almighty juggling act, which we managed to condense relatively quickly to the essence of the story we wanted to translate into theatre and onto a stage.
Growing up, you’re always told to conform in a certain way and you’re sometimes fighting against a system that’s already in place. But, if you don’t naturally fit into that, it can be tricky. Gerry just needs people to see the good in him and offer him the chance to shine. LEE Do you think it will resonate with a current audience but also lads like Gerry who could be sat in the audience? KATIE I really do. These lads are a prime example of the disenfranchised voices of today and are recognizable, particularly in a school environment. These young people are having to conform to a system, often unable to express themselves creatively, struggling to be the best they can in a world governed by academia.
LEE What do you want an audience to feel when they come and watch The Season Ticket? KATIE That’s what I was going to ask you. I want the audience to laugh, I want them to cry. This is a play that’s bursting with heart. LEE That’s a great line. KATIE I stole it from you. I want it to burst people’s hearts but, more importantly, I want audiences to have a really good night out. As much as the story is about two young lads whose dreams are locked firmly into the aspirations of a football team, it absolutely is a play about hope and friendship. To see that bond between two young lads is a recognizable and universal theme. LEE That’s true.
With you, if something’s rubbish, you’ll just tell me. KATIE It works both ways. If you don’t like one of my ideas, you’ll just say. LEE Always. Brutal but productive. KATIE And that’s really refreshing. I think I’d just taken that for granted. I hadn’t thought about how special that is. I’ve just thought, that’s what we do. LEE It is but we’ve had to earn that trust and economy of communication. Something that might take three months with another director, takes a text with you.
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The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
Young lads like Gerry and Sewell are super smart – maybe not book-smart – but clever lads, brimming with potential.
When you’re working with someone new, there’s always a honeymoon period during which you’re trying to judge the best way you can work together.
The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
LEE Thank you. Who’s your favourite character and why?
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LEE The scale. It’s the biggest stage I’ve written for. It feels epic. I’m used to writing plays set in one room with four characters within quite a short timeframe. But with The Season Ticket, it’s multi-location, fourteen characters and set over an entire football season. It’s an adaptation packed with big ideas on a big stage in front of a big audience – everything’s new. And I’m excited to see if we pull that off or not. What are you most looking forward to? KATIE To seeing such a talented cast bring the world of the play to life and seeing that on Stage One at Northern Stage. It’s an extraordinary space and I love that’s there’s not one bad seat in the whole auditorium. That’s really special. It lends itself perfectly to something epic and intimate at the same time. LEE I’m looking forward to us being invited to be the new Newcastle United mascots, once it drops.
LEE I am Maggie. Who are you hoping might come and see it from Newcastle United?
In a football match, it’s all about passing the ball in the same way that you’d pass the narrative on stage. It’s all about tactics. If something’s not working in the rehearsal room, you try something else. You’re always searching and exploring, which is exactly what happens in a football match if the games not going a certain way. What I’d quite like to do, which we don’t in theatre, is stand on the side whilst the show is on and shout notes from the wings. LEE I can’t imagine the cast would appreciate that. KATIE No. But it’s about teamwork and collaboration. LEE Theatre or football? KATIE Both. This play will only work and any match will only be won if everyone’s working together and have a common goal. For us, it’s to give the audience an absolute blinding night. For a football game, it’s to be the best that you can possibly be.
KATIE Alan Shearer. Standard. LEE What would you say to Alan Shearer, if you get to meet him? KATIE Hi, Alan, I think you’re great. LEE Is that it? KATIE Hi, Alan, you’re an extraordinary talent. LEE You’re the cherry on this city’s cake? KATIE Yes, I would say that. LEE Do you think there are any parallels between making theatre and playing football?
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The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
KATIE You’re Maggie and I’m Monty.
KATIE I think there’s so many.
The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
KATIE What are you most looking forward to about this production?
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What was your initial designing process for The Season Ticket? I started by reading the script and then discussing my ideas and thoughts with Katie. We were largely influenced by council estates, high-rise buildings and the pockets of lives that are sprung from this world. The play is slightly fragmented with many different characters and locations. This aided me to marry the ideas together creating a functional fragmented part of a council estate, where the story could open out to the audience much like an advent calendar.
What’s the biggest challenge of this play, for you? Getting everything required on the props/furniture list in the budget allocated
Where there any particular aspects of the story that inspired you? I really loved the relationship that Gerry and Sewell have. The perseverance to do whatever they could to get those tickets was really brilliant and fun. How did you become a designer? From a young age I was always involved with theatre, whether it was youth theatre or drama at school. I’ve always been creative and just decided to combine the both. I applied for a Foundation in Art and then went on to study Theatre Design at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. I knew clearly in my 3rd year that being a theatre designer was what I needed to pursue as a career. After graduating I applied for a trainee design position at the RSC not thinking I would ever get it, mainly because it’s so competitive. The job was essentially like paid work experience where I assisted some extremely inspiring theatre designers. I had moved to London and continued to assist anyone who would take me on and soon discovered myself designing my own shows. What advice would you give aspiring designers? You need to be willing to work extremely hard and be prepared to work for little to no money to begin with. Make sure that when you get asked to do a show, weigh up your options of what you will gain from designing it.
What’s the thing you love most about your job? Working with different people and getting to see a play created from nothing into a performance. Can you describe a day in the life of a stage manager during the rehearsal process? During rehearsals my day consists of researching and looking for props, which may be on the computer, or out and about in charity/junk shops. I also will visit rehearsals and deal with any requests that have been asked from the previous day. Also making sure everyone is okay, and any problems are dealt with. Was there any person, in school or when you were younger, who influenced what you do now? My drama teacher Terry Ram, she encouraged me whilst at school and helped me to become a Stage Manager Can you briefly describe what training you had for your job? 3 years at Guildhall School of Music and Drama studying Stage Management and Technical Theatre, after that you learn with each job you do! What advice would you give a young person wanting to work in theatre? Get involved, see what there is being offered. For me it was at school, as we did a lot of drama, but then there are also youth companies that are a good way to get into theatre. Don’t be shy about asking, and keep trying! What is the feeling you hope audiences will leave the theatre with after watching Season Ticket? That they enjoyed the show, and felt uplifted and moved by the performance.
What piece of advice do you wish you had been given when starting out? Find the time to take holidays even if it’s a weekend away, it will help you clear your design brain. What would be your equivalent to Gerry and Sewell’s “Season Ticket”? A seasonal plane ticket that allowed me to fly wherever I wanted to go on holiday.
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The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
Meet the Stage Manager: Ellie Pappworth The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
Interview with the Designer: Jean Chan
Rehearsal Shots
Workshop: A practical approach to adaptation
Gerry and Sewell are in pursuit of two season tickets but their search reaches further than the tickets themselves. They are looking for a shared experience, to feel part of a community and to take part in the rituals and roars of the crowd that bring people together; live, raw and exciting. At first glance the connections between seeing a play and watching a match seem to only extend to sitting together to watch something, but as you delve deeper into the stories told and the experiences shared, both on the field and on the stage, these potentially disparate places and experiences start to seem far more alike.
Points for discussion.
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by Lucy Hammond & Sam Johnson
Players of both stage and pitch are choreographed, positioned and guided in practices and rehearsals by directors and managers. They’re trained to take what they’ve learnt as a cast or team to the public, working to achieve something in front of an audience that will be moved to laugh, applaud and cry.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of a live football match and theatre performance is the shared experience of watching something together. In that moment on the pitch, or on stage, the crowd you are with is part of an exclusive club, the only people to see that unique performance, in person, at that moment. Each show has its individual quirks every night just as no two football games are ever the same. If, after a performance or a match, you like to sit and mull over the ups and downs, twists and turns of the stories played out on the stage and the field - you have become participants in the post-match analysis, whether it be for Newcastle United v Bristol City or Gerry and Sewell versus the world.
Points for discussion and activity, pre-show - In groups: list as many similarities as you can between football and theatre (think about players, managers and audiences). Then list all the differences you can think of. - A: How would you persuade a theatre-goer who has never been to football that they are going to enjoy themselves? - B: How would you persuade a football fan to come to the theatre? - In your groups, create a YouTube advert for A or B. - Show the class the YouTube advert for the show. You can find this at www.pilot-theatre.com/performance/current/the-season-ticket
- Can you think of any other plays which began as books? - Or plays which became films? - What can each medium achieve, which is unique to itself? - What would you look for in a piece of text, originally written for another medium, when adapting it for the theatre? Think about…. The novelist creates pictures with words in the mind of the reader: as a theatre maker, what techniques can you use to create an adaptation, which is both physically and visually exciting?
Over to you: Select a short story, or a novel, which you enjoy: - whose story is it? In other words, which character leads you through the narrative? - which other voices will you highlight? - when you’ve decided which characters you need, think about what images come to mind when you read the story. - create a series of stage pictures (still image/tableau/freeze frame) which show the key moments of your story. - from those stage moments, improvise the connecting action, but without words. - remember, it is what characters DO that is important. - show this version and get feedback from those watching, to see what was clear and what needed more language. Only put back in the language you are sure you need. - (A level) While you are devising, think about which practitioners’ work you can use to tell this story most effectively. Experiment with working non-naturalistically. Ask yourself, why is this uniquely a piece of theatre, rather than radio or TV?
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The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
As audiences, what we are watching may differ in many ways but how we watch can be very similar. Do you dress a certain way when you go to theatre? It might not be a striped scarf but it might be your decent shoes. Look forward to certain foods and drinks? It might not be a pie and pint but it might be that interval ice cream. When you leave, do you talk about what you’ve seen, what they did or didn’t do, what they should’ve done? Theatre and football have rituals and languages and they’re not always that different.
The Season Ticket was originally a novel: The Season Ticket by Jonathan Tulloch, then it became a film, Purely Belter, directed by Mark Herman.
The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
Featured Article: The Theatre of Football
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Here is a short exchange between Gerry and his friend Sewell, from the beginning of the play SEWELL
If I eat myself, would I turn inside out or disappear completely?
GERRY
You’d disappear completely, Sewell, how many times?
Speak the lines as they are and then continue the scene in your own words. Be accepting of the other actor’s ideas.
SEWELL
You want another shot on this?
After about 30 seconds to a minute, introduce a new character. Their entrance needs to change the atmosphere, and the dynamic between the existing characters.
GERRY
We’ve this here house to start robbing yet.
Run the improvisation through a second time, and then share it.
SEWELL
I feel a bit woozy, I reckon it might be off. You got owt to eat?
Invite those watching to freeze the action and hot-seat the characters to find out what they are thinking and what their intentions are in the scene.
SEWELL holds out a tin of WD-40.
GERRY hands SEWELL his crisps. SEWELL
Ready salted? I’m not on a diet, man, Gerry.
GERRY Just suck them this time and concentrate. Follow my lead and we’ll not go far wrong. Masks on for the lads, howay –
Rehearse and polish the scene, taking on board what you have learned from the hot-seating.
Make notes
What makes the story interesting dramatically? Are there any issues which you want to explore further or change? Who are the key characters in the story, and what do they want (in this scene or in life)?
Improvise further…
Once you have set the main scene, explore what happens before it and what would happen next. Play the scenes back, and explore as above. Often the first idea remains the strongest, so think about how to make these new scenes as vibrant as the first one you came up with.
Script
In devised work, do not script too quickly or you will lose the freshness and creativity of the piece. But at some point you will need to fix the structure and capture the language that has emerged. It is difficult to write by committee, so you could record the various versions of you improvisations, so that the language and movement can be captured.
Rehearse
Although you have made this up, it now needs to be treated like any scripted play and rehearsed. You will need to appoint a director whose ‘outside eye’ can support the elements of the production.
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The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
Pre show : If you haven’t seen the play, make a choice about where they are, what time of day it is, and where they have just come from. Post show: If you have seen the play you can either change the context/setting of the text by making your own decisions about time of day etc. or use the ones you saw but then introduce a new/different 3rd character to allow you to improvise away from the play.
The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
Workshop: Improvising from the text
Writing about the Performance (GCSE)
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What impression do you get entering the space? What size is it? How close is the audience to the action?
Language What kind of vocabulary is being used? Is it simple or complex? Natural or artificial? Do any words or phrases stay with you?
Physicality Think about how the characters move in the space in relation to the set, props and each other. What gestures do they use at different stages in the play and how do they change? How do the actors’ movements and energy change after certain events in the play?
Listen for changes in tone, pitch and volume. How does strong emotion change the tone or pitch of the actors’ voices? What level of vocal projection is needed in this theatre? What moments in the story use different levels of projection?
Visual/Aural/Spatial How does the set and the lighting create a sense of the places in which the story unfolds? What impression do the colours of the set and costumes give you? What impression do the textures of the set give you? What do you hear? Are you aware of sound, or does it act on your subconscious? What lighting effects are being used and what impression do they give? How do the visual and aural and spatial elements work together to communicate the themes and emotional effect of the piece?
Interpretation All the elements above are brought together by the director, Katie Posner, in her interpretation of the writer’s text. Read the interview with Katie and Lee. After seeing the show, do you feel she has been successful?
Use the GCSE page as a reminder of the detail you need to look out for while watching the play. Then develop your notes in more depth.
Acting Choose one character and make notes on how the actor created the role. Focus on: - vocal skill - physicality - relationship to the set and to other performers, and how this is achieved for example, by proxemics (definition: the amount of space that people put between themselves and others, and the meaning that creates). - relationship to the audience
Lighting Look at the lighting design (go on, really look at it. We often take lighting for granted, and barely notice the effect it’s having on us). Make notes on: - which areas of the stage are lit and why at certain moments. - the effects of light fading or becoming brighter (levels). - the use of colour in lighting. - any particular lighting effects (gobos, strobe etc). - notice how theatre lighting informs us about factual things, such as time of day or place, but also about emotion, atmosphere and the narrative of the story itself.
Direction The director’s role is to enable the rest of the creative team, the actors, and the production team to work together to best fulfil the intentions of the text. In the interview with Katie Posner, the director, and Lee Mattinson, who adapted the book, Katie says: “As much as the story is about two young lads whose dreams are locked firmly into the aspirations of a football team, it absolutely is a play about hope and friendship.” - how effective is the overall production in articulating these themes? - what moments specifically can you use as examples to support your answer? - what else did the play make you think about or feel?
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The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
Voice
An approach to creating A level notes
The Season Ticket Education Resource Pack
First Impressions
Writing about Live Theatre
Tour Venues and Dates Northern Stage 23rd Sept - 8th Oct 2016 northernstage.co.uk York Theatre Royal 12th Oct - 15th Oct 2016 yorktheatreroyal.co.uk Theatre Royal Winchester 20th Oct - 22nd Oct 2016 theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk Dundee Rep 25th Oct - 27th Oct 2016 dundeerep.co.uk
#seasonticket
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