Michael Green’s The Art of Course Acting is a very funny book - and a very worrying one, because it is frightenly accurate in describing an amateur dramatic company. Thirty two years ago when I joined the SSC it was even funnier because we were much more like the company he describes than we are now.

I was in a production called The Scottish Play (which I have since found out is really called Macbeth). Nearly every thing in the book applied to that production, even down to the hessian costumes that brought me out in a rash. The Company was very different back then. Half the actors thought they were Laurence Olivier, and it seemed the norm for the actresses to be extra emotional and refuse to go on at every opportunity. Make up (Five and Nine being the favourite greasepaint colours) was used by everyone. If you were playing someone over 35 you painted lines all over your face. The result of this was that instead of looking old, under the lights you looked like someone with lines painted all over their face. Each production threatened to be the last because all the Company’s meager bank balance was risked with each production. Yet somehow it survived and, due to the influence and hard work of many people over the years, it has grown into what it is today.

The SSC has always been courageous, and the idea of "Angels rushing in" springs to mind. It is this sense of risk and adventure that attracts most of us to this Company rather than another. We are richer now: there is a sizable bank balance and that enables us to take bigger chances, and means that financial gain is not the be all and end all. From time to time we can have a go at plays that might be considered bad box office. We have a more regular audience, and even the bad box office plays recently have proved the audience will still turn out to see them in good numbers. Very often it’s a seldom-done Shakespeare, or an obscure old play no one’s ever heard of, that pleasantly surprises the audience. A more serious approach has developed, with the Company members keen to put on high quality creative drama.

One thing from The Art of Course Acting that is still apparent in the SSC is the idea that "in retrospect every production is a success". This of course cannot be true: not every production is a success - but it is an achievement due to the sheer effort put in by all concerned. However, no matter how far short a production falls, it is a fact that it moves into Company history as a success, so we seldom discuss what went wrong and try to put it right for the next time.

How do we get a sensible idea of how good a production is?. From the audience?

Some months ago I got into a taxi in Southend and the driver said "I know you from somewhere, haven’t I seen you at the Palace Theatre"?

"Could be", I replied, "I’m there from time to time with the Southend Shakespeare Company."

"That’s it", he said! "I go to all their productions - that Comedy of Errors was really good, I liked that".

With just the right degree of false modesty I said, "Well, actually, I directed it".

"Oh", he said, "that was a smashing production. But my all time favorite, in fact the best thing I have ever seen on a stage was the ****** *******".

My moment of fame and glory had been short lived. The production he had named was the worst, the direst production we have ever put on stage. (No I’m not going to name it, even though it was ages ago and the director and cast are no longer with the Company - but just in case a young ASM is still with us, and the mere mention of it might bring back horrific memories, I'll leave it back in the dark ages of the Company where it belongs). Suffice to say it was badly conceived, badly directed, badly acted, unbearably boring, and as entertaining as a boil up the nose.

Why am I telling you all this? Because it is a good example of the audience being unreliable witnesses. Just because they are happy doesn’t prove a production was good. Every production seems to produce someone in the audience who thinks it’s the best thing they have ever seen - and we are happy to believe them.

So perhaps we should look for a professional opinion from drama critics in the local papers?

LAW 10 OF COURSE ACTING: "All critics are wrong, but those who praise the actors have had a flash of lucidity"

For many years we were reviewed by the local drama critics in the Evening Echo and the Southend Standard. When they praised us we loved it. And when (more often than not) they tore us apart we didn’t believe them and were outraged. And when all's said and done, who's to say their opinion is more valuable than any other audience member? They're not especially knowledgeable or fair minded, and we shouldn’t have taken any notice of them whatever they thought.

So from where can we obtain a good and useful opinion? I’m sure we all have someone whose judgment we trust and who will be honest about it, but at the end of the day we must do it ourselves.

Some companies have post mortems (unfortunate phrase!) after each production, where they meet and discuss the failings of their efforts. This is a dangerous route to take: none of us want to be told we were "pants". This line of action leads to arguments, resignations and a whole lot more discord than you started with. What we must do is be honest with ourselves, take off the rose coloured glasses, and look at the productions in the cold light of day - preferably a day well after the play is over.

The Director could start by admitting which bits of the production didn’t live up to their expectations; and the actors know how they felt with their performances, where they went wrong and what just never worked. Then we could look at the production from another way: on the basis, as I’ve said many times, that every production could have been better and is never really finished.

So we could ask ourselves just how it could have been improved, and what we could have done differently to have achieved it. This way, painful though it might be, would hopefully avoid the same mistakes the next time. I am sure that until we are honest with ourselves we will not solve our shortcomings.

---

That, then, in a rather large nutshell, is my view of the Company and how we can make it better. In all the time I’ve been in the SSC we have never stopped and taken a look at what we do, thought about where we are, where we want to be, and how we can get there.

So I think to do just that now would be no bad thing. The SSC has always been an exciting Company to belong to. Over the years it has continued to attract members who want to perform difficult classical plays, taking our efforts and ambitions beyond the aspirations of the average amateur group. Amateur we may be, but we have a professional and serious approach. But that doesn’t mean we do not have much to learn regarding our craft. The whole object of this tirade has been to promote reform not retribution. If I have ruffled a few feathers along the way that’s a pity, as the intension was to make us think more carefully about what we do and how we operate, and I hope it promotes discussions and arguments (hopefully non-violent) long into the future.

Starting right here in the Conversations Section, and then continuing at the next Workshop, in the pub after rehearsal, and at other Company events - Webmaster

The SSC is not a "drama school", but in all my time in it there has been little chance to learn how to direct or how to act, except by trial and error, and imitation of others within the Company - most of whom have acquired their knowledge and skills in the same way. As a result many of us have learnt bad habits and methods which stop us realizing our full potential.

The recent excellent Theatre Workshop evening with Gail Sixsmith opened up new horizons to us and I understand there will be more of these evenings soon, exploring other aspects of theatre. I urge the whole company to come along, and open up their minds to new ideas and ways of acting and directing.

Inspiration is what happens when you temporarily loosen the grip on all your most firmly-held convictions. I can’t give you a magic list of things to do that will guarantee successful productions, but I can give you a list of things to do that will guarantee dismal failures.

So therefore ...

Is it time to act?

It’s really up to you.

Michael Clements