Paul
M S Hopkins tells the Moot House Players' story
Harlow New Town set out to be a community, not just a
housing estate. The Development Corporation encouraged the formation of
community associations, the first of which was given the former Latton
Vicarage, next to The Stow shopping centre, as its headquarters, renamed Moot
House. A 'temporary' hall was built beside the stable block.
Maurice Bartell, a corporation employee, brought a
group of actors who were associated with Netteswell and Burnt Mill Women's
Institute to stage the first play in the hall. The CA invited him to form a
drama section and, in January 1954, the new section took to the boards of a
specially extended Moot Hall stage as the Moot House Players.
The Harlow Citizen, itself a new newspaper for a new
town, welcomed their debut.
"The Players have set a standard with
their first production which they will find hard to better. No-one could have
failed to enjoy their presentation of 'Bats In the Belfry'...and those who saw
it will surely be looking forward to their next show. The producer, Maurice
Bartell, who is no stranger to local audiences, is to be congratulated on
welding his team into a slick, confident combination."
The combination was confident enough to announce
titles and dates of the next two productions, reported in the last paragraph of
the review. Both plays were performed, though a triple bill was inserted
between them.
CA warden Sewell Harris and ex-professional actress
Bertha Sweeney helped Maurice Bartell in directing the first plays. When Jack
-and Yvonne Mitchley moved to a house only some 200 yards from the hall it was
perhaps inevitable that they should join the rota of directors.
Jack Mitchley had been involved in amateur drama for
23 years, acting at the Maddermarket Theatre,
Maurice Bartell retired because of ill-health after
one more production and since then the Mitchleys have held the artistic reins
continuously.
Jack Mitchley pioneered centre staging in
Moot Hall's proscenium stage, with its awkward-toerect
extension, wasn't going to satisfy Jack and his co-directors for long. For
'Twelfth Night' an Elizabethan thrust stage was erected. There were only token
side seats, but a gorgeous renaissance stage backing with two doors for Orsino
and Olivia was painted by Henry Burke (who, by the way, in 1993 .is building a
new playhouse in Norwich - the Harlow/Norwich connection continues!)
For the Chinese play 'Lady Precious Stream' the floor
was used, with the stage providing a higher level forentrances. In Goldoni's
'The Servant of Two Masters' the action was confined to the stage' - but what a
stage! Wings sliding in grooves and back-scenes which split in the middle
showed how such plays would have been staged in the 18th century, with lovely
transformations before the audience's eyes. The scenery was designed and
painted by Gordon and Bettina Hewlett, whose visual flair added immensely to
many Moot Hall productions.
Full arena was used for Peter Ustinov's drama in which
Jack, Gordon Hewlett and I (all young then!) played exiled Russian ballet
dancers, generals and admirals, all of great age. It involved putting some of
the audience on seats on the front of the stage, against which was placed a
realistic fireplace, so that the spectators seemed to be sitting on the
mantelpiece.
It might have been thought the Players had exhausted
ways of transforming Moot Hall and staging plays during this first flurry of
productions. But many variations were found in later years, including in the
1980s 'Larkrise' as a promenade production and the building of 'mansions' around
the hall, between which the action moved in medieaval style, for Roger
Parsley's play 'The Mousehold Man'. This was a new play, one of 16 given their
premieres in Moot Hall. The first was 'That Man Gently', adapted by an American
writer from the detective novel by Alan Hunter and set (naturally) in
Several have been written with a family audience in
mind, to be staged around Christmas, and one, 'Robin Hood', was not written at
all but improvised by the cast, so that each performance was slightly different.
Chinese and Italian plays have already been mentioned.
The company also staged a dozen plays, in new translations from other
languages, including Norwegian. The Players formed a link with
Jack Mitchley directed
Norwegian and Danish plays were translated for the
Player s by Inger Collins, a Danish-born
Besides Shakespeare and Chekhov, the authors most
performed by the company have been Noel Coward (8 plays plus one revival),
Peter Shaffer and Bernard Shaw (6), Harold Pinter (5+1), Moliere (5),
Christopher Fry (4+2), Jean Anouilh, Alan Ayckbourn, Ben Jonson, John Mortimer
and Roger Parsley (4).
The Moot House Players have not confined their activities
to Moot Hall. Besides staging Shakespeare in
In 1971 the Players had the opportunity to move from
Moot Hall to the Playhouse, where both the main stage and the studio were
available for use by local amateur groups. But it was decided to remain at The
Stow and as a touring group. In the week of the Playhouse's opening, indeed,
the Players were in Chelmsford, giving a world premiere of 'Jonah', a
specially-commissioned play by David Campton in which the lead was played by
the professional actor Richard Carpenter.
Some Moot Hall productions have transferred to the
Playhouse, notably the farce 'Tons of Money', which was given on the main
stage, and Brian Clark's 'Whose Life Is It Anyway?' and 'The Petition' in the
studio. Brian Clark, then a local schoolteacher, acted for the Players and
directed a memorable 'Wild Duck' in 1960 before going on to make a career as a
playwright. He came back to see the group's version of 'Whose Life Is It
Anyway?', which had been staged in
And at a moment of crisis he remembered all he had
learnt in Moot Hall and gave permission for Jack and Yvonne to give the amateur
premiere of 'The Petition', again coming to see his old mentors.
The crisis was a fire at Moot House. On the dress
rehearsal night of 'Hamlet' the main staircase of the house went up in flames.
The hall was not affected, but the Players' £10,000-worth of furniture and
properties, stored in the attics, were destroyed. Hundreds of costumes on racks
in the cellars were drenched in water. Fortunately, all the armour was in Moot
Hall, ready for use in 'Hamlet ', as were almost al l the costumes for the
play. One cloak was needed and was rescued (very damp) from the cellar,
enabling the play to go ahead.
An emergency grant from Harlow Arts Council helped to
pay for the costumes to be cleaned and storage was provided in a rehearsal room
leased by the Arts Council from Harlow District Council. But the company still
faced replacing the furniture and properties.
Ian Beckett organised a 24-hour Shakespeare 'read-in'
at Blackbush Spring Common Room, a long- time Players' rehearsal space, which
raised £1,500 from sponsors. It also involved many current and past Players,
boosting morale at a low point and confirming that the company would fightback.
All the Shakespeares which the company had staged over
the previous 30 years except 'Hamlet' were read in the 24 hours.
Blackbush Spring was also first home of the Players'
drama class, later held in Moot Hall on most Mondays, at which younger members
can improve their voice and movement and practice improvisation. A new home is
being sought to enable this valuable part of the company's activities to
continue now that Moot Hall is not so readily available because of other CA
activities.
When
Since 1957 there has been a rule that new directors should
show what they are capable of by undertaking a one-act play. This has not
always been possible, but Jack points out that he began with Fry's ‘
The 'Full of Joys' Music Hall Company - the Players in
another guise - has given hundreds of performances. Recital programmes have
included 'The Essex Hundreds', compiled by Charles Hill and recorded on two LPs
(excerpts from the company's productions have also been broadcast and filmed).
Some 30 semi-staged Sunday night shows at Moot Hall
have given the company a chance to experiment with offbeat material, untried
talent, and plays too expensive to stage fully, such as 'Journey's End', which
would have involved a heavy bill for First World War uniforms. Some of these
evenings have taken the form of period banquets - medieval , Elizabethan,
Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian.
With five major productions a year, a, touring programme
and one-night special shows, the Players have given many hundreds of actors a
platform. Some have gone on to more illustrious stages, including Donald Burton
and Don Henderson, who graduated to the Royal Shakespeare Company, the West
End, films and TV stardom after treading the boards in Harlow; Susan Carpenter,
Janet Nelson, Deborah Norton, Peter Spraggon, Stephanie de Sykes and George
Tarry are others . Many more people have contributed as musicians (from
guitarist for Lorca's 'Blood Wedding' to full orchestra for Coward's 'Cowardly
Custard'), front of house staff and erectors and clearers-away of the stepped
seating blocks which have made the 'temporary' Moot Hall into a practical
theatre for 200 productions over 40 years.
Jack Mitchley lists alphabetically the technicians
upon whom he has relied:
Design
Ken Collins, Mandy Dymond, Anita Flateau, Bob Gale,
Brian Hart, Gordon and Bettina Hewlett, Paul Regeli, Harold Tiktin;
Stage management
Peter Banyard, Ian Beckett, Tony Edwards, Robin
Harcourt, Gordon Hewlett, James Spall, Peter Spraggon, Roger Williamson;
Sound and Electrics
Michael Branwell, Barry Clouting, Chris Driver, Harry
& Gladys Edwards, John
Hadler, Reuben Smith;
Props
Mick Caswell , Mandy Dymond, Ted Kindler , Jack
Mitchley, George Tarry, Roger Williamson;
Costume
Henrietta Branwell, Rosemary Caswell, Laws.
But the Players' story goes back further than Jack, to
FINAL
WORDS...
by
Players past and present
Gordon Hewlett, former manager,
When Maurice Bartell asked me if I had any paint for
scenery I didn't know what was to follow. The next week he asked me to come
along and meet the new county drama adviser and we met Jack and Yvonne Mitchley
for the first time. That was in 1956. As a result, for the next 15 years my
involvement in amateur theatre and the Players in particular was all-consuming.
The settings for 'Arms and the Man', the first show
Bettina and I designed, were not spectacular, but they did achieve a first for
Moot Hall - they were painted and not covered in wallpaper!
The play was done proscenium. By 1959 ideas had
expanded and for 'Hamlet' the walls and ceiling of the whole hall were draped
in black velvet, surrounding a raked auditorium. Looking back, one wonders how
we managed to fit it all in. I was very much an apprentice stage carpenter, but
I learnt an awful lot from 'Swifty' (John Terry), the professional who provided
most of the rostra, drapes and props for early productions.
It was a time of great enthusiasm. Sound was usually
done live, the town being searched for trumpeters to play fanfares. Let us hope
that future generations of Moot House Players will succeed in reaching the
peaks we scaled in the 50's. I'm sure they will.
Charles Hill, playwright, translator, actor:
In 1959 I became another in a succession of displaced
young men Jack and Yvonne took under their wing. I was one of those who came to
Jack has had a particular vision of the amateur
theatre and an inspiring one, too.
But he couldn't describe it for you and I can't do it
-for him. I can only reach for the word culture. Artistic director is a very
misleading title because he has presided rather than ruled. He is a dedicated
artist and a teacher.
Roger Parsley, drama teacher and playwright:
I, together with several hundred others, have
reason to be grateful to Jack and Yvonne and the Moot House Players - for the
Monday class, the 'Merely Players' evenings, the multifarious staging
techniques employed, the chance to work on major classics, the opportunities
given to new writers (the only way a writer for the theatre can begin to
develop his craft is to see his work performed in front of an audience) and for
many wise words and subtle nudges.
Don Henderson and Donald Burton, professional
actors:
It was the Moot House Players who provided the high
professional standards, the excitement and love of theatre, and the experience
and encouragement which led so many members to enter the profession as actors,
teachers, theatrical managers, playwrights, agents and personal
managers...Congratulations on reaching 200 productions. May you mount at least
200 more.
Though this occasion is primarily and properly a
celebration of the excellent Moot House Players, and Jack's time with them, it
is important also to remember what he did in a wider context. In 1993
productions on all kinds of 'open' stages are taken for granted; Jack was
advocating and demonstrating these techniques long before anything existed in
Stoke on