1975

The Best Beloved and I married on 23rd August 1975 (Our Kid was my Best Man – you see, I said I would try to keep his interest in reading my blog). We had two days at a bed and breakfast in the Cotswolds for our honeymoon. On the first Thursday in September 1975, after three years’ membership and at the tender age of 28, I became the Bench Chairman. My tenure lasted three years until the arrival of the Firstborn in August 1978.

Ingrid and I had first met as members of the Langstone Children’s Theatre Company. This was the brainchild of Tim Mahoney, who as I have explained in previous "Notes from the Green Room", was to all intents and purposes the artistic director of the Bench in everything but title. It was he who laid down the way we approach plays and the sorts of plays we believe we should be doing. The professional attitude the Bench has towards the production of plays began with Tim.

Another aspect of Tim was his socialism. He believed that if people wouldn’t or couldn’t come to the theatre, then theatre was obliged to go to them. Tim taught at what was then Broomfield Secondary School as a Craft Teacher. He believed that Leigh Park was a cause worth working for. To this end, he established the Langstone Children’s Theatre (although I must confess I don’t really know where that name came from and it always struck me as being a bit out of place).

The LCT was a semi-professional group and was manned by drama teachers in the area. Tim would listen on the grapevine for new ones arriving each academic year. There was a big turnover of such and Tim would be there to greet them and invite them to join the LCT. In fact he wouldn’t go away until you had agreed!

I was considered good recruitment material, having turned up for a part in Tim’s Bench production of “The Entertainer”. The rare exception to Tim’s recruiting drive was Mike Arbour, the Havant College Drama Tutor. This was a source of some personal annoyance to Tim as he could see the potential that the College could offer the Bench. This state of affairs was soon to be rectified to the satisfaction of Tim, but I mustn’t run ahead of my narrative.

Anyway, Langstone Children’s Theatre and its company of drama teachers would rehearse productions for taking around and performing in Leigh Park primary schools. We were at that time mainly secondary schoolteachers so primary schools in themselves were a refreshing experience for us all. Tim would make bookings with the schools and we would turn up at the end of a school day to perform to a class, a section or even sometimes the entire school. Those were the days when teachers could get away at 3.30 p.m.

The connection between LCT and the Bench, in the main embodied by the person of Tim Mahoney, has meant that the academic year and teachers have helped create some of the Bench traditions such as the dark that is August. Langstone Children’s Theatre’s next artistic director was Alan Lines, who offered me a room to live in at Netherfield Close, which was populated mostly by the LCT company, including one Ingrid Caddy. I am sure you can join the dots yourself to arrive at the event with which I began above. Interestingly enough, the third and final artistic director of the Langstone Children’s theatre was…….. but that is the subject of the next “Notes from the Green Room”.
The following productions were those presented under my chairmanship. Bold font indicates where I was personally involved as actor or director.

The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov (October 1975)
A Delicate Balance, Edward Albee (March 1976)
Andorra, Max Fri sch (May 1976)
All Things Bright and Beautiful, Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall (October 1976)

The production of “As You Like It” in 1977 will be the subject of my next edition of the “Notes from the Green Room”.
As You Like It, William Shakespeare (February 1977)
Tonight at 830, Noel Coward (June 1977)
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Peter Nichols (October 1977)

Looking even further ahead, November 1977 marks the date when we did the first Bench production, and indeed the first ever production of any kind was staged, at the Havant Arts Centre. I will devote another “Notes from the Green Room” to this aspect of Bench history.

Habeas Corpus, Alan Bennett (Nov 1977)
A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare (March 1978)
The Philanthropist, Christopher Hampton (May 1978)
The Sea, Edward Bond (July 1978)

It was at this stage we became a family with the arrival of the Firstborn in August 1978. The Kitten arrived in December 1979. I decided professionally to upgrade my Teaching Certificate to a degree whilst still working full time as a teacher. It was tough for the next three years but we never lost contact with the Bench and our girls became Bench babies.