Production notes for "Crossroad Blues"
Welcome to Crossroad Blues.
I first came into contact with James Vollmar when he sent me a copy of his play Tide of Faces, which explored the possible scenario behind the scarring of the painted faces on the Screen of St Edmund’s Church, Southwold. The cast size was too large for Eastern Angles, but I subsequently worked with him on a staged reading at the Maddermarket Theatre.
For those Norwich rehearsal days Jim stayed at my house and we soon discovered a similar taste for blues and country music and talked about the common roots of each, in the American South, and their polarity of colour, black music and white music. At some point Jim pointed to the similarities between the Delta of the American South and our own Fens and asked whether there was scope here for a play. I can’t remember when we got on to the subject of the gibbet at the crossroads of the A45 and the A1198 at Caxton, but by then we had decided there was the germ of an idea here.
When Jim returned with a first draft, Nick’s diner had moved further north than Caxton, nearer the outskirts of the Peterborough ring road and more firmly within the Fens proper, but it offered a blend of landscape and character that seemed to explore many new avenues for us. We worked on the script over the year developing the ideas, including a staged reading last summer as part of the Playwrights East Writers Week at the Maddermarket Theatre. As always many people have helped shape the final version that you will see, not least the five actors, Stephen Jempeji, Ivy Omere, David Redgrave, Jules Davison and Glyn Dilley, who gave that staged reading in Norwich. Their input was extremely valuable and thanks must go to them.
In the autumn we are presenting our story of the great Tithe War rebellions of the thirties. If you have or know of anyone else who has memories of those protests, do let me know. I am in the middle of researching it right now!
Our next immediate project is the purchase of the mobile seating units that you may have witnessed on our Margaret Catchpole, Days of Plenty or Message from Neptune tours, or even at The Wuffings. We now have a lottery grant of £95,000 to purchase them, plus a truck and computerised box-office. We have an appeal running to help us raise the matching money, £14,000, to make this a reality. And we are 75% of the way there already. If you want to help give us a final push, just ask our Front of House Manager or our Stage Manager and they will give you our Appeal details. With this equipment we will truly be able to fit the company up for the twenty-first century.
Finally, Eastern Angles is about to enter its 20th year. In just over two years time we will be celebrating our 21st birthday. We are looking at our back catalogue and trying to work out which shows we should think about visiting again. If you have any suggestions, why don’t you drop me a line, either by post or via e-mail ivan@easternangles.co.uk.
Ivan Cutting -Artistic Director