Screams echo through corridors. A forest echoes with the sound of gunfire. At Claire’s choir rehearsal, something terrible happens.
David Greig’s daring new play asks how far forgiveness will stretch in the face of atrocity. Featuring local choirs and a soaring soundtrack, The Events tells of tragedy, obsession and our destructive desire to fathom the unfathomable.
Claire, a priest, is a left-leaning community worker dealing with immigrants and community integration. One of the things she does to promote this is run a choir that anyone can join. A boy comes to the choir but doesn’t join in. She thinks nothing of it, everyone is welcome. When he comes back, he pulls out a gun and starts firing at people.
Shocked and bereft, Claire starts to seek out how someone could do such a terrible thing – a quest for understanding that tears her own life apart. It is a play about community healing, the limits of empathy, and how to move on if you have been involved in something truly life changing.
The Events is a brand new play by renowned Scottish writer, David Greig. Commissioned by Actors Touring Company and directed by its artistic director Ramin Grey, this is a major new work exploring themes of community and its ability to adjust. Featuring a local community choir at every performance, this is a play with music rather than a musical itself.
The production will premiere at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh during the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe before touring around the UK.
Production Credits:
WriterDavid Greig
Director Ramin Gray
Composer John Browne
Designer Chloe Lamford
Lighting Charles Balfour
SoundAlex Caplen
Produced for Actors Touring Company by Nick Williams
The Events was commissioned by Actors Touring Company and Drammatikkenshus, Oslo.
Actors Touring Company
ATC presents the best in international contemporary theatre. We tell stories from different perspectives on the world through the theatre, finding and translating the best international drama from around the world, commissioning the most exciting writers, and collaborating with some of the finest artists in world theatre. Recent productions have included The Golden Dragon by Roland Schimmelpfennig (English language premiere, and UK and International tour playing for 110 performances on three continents), the first major revival of Sarah Kane’s Crave, the UK premiere of Illusions by Ivan Viripaev and the world premiere production of the first stage adaptation of Jung Chang’s Wild Swans.
Future projects include a trio of Russian plays exploring the immigrant world of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, commissioned and developed by the company; a dance/theatre hybrid made collaboratively with Hofesh Shechtar and Simon Stephens; a new play from Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour which will be our first ever digital production as well as productions of major works from the very best international writers.
Community Choir Programme
The production features a new community choir at each performance. They play the choir, the community, and a Greek Chorus – questioning Claire’s actions and warning her about her destructive pathway. The Events is a daring and ambitious project. ATC, in partnership with their tour venues, will meet the challenge of finding a different choir for every night the play is performed.
Every choir taking part in the project will be unique and each will have their own individual style. Although the choirs we work with will be incredibly varied (in size, in gender split, in repertoire, in age range etc.) all will be united through their love for singing! Willing to be a part of something extraordinary, bringing with them that community spirit that is found within all choirs.
In total we expect to work with over eighty choirs, approximately two thousand singers at ten different locations around the UK – and we want your choir to a part of this incredibly exciting project…
What we are looking for
We are looking for committed, enthusiastic and dedicated choirs who will view this project as an exciting opportunity for all its members. The Events is a ground breaking piece of theatre and it asks much of the choir who is central to the performance.
We hope the choirs we work with will rise to this challenge and fully engage with the content of the play, the cast members and audience. We would like to work with choirs who will embark with us on this journey of exploration and help shape the unique theatrical event which will be The Events.
A few requirements
- The choir size can range between 17 and 30 people. Larger choirs may wish to put forward a smaller group as a representative
- Members of the choir must be over the age of 16
- The choir will need to have been together for a minimum of three months
- The choir will need to have a vocal leader who will champion and lead on learning of material
- The choir will need to commit to the performance date at least two months prior to performance date
- The choir will need to commit to at least 6-8 weeks of rehearsal time. This can of course be combined with the choir’s weekly rehearsals for other performances. It is thought 20 minutes additional learning over 6-8 weeks will suffice
- The choir will need to nominate a group contact leader (perhaps a Choir Secretary) who will liaise with ATC and the venue regarding any choir concerns and questions
- Choir members will need to agree to being filmed and photographed
- The Choir will be asked to take part in ATC’s evaluation process
Preparation
The Music
There are six new songs written by Composer John Browne for which we have full scores for each. John has written the pieces with every standard and style of choir in mind and hopes to have presented work which will be representative of all the choirs we work with. Please also see John’s notes for choirs which provides you with more detailed thoughts on each piece.
Recordings
We have full recordings of each of the songs – with full choir, broken down part by part and with just piano. We can send these to you as soundfiles or we can prepare CDs and sent them to you.
Choir’s own song
We ask that the choir also prepare one song from their own repertoire which will feature at the start of the show. This song should be bright and bold, offering a strong sense of your choir’s identity – a real signature tune. It should be typical of the work you usually perform and a good way of introducing the choir to the audience at the start of the play. We ask that you send the Choirs Coordinator for The Events the sheet music for this (if accompanied) as soon as possible in order for the show’s pianist to prepare.
If possible, we would like the Choir’s own song to be able to be sung off book as it enables the audience to connect with the choir a little bit more. However, if the choir feels uncomfortable with this then we can simply slip your choir’s sheet music into the choir folders (which we will provide).
We also ask that the MD chooses a choir member who will be happy to hum a solo lullaby on stage as one of the actors talks. This can be any song of your choice but we would like it to be plaintive and soft.
The rehearsal process
The rehearsal process for the music for The Events can be flexible to suit each choir and their timeframe. It can be learnt on a weekly basis as an addition to the choir’s regular, in a week long workshop session with two hours a day or perhaps over an intensive workshop weekend. We have worked with choirs in each of these ways and they have each learnt the music effectively.
The choir’s MD
The choir’s MD will play a very integral role in the rehearsal process and on stage. We ask that the MD not only prepare the choir ready for performance but that they encourage debate about the play and its themes and that they reassure the choir as they always do. On stage we would like the choir’s MD to conduct the first song and then to join the choir on stage to sing with the choir for the duration of the performance.
Preparation during Performance week
Super Mondays
Every Monday throughout Edinburgh and on tour ATC host a Super Monday where we invite all the choirs who are performing during the week to join us for a choir rehearsal. This will be a brilliant opportunity for you to meet other choirs who will be performing and the key Artistic Staff who will guide you through the week right up to when you walk on stage! This is a three hour rehearsal and you will work with one of our fantastic Vocal Animateur’s who will go through all the songs in detail, our brilliant Assistant Director Polina who will guide you through the context of the play, introduce you to the running order and discuss some of the staging. You will also meet one of our incredible pianists who will be accompanying you on your performance night and they are on stage with you for the whole time as well guiding you through the plays. These rehearsals are when we really start to shape the music and really begin to learn more about each of the choir’s we will be working with – they’re really exciting and it’s very important that every choir member who will be onstage attends the rehearsal.
The evening of the performance
We will call the choir 90 minutes before the adverstised performance time. We appreciate many choir members are coming from work, busy family lives, studying etc and we want this to a fantastic experience for everyone involved – but we do have a lot to cover so we must be prompt and start on time. We ask everyone is ready to start rehearsing at the call time so we suggest the choir is called as a group by their MD 15 minutes before to freshen up, catch up and grab a drink etc.
The Artistic team you met on the Super Monday will lead this pre-show rehearsal and run throughthe music in order and introduce you to the Choir’s Order of Service. The Order of Service is a booklet which contains all of the choir’s cues, scores and spoken moments which will you can refer to throughout the whole performance.
The Choir will then meet Jess Banks, our Company Stage Manager, and she will talk you through the set and all H&S measures, including the fire evacuation procedure for the theatre.
We will then have a quick 5 minute break…and then it is showtime!
Other Essential Information
- The play is 90 minutes long (with no interval)
- The choir have been designed a special rostra (please see photos at end of document) and they will be seated on this when not singing
- Please dress for performance as you would normally dress for a choir rehearsal
- Please wear flat, comfortable shoes and we advise shin/long skirts are preferable to short skirts due to the design of the rostra
- Water can be taken on stage in a small bottle with a lid
- Please note the music you will be reading from will be a ready made booklet and you will only be able to add in the music/words for your score. These booklets will be used again so we ask that you don’t annotate them in anyway.
Notes on Choir Music by Composer John Browne
At the centre of this story is a priest with a strong community agenda called Claire. She leads a multi-cultural choir which is attacked by a lone gunman killing several members and these "Events" trigger a spiritual crisis for her, igniting an intense quest for meaning. One way Claire has for coming to terms with what happened is to lead a series of rehearsals with her choir of specially chosen music to aid the healing process. The songs in this play relate to those rehearsals and chart Claire’s journey towards understanding while referring to a whole range of spiritual music: traditional Christian hymns; contemporary spiritual minimalism; rave music (representing the spiritual experience that some people experience in the dance tent at Glastonbury); "Om"; improvised keening; monkey chanting (related to Hinduism); and, gospel music.
GENERAL NOTES ON PERFORMANCE
The first song your choir will sing will be outside the story and should be characteristic of what your choir typically sings but after that we're encouraging you to be more flexible stylistically.
Because this is a theatre piece and therefore dependent on shifts of pace and energy it's important to get tempi right and to adhere to the dynamic markings.
We anticipate that all choirs will perform most of the music without scores. The exceptions might be their own song, How Great Thou Art, and We’re All Here.
Your choir may need to modify the music in order to fit your particular needs. Please feel free to do this and if you need help, advice, a key changed, or a bespoke arrangement, then please get in touch and we’ll figure it out with you.
THE NORWEGIAN COFFEE SONG
We are entering a dark, complex story and so this is a bit of lightness andjoy before all that. This is a playful warm-up song, an innocent folk song led by Claire.
Performance Notes:
- The piano plays an introduction which is one full round of the tune (with the tune in the right hand and the full piano accompaniment played by the left hand).
- The calls ("En kopp til") vary in mood and the responses ("Ya tak") should follow suit.
- Focus on the dotted rhythms and pulse.
- Claire will lead you in with "Ready and... "
- The pianist will alternate stomps and claps to a quaver rhythm under the call and responses.
- If possible, a volunteer from the choir should add a semiquaver thigh slapping rhythm over these stomps and claps.
- The song gets faster each time. It should start at a tempo that's not too fast so there's somewhere to go. The last time should be so fast that it’s almost impossible to get the words out.
Notes on score: Thestructureof the pieceis slightly different from the score. It will be performed four times. The second time the choir perform the calls and Claire responds. The third time will be one half of the choir calling and the other half responding.
SOUL
This underscores a scene in which Claire discusses a deep sense of spiritual loss.
Performance Notes:
- This should be very still.
- The crescendos should be subtle.
- The sound should be magical/ethereal.
- There should be no sense of pulse.
Notes on score: Cut the fermata on the second piano chord and move swiftly through to the next chord.NB the piano chord under the word soul is repeated, so we hear the D minor and A minor at the same time.
BONKERS
Claire is attempting to get inside the head of the perpetrator by having her choir perform his favourite song. Dizzee Rascal’s lyrics could equally apply to her.
Performance Notes:
- Foot stomps are important to the life of this arrangement and should be with the heel only.
- With the exception of the opening beat-boxing this arrangement should not be performed as a pop song but should be more “high art”. Think Arvo Part or even Bach.
- It should be very emphatic indicating an intense yearning for meaning.
- The "Ee's" should imitate Dizzee and have a witchy quality.
- The left hand of the piano should be heavier than the right.
- It will help to keep the off-beat “ts” steady if the singers indicate the rhythm using their hands (a karate style chop with right hand into left hand palm works best).
Notes on score:
The “Boom” should last 4 beats instead of 2.
HOW GREAT THOU ART
Claire seeks comfort in an old familiar hymn but has difficulty connecting with it so redirects the quality of the singing during the performance (as indicated in the score).
Performance Notes:
- It begins in a rousing forte and gradually becomes more internal – from public religiosity to private spirituality.
Notes on score:
The words should be “I Hear the rolling thunder”.
SOLO
Claire fantasises about the perpetrator never having been born in a speech that is both violent and tender.
Performance Notes:
- This is a song of the choirs own choosing
- It can sung by a male or a female
- It should be plaintive, slow and tender.
GAVRILO PRINCIP