Margate Weekend 2004 - The Report!

Inspired by the success and hard work generated by the students (of all ages) during the Acting Classes 2003 and the resulting show-case at the Fortune ?Woman in Black? Theatre, in the heart of London?s West End, Chris Villiers decided to set up a special ?Acting Classes? weekend workshop by the seaside.

The theme for this inaugural workshop was ?Ghosts?.

The hotel chosen was the Warpole Bay Hotel in Margate ? a favourite haunt of Tracey Emin and Ray Winstone (though not together, I hasten to add.) and served as an ideal location, with its ballroom, anti-rooms, museum and seafront, for the group to explore the nature of ghosts & horror, and why they are so popular in modern and historical entertainment.

Each group were set four individual tasks:

Create a short film: Each group were given a locally based ghost story and asked to improvise a film around the subject. However, each project had to be tackled in four very different styles: Drama doc, After the event, Blair Witch and Possession. The results were viewed on Sunday afternoon and ranged from a 3-minute beachfront horror to an 8-minute News piece. The results were extraordinary and funny but never boring. All of them were interesting, often hysterical and surprisingly very touching.

Record a radio play (complete with sound effects!): Each group were given a 20-page section of a recently recorded ?ghost? BBC afternoon theatre. Each group had to cast, record and experiment with not only their voices, but different acoustics found in the hotel. Bathrooms were used as ballrooms, and balconies used as woodland. On Sunday afternoon each section was then played to the gathered students in story order, creating a complete 40 minute play, which included: clip clopping horses hooves, clocks chiming, a gale of paper and windows blown open by the ?beast of the moor?.

Work on text (one to one): Under the stern eye of Liz Mckechnie, Kate Hamilton, Richard Trinder and Chris, the students were split into pairs and asked to explore a piece of text (The Others, Woman in Black, etc) in greater depth. This was perhaps the most intense part of the workshop weekend and required all those present to sink inside themselves and find not only inner truth but a great deal of inner strength. The effect on both the teachers and the students was stirring and very exhilarating.

Devise a piece of theatre to be performed on Sunday afternoon: Finally each group were given the task of devising and improvising a short piece of ?promenade? theatre. This now uncommon form of performance involves the audience following the action of the play to different locations. The results of this task were perhaps the most successful of the entire weekend. As the audience crowded into bedrooms, marched through the hotel receptions, and even ran down to the seafront, they were confronted with their friends crying over the loss of their loved ones, ghosts dancing in the dining room during a lovers tiff, or in one case, a group terrified at the prospect of an invasion of ghostly marauding Vikings!


These tasks were by no means easy to achieve and required not only a great deal of enthusiasm and teamwork but also focus and determination. That the tasks were completed at all was a joy and that they were achieved so successfully, was nothing short of a miracle.

2020 are now in the process of devising another weekend workshop to happen sometime in the summer.?? We've had some wonderful feedback from the participants, and some of their comments are listed below:

JAMES LOWE
?Loved it. Look forward to the next one.?
?Helped alleviate concerns about improvisation."

JAMES BOYLE
?I was taken on a creative journey that I never expected and it left me inspired,
excited, and impassioned to succeed.?

CLARE MERCURIUS-TAYLOR
?Fun, very well organised and professional. The 2020 team were relentless in their tireless
task of reaching inside all of us and bringing us out of ourselves.?

COLIN COULL
?The weekend at Margate was more enjoyable than five hours on the drill square.?

VIRGINIA FANSHAW
??Challenging, emotional, exhilarating, absorbing, and most of all ? fun!?

SHIRLEY GILLESPIE-SMITH
?Thank you ALL. That was the BEST weekend of my life. Bold decisions were made by ALL!
WELL DONE YOU! Is it possible to be so exhilarated again?
Is it possible to have so much fun again? Could we do it again??

NICK TREGENZA
?I?m not sure that words could do justice to how I feel about this weekend!
It?s affected me so deeply that I STILL shake when I recall certain moments!
I?ve told people on set today that it?s possibly one of the most incredible and
moving experiences of my life! Well done!

STELLA PICKETT
?A memorable experience ? literally ? I can?t stop thinking about it.
I had the best ever weekend. I went to work on Monday with a skip and was still on a high.

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