Free Notes from the Stage Manager's Box by John Barber

and people he didn’t want to speak to. It is a ploy I often use now when I get calls from the Indian sub-continent offering to reclaim my PPI payments from unscrupulous lenders.
     
    Calamity Jane also gave my interest in theatre a nudge in a certain direction. It was a mystery to me how these t h ings had been managed before but someone had to hire the stage sets and the props. I’ve no idea who had been delegated the role previous ly but in the absence of that knowledge and as stage manager I was assigned the role for this production.
     
    Starting from zero has some attractions for I needed an assistant. The obvious p erson to help was Roy Follett who was Honorary Treasurer. It’s best to have someone who understands the restrictions of budgetary control when spending someone else’s money. As the production team was as much Janet Hough as anyone the three of us took a days leave and went in search of a set.
     
    We met at Camden Town Underground station at about ten o’clock. I was born and grew up in Camden but as is the way of life you disc over things about your home neighbourhood you didn’t know existed.
     
    The address for Stage Sets was at the corner of North Villas and Camden Park Road . Stage Sets was housed in an old church. As young kids we passed this on our way home from Hungerford Primary School ev ery day. It hadn’t been used for worship for many years and the broken panes of glass on the side walls were a sure sign of how it had suffered fr om the boredom that sets in amongst schoolchildren on their way home.
     
    The good thing about this was the high roof and once we had located the owner he took us around the building where sets for every stage show known to have been produced were stored a flat packs on two floors. There was only one set for Calamity Jane so we hired it.
     
    We then had a journey across town to the Old Times Furnishing Company in Putney who hired out furniture and small props to small companies like ourselves and to the BBC and film studios . There is nothing more tedious than a trip across London by tube so we found a pleasant pub on the banks of the Thames where that ever gracious Roy Follett bought lunch. These were the days before the liberalisation of our licensing laws and quite fortunate too because we might not have ever left that pub.
     
    We had a basic idea of what to buy for each scene; Janet had a list from John Hebden to supplement what was required in the script. It was always a long list and proceeded by John’s comments along the lines of ‘will look good if you can get one’, ‘try for one of these’ or ‘really appreciate it if you can get that’. This is why you need a budget conscious person with you because the artistic temperament will run away with the money if not controlled.
     
    I enjoyed myself here. I could visualise the set taking shape and this is when I saw those gold painted chairs again!
     
Chapter 8 – No, No Nanette
     

     
    In November 1984 the Club performed Hello Dolly. Dolly Levi was played by Iris Adele Paddock. She was of course, made for this. The show was a complete sell out.
     
    I did not take part. I asked after Calamity Jane finished if I could take a break. I had been involved in ten productions either as cast, stage crew or Stage Manager. I had attended most rehearsals for nearly all of these, managed the Club’s sponsored sing-in earlier that year and been part of the float that appeared in the Lord Mayor of London ’s annual parade .
     
    That was a very strange sort of event. The outgoing Lord Mayor of London was Chairman of the Guild of Greengrocers and Fruiterers and asked the Board of National Westminster Bank plc if they would be able to help him with a float.
     
    This was very possibly in November 1980 as I remember leaving the City and managing to get back home to Tottenham in time to watch the second half of the Spurs game against Wolves. You could get in for free at half time if you knew which turnstile