Prepare To Be Smitten (Video)

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to be Smitten! With the show opening this coming Sunday night, we bring you a look at the cast in action and some of the activities going on behind the scenes as the set gets installed here at the Arts Office.

Tickets are available for each night next week by phoning the arts office on 056-7794138 or you can call us on the office mobile on 086-1048191. For those of you who would like to pick up your tickets in advance, stop by our online ticket sales where you can print your own 🙂

More coming this week for you!

Promoting Shifting, Promoting Theatre

Every time we’re just about to start the heavy promo for the next show we’ve got coming up, you can usually find myself (Ken), John, Paddy and anyone else who’s involved in the hands-on side of things standing around asking ourselves “why do we do it?” On normal Sunday mornings everyone else is tucked up in their bed, rolling over for a second sleep but at Devious Theatre it’s absolutely all systems go and yesterday was no different.

The days turn into nights here at No. 76 and likewise the weeks run into weekends as we’ve taken to running things seven days a week since Scratcher. So yesterday, true to tradition of our promotional poster shoots, we found ourselves setting up lights, green screens, moving furniture and everything else besides from the early hours of a Sunday morning for the cast to clock in at 10:30am to get into costume, makeup and everything else that was required.

The only thing we’ll tell you for now is that the promo material involves a couch – and that’s all you’re getting for the moment. Our thanks to Susan and Terry (VibrantIreland.com) for the donation of the couch for the production. We were told it was going to be a comfy couch with plenty of room for men sitting down and it’s living up to everything we thought it would be.

But at the end of the day, we take great pride in our promotional material. You’ve seen the videos from Scratcher posted here on the blog already, along with the promotional imagery that was used for the play. Those on the Friends Of programme may have a small but growing collection of DVDs complete with custom artwork for each production while the front of No. 76 is also becoming a gallery to show posters and photos from previous productions.

We put the time and effort into planning and plotting these shoots, making use of green screens, multiple cameras, lighting setups, picking locations, days, times and everything else because, when it comes down to promoting a show – and promoting a show effectively – these things matter. The process has become second nature to us after five years of early morning setups leading to late nights at the desk but if there’s one thing we couldn’t stress enough as a theatre company, particularly when you’re starting out, is to never skimp on your promotional material. Ever.

With Heart Shaped Vinyl (2007 version) we took the bold step of creating not one, but six individual posters for the show. With Cannibal! The Musical (2007) a conversation over breakfast one morning lead us to recreating the last supper over two mornings. With Trainingspotting (2008) we had our main poster, plus an individual poster for every cast member and their back story, shot at different locations over a two week period. With Stags and Hens we built a fake pub toilet for all the images that went into the main poster, plus created different posters and photos for elements within the show (like shooting for a gig poster for the fictional band in the show, appearing in 1978, which we would go on to hang in the toilets in the theatre).

On one side, we do it because we can do it. We’re lucky to have, within our core group, film makers, graphic designers, photographers, sound designers and more (some people wearing a lot more than one hat) but more importantly we do it because we know it will capture attention. It will turn heads. It will, hopefully, bring people through the door and into a seat on the night of a performance. That time, at the weekend, pays great dividends in the long run.

Lesson for the day aside, you’re about to get more of the same from us for Shifting. Yesterday’s photo shoot at No. 76 went down great with the cast, yielded some great shots and thanks to the quick assembly work of one Paddy Dunne, should yield some fantastic promotional posters as well. But for now, all you’re getting is a couch. You can figure the rest out.

With the photos done, next weekend we move onto the video side of things for the first of the promotional trailers for Shifting. If you’ve already seen enough and you’re looking for tickets then look no further – you can get your tickets online here (with secure payment).

Scratcher Bound For Dublin

One of the good things about developing a production in residency is that you get to develop it with an eye for touring. For too long, we’ve been looking for a theatrical production that we can take on the road. Yes, we could bring Heart Shaped Vinyl to any bar or cafe in the country. We’ve still got the set for Accidental Death Of An Anarchist on ice. But, for the first time ever, and in technicolour, we’ll be bringing Scratcher to Dublin as part of The Theatre Machine Turns You On: Vol II, a festival of new theatre at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin on Thursday February 17th.

We’re there for one night only, kicking off at 7pm and tickets can be bought via ProjectArtsCentre.ie.

Scratcher is being developed at No. 76 as part of our In The Future When All’s Well residency which runs until June of this year. The show opens in Kilkenny on Tuesday February 22nd and physical tickets are on sale at the Arts Office from this week. Those of you with PayPal accounts or preferring to pay by credit card can order tickets online here.

If you’re living in or near Dublin, we’d love you to come along to see the show. It’s time this theatre company spread its wings and Dublin, we’ve got you in our sites.

DTC.