The Dream Makers is set in a Dream Palace (that is a place with an extra 'a' where dreams are created). A Dream Palace employs all sorts of people to ensure that dreams are created to order (or off-the-peg if you're feeling lazy). They are highly skilled actors and technicians and will stretch themselves to the limit to make sure you get an amazing experience in your dream. They keep meticulous notes and are constantly reviewing procedures to ensure a seamless flow of dreams into our sleeping worlds. These self sacrificing people work tirelessly for us, and they love it! Doubtless you were unaware of the fact that dreams are created in this way, but that's the way the dream folk like it - shrouded in secrecy. The other side to the dream business is the clearing up afterwards (you won't believe how messy dreams are). Somebody has to do it, but who? The dream actors believe it's a magical process (of course), but in reality (or a distant relative of reality), there exists a team of 'Grounders' - people who come in after a dream and clear up. Grounders are also highly skilled in their own way, but they have no idea how dreams are created, they just get on with clearing up and performing routine maintenance tasks. That is until Beka (who believes the mythical tales about dream actors) meets up with Jude (the new Grounder recently arrived from the previously unheard of Vending Machines Department). Beka keeps dreaming about Keri ... but is she real..... or just a dream?
Dream Director: Fran Sparks
The Dream Actors:
Keri: Alice Gaston
Loren May: Grace Thomas
Nathan: Timmy Oliver
Sofia: Mary Ann Wall
Tobias: Matt Handley
Vextra: Vanessa Thomas
Dextra: Annabel Adcock
The Grounders:
Beka: Ellie de Rohan
Holly: Alicia Parker
Faith: Hazel Cornwall
Connor: Lewis Tudge
Jude: Joe Viner
The Crew:
Rouge (Make up & Hair): Kirstin James
Violet (Lighting): Bethanie Evans
Deci (Sound): Vicky Stack
Lacey (Costume): Eliza Nenadich
Aestheta (Props): Flora Harvey
Smokey (Special Effects): Megan Loveridge
Secret Agents: Emily Rooke & Martha Cornwall
Security Guards: Lisa Merriman & Harriet Stack
Anxious Dreamer: Harriet Stack
Romantic Dreamer: Lisa Merriman
Night Terror: Bethan Clement
Flying Dreamer: Martha Cornwall
Heroic Dreamer: Emily Rooke
Directed by Barbara Hockley with assistance from Libby Vale & Sarah Morrison
Lighting: Boz Farey
Sound: Jim Rolt & Libby Vale
Stage Manager: Joyce Marshall
Stage Crew: Barbara Hockley, Sarah Morrison, Jim Rolt, June Lewis & anyone else inadvertently lurking in the wings
Set Design: Barbara Hockley
Set Construction: Jim Rolt & Trevor Smith
Set Painting/Dressing: Emma Gibbons, Barbara Hockley, Sarah Morrison, Eliott Brinkman, June Lewis, Joyce Marshall, Trevor Smith
Costumes: Alison Stobart, Barbara Hockley, Sally Gaston. Thanks also to Jenny, Ann & Judith in the costume dept.
Dream Soundscapes created by Barbara & Jim at Chelston Studios with help from the company of dreamers and dream actors..
Original music on the flying/underwater dream, anxiety dream & the nightmare by Corin Harper.
Poster Design by Emma Gibbons
Photos by Jim Rolt
Thanks also to:
Sue Thomas & Cynthia Parker for helping out in the dressing rooms
Tracy Stack for admin & support
St Richards School for the loan of scaffolding
Libby Vale for loan of scaffolding
Humberts the Estate Agents for sponsorship
D Stack Services and The Bromyard Coffee Shop for sponsoring this programme
Everyone who provided things for the set and dreams
OTR June 2008
As someone who dreams vividly almost every night, and who can rarely find anyone at the breakfast table remotely interested in hearing all about it, I went to see The Dream Makers with great expectations - and I was rewarded! Not that the dreams portrayed in this performance were anything like mine but then mine are never anything I order, whereas the ones in the show did try to be, but evidently sometimes disappointed the clients in not being romantic or terrifying enough.
The programme did not make clear whose original idea this play was nor who wrote the script (perhaps one or several people?), but they should be complimented on the inspiration of the idea and the frequent wit of the script. A slight criticism here: a few of the young actors need to learn to enunciate more clearly, perhaps by speaking more slowly, as some of the witty gems were lost in poor diction. Most of the performers were skilled and well-rehearsed way beyond their years, in the dialogue and in the complex, wonderfully choreographed dancing and dream-mayhem.
The set too was rather beautifully colourful, ordered chaos; the costumes were all good but also nicely differentiated in style so that one could quickly get the significant roles of the different groups - Dream Actors, Grounders, Crew, Dreamers. The five dreamers were not, of course, a team - each of us dreams alone - and each of them coped well with their quite difficult solo roles, isolated sometimes in the midst of deliberate Dionysian chaos. The dream sequences were impressively staged and the last two were quite beautiful. The lighting and music made a big contribution to these and indeed to the whole show.
In the midst of all the weird fun of this performance, I was moved by two underlying and sensitive themes: one of these was the theme conveyed by Beka's search for her friend Keri who had moved on from being a Grounder to becoming a Dream Actor and, in the process, had forgotten Beka. This touched on one of the difficulties of childhood and adolescence - the need to grow up, to move on, and to accept that things cannot stay the same and childhood friends may not be friends forever. This was nicely and not mawkishly spelled out in the final scene when Beka moves on to become a Dream Actor herself and leaves her team of colleagues, the Grounders. They, the Grounders bring me to my second hidden message - and to compliment this group of young actors, particularly the Supervisor. They were the ones who moved in after the dreams were over and cleaned up the mess that was left behind. They were not allowed to see or be part of the fun of the dreams: as far as the Dream Actors were concerned they did not even exist. As their well acted Supervisor reminded them, the least breach of the rules and they would lose their lowly jobs. How like a City Office block where the cleaners, on minimum wage or less in some cases, come on site at 4a.m, clean and disappear long before the first smart-suited office worker arrives. What a satisfying, many- layered show this was!
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