University News Last updated 28 January 2011
Birmingham School of Acting (BSA, part of Birmingham City University) is giving theatre-goers a chance to get to know the characters of its upcoming projection of Edward Thomas’ Gas Station Angel in advance – through Twitter.
Since 26th January, Bri, Bron, Mati, Mr Ent, Ace, Marsh, Mary Annie, Gruff and Manny have been tweeting their thoughts and activities on www.twitter.com/ActingBSA. Potential audiences can follow the action, getting to know the characters, until the play opens at the Crescent Theatre on 16th February.
The character tweets are being facilitated by the production’s dramaturg, Daniel Tyler (pictured), who is currently studying for an MPhil in Directing and Dramaturgy at the University of Birmingham.
Daniel Tyler explains: "A dramaturg has to explore and lose himself in the world of the play; it has to become a fascination for them to find out as much as possible about the play, its characters and themes. My dramaturgical work on Gas Station Angel so far has been to assist Joss Bennathan (the director) with research and to help him and the cast colour in the details from reading and exploration the script - trying to find the clues and hints throughout the play to get better acquainted with it. Part of my work is to help the cast develop character Tweets which will engage audience members in the 'ever shifting landscape' the characters inhabit."
To further illuminate the role of the dramaturg, Daniel will be blogging about the experience of working with BSA’s actors and the play’s acclaimed director Joss Bennathan (whose previous productions have featured on The Independent’s list of Top 5 Plays in London).
Though written in 1998 and superficially set in 1990s South Wales, in his first blog entry, Daniel writes: “Gas Station Angel doesn’t follow a linear timescale nor does it adhere to any rules of structure or narrative in terms of time. ... Narration of a story is fused with action from the story and lines are blurred – boy, do they get blurred. But this is by no means a negative aspect to the piece. In fact it is actually one of the things which makes it so addictive. It’s one of those things that are just within reach, but you can’t quite get it, then you nearly do…” Read more at http://danieljtyler.wordpress.com/
A Facebook group has also been set up to generate interest in the play: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=12059193468045
Senior acting students from Birmingham School of Acting’s industry-accredited undergraduate acting course present five performances of Gas Station Angel at the Crescent Theatre, Birmingham from 16-19 February.
Tickets are available through the Crescent Theatre Box Office (T: 0121 643 5858 / www.crescent-theatre.co.uk). Tickets cost £7, with a concessionary rate of £5 available to over-60s, unemployed people and individuals booking in a group of five or more.