Coronet Inside Out: David Glass Ensemble And Rada Ma Theatre Lab

14 Apr 2021

At the end of last year, the RADA MA Theatre Lab graduating Ensemble of 2019-20 worked under the direction of David Glass to devise and create a piece of (epic) theatre. The original, staged production of Margot Monroe’s Nibelungenlied was set to take place at RADA Studios in December of 2020, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the production was forced to close after just one performance. The performance and dress rehearsal had been filmed, so the piece was shared with friends and family and then premiered online in the new year. The Coronet Theatre is very aware of the challenges that young and newly graduated artists are facing at the minute with COVID-19 restrictions, so have commissioned this video to increase the exposure of the newly graduated RADA MA Lab class and the work of their colleagues on the technical programmes at RADA, as their final performances could not take place in front of a live audience. Also creating a platform for the next stage in the development of the work.

The Margot Monroe’s Nieblugenlied Project that began life as a graduate theatre show has developed into a series of variations on the themes explored. Imagination, Power, Women’s Creative Voices , Illusion and the Hollywood Dream/nightmare . The characters that emerged and the various worlds they inhabit have spawned potentials beyond the initial story.

The RADA Lab Ensemble of 2020, David Glass Ensemble, and The Coronet Theatre set about further exploring and creating the world of Margot Monroe. The Dark and Margot Monroe is the first variation expressed as a film. As the theatre piece used David Glass’s idea of ‘Trash Theatre’ – a recycling of existing stories, tropes, clichés and archetypes – so a featurette that was made quickly in lockdown inspired by schlock horror films like ‘Shock Corridor’ The Twilight Zone , Mulholland Drive and Fritz Lang’s Noir thrillers , became the next variation of Margot Monroe’s Universe. More to follow….

The Play

Margot Monroe’s Nibelungenlied tells the story of two aspiring actresses set against the Hollywood dream factory. Margot becomes a movie star and Margaret, who is caring for her autistic brother Jonathan, becomes a screen writer.

A tragic love affair and the pressure of rising stardom causes Margot Monroe to seek therapy and fantasise an expressionistic film/theatre version of the ancient German Nibelungenlied whilst Margaret frantically works at her first screenplay.

In devising this piece the Ensemble have woven together the myths of Hollywood and the ancient European myth of the Nibelungenlied.

Written and Directed by David Glass through devising with the RADA MA Theatre Lab 2019-20
Assistant Directors – Briony O’Callaghan and Shanez Pattni
Produced by RADA and David Glass Ensemble

Student Production Team

Production Manager
Millie Drury

Technical Manager
Charlotte Thorogood

Stage Manager
Rebecca Kerby

Deputy Stage Managers
Rosa Watson, Sophie Slobodjani

Assistant Stage Manager
Sam Marshall

Chief Electrician
Sophia Dreyer

Programmer
Thomas Burbage

Lighting Designer
Roberto Esquenazi Alkabes

Sound Designer
Florence Hand

Production Electrician
James Breedon

Set Lighting
Samuel Blakemore

Lighting Operator
Benet Doeringer

Lighting Crew
Benet Doeringer, Lizzie Hodge, Dylan Mulholland, Skylar Turnbull Hurd

Production Sound Engineers
Kieran Dye, Dylan Marsh

Sound Operator
Dylan Marsh

Sound Crew
Jordan Deegan-Fleet, Roma Farnell, Lucinda Plummer, Spiky Saul

Construction Crew
Alice Boxer, India Day, Aidan O’Sullivan, Sylvia Wan

Costume Supervisor
Vari Gardner (graduate)

The Film

The world’s collective imagination has been destroyed, and once Mega-Director Fincher Nolan has turned an old movie Theatre into a Mental Asylum – The Dark – where Hollywood stars go to ‘recover’… Margot is diagnosed with Inside Out syndrome, and is being primed to fall prey to The Hollywood Trope unless…

Written and Directed By David Glass, in collaboration with members of the RADA MA Theatre Lab 2020
Produced by RADA Lab , David Glass Ensemble, and The Coronet Theatre.

“In theatre we do not solve problems, we play problems”

Cast:
Jonathan Aubrey-Bentley – Nurse
Leopold Benedict – Nurse
Nicole Chaffin – Margot Monroe
Seng Henk Goh – Elizabeth
Elisabeth Gunawan – Yi Pu
Bartel Jespers – Charon
Bertille Mirallié – Alice Guy Blanche
Irina Kurbanova – Katja Albrecht
Imogen Mackenzie – Margot Monroe
Jeffrey Miller – Donny
Jack Parris – Fincher Nolan
Anita Pomario – Brunhild
Aliki Stenou – Kriemhild
Lane Paul Stewart – Tyrone J Mansfield
Kristin Winters – Margot Monroe
Boujix – Chekhov the Dog