February 2007
Whilst the writing team behind The Eighth Square have been busy with other projects (TBA soon), this website has been attracting a lot of attention. The writers have recently been able to involve themselves in assisting University students with their work on Alice in Wonderland, and assist a Canada based artist as he prepares for this years Toronto Fringe Festival with a work based on Lewis Carroll's immortal stories.

November 2006
The producers of The Eighth Square are now very pleased and proud to report that the proceeds from the world premiere performance have been gratefully received by the Pegasus Theatre in Oxford and the NICU at St. Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth, both in the UK. Composer/Lyricist Ben J Macpherson was in attendance for both cheque presentations, whilst Erin Burns represented Oxford at Pegasus, and Matthew Fleming as co-writer and director attended the presentation at the hospital ward in Portsmouth. In both cases, the visitors were given tours of the facilities and were made very welcome by those concerned.
Pegasus are planning an extension and re-development programme which their share of the money will no doubt go a little way towards helping, and St. Mary's Hospital will use the money to help them continue supplying premature babies with the best care possible. Again, whilst the amount cannot change lives, it can certainly help towards costs and both cases Square Productions were pleased and proud to have been of some help.

Below: Ben Macpherson, Matthew Fleming and ward sister Emily Early of NICU St Mary's Hospital (Portsmouth NHS trust). Photograph by Amelia McKinlay. Text by Dan Kerins of The News, Portsmouth.

 

Below: Ben Macpherson, Erin Burns, and the staff of Pegasus Theatre, Oxford. Photograph by Niall Macpherson.

 

 

August 2006
A full report on the presentation of the cheques to each charity will be posted soon, but for now we have exciting news on the show itself. Writers Matthew Fleming and Ben J Macpherson have at last completed a further set of revisions to the show; having re-written large sections of potentially confusing scenes, and clarified some of the structure of the show for themselves and an audience. Some of the changes go as follows: 1) The Mad Hatter now has an introductory song. 2) Losing Touch has been replaced by The First Square, a song sung by the White Rabbit's Ghost and Cheshire Cat. The Mad Hatter therfore appears far later in Act 1. 3) Playground Heroes is now an extended motif throughout the show. 4) The dialogue in Transition has been extensively reworked to round out the White Rabbit's character. 5) The scene between Alice and the Mad Hatter in Act 1 has been rewritten. 6) There is a new scene in Act 2 for The Knights.
It is hoped that these changes reflect the audience reaction to the show at the New Theatre Royal, and has made The Eighth Square more intriguing and exciting than ever!
More news to follow...

June 21st 2006
Square Productions are pleased to report that the New Theatre Royal production of 'The Eighth Square' raised £925, for the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth and the Pegasus Theatre in Oxford.
A full report of the donations to the charities will be posted in due course, as well as exciting new prospects and plans for 'The Eighth Square', which is undergoing further revisions by the writers in lieu of its reception and presentation in May. Watch this space!...


June 8th 2006
Updated REVIEW pages!.....

May 13th 2006
Yesterday (Friday 12th) saw the first public performance of this brand new musical. Thursday 11th proved a hectic day of cueing, technical rehearsals, light plotting and even an additional opening gambit to Act Two for The Knights. Calling Thursday's dress run a 'Preview' would be appropriate as Mr Stuart Olesker from the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media was in attendance to feedback. His advice was discussed at choicely implemented or bypassed, on the basis that changes had to be circumspect with only 24 hours left. However, acting on the advice of several in specific areas, the show was tweaked more on Friday as everyone's energy levels went through the roof. Intensity reached boiling point at 6pm when the cast were called for warm ups and workshopping before the final prep talk at 6.50pm and then the half was called. There was no going back, and at 7.30pm the show went up and steamrollered its way through what was a funny, tight and intensely energetic two hour performance. The audience recieved it all in good part, laughing and crying in turn. A full review will be posted in due course. Sad to see it all over, all that remains in for Square Productions to recieve the proceeds and present them to the named charities. Full details to follow.

May 10th 2006 (Theatre get-in)
Bleary eyed but determined is the only way to describe the company today - which has been an extremely tiring 14 hour long day of technical, production, cast calls, set-up, get-in and the like. Beginning at 8.30am, the crew assembled to begin the unenviable task of taking the myriad set and props from the rehearsal studio, two blocks down to the 500 New Theatre Royal, the show's home and final destination after a year of solid grind. By 9.30am, the Coffin had been collected from the suppliers - a prop integral to the final scene, the newly finalised musical soundtrack had been reviewed by the engineers, and preparations for the Audio-Visual instillations were well underway. The morning seemed to fly by with everyone off doing different things. The inevitable lull of lunch-time came, when none could start anything until the scheduled 2.30 song rehearsals, and people by this point were flagging a little. All except the lighting technicians who worked tirelessly throughout the day. James and Alex must love that job! The afternoon for Ben proved a little fraught. Everyone was kitted out and given a prep talk by Gary, the sound engineer and Ben then lead the cast through 2.5 hours of songs, projection, diction, energy and the like, all to allow the balancing of the microphones and give everyone chance to 'work the space'. The evening was where it all picked up for the best again. Set came together, which made everything look like a proper show for the first time; provisional lighting and sound were provided for cue-to-cue rehearsals, Underscoring checks, entrances and exits tailored to the space, and of course - the coffin which can't fit through the entrance! Finishing at 11pm, and ready to begin at 10am was tiring, but worth it. With the large billboards outside the theatre reading 'Premiere'...the next two days look set to be worth every minute.

May 2006 (Week 1)
As the entire company move into Production Week in the theatre, nerves and tempers are understandably fraught. What's left in terms of production are the seemingly 'little things', all of which take a lot of time. A final full run in the studio is scheduled for Monday evening, and the Standbys are being put through their paces this week. Publicity is in full swing, and the soundtrack has almost been completed, along with workshopping less successful scenes in rehearsal. Promotional visits to local colleges are also being carried out this week, in order to rally support for both the show and the charities. A healthy amount of tickets have already been booked with more expected before the final night. Watch this space.

April 28th 2006
This last week has seen a lot of activity externally to the show with academic commitments such as final year dissertation hand ins and so on. However, this week has also seen a run through for the standbys, and last week the company spent two intensive days' refining scenes and songs, characters, motivation and all those little things that take forever. That said, there's plenty more of them to come within the next week and a half until we begin technical and dress runs in the theatre. Programmes are going to press, and a new multimedia projector has been accosted as the previous one didn't work sufficiently. It's the nature of the beast, but very time consuming, and with only 14 days until the show, people are beginning to run around rather panicked. Gratitude at this point must be expressed to John Stanton who has allowed us the use of a studio theatre rehearsal space over the last two weeks, including setting up all the PA equipment for run throughs of the songs with microphones (an experience for the cast, to say the least!). Next week sees workshops to tidy up weak areas from yesterday's run, and presentation and promotional activity aplenty. Time...is running out!

All Material on This Site Copyright 2005 - 2007 Two Faces Ventures
The Eighth Square Copyright 2006 Two Faces Ventures
Published 2005 - 2006 Square Productions / 2007 Two Faces Ventures
Site Maintenance bsnp for Two Faces Ventures