Directors Note for Chatroom
It’s about revolution…
A note from Director
About a year and half ago Channel four started promoting what’s become a hugely popular show for teenagers on their sister channel E4. The promo’s were amazing! It promised to be gritty, honest, and in your face. I was really excited. I sat down to watch the first episode and after about twenty minutes I felt really let down. It was gritty and in your face, but it wasn’t honest.. far from it. The characters seemed one dimensional and the drama was constantly undercut by the producers need to cram as many crap, crass jokes into each episode as possible. Don’t get me wrong I’m not averse to cheap gags, in fact I generally really like them, but when they’re tacked onto something just for the sake of it, story and character always suffer. I started to think about the kind of stories that are being made in the mainstream for teenagers, and it struck me that almost everything that was coming out in the cinema and on TV was really superficial and shit. Myself and my brother Colin resolved that we would write our first feature screenplay for teenagers and it would be as honest and true to what we see as being the kind of experiences teenagers are having right now as possible. We also decided that we wanted to go back and produce a piece of theatre for teenagers too; the last play that we did for this audience was ‘Xavier’s’ in 1999 and we felt it was high time we started getting teenagers back into see Calipo shows. At around this time Colin showed me the script for Enda’s play ‘Chatroom’. I was immediately captivated by the degree of honesty with which the play was written… the same winning honesty that the character of Jim wears on his sleeve throughout the story. I’m eternally grateful to Enda for trusting Calipo with his play and I hope so much that we bring it to life in a truthful and dynamic way. With the terrific cast we have, I’m confident we will. Chris, Mark, Sophie Jo, Jill, Conor and Roisin - I want to thank for their commitment and hard work in rehearsals and for making the whole experience so enjoyable for myself and everyone else on the Calipo team. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you enjoy the show.
Darren Thornton.
A note from Director
About a year and half ago Channel four started promoting what’s become a hugely popular show for teenagers on their sister channel E4. The promo’s were amazing! It promised to be gritty, honest, and in your face. I was really excited. I sat down to watch the first episode and after about twenty minutes I felt really let down. It was gritty and in your face, but it wasn’t honest.. far from it. The characters seemed one dimensional and the drama was constantly undercut by the producers need to cram as many crap, crass jokes into each episode as possible. Don’t get me wrong I’m not averse to cheap gags, in fact I generally really like them, but when they’re tacked onto something just for the sake of it, story and character always suffer. I started to think about the kind of stories that are being made in the mainstream for teenagers, and it struck me that almost everything that was coming out in the cinema and on TV was really superficial and shit. Myself and my brother Colin resolved that we would write our first feature screenplay for teenagers and it would be as honest and true to what we see as being the kind of experiences teenagers are having right now as possible. We also decided that we wanted to go back and produce a piece of theatre for teenagers too; the last play that we did for this audience was ‘Xavier’s’ in 1999 and we felt it was high time we started getting teenagers back into see Calipo shows. At around this time Colin showed me the script for Enda’s play ‘Chatroom’. I was immediately captivated by the degree of honesty with which the play was written… the same winning honesty that the character of Jim wears on his sleeve throughout the story. I’m eternally grateful to Enda for trusting Calipo with his play and I hope so much that we bring it to life in a truthful and dynamic way. With the terrific cast we have, I’m confident we will. Chris, Mark, Sophie Jo, Jill, Conor and Roisin - I want to thank for their commitment and hard work in rehearsals and for making the whole experience so enjoyable for myself and everyone else on the Calipo team. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you enjoy the show.
Darren Thornton.
posted by Calipo Theatre and Picture Company at
6:38 AM
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