With just a week to go until curtain (!) the Community Company cast are hard at work in the rehearsal room. We hope you’re as excited about the show as we are!
Recently, we sat down with Community Company stalwart Tom Burke, to get his thoughts on what you can expect from the show and his character, and his overall experience with the Community Company itself. Here’s what he had to say:
Tom, tell us in your own words about the show.
It’s about a poor guy called Honest, hence the title, played by Steven Ireland who works as a Sanitation Deployment Manager. He has a bit of a dead-end job really and as the show progresses he finds himself in this bizarre, surreal world, with some really strange characters.
Tell us about your character.
I play the slimy Chubb Hudson, who works in the same department as Honest and hates it, although Chubb does his best not to take any notice of the poor guy. As with a lot of the characters, you’ll see that Chubb isn’t what he appears to be. As the show continues, you’ll see he’s even less pleasant than you think!
Who have you based him on?
I’ve tried to base some of how he is on how I used to be with one of my brothers. When I was a lot younger, I always thought he was out to tease me, so we didn’t really get on. Thankfully, now we’ve grown up, we’ve come to this really good place in our relationship and reconciled our differences.
My brother had a job which meant he had to work long hours, a bit like Honest, but I didn’t respect that at the time. Admittedly, I blanked and ignored him quite a lot, and I’ve tried to channel this into Chubb, and the way he snipes at Honest.
Chubb is a bit of a horrible and greedy character in this play, and I’ve tried to imagine how I was back then and exaggerated it. I think the relationship between Chubb is a bit like a big brother/little brother dynamic. Honest wants to reach out to Chubb and help him, be his friend, but Chubb despises authority and isn’t really interested.
Tell us about the Library Theatre Community Company.
I’ve been involved with it since 2011. It’s great for everyone - people in their 20s like me, older people in their 60s or 70s, or anyone in between. It’s headed by the very capable Rosie Stuart, who I’ve gotten to know quite well, and Adam Gilmour. We all meet up to collaborate on a weekly basis in Manchester, and over intervening months, we’ll begin to create our own stories and our own characters, many of which have some basis in reality as most of our productions have been original.
What do you enjoy about the group the most?
Well, speaking for myself personally, the fact that we don’t focus too much on Shakespeare or musical theatre is a plus! And you get the chance to create and show audiences mature, grown up and down-to-earth stories.
Working with the group has helped me enormously as a budding actor. It has taught me different ways of doing and saying things based on the story we all create together. Rehearsing for a big performance can be quite taxing, but it’s always rewarding in the end (not to mention euphoric and uplifting!) I’ve also found that this group has helped me to develop skills which I can use elsewhere in my life. It’s really given me the inspiration to aim for something and succeed at it.
Any tips for young budding actors?
Let’s see… I would say to learn the lines for your scenes as religiously as possible. Get the dialogue absolutely glued to your brain. A lot of actors starting out make the mistake of just concentrating on their own lines, but it’s vital to learn the lines of the person you’re working with as well. Not just so you can hit your cues, but so you can anticipate how to emotionally react to them, in terms of movement and body language.
Recently, we sat down with Community Company stalwart Tom Burke, to get his thoughts on what you can expect from the show and his character, and his overall experience with the Community Company itself. Here’s what he had to say:
Tom, tell us in your own words about the show.
It’s about a poor guy called Honest, hence the title, played by Steven Ireland who works as a Sanitation Deployment Manager. He has a bit of a dead-end job really and as the show progresses he finds himself in this bizarre, surreal world, with some really strange characters.
Tell us about your character.
I play the slimy Chubb Hudson, who works in the same department as Honest and hates it, although Chubb does his best not to take any notice of the poor guy. As with a lot of the characters, you’ll see that Chubb isn’t what he appears to be. As the show continues, you’ll see he’s even less pleasant than you think!
Who have you based him on?
I’ve tried to base some of how he is on how I used to be with one of my brothers. When I was a lot younger, I always thought he was out to tease me, so we didn’t really get on. Thankfully, now we’ve grown up, we’ve come to this really good place in our relationship and reconciled our differences.
My brother had a job which meant he had to work long hours, a bit like Honest, but I didn’t respect that at the time. Admittedly, I blanked and ignored him quite a lot, and I’ve tried to channel this into Chubb, and the way he snipes at Honest.
Chubb is a bit of a horrible and greedy character in this play, and I’ve tried to imagine how I was back then and exaggerated it. I think the relationship between Chubb is a bit like a big brother/little brother dynamic. Honest wants to reach out to Chubb and help him, be his friend, but Chubb despises authority and isn’t really interested.
Tell us about the Library Theatre Community Company.
I’ve been involved with it since 2011. It’s great for everyone - people in their 20s like me, older people in their 60s or 70s, or anyone in between. It’s headed by the very capable Rosie Stuart, who I’ve gotten to know quite well, and Adam Gilmour. We all meet up to collaborate on a weekly basis in Manchester, and over intervening months, we’ll begin to create our own stories and our own characters, many of which have some basis in reality as most of our productions have been original.
What do you enjoy about the group the most?
Well, speaking for myself personally, the fact that we don’t focus too much on Shakespeare or musical theatre is a plus! And you get the chance to create and show audiences mature, grown up and down-to-earth stories.
Working with the group has helped me enormously as a budding actor. It has taught me different ways of doing and saying things based on the story we all create together. Rehearsing for a big performance can be quite taxing, but it’s always rewarding in the end (not to mention euphoric and uplifting!) I’ve also found that this group has helped me to develop skills which I can use elsewhere in my life. It’s really given me the inspiration to aim for something and succeed at it.
Any tips for young budding actors?
Let’s see… I would say to learn the lines for your scenes as religiously as possible. Get the dialogue absolutely glued to your brain. A lot of actors starting out make the mistake of just concentrating on their own lines, but it’s vital to learn the lines of the person you’re working with as well. Not just so you can hit your cues, but so you can anticipate how to emotionally react to them, in terms of movement and body language.
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