Former Durban actress and singer Natalie Toyne is alive and well in the UK and working with New Inck Theatre at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow. Scenes Unseen offered an eclectic evening of new and previously un-staged work which opened on March 8.
The line-up of playwrights is impressive
and features Alan Ayckbourn; Athol Fugard; J P Dunleavy; Patrick Marber; Andrew
Stott; Julie Tsang Stef Smith, and Lynsey Murdoch.
“I'm really proud of it - it's been two
years in the making with eight new short pieces, one being
a new piece from Athol Fugard,” she said in a recent mail to artSMart.
“With a writer for a partner and many of
friends and colleagues being multifaceted performers, writers and producers, I
often see pieces of text put away in a drawer or hidden at the back of a
hard-drive, sometimes before they are even read by outside eyes,” says Toyne. “The
few pieces I get to read before they are buried are considered by the
playwright to be too short, lacking enough substance to fill out a full-length
play, or not suitable for the current platforms the theatre offers. Often, they
are great moments worthy of a showing, some are absolutely brilliant,
insightful pieces of work which are crying out to be performed.
“I was curious to see what pieces of
writing – be they scenes, short plays or sketches – were sitting hidden on the
hard-drives of well-established world-renowned playwrights, never having
premièred because of the same reasons,” she continues. “I felt like an
archaeologist beginning my dig, and while some warned that I may find that some
of the pieces of work may have been hidden because they were not of quality, I
knew that I could also unearth some precious gems.”
In June 2011, Toyne shared the seed of her
idea for Scenes
Unseen with Andy Arnold of the Tron Theatre. He was
encouraging and positive that she should try to get established playwrights on
board, and so the 2am starts began.
“I found that American literary agents were
more open to unsolicited phone calls asking whether their famous clients would
consider donating a world-premiere to my seedling of an idea, hence the early
hours.” Toyne explains. “I was pleasantly surprised that so many were excited
about the idea of creating a platform for previously unseen work of quality,
and passed my email or letters onto their clients. I was even more surprised at
how enthusiastic the playwrights were about the project and soon I had a number
of scripts with which to work, all from playwrights I hold in high regard.”
Alan Ayckbourn helped Toyne financially
through her studies at the RSAMD (now the RCS) so she contacted him directly. “He
and I wrote letters to each other for the most part,” she says. “He was full of
advice about the project, and what his piece (being such a technically
challenging one) would need from the theatre’s technical department. Ron and Julie: A Technical Love
Story, which he called
“something more of a curio”, was written in the mid-80’s to showcase the
National Theatre’s new technical department at the time. It was a one-off and
has not been professionally produced since then. It is hilarious.”
Patrick Marber’s short sketch Casting was originally published in a
magazine called ARETE and has never been performed. Athol Fugard is a hero of Toyne’s
so she was delighted to receive an email from him with a scene from the play he
was currently working on. Andy Arnold chose the last established playwright,
J.P. Donleavy.
“The playwrights’ studio and word of mouth
through the Scottish theatre network put me in touch with the emergent
playwrights whose work will be showcased alongside the established playwrights
pieces,” explains Toyne. “They are all incredible artists and I have already
witnessed careers leaping to new heights in the short time since we first started
pulling everything together. I am so pleased I got in there when I did! Rediscovering
work hidden away for years, never been seen or even read by another until now,
is an exciting process for the creative team and the audience at the Tron
Theatre.”
Scenes
Unseen went extremely well and got four stars in
the Times (https://twitter.com/TronTheatre/status/312187654034821121/photo/1),
The Herald and the Scotsman. Toyne’s recent productions include Hairspray in Wales at the Aberystwyth
Arts Centre, Sondheim's Company at the Cottiers Theatre and Angels Punks and Raging Queens at the
Tron Theatre. The link to her spotlight CV is http://www.spotlight.com/9495-1206-0313
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