School of Creative Arts, Film and Media (SCAFM)
Sweet FA
Sweet FA is a new musical based on the real-life Hollywood stories of Fatty Arbuckle and Peg Entwistle. Set in Tinseltown, the production processes of Hollywood film-making from the silent screen to the golden age are brought to life centre stage. Packed with showstopping numbers, this show will get you dancing in the aisles.
With the best expertise in innovative technology, the show uses computer animation, live video feed and interactive performance to result in a taptastic, showstopping musical set to hit Portsmouth’s New Theatre Royal in October 2009.
Cast announced
We are delighted to be able to announce the casting for Sweet FA, and are thrilled to have put together a fantastic cast of professional performers for the show:
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle..........Daniel Stockton
Peg Entwistle...........................Lisa Bridge
Buster Keaton..........................James Dangerfield
Freddy Ayres.............................Davis Brooks
Augustus Nevermind..............David Menkin
Abigail Blake.............................Michelle LaFortune
...and a supporting cast of fantastic performers recruited through our 'X-factor' style auditions from around the Portsmouth area.
Research and development week
Cast and crew gathered in Portsmouth at the end of May for a research and development week of this exciting new musical. It's an important stage in the development of any show, and the first opportunity for the production team to get an idea of how it all fits together.
With around 25 musical numbers, the show is heavy on music, so much of the week was spent around the piano. The complex ensemble finale to Act 1 proved a challenging sing for all, but the reward was in hearing it come together in the full run-through of the show on Friday afternoon.
Filmmaker Karen Savage and choreographer Emma Rogers spent several days developing the complicated Busby Berkeley style dance routine that is one of the highlights of the show. Recreating the innovative techniques of Busby Berkeley set its own challenges, and has resulted in plenty of footage which will now be edited together to form the basis for 'You Gotta Dig That Dance'.
Later in the week the film crew went out on location with Fatty (Daniel Stockton) and Buster (James Dangerfield) to capture the pair in a series of slapstick scenes for 'Two Magical Men', Fatty and Buster causing quite a stir with passers-by.
Throughout the summer these scenes will be put together in preparation for the show; meanwhile, writer Dominic Symonds will be fine-tuning the script and score for final rehearsals.