Creating 'The Hypochondriac' poster

In an age when you can download anything from the internet, copyright of images is always a problem. So when I designed the posters for Newport Playgoers' 88th Season (2011/12) I decided to create a series of posters that had a corporate look, each one featuring an original piece of artwork.

For some weird reason I actually designed the posters chronologically working my way through from the first to the last in the season. So the final one I did, with a sigh of relief, was for 'The Hypochondriac'. This was great fun to do - and not just because it was the last of nine posters. The play is a hilarious re-working by legendary Liverpool poet Roger McGough of Moliere's classic comedy. I knew it needed a caricature face - an anxious man suffering from 'le malade imaginaire' (that's your actual French).

I spent a long time drawing various pen and ink versions of the face until coming up with one that I was happy with, complete with worried expression and nightcap. After scanning it into my PC, I set about adding colour using a marvellous (free) program called Artweaver. Much like Photoshop, it enables you to work in layers and employ various brushes to get different styles.

Once the hypochondriac himself was finished I set about drawing various medicine and pill bottles - the shape of which I researched on the internet. Again these were scanned in and coloured. Finally I put all the artwork together using Adobe InDesign, jigging the ingredients around until I had the poster below.

For more information about 'The Hypochondriac' visit http://newportplaygoers.wordpress.com
If you want to try out Artweaver you can download it here: http://www.artweaver.de/

Countdown begins to No Holds Bard!

So we’re a mere 13 days away from the opening of the No Holds Bard festival, which features my one act play ‘Poor Yorick’ – and panic has begun to set in as we’ve yet to run the play all the way through..

Yorick (Will Smith-Haddon) makes himself at
home in Hamlet's (Chris Powell) room
at Elsinore

 Focusing on Hamlet’s story as seen through the eyes of his court jester who has gone on tour pioneering stand-up comedy, the play is at least getting plenty of laughs from the cast during rehearsals.

It’s quite a cast too! Will Smith-Haddon is great as Yorick, the clown who’s ahead of his time with his observational humour – “What is it with the Black Death? That's a bit depressing isn't it?” 

Yorick (Will Smith-Haddon) and Bess
(Clare Drewett) may not have much but at least
they have each other

Clare Drewett plays his bawdy wench girlfriend Bess who specialises in knocking back ale and making rat stew. Chris Powell excels as a whinging Hamlet who is fed up of his moaning mother, Gertrude – played to perfection by Sue Morgan in a glittering gown, tiara and Marigold gloves. Bruce Campbell makes a brief appearance as a surprisingly chirpy ghost of Hamlet’s father, offering words of advice such as "Don't drink the wine".

Yorick and Hamlet discuss vacancies for court jester
while Queen Gertrude (Sue Morgan) attempts to
clean the room

The festival is Newport Playgoers’ contribution to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages project which aims to reunite the worlds of amateur and professional theatre. With four plays offering a mixture of slapstick, bloody sword fights and romantic mix-ups it promises to be an evening of lively entertainment that gives a thoroughly modern take on Shakespeare and turns his plots into plays for today. For more information check out http://newportplaygoers.wordpress.com/

We're all really excited that our local newspaper, the South Wales Argus, is sponsoring the festival.  Please come along and support us from 15 – 17 March at the Dolman Theatre, Newport. Tickets, which are just £5 and £7, can be booked by phoning the box office on 01633 263670 or visiting www.dolmantheatre.co.uk.