Writing for Fun
September 2019
Crusade - Jeanette Rothwell
Jason sat in the lighting box and gazed down at the empty theatre. He flicked a switch on the lighting console to turn on the front of house lights and then moved the switch again to brighten the auditorium. The brighter lighting revealed the seats in the auditorium which made Jason wince. The seats were in a dreadful state.
The theatre had been in existence for about 25 years. It was a converted warehouse and these seats were the result of a purchase from a defunct cinema. They had once been a lovely bright red but were now faded and probably full of dust, the arm rests in some cases were bare of covering, some of the cushioned seats had been slashed and he knew that when you sat in some of the rows, the whole row would wobble as you sat down. In other words, the theatre was badly in need of new seating.
Being an amateur theatre, it was run entirely by volunteers and everything had to be maintained on a budget. The stage had been described by a newspaper critic as a long narrow shelf, which was rather cruel. What it lacked in depth, it made up for by width. Indeed, it could accommodate a cast of 60 for a musical, or by clever design of a box set, could become a welcoming warm period drawing room, or a back-street slum in the East End of London. Such was the dedication of the artistic volunteers who were passionate about amateur theatre and, just like Jason, would happily spend their spare time keeping the theatre running as smoothly as any 100-year-old building could be expected to survive.
Jason was a very shy man in his late thirties. His day-time job was in computers, and he was highly intelligent and technically minded. He could cope with many complex tasks thrown up by running a theatre and his skills were valued by the Theatre Trust.
Getting back to the theatre seating, Jason vowed to go on a crusade to replace those awful seats somehow. He subsequently made a lot of enquiries but without success. New seating was either far too expensive or the vendors were insisting in taking the whole set of seats which the theatre could not accommodate.
Several months later, he was reading a magazine called ‘Amateur Stage’ and one of the small advertisements was from the National Theatre in London. It seemed they wanted to get rid of some seats in one of their theatres and were asking for offers. Jason immediately made a telephone call and went to the National to view the seats. The story was that a year ago a new Director had asked for these seats to be arranged in one of the theatres in a certain way. That Director had now left, and his replacement did not want the seats as they were not part of his design. What a waste of money! However, Jason told the management how many seats he could take, and offered £5000. Providing he could transport them himself, the offer was accepted.
Each seat was in 4 pieces – two upholstered arms, one cushioned seat and a cushioned back, and would have to be re-assembled. Jason hired a huge lorry to transport the load, and the various pieces were installed in the foyer area of the theatre, ready for re-assembling. The time of year was July and the theatre would be closed, ‘Go Dark’ as the saying goes, in August. This was to allow any maintenance to be carried out, etc. The first use of the theatre was scheduled for the third week in September, so Jason felt that the new seating could be in place by that time. A letter went out to all members, i.e. volunteers, pleading for some help at weekends or in the evenings, or even during the day if possible. Soon the place was buzzing with activity.
However, the first hurdle became evident once the old seats had been removed and it was clear that the flooring was showing signs of wear and had to be reinforced before the new seats could be bolted to it.
Of course, this slowed things down. While the flooring was being repaired, the new seats began to be reassembled. They were a rather pleasant lilac colour and well upholstered. The next discussion was whether to replace the stage curtains because the new seats were going to make the old rusty coloured and rather tatty curtains look even worse. The decision was taken to dip into the rather slender bank account and search around for new ones to match the new seats. Jason’s crusade was getting bigger.
A company in the north of England was offering second hand stage curtains at reasonable prices and some of the members volunteered to drive up north to view the range on offer. This resulted in rich purple replacement front of house curtains and another team of volunteers set about taking down the old and very dusty curtains and putting up the new ones.
Next a decision was made to replace some of the carpet. The left and right aisles and front of stage area was made respectable with some purple hard wearing carpet from a local warehouse. The floor under the seats would have to remain wooden and uncarpeted.
Meanwhile the auditorium was still only very slowly becoming refurbished. Each new seat had to be bolted to the floor, preferable with 3 bolts but to save time only 2 bolts were used, initially. Jason was Mr Health and Safety and even once all the seats were in place he insisted that the third bolt was put in on every seat. Big groans from the workers but Jason insisted it had to be done.
It was now getting close to the third week in September and tickets had been sold for the play. The theatre had taken on a very distinctive smell of the new seats, new wood, new curtains, sawdust, and yes perhaps a hint of perspiration! Several cans of air freshener were used, and doors were kept open as much as possible to clear the air. There still seemed to be a lot of dust in the atmosphere. The foyer also had to be cleaned and cleared after the work on assembling the seats had taken place. There were quite a few bits of the new seats left over which had to be stored.
The first night of the play had arrived. Once again Jason gazed down at the now filling auditorium with the front of house lights shining brightly on the lovely new seats. There were many oohs and aaahs from the audience as they sank into their places. Jason grinned. That particular crusade was at an end. His next was to improve the lighting rig - but that was for another day.