With show week behind us, it’s safe to say that the cast and production team of SUTCo’s Swap the Press are still buzzing. I caught up with the Swap The Press production team and one of their brilliant actors Georgia Cook (who played Jean) to get an insight into the creative process from print to stage. The interview gives an insight into the creative minds of writer and director Francesca Vercoe and co-writer and assistant director Charlie Wright, alongside their amazing production manager Sophie Layton and wonderful producer Livia Gregor.
How are you feeling after show week?
Francesca: Nice to have freedom, still doesn’t feel completely over and there’s still an extended buzz. It’s gone so quickly because it was a week 5 show! Now I’m just an ordinary English lit student.
Charlie: It doesn’t feel like it’s finished, it feels like a break before what’s to come
Georgia: It’s weird not seeing each other everyday and sad, it’s not hit me yet
Sophie: It’s weird it all being over and not having to think about it, it was always in the back of my mind
What was a highlight?
Francesca: There was a huge relief after Wednesday curtains, just knowing we could do it. So emotional in the wing seeing the cast turn and clap. We always knew it would be something special but seeing the impact it had on the audience was a highlight. I heard audible exhalation after the last scene in the audience. It was like everyone was holding their breath in the final scene.
Charlie: We had a Covid scare just before the first show but just knowing we could put the show on, me and Cesca had a little cry. Then seeing audience reactions, I am really proud of what we’ve accomplished and seeing what we’ve written come to life.
Georgia: The girl’s dressing room was really cute and special, we’d just have random conversions and the realisation we won’t have this anymore after show week. Also, I had never felt so comfortable in my role, by the end of the show I wasn’t worried because I knew my lines and what I was doing. The bows were so fun and it was quite a tone change because I could bounce on stage. It was so nice to express our gratitude to everyone and know the people I was clapping for and what they had done for the show.
Where did the idea for the show come from?
Francesca: The idea came from, 2 years ago in first year I was doing a module on History of Theatre. I studied a play called Escaped Alone by Caryl Churchill. It’s a play about 4 old women having a cup of tea and talking about the apocalypse. The Churchill play completely passes the Bechdel test, the women in this talk about a wide range of topics. When thinking about how I would stage this show, I thought of staging it like a chat show, where women are lead. A bit like Loose Women, where women are front and centre and the men are the background characters.
I thought about the 1960s because it was the peak of the housewife era and I spoke to my mum about ideas around women in the 1960s and she mentioned the Profumo Affair and the idea kind of grew from there. Then I had a module for my course where I created a short film about the news stories of the time and the storylines from the play, but it focused far more on the stories themselves rather than the characters.
I met Charlie on the module and I mentioned my previous ideas which I hoped to develop into a play. I originally asked Charlie to write a review but when I said I needed an assistant director his eyes lit up!
Charlie: Cesca was talking about her ideas for the play and mentioned how she wanted to create her short film into a play and mentioned the roles she needed for the production team and I got very lucky that Cesca wanted me as assistant director. I was very passionate about the project.
What was the writing process like?
Francesca: I was looking at different 1960s icons and how it related to sexism. I looked into stories and sex-icons of the 1960s such as the beatles and Elvis and how girls went crazy for them, but it still felt like women were the real victims and still objectified. When I came across the story about Marylin Monroe, it fit perfectly in representing the tonal shift. I wanted the news reports to feel quite focal to each act and set the tone. I also wanted to make it quite clear through the broadcasts who was in charge. Making all characters’ transitions to power was quite hard, playing around with the storyline to make the power transition as plausible as possible and not like it has just happened overnight.
How did the characters develop through the process and with the actors?
Francesca: This play had never been performed before so the actors were very much the characters and their performances became the characters.
Charlie: We had a very clear idea of how we wanted each line to be performed and it was literally a case of how a line was performed in auditions which sometimes determined the roles.
Georgia: I think with characters you always bring a bit of yourself into it with your reactions and instincts. I know with some of the other actors they put a lot of thought into the improv and ad-libbing. In the runs we felt comfortable and understood the realms of our characters, so we could really enjoy performing.
Francesca: I really wanted people to have fun and be experimental with the characters but there were some moments where maybe I could have made some boundaries clearer about how certain moments should be performed.
Sophie: It was really nice when improv was done in the right place and in the right tone. It was really funny to watch these moments each night. We had been working on it for such a long time it was nice it being fresh every night with new improv bits.
Georgia: Improv brings it to life in a new way and it was really fun to play around with that in the show.
Do you have a favourite character?
Francesca: I think I was most attached to Debbie, and Charlie tried to corrupt the nice characters! I just quite liked how the couples: Debbie and Thomas and Jean and Michael contrast each other. I liked seeing how the polarising power dynamics played out.
Charlie: I went into this and Cesca had really already laid out the characters but I really fell in love with a lot of the characters. I would say Billy was one of my favourite characters, he’s a bit of a diva and a lot of fun.
Francesca: Ambrose really took the character Billy that didn’t have as many lines and really made him into a character that is really recognisable and added depth to the character
Sophie: I really think that you’d remember all the characters but I really think the character Billy Jones will stick!
How did you find working on the show?
Charlie: We were all quite new to this, it was the first time for us putting on a show!
Livia: We were all really inexperienced but this was nice because we were in it together
Francesca: We were all in the same boat and could muddle through together
Sophie: We felt like a team and were were all in this together it didn’t feel like there was a power imbalance
Livia: My job didn’t properly start until we had a script so it was nice to feel like I had something to work with when the script was finalised
Francesca: If we didn’t have a society that could help us we would have been so lost, having people in the society who had it before was so helpful.
Any closing comments?
Charlie: Joy from start to finish and thanks to Cesca for giving this opportunity
Francesca: It isn’t over yet…
Swap the Press played for a four show run in The University of Sheffield Drama Studio from October 25th to October 28th. For future updates on Swap the Press, see @sutco_swapthepress, & for future productions from SUTCo, see @_sutco on Instagram
