the tutor - Auckland Theatre Company

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THE TUTOR
ATC EDUCATION UNIT TEACHERS’ PACK
February 17th– March 10th 2007, MAIDMENT THEATRE
By Dave Armstrong
Cast Peter Elliot, Eryn Wilson, Damien Harrison
Director Jonathon Hendry
Set and Costume Design Rachael Walker
Production Manager Robyn Tearle
Rehearsal Stage Manager Aileen Robertson
Sound Design Adam Gardiner
Costume Construction Denise Hosty
Lighting Design Brad Gledhill
Operator Robert Hunte
Season Stage Manager Vicki Slow
The Tutor is 90 minutes long with no interval
Teachers’ Pack compiled by Lynne Cardy Education and 2econd Unit Coordinator
www.atc.co.nz/education
Production photos by Robyn Tearle
Please note The Tutor contains frequent use of strong language and adult
themes and is suitable for students’ year level 12+
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CAST OF CHARACTERS
JOHN SELLARS (Auckland season)
JOHN SELLARS (Touring season)
RICHARD HOLTON
NATHAN SELLARS
Peter Elliot
Jonathon Hendry
Eryn Wilson
Damien Harrison
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SYNOPSIS
John Sellars is a hard nosed, self made millionaire and solo father of recalcitrant fifteen
year old Nathan, who has been expelled from three schools in the past year. Sellars
hires Richard Holton a left leaning maths teacher to tutor Nathan privately at home.
It is imperative to Sellars that Nathan achieves well in his exams and despite the tutor’s
misgivings in Sellar’s world money talks and he is more than prepared to throw cash at
Nathan to encourage him to study and even to use financial incentives to keep Richard
teaching his wayward son.
Richard tries a novel approach to engaging Nathan in maths but despite a gradual
improvement in the boy’s grades his father still isn’t satisfied. In a heated argument with
the tutor Sellars finally reveals the real reason why he is so determined for his son to
succeed – a custody battle with Nathan’s mother that hinges on proving that Nathan is
doing well at school. Richard insists that Sellars tell his son about the impending court
case and only when that happens does he agree to continue to tutor Nathan, whose
grades improve dramatically. Sellars and Richard celebrate and the tutor gets a taste of
Sellar’s excessive hard-partying lifestyle.
As the custody trial looms, Sellars asks Richard to provide him with a character
reference to be read in court. At first Richard refuses, but eventually supplies him with
two letters – one full of false
praise and another that tells
the truth and nothing but the
truth – and he challenges
him to use the ‘right’ letter.
In the final scene Sellars has
won the custody battle, and
to Richard’s surprise he has
used the truthful letter in the
trial. Nathan isn’t the only
one
who
has
learnt
something from the tutor.
(L to R) Damien Harrison and Peter Elliot
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THEMES
The Tutor is a fast-paced satire driven by the social and political
differences between the two adult characters and the problem of what
to do about Nathan.
Playwright (and ex-maths teacher) Dave Armstrong shares his views on
one of the key themes of The Tutor.
“At the heart of The Tutor is an examination of the way New Zealand has polarized into
Left and Right, rich and poor, brown and white, and young and old with little regard for
those in the middle. Education is a perfect example”.
If you go to almost any social event in Auckland attended by people with school-age
children, before long someone will ask ‘where should I send my child to school?’ and
words like ‘high-decile’ ‘multicultural’ ‘socioeconomic’ and ‘white flight’ are bandied
about. People who usually have difficulty remembering their kids’ names can suddenly
recall the percentage of NCEA ‘Excellents’ the local school achieved. Even talk about
real estate is peppered with terms like ‘grammar zones’ as desperate parents pay
thousands of dollars extra to ensure their child can go to a ‘desirable’ school.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that parents are genuinely concerned about their
children’s education – but so much information they get about schools is inaccurate. A
high-decile school simply means it is populated by rich children. Such schools are
usually headed by a strict, old-school, ‘family values’ principals because that’s what
those parents demand. It will usually have better facilities as rich parents will have more
money to donate than poor, but will it have better teachers? Not necessarily. As a former
failed Maths teacher, I had no difficult in teaching equally badly at both low- and highdecile schools.
Thirty years ago, most kids attended their local school. It was rare to find a class
comprised of exclusively upper-class Pakeha children, and it was rare to find a class full
of brown kids. Today, Auckland’s motorways are clogged each morning with children
being driven ‘out of zone’ to ‘superior’ schools for a ‘better’ (read ‘whiter’) education.
Ambitious parents might think they are doing their child a favour, but is it good for white
kids to grow up in the biggest Polynesian city in the world and not know any Polynesians
except those on rugby scholarships? Is it good for deprived brown kids to grow up
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knowing only other deprived brown kids? Why do Asian kids often find themselves in
classes only with other Asian kids?
To parents who can’t afford a house in ‘zone’, can I offer some advice? Ignore your
friends and send your kid to the nearest state school. If you’re worried about your child’s
academic progress, spend more time helping them with their homework. If there are
things you don’t like about your local
school, talk to the principal, and join
the school committee to help change
things. Don’t worry that your children
are not attending polo parties with
rich kids, they’d probably freeze
them out when they find out what
their parents do anyway.
(L to R) Eryn Wilson, Peter Elliot and Damien Harrison
SATIRE
Although satire is usually witty, and often very funny, the purpose of satire is not
primarily humour but criticism of an event, an individual or a group in a clever manner. 1
In The Tutor, playwright Dave Armstrong is poking fun at recognisable contemporary
New Zealand characters that on one level appear as stereotypes, (the self-made
millionaire, the lefty teacher, the spoilt brat) but each one is also rounded out as they
respond to the situations that arise in truthful ways. Armstrong also satirizes opposing
political and social views and perhaps his greatest target is political correctness. Some
of the funniest lines in the play, for example, come from Sellar’s extreme views – we
can’t believe some of the racist/sexist/homophobic things he says.
In an interview in Playmarket News2 Armstrong talks about writing the things we might
think, but don’t say:
One guy in my soccer team said he loves theatre because you suddenly realise you’re
not the only person thinking that. I love that. That’s why I do it. You want your audience to
go, ‘ah, you too huh’. ‘Oh god, you thought that and you felt bad about thinking that’.
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2
Source: Wikipedia
Issue no 36 Spring 2005
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DESIGN
Set - Rachael Walker
“Design elements for any play have to ultimately serve the written piece. Therefore the challenge
is to dissect the practical, physical, emotional, visual and psychological clues of a script and
design a three dimensional reality for it to inhabit.
The Tutor required one static location
which simplified things hugely from a
design point of view. It then became a
matter of creating enough space for
the actors to move in and business for
them to do in that environment.
I kept the set very neutral in colour so
the clothing of the characters would
really stand out”.
(Rachael Walker)
Set Model by Rachel Walker
Rachel Walker suggests the style of the set could be described as abstract naturalism,
where there is a high degree of reality with some theatrical twists:
“It is the archetype of a modern
minimalist, multi million dollar
waterfront property complete with
indoor / outdoor flow and prerequisite
‘Auckland view’. The Paritai Drive
home of John Sellers reflects his
compulsion of throwing money at
everything!
I wanted to create a slick, modern,
light and summery environment that
had obviously been handled
impersonally by an Interior designer”.
(Rachael Walker)
One major theatrical twist in this naturalistic set
is the use of billboard lighting around the ‘view’
of Rangitoto that dominates Sellars’ living room. The joke here is that the money-loving Sellars has
bought a billboard of the very view that is outside his own window. As Rachael Walker notes, the
design process often throws up unexpected problems;
I had found my perfect image for the ‘view’ on the internet but even after contacting the
photographer the file wasn’t big enough to enlarge to four metres long without it becoming very
pixilated. We ended up contracting a photographer to try and replicate the image, give or take a
few clouds and boats!
A further challenge of designing this set was also the touring nature of it (the production
tours around New Zealand following the Auckland season), because it has to pack down
efficiently into a container and fit into much smaller venues.
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Costumes – Rachael Walker
“The costumes are representational of the character’s archetypes, Aucklanders that we can all
recognise. The self important self made property developer with bling, the spoilt private school
boy with attitude and the disheveled, cask wine drinking, Daihatsu driving math tutor”. (Rachael
Walker)
JOHN SELLARS played by both Peter Elliot (Auckland
season) and director Jonathon Hendry (touring) is in a formal
dark navy pinstripe with gold
accessories and bright striped
shirt and tie.
NATHAN SELLARS played by
Damien Harrison, has a similarly
formal style in shades of grey and
blue but given a customized
‘teenage’ look; clothing a size too
big, non regulation additions and
labels where possible.
RICHARD HOLTON
(Eryn Wilson) by contrast
is in earthy tones of
brown and beige and
wears casual and faded
styles, open toed
sandals and carries a
weather-beaten
teacher’s bag bulging
with work.
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LIGHTING – Brad Gledhill
Designer Brad Gledhill answers the following questions about designing for The Tutor:
What is your concept for the lighting?
My design is based on what you see on the pages of architectural design magazines
such as URBIS.
What was the biggest challenge facing you in designing the lighting for this play?
Making it feel like a million dollar apartment on top of a cliff looking out into the ocean
and shifting it depending on the time of day.
What problems have you encountered during the design process?
The set is white and reflective.
How have you overcome those problems?
Tight control of angles to minimise reflection and focus to minimise spill. As well as the
inclusion of practical lights in the set.
What else you might want to say about the design process?
I work closely with the set designer (Rachael Walker) to solve the problem of bringing a
million dollar apartment to the stage, for example including the installation of practical
lights as architecture.
(L-R) Eryn Wilson (Holton) and Peter Elliot (Sellars)
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SOUND – Adam Gardiner
“The concept for the sound was a collaborative effort between me and the Director. The decisions
we made regarding music for the play were governed by the writing, we asked specific questions:
1. Where is the play set?
2. When?
3. What sort of feeling is the play trying to convey overall and at specific moments?
In this case the play is quite clearly set in
Auckland, and the time is now. Because of this
we have chosen to use only New Zealand music
and to use as much new contemporary New
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Zealand music as possible.
The music is used to help with the transitions
between scenes, rather than scoring the scenes,
(music played underneath the action, and as the
music helps move us from one scene to
another, it is vital to spend as much time as
possible watching the play come together in
rehearsals, so you have a good understanding
of the pace, energy, and emotion that connects
each scene.
Damien Harrison as Nathan
Trying out different musical ideas during runs of the play in rehearsal soon help to narrow down
choices until you find the right piece of music that suits the writing, action, tone, and what the
director is trying to achieve.
We also wanted to relate the music to the characters in the play, so our choices were governed
by what we thought the characters would listen to. For example the character Nathan, a teenager
from the nice suburbs, we thought would listen to Hip Hop.
The biggest challenge I faced was creating a shortlist of music to use. By choosing to use solely
New Zealand music when there is so much to choose from now, it would be quite a task to
narrow the field down.
The biggest problem is matching the musical choices to the feel of the play. Songs that sound
perfect listening to them in isolation, soon turn out to be quite different to how you envisaged
once you apply them to all the other elements of the play”. (Adam Gardiner)
Adam's tips for selecting music include:
1. Choose music that helps convey mood and emotion and drive the action
forward.
2. Avoid music that dwarfs all other elements in the play.
3. Create an atmosphere that works in counterpoint to other elements, for
example cheerful music under a scene of someone crying
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A comprehensive guide to obtaining the rights to use New Zealand music in a professional production and to obtaining
the rights to use New Zealand music in schools is available on the Australasian Performing Right Association website:
www.apra.co.nz
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CREATIVE TEAM
Jonathon Hendry – Director
Jonathon comes to The Tutor after three years as Head of Acting at Unitec NZ.
While at Unitec he directed several large innovative productions including the
2006 Graduation production of Coram Boy and Marat/Sade. In 2005 he mounted
a sell out revival of The Boys in the Band for Silo Theatre, which toured to
Wellington in 2006. In 2004 he directed Elena's Cultural Symphony at the Michael Fowler Centre,
which traveled to the Shanghai International Arts Festival in October 2006. Later this year he
directs Jim Moriarty as Othello at Downstage and Frank Whitten and Robyn Malcolm in Mark
Ravenhill’s The Cut at Silo. He has directed modern classics by Joe Penhall, Patrick Marber,
Philip Ridley, Christopher Durang as well as premieres of New Zealand works from Ken Duncum,
Jo Randerson, Bevin Linkhorn and Pip Hall.
Before joining Unitec Jonathon taught with Toi Whakaari, Massey University, Victoria University,
Wellington Conservatorium of Music, New Zealand College of Performing Arts and Wellington
Performing Arts Centre. He has had extensive experience in arts governance including periods
on the board of studies at Toi Whakaari, both the Downstage and Toi Whakaari trust boards, Taki
Rua management board and several advisory bodies. He has been nominated several times for
his work on stage, winning Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 1994 and 2001.
Dave Armstrong - Writer
Dave Armstrong has written extensively for stage and television. Dave co-wrote, with Oscar
Kightley, Niu Sila, which had a sold-out Auckland Theatre Company season at AK05, and won a
Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Best New New Zealand Play, as well as an award from the
New Zealand Arts Foundation. Niu Sila tours to England later this year. His adaptation of Charles
Dickens’ Christmas Carol was Auckland Theatre Company’s 2004 end-of-year production. Dave
also wrote King and Country, a play about New Zealand soldiers during World War I which
features a live brass band. King and Country has been performed throughout New Zealand,
including sold-out seasons at Auckland’s 2006 Going West Festival and the 2006 International
Festival of the Arts in Wellington. Dave’s stage adaptation of Sia Figiel’s novel Where We Once
Belonged will be performed as part of Auckland Theatre Company’s THE NEXT STAGE in 2007.
Dave co-created and co-wrote the TV comedy Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, which screened
on TV One and Australia’s ABC network. Dave also wrote for the PR political satire Spin Doctors
and was script editor for the first series of Bro’Town. Dave is currently the 2007 Writer in
Residence at Victoria University of Wellington.
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Set and Costume Design - Rachael Walker
Rachael is a set and costume designer in the theatrical, screen, orchestral,
retail, dance and events arenas. Previously for Auckland Theatre
Company she designed costumes for The Bach and The Vagina
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Monologues. She also designed ATC 2 Unit productions of Play 2 and
Play 2.03. Rachel’s other theatre highlights include set and costume
designs for the Silo’s The Case of Katherine Mansfield and costume
designs for their production of Glide Time. Also Under Milkwood and
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at Silo theatre, A Lethal Set’s productions of The Return and Proof
at the Maidment Studio, Measure for Measure and The Crucible at Unitec theatre and Aladdin at
the Auckland Festival, AK03.
Lighting Design – Brad Gledhill
Brad Gledhill is a Lighting & Audio-Visual designer who has designed for Auckland Theatre
Company, Silo Theatre, and numerous dance and theatre productions. He lectures in the
Performance Technology Programme at Unitec’s Theatre, Dance & Film School. Brad has
designed lighting for Auckland Theatre Company productions The Ocean Star, The Shape of
Things and The Talented Mr Ripley and Play 2 and 2.03 (for ATC Second Unit). Other lighting
designs include: Aladdin, Measure for Measure, Miniatures, Lashings of Whipped Cream, Knock
Knock Turn, Coram Boy and several National Dance Tours with works by Michael Parmenter,
Simon Ellis, Daniel Belton, Raewyn Hill and Chris Jannides.
Sound Design - Adam Gardiner
Adam Gardiner has been working in theatre film television and
radio for 12 years. In 2003 Adam came to Auckland for the
weekend and has been working here ever since. His Auckland
Theatre Company production work includes creating the audio
visual design for Equus and tour managing the upcoming
production of Hatch or The Plight of the Penguins. Also an actor,
Adam’s theatre credits include Play2.03, New Gold Dream, Ladies
Night and The Ocean Star for Auckland Theatre Company.
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Peter Elliott - John Sellers
Peter has appeared in more than 50 theatre productions in a career spanning
twenty years, and is no stranger to the Auckland Theatre Company stage. In
the last few years he has appeared in Equus, The Graduate, Noises Off, Take
a Chance on Me, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and Art. Other
theatre credits include numerous productions at Court Theatre, Mercury
Theatre, Downstage, Fortune Theatre and Melbourne Theatre Company.
Peter has also appeared in more than 30 television shows including long
stints on Gloss and Shortland Street. Recent projects include being host, writer and associate
producer on the documentary series Explorers, and presenting Captain’s Log, Intrepid Journeys
and Secret New Zealand, all for TV One.
Eryn Wilson - Robert Holton
Eryn is a graduate of Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School and Bay of Plenty
Academy of Performing Arts. His film experience includes roles in The
Freezer, When Strangers Appear and The Feathers of Peace. Eryn’s
television experience includes Orange Roughies, Outrageous Fortune,
Matuku, Shortland Street, The Strip, Spin Doctors, Dark Night, Cleopatra 2525
and Coverstory. Theatre experience includes Howie the Rookie, Little Che,
Duck, Marathon, Closer, Small Town Boy, Trainspotting and Little Shop of
Horrors.
Damien Harrison - Nathan Sellers
Damien is a graduate of Unitecs Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts
degree. Flim experience includes Unitec productions of The Seagull, Like
Milk, Bob Davis Super Hero and Losing Morning. Damien’s theatre
experience includes Unitec productions of La Creduta Morta, Monolouges,
Blackrock, Still Water Rising, Last Laughs, Marat/Sade, Three Sisters,
Class Act and Spinning Tales.
REVIEWS: At the time of publication limited reviews are available. For subsequent copies of
press reviews contact Lynne Cardy Education and 2econd Unit Coordinator [email protected]