Giles Watson's poetry and prose
Annie: Backdrop Detail
Faringdon Community College presents
'Annie'
Produced by Julia Nichols and Matt Smith.
Drama Direction by Giles Watson.
Assistant directors: Max Sly and Joe Thurston.
Music Direction by Ella Kolodziej and Stephanie Gammon
Set design by Giles Watson and Natalie Thomas.
Costumes by Kathleen Thomas and Ulia Haynes.
Thursday 4th and Saturday 6th July, 7 p.m.
Adults £6
Children/Concessions £3
01367 240628
Picture shows detail of the backdrop, designed by Giles Watson, painted by Natalie Thomas.
The Great Depression brought unprecedented levels of homelessness and destitution to the United States in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Industrial production plummeted, and cities descended into near-anarchy under the reign of gangsters such as Al Capone. The widening gulf between rich and poor was nowhere more poignantly obvious than in the Hoovervilles: shanty towns constructed by the unemployed on vacant land on the outskirts of cities. From 1933 onwards, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ enacted special relief programmes, but it was not until the economy recovered in 1940 that unemployment began to fall.
Meanwhile, the pressure on institutions such as Municipal Orphanages was enormous. Many of the children who lived in them were not in fact orphans at all, but children of the destitute, or of single mothers. Such institutions continued to be overcrowded until the 1935 Aid for Dependent Children legislation began at last to make it easier for struggling families to continue to care for their children.
Although it is based on a comic strip - and has plenty of moments of brightness - Annie confronts the combined evils of social deprivation and greed with a refreshing frankness. It also provides an opportunity for compelling portrayals of the devastating effect of alcoholism, and of the transformational power of a child's optimism - especially when it is pitted unflinchingly against the odds. It testifies to the power of individual stories in the face of national tragedies.
Our Annie deliberately dispenses with schmaltz. It is not schmaltz which enables her to touch the heart of a man who maintains his status as a billionaire when thousands are starving: it is the kind of honesty and self-belief that only a child can possess. We hope it will touch your heart, too.
Annie: Backdrop Detail
Faringdon Community College presents
'Annie'
Produced by Julia Nichols and Matt Smith.
Drama Direction by Giles Watson.
Assistant directors: Max Sly and Joe Thurston.
Music Direction by Ella Kolodziej and Stephanie Gammon
Set design by Giles Watson and Natalie Thomas.
Costumes by Kathleen Thomas and Ulia Haynes.
Thursday 4th and Saturday 6th July, 7 p.m.
Adults £6
Children/Concessions £3
01367 240628
Picture shows detail of the backdrop, designed by Giles Watson, painted by Natalie Thomas.
The Great Depression brought unprecedented levels of homelessness and destitution to the United States in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Industrial production plummeted, and cities descended into near-anarchy under the reign of gangsters such as Al Capone. The widening gulf between rich and poor was nowhere more poignantly obvious than in the Hoovervilles: shanty towns constructed by the unemployed on vacant land on the outskirts of cities. From 1933 onwards, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ enacted special relief programmes, but it was not until the economy recovered in 1940 that unemployment began to fall.
Meanwhile, the pressure on institutions such as Municipal Orphanages was enormous. Many of the children who lived in them were not in fact orphans at all, but children of the destitute, or of single mothers. Such institutions continued to be overcrowded until the 1935 Aid for Dependent Children legislation began at last to make it easier for struggling families to continue to care for their children.
Although it is based on a comic strip - and has plenty of moments of brightness - Annie confronts the combined evils of social deprivation and greed with a refreshing frankness. It also provides an opportunity for compelling portrayals of the devastating effect of alcoholism, and of the transformational power of a child's optimism - especially when it is pitted unflinchingly against the odds. It testifies to the power of individual stories in the face of national tragedies.
Our Annie deliberately dispenses with schmaltz. It is not schmaltz which enables her to touch the heart of a man who maintains his status as a billionaire when thousands are starving: it is the kind of honesty and self-belief that only a child can possess. We hope it will touch your heart, too.