Capital Theatres 57
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Transcript
Audio details
| Audio format | Music |
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| Year | 1918 |
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| Transcription |
The date is the 18th of June 2024 and I'm going to sit down and speak with Valerie Berman today. The time is 1246 and we will begin the interview now. Please. Can you state your full name and date of birth? Valerie McKay, Bjurman, 14th of March 1955 Can you tell me a bit about where you were born? I was born in Simpson's maternity hospital in Edinburgh. Andre went to live, obviously with my mom and dad on grand parents in Upper Gilmer Place, which is literally two minutes from the Kings Theatre to cross. Can you tell me a little bit about your childhood? We lived there for about five years. We move just before I started school. Andre, I just remember the king's being at the absolute hub of Tool Cross, and I hope that happens again with a work that's going on. They happy memories of my childhood. I was an only child, but there always seemed to be lots of people round about. We lived in a flat in upper going replace top flat. Andre. I remember that a couple of the flats, although my grandparents didn't Ah, couple of the people in the stair they used to take in theatricals as it was called. So I remember lots of people being about remember, one particular neighbour had a lot of photographs of people she'd had staying with them. I don't remember anybody specifically because I was too young and there's nobody left. Tiu ask about that. Unfortunately, I remember there being a lot of parties going on in the flats on. We were always invited there, and there was always somebody who could play the piano on always somebody who would sing. I just remember it being I'm sure It wasn't just a new year time. It seemed to be happening on a regular basis, which is a young child was just fascinated. I just loved it. my own grandfather. He was. He played the saxophone and he'd been in a band in the twenties. I don't think he ever played the Kings Theatre. I think it was more dance holds that that he was in. But ah, lot of people in the in the stair seemed to be professional musicians as well. So how would you care? Drives that your your apartment building? How would you characterise that area to cross? busy. fun a riel. community. I know that words use such a lot these days. But thinking back to cross real iwas a community. And as I said, with the Kings Theatre at the heart of that, we seem to go to the theatre practically every every week. I'm sure it wasn't as often Is that that that that was my sort of recollection on naturally, every Christmas time, the pantomime, I mean, that was That's the absolute highlight of the year and still is. can you recall the first time you went to a formal theatre? Where that was the King's? Yes. And yes, it was the pantomime, Andre. I was two and working out with dates of birth and everything. I was probably two and three quarters because it's a march birthday. Andre. I've actually done some research on this because my mom used to talk about it and there was, ah, performer. He was on Irish performer called Billy stopped and I didn't know anything about Billy Start. And I did look up recently on Billy Start was in Cinderella on. He played buttons, and every time he came on stage and I actually can remember there was a row of plastic flowers on, they would occasionally flop on in the audience. We all had to show buttons, buttons, water your pans, ese and only would come with her watching can water these plastic flowers and they would come back to life on the best traditions of pantomime. He came into the audience. I don't think he took Children up on the stage at that point. If he did, I would be too little to do that. But he came into the audience to speak to some of the Children there, and apparently my grandmother, who was quite quiet person, actually just suddenly burst into life, and she was holding me up so that buttons would come and speak to me. Here she is, here she is on death ink that's probably affected me ever since because I do a fair bit of performances and So that was my first memory of the theatre. That's such a rich memory. Have it from that young oven age. But that's so specific, yes. and actually a c a. Looked up on the wonderful Internet. And I have a programme from the year before from 1956 down South. I think it's in Stockton on by the castle. It it must have been the same show because it's Cinderella and it's the cast list on there's buttons name and there's police stocks name. So are you a lover of Penta? Absolutely. Absolutely. We don't miss it become every year, so we're just absolutely adore it on Duh. It says meeting my husband. He wasn't really a theatre person before he met me, but he isn't. And he grew up into a cross as well. So we have have shared memories but different memories. Aziz. Well, he see he wasn't really his family weren't really into the theatre, but that's changed. so growing up into your teen years, What did you study at school or what kind of subjects did you like? I loved language. I love it. When I got to high school doing higher English. I loved Shakespeare. I love music. I played the cello, so I was in the orchestra in the choir. on. So we used to do various performances in Not in the Kings, but we did. We did appear in a couple of theatres in Edinburgh with the choir in with the orchestra. and is the sea sheets. I love doing Shakespeare. or any sorts of plays. The only thing was I wasn't terribly keen on reading, which annoyed my English teacher absolutely couldn't stand it and remember him just before I was taking my English exam. My higher is it would be giving me this because they couldn't steak. We read this book. It was withering heights. I think I skimmed through it. I was lucky that actually managed to pass an exam without doing too much reading. So was it this kind of love of Shakespeare and then comedy that drove you into performance? Yes, I had done a little. It was more on the music side of things when I was a teenager. As I said, I sang in the choir but did more of the orchestra. And then when I left school, I didn't really do that much until my supper. Late twenties, when I joined Edinburgh Acting School on, we did a couple of performances on the fringe on again. We did appear on the Kings Theatre stage. I think it was was trying to remember. I think it would be 1986. There was a one off sort of May fest that the Kings had, and it was all the local community groups, acting groups and singing groups on our French performance that year was fame, so we did a few songs from from fame. That's our contribution, but I don't think they ever repeated the annual Glasgow doesn't may fest thing or used to do on May 1st thing, so maybe there was too much competition there, but I think it was just a one off thing on old. Remember It was the first time I wore a radio Mike onboard in their leading is of that technology because we're picking up all the local taxi messages, it's on the same frequency as our radio Mike Mike's. that was quite funny. Speaking of, I guess trying to make things work onstage and things. Do you have any storeys? of. I don't want to say things that have gone wrong, but just working backstage and how that experience working in the king's has been different to perhaps other venues. not a lot of experience of that. I remember doing one of the backstage tours of the Kings and just being amazed how ancient the workings were of the the, you know, the hydraulics for the lift coming up through the stage door. No, that couldn't believe that. it's what's the best part of 100 years old. I think some of the equipment, the fact that it was still working on, but it was just the contrast between seeing the backstage. from seeing a front of house and whatever in the his magical and how wonderful it was from this side and I hopefully what's from backstage and desperately it was It was needed. Tiu have something done Tiu it. could you tell me a little bit more about some of the performances you've done with the Kings? not many at at the King's, Asai mentioned. We used Tiu have choir here, and it was for older people on board when the launch for all this for the redevelopment was going on in the Kings. We were invited. Tiu sing at that, and I'm thinking that must have been about 2018, something like that. So the choir was asked to go along with There was there was a lot of guests and everything. I suppose people had been invited in the hope that they would donate money to this close. We weren't actually on the stage. We were in the circle because there was a reception happening on the stage on, so we had to sink from the from the circle, so that was quite interesting. But personally, there's no been a lot of performances on the King's that tends to have been elsewhere, including this place. How would you describe Edinburgh's theatre landscape when you were growing up versus now? my recollection of it. There were more theatres because as well as the king's, because we lived until cross. We used to go to the palladium as well, which was in a sort of bread street area. s o. We kind of went between the two. The two places. and then gradually a lot of the theatres became cinemas on bond. The theatre kind of no vanished but wasn't as popular. They didn't seem to be as many, including this place, which was a bingo hall. And then just over the last few years there's just been this massive resurgence again, which is amazing, which is great. there tend to be smaller venues as well. Again, from for community groups, there seems to be a Ah lot of groups happening, which is which is great for all ages. On DTH ink, it's it's great to have, um, specifically for older people a swell would, you know, we're not just stuck in a corner and told to be quiet. We're out there was still got so much to offer and there's so much that we could be doing on, but it's just it's just great. So tell me about the different organisations that you're involved with now. Okay? Singing lies That thing with the rock choir on with performing a furious places on That's great one on the other one is called Tricky Hat Productions on They have a thing called the Flames on I'm on Edinburgh Flame. We did our first show in Edinburgh in 2019 at Studio here on It's It's Great. It's just a maximum of 22 people just come together, people that we don't know we do. Six. What's called gorilla sessions? Six Saturdays, usually and at the end of six Saturdays we put on a performance. so it tends to be storeys from our lives. They don't have to be true, but most of thumb are. I think, if you if your story's true, you tell it in a different way, to if it's not true, so there's there's that on. There's also movement and one storey links with another. It's not just one person standing up and telling a storey to the audience There's there's a mixture. It might just be a little bit of the storey. It might be the beginning might be the middle bit might be the ending and they're all weaved in amongst everybody else's storey with with movement work with a Japanese choreographer who puts them to get it's the movement. Together there is pre recorded pre film backdrop. While this is going on, there are live musicians and underscoring what we're what we're doing on. It's just amazing how it all goes together. So we've done a couple of performances here on the last to know in here we've kind of moved up to summer hole but that's Can you tell me about any standout performances? Air a particular storey that you've performed that meant most to you. under the Tricky Hat Productions. quite contrast ing storeys. Actually, the with first one was about somebody that adopted a pet snake with interesting results. The second one I told was about a holiday husband and myself had had gone on. That was disastrous. And then when it came to doing the third one, it's something that happened to me years and years before, about 40 years before, just suddenly raised its head and I wanted to speak about not particularly pleasant experience on it was a sexual attack, actually, on D. I don't know why that particular time, I just felt wanted to talk about it in front of these people that didn't really know what I did on that that developed into the storey that I told that here. during the show that even my husband you, but I've never spoken about it before. They see something with me after 40 years. Just I just decided that needed to suppose. Have a little bit of closure on that on. Just speak about it. So I think that two people by surprise on, but was that's the beauty of the flames thing. The storeys don't have to be lighthearted than you know, feel good factor. Sometimes you do just need to speak about things are not quite this pleasant on do share it with an audience. For some reason, there's inexplicable. have you felt that the kind of commune ist sense within the arts, whether or not you work with these people before, did you feel like that was just a safe space for all expression? Possibly use, possibly because afterwards it was it was amazing. How many people, many of the women and it's a mixed group said to me, I've got similar experience, you know? It's a bit like on a skilled down version of me, too. On bond, Quite a few people, women within the group said I could relate that control totally relate to that. So that was that's unexpected and interesting. So if you had to care, if your eyes I mean what has the role? Well, what role has leader played and you're living in your journey On the way you tell your storey a big, important part. both taking part on being in the audience. It's just I can't imagine it not having being in my life. So it is very dramatic, but I just can't because it is such a nim Porton. Part of they've been doing Cove it that that was just disastrous because that's when the choir that that we had here obviously had to stop. Onder didn't get started again because funding was put into the forget me nots. The dementia. Quite quite right, too. I don't have a problem with that, but we're just happened, you know, it was just such another form that Christmas, no phantom mind to go to. It was just Unreal World, something that would never obviously experience before. And hopefully never again because it was just awful not having that in our lives. Having lost that sense of community space, particularly in that time, we saw the impact it had on people just to come and see a show performed. But it really does show how theatres are placed. for community? Yes, On how necessary the arts are. Absolutely. I mean the tricky hat. We were able to do a lot online. Esso At least it was something wasn't the same. You know, you need to be in the same room with somebody when you're interacting with them. Telling her Storey and listening to their storey that was better than nothing. Is there a particular memory about production that you've seen? It doesn't have to be the kings to be anywhere that has other done the panto that has. left a real mark on you. It's either an artist were his first. It must be Les Mis. it has to be. Les Mis re musical Theatre is my absolute favourite on out of all the performances. It's got to be that I watched against Guy r a t weekend. I would watch it every night. It's just so and it's still crying. I've seen I don't know how many times and I know the points that are coming out And I think, Yeah, the waterworks, we're going to start in a minute but it's just marvellous is just wonderful. What do you think we can do to encourage more people to move into the arts and get more young people involved? I think it's happening. I do think it's happening. There are all these, you know, settle these community groups happening. It's happening in schools. I'm just finished doing front of house with the Children's festival in Edinburgh on my husband myself do that. We've done that for the last three or four years, and that's just lovely to see some school groups coming in on some of the areas of Edinburgh they come from. It's obvious that the Children have never been to live theatre, which really saddens me, but just tiu see them as they're. They're watching a performance and not knowing how to react to it, but reacting still just the same. It's it's just incredible in the hope that you know somebody. Even if just one child goes away and takes that I want to do this. I want to find out about that. It's just we just love it. It's really, really good. And that's what's all about. Just just finding out exactly what it is. It's It's going to make one child. See, I want to do that. I'm going to do that. So, yes, the Children's festival really helps. I think from from that point of view and there are a lot of things happening for that and schools do a lot themselves. I mean, obviously put along. I've been there, done that brutal Nativity, whatever when I was teaching. so just giving them that experience on just sort of planting the seed, I think, is vital. can I ask, going back on that where you taught and what you talk? It was in primary schools around about Edinburgh. I worked in a started off down in West Hilton. in a school called interview, which doesn't actually exist anymore because amalgamated with another school. And then I moved to Abby Hill, which more sort of city centre school. And then I met my husband and we moved out of Edinburgh. So I got a job out and village school. So that was That was quite interesting because it meant that I had to have Primary one Primary two on Primary three on the same class because there were only about 5455 Children in the whole school. So that was quite a challenge. I worked there for a few years. Then we moved back into Edinburgh. So I came back into a juniper green primary on from there. I was working my way up the promotion ladder. From there I went Tiu know. Beg your pardon? I went to South morning site, then to Juniper Green on Finished Up, James Guy Space so I would imagine you've had a few experiences where the school has been invited to the Kings or the festival. Better particularly run Panto Yes, hasn't even involved in the Yes, when I worked in Gillespie's because it was just two minutes away, we used t bring the not the whole school to the to the pantomime, but the the upper school from Primary 456 and seven on. It was particularly interesting because grant starts Children were at our school. So we always just Gillespie's always just to get a mention when we were when we were there on. So that's that was good fun, quite challenging to have 200. And however many Children taking them down to the pantomime on getting the most did the right seats. Yes, that's a huge undertaking, especially when you got down on stage. yes. Well, what do you hope for the King's? When every opens, I hope it hasn't lost any of its. Magic. Every time I pass it on the bus, I say, Look after her. Sometimes I say it out loud. forget where I am after every time we go past. basically, that's that's it. Hope it comes back to, as I said before, being the sort of the hub of the tall cross talk crosses is a strange area of the city because sometimes it looks very run down on. Then it just it's like a Phoenix from the ashes. It comes at you know, all these lovely little Kathy's on open up and little independent shops, and then it seems to take a bit of a dive. So I hope, with the king's opening up again, that it becomes a sort of focal point for for everybody round about not just to cross, obviously across the city, but that that's what I hope. So I understand there's quite a lot of music and your family. Could you tell me a little bit more about your parents? Okay, so during the war time, my mum on her dad used to do a lot of entertaining or round about where they lived in the back greens. I don't know how much they would be able to do that, given the weather in Scotland, but when you look back on things, the sun always shown that. So my mom used to sing on. Grandad used to play the accordion on D. I don't think he ever got paid that he might have got paid in beer, that sort of level. Where is the dad's family? My dad's grandfather was a fellow of the Royal College of Music in London. On was a music teacher in the north of Scotland. My granddad was played in a band called the Certain Nader's Round, about the 19 twenties all round, about a set before dance halls rather than theatres in Edinburgh. On my dad's family were great Gilbert Sullivan fans. My mum, I don't think would ever have heard of Gilbert and Sullivan. So my dad introduced her to that, and they used to speak really fondly about going to Gilbert and Sullivan performances at Kings, which were really, really popular and they didn't have a lot of money for theatre. So they would go up into the gods, Andre, No health and safety in these days because it used to be so popular that you could sit on the steps. You didn't need to have a seat. So they out sit on the steps and watch the Gilbert and Sullivan performances on that love of Gilbert. And Sullivan actually came down to me. Remember having vinyl? which my granddad, I think, had given me on just listening to Gilbert and Sullivan, and I still to this day has come and see Gilbert and Sullivan performances. did you come to their 100th anniversary performance of the gondolier? To my embarrassment? I didn't. The gondolier is not one of my favourite. Pirates of Penzance. Absolutely anything like like that. But gondolier is not so much so. I haven't seen. I didn't come to that shot caller. we'll keep that under wraps. Its please please do. Yes, it's what's that Side door relatives turning in their grief because it didn't come to the 100 celebrations. Well, I certainly hope there's that same level of popularity when it reopens. But I do hope there's a little bit more health and safety and perhaps a bit more comfort over after it, yeah. was there anything else you would like to add? I think I have spoken about everything. I want to just speak it. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for your time. Let's really, really appreciate you being part of the project. At this point. We're going to stop recording. It is now 116, and I'm going to conclude this interview for the Kings Theatre Heritage Project. |
