I received a phone call from a friend, Nicola Davies, to let me know that David Johnson who was our Director at Oldham Theatre Workshop, had sadly passed away aged 77. I met Nicola over 30 years ago at Oldham Theatre Workshop and we are still friends today. This is the same for a lot of the people I met there and even though some of us don't see each other for years at a time, it's like we all share a special bond from our time there and on many a night out, it is always something we reminisce about with fondness.
Anyone that knew of the town of Oldham would almost certainly have heard of Oldham Theatre Workshop. It was somewhere those budding actors aged 8-25 could learn their craft. Unlike most drama schools OTW was FREE for members and so opened up opportunities to those who may otherwise not have been able to afford to take advantage of such training. I say training, you were literally drilled through dance routines, stage blocking, and learning your lines until David's vision was achieved.
The process usually began with a cattle call where the masses were asked to perform certain tasks, be it a dance routine, sing a specific song, or read for a certain part. You were then given a coloured sticky dot on your T-shirt which had some meaning you were unaware of. The various coloured dots were then split into groups. If you were lucky you got a role in the nest production, if you were unlucky you got to play a chorus role as one of the many faces in the group numbers. These were usually split into Chorus A,B or C. This not only meant that child actors didn't have to perform each night, but also quite cleverly meant that there were about 500 chorus members who would all sell tickets to Granny, Grandad and Aunty's and Uncles see them 'Perform'.
My biggest regret about my time at OTW is that I didn't join when I was younger, as by the time I started going I was at that age where I had the embarrassment factor and worried about what people thought. A lot of the longer-standing members, joined when they were a lot younger and so had a lot more confidence by the time they hit their early teens.
David Johnson founded Oldham Theatre Workshop in 1968 and during his time as Director, produced many of today's successful actors. No matter how old you were, the minute you stepped through those doors, he treated you like a professional actor out in the real world. He made no exceptions for youth and thought nothing of scolding a 9-year-old for arriving 3 minutes late, the same as he would a 20-year-old for fluffing a line.
Everybody was held to the exact same high standard. As much as you hated the public humiliation at the time, you never made the same mistake twice. Within the industry, OTW had a reputation for producing actors that were professional, would be punctual and always would know their lines. If ever there were two actors in the running for a part I'm sure that coming from OTW would give someone the edge over their counterpart with comparable acting ability. The discipline David instilled in members would set you up with life skills that you could take with you into adulthood. If I would ever go for a job interview, having been a member of OTW was always something that was thought very highly of and brought up during the interview.
It really hit home to me many years after I left Theatre Workshop, just how David's discipline had been instilled in me. I met someone on a night out and got chatting and they were a member of an adults Am Dram group. He mentioned they were doing a panto and their Dame had dropped out with just 6 weeks to go. I explained I could step in if they were stuck, which he was happy to accept. He dropped me off a script the next day and said two days later they would be running through Act 1. I turned up for rehearsals two days later and waited for things to start. People were casually wandering in at various times long after we had meant to begin. 'David wouldn't have this', I thought to myself. Anyway, we started rehearsals and I sat my script down on my chair and went up on stage to have the scene blocked. "Where's your script?" said the director, "It's on my chair" I said, "Well don't you need it?" he asked? I looked around and everybody on stage was holding their script (they had been rehearsing for about 12 weeks). "I thought we doing the whole of Act 1 tonight
, So I've learned it? ". He looked shocked?
I just presumed after rehearsing for so long everybody would be off book as that was the first thing David insisted on. You can't gesticulate or move about properly while still looking down at your script. Needless to say, I told them at the end of a shambolic rehearsal that this "wasn't for me". I think when you have been held to such high standards by David for so long, it's hard to slip into slapdash work ethics.
A lot of great actors were previous members of Oldham Theatre Workshop. Below are just some of the people that passed through Oldham Theatre Workshop and have since gone on to have successful careers in the industry. I'm sure there are many more but these are just some of the people that were members around the same time as me.
David was renowned for his cutting one-liners that he would scream across the rehearsal room at anybody stepping out of line during rehearsals.
Some of the classics I remember were:-
"You in the blue dungarees you're masking !! "- This was the 70 % of the cast costume was blue dungarees lol.
If your hair's in the way, BURN IT OFF ! - Not a fashion tip I would suggest lol.
If they're in the way KICK THEM, They'll soon move!
If I'm not worth 10 pence, DON'T BOTHER COMING! - This was in the days of phone booths and payphones that cost 10p to make a phonecall, (to let David know you'd be late).
Girl with the hair - OUT !! - Every Girl with hair froze and avoided catching his eye lol.
And if you were ever brave enough to apologise for botching a line it usually went like this...
You: Sorry David......
David: SO AM I !!!
David was on the New Year's Honours list in 2019 for his Youth Theatre Work. I'm glad he got the recognition while he was still alive as so often people only get the recognition after they have passed.
You never know, some of us ex Workshop Folk might get together and write David Johnson The Musical ;-)
David, you were a Legend and will be sadly missed. I salute you (whilst chewing gum ;-) )
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