1 Theatre by the Lake

Before you watch

1 SPEAKING   Work in pairs. Answer the questions.
1 Is there a theatre in your town or city? If so, how often do you go?
2 Is the theatre popular among young people in your country? Why? / Why not?
3 What’s the best experience you’ve ever had at the theatre?

Comprehension check
2 ⊲   Watch the DVD clip. Choose the correct answers.
1 What is RADA?
a  a theatre   b  a drama school   c  an area of London
2 Where is Theatre by the Lake?
a  in London   b  in the West End   c  in north-west England
3 Whose job is it to find the furniture they use on the stage?
a Hayley’s   b Charlotte’s   c Andrew’s

3 ⊲   Watch again. Number the things (A–H) in the order that you see them.
A   an actor, practising with backstage staff
B   a popular West End Show being performed on stage
C   a busy London street
D   a smartly-dressed male ticket seller
E   a prestigious drama school
F   a recreation of a traditional Shakespearean theatre
G   beautiful green hills
H   an audience waiting for a play to start

4 ⊲   Watch again. Complete the sentences with the words below. There are two extra words.
Andrew Lindsay Artistic Director Charlotte Globe Hayley Judi Dench RADA West End
1 The is home to a number of famous theatres in London.
2 The was William Shakespeare’s theatre in London.
3 is one of the celebrities who support Theatre by the Lake.
4 Ian Forrest is the at the theatre.
5 is the Technical Manager at the theatre.
6 works in a team with two other people.

Round up
5 SPEAKING   Work in groups. Answer the question.
Which theatre would you most like to visit, the Globe or the Theatre by the Lake? Why?

Solutions Third Edition Upper-Intermediate  DVD worksheet 1 photocopiable © Oxford University Press
 Vocabulary
6 RECYCLE   Choose the correct adjectives.
1 The staff who work for the Theatre by the Lake are really passionate / industrious about their work.
2 The staff and volunteers at the theatre are shrewd / selfless. They just want to work hard to make the
theatre a success.
3 The writer of the play is really creative / generous. She has so many good ideas.
4 The team are really creative / industrious. They built the stage and painted the set in just three hours.
5 The theatre owner is a shrewd / selfless businessman. He opened the theatre two weeks ago and now
everyone wants to come here.
6 The staff at the theatre are so generous / passionate with their time. They often work late to make sure
everything goes well.

7 Complete the text with the words below.

directors playhouse playwrights productions props stages

The National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the most famous performing arts
venues in the country. It was founded in 1963 at the Old Vic 1 , a theatre
in south London, but since 1976 has had its own building by the Thames in central
London. The building has three 2 and puts on about twenty 3
each year, written by both well-known and new 4 . All the 5
used in the plays can be hired from the theatre, including old furniture, stuffed animals
and fake food. The National has had six artistic 6 , including one of Britain’s
greatest ever actors, Laurence Olivier.

Extension
8 Look at the photos. What jobs do you think these people are doing?
Which job would you prefer to do? Why?

9 Work in pairs. Describe the photos. Use the key phrases for introducing an argument.

Speculating
I can’t be sure, but …
It looks to me like he/she is …
He/She is most likely a …
I’d say that …

Solutions Third Edition Upper-Intermediate  DVD worksheet 1 photocopiable © Oxford University Press
 1 DVD teacher’s notes

DVD clip summary

The DVD clip is about the Theatre by the Lake, a small regional theatre in the Lake District town of Keswick,
in the north-west of England.

Background
After the Second World War, life in Britain was difficult, and as the country began counting the cost of the
war and started rebuilding there was little money to invest in theatre. So in 1948, a group of creative and
selfless actors, technicians and other theatre professionals decided to build a mobile theatre. They wanted
to be able to travel round the country and perform in towns where there wasn’t a theatre, to give everyone
a chance to see a play.
In 1952, the Century Theatre took to the road, travelling all over Britain, finally reaching the town of Keswick,
in the Lake District, in 1961. Soon after this, people began to talk about building a permanent theatre there,
and in 1975 the travelling theatre set up a permanent home in Keswick. Over the next twenty years, a group
of dedicated theatre lovers tried to build a proper theatre in the town. Eventually, with money from the
National Lottery, the local council and other fundraising activities, work began to build the theatre in 1998.
It opened the following year with a 400-seat auditorium and a 100-seat studio space.

Before you watch

Exercise 1
• Read the questions with the class and elicit answers from individual students. Encourage the students to
expand on their answers and use their suggestions to start a class discussion.
• Answers: Students’ own answers

Comprehension check
Exercise 2
• Pre-watching: Go through the questions with the students.
• ⊲   Play the whole DVD clip. The students choose the correct answers. Check their answers.
• Answers: 1  b  2 c  3 a
Exercise 3
• Pre-watching: Ask the students to read the list and to try and remember the order that they saw the things
in the DVD clip.
• ⊲   Play the DVD clip to check the answers.
• Answers: 1  C  2 E  3 F  4 B  5 G  6 H  7 D  8 A
Exercise 4
• Pre-watching: Ask the students to try and complete the sentences with the words before they watch the
DVD clip again.
• Weaker classes: Go through the words and check if the students know how to say them. Then play the
DVD clip and pause after each answer.
• ⊲   Play the DVD clip to check the answers.
• Answers: 1  West End  2 Globe  3 Judi Dench  4 Artistic Director  5 Andrew Lindsay  6 Hayley

Round up
Exercise 5
• Put the students in groups. Give them a few minutes to discuss the question.
• Answers: Students’ own answers

Solutions Third Edition Upper-Intermediate  DVD teacher’s notes 1 photocopiable © Oxford University Press
 Vocabulary
Exercise 6
• Ask the students to read the sentences first and then choose the correct adjectives.
• Weaker classes: Elicit the meanings of the adjectives before the students choose the correct words.
• Answers: 1  passionate  2 selfless  3 creative  4 industrious  5 shrewd  6 generous
Exercise 7
• Ask the students to read through the text first, before they complete the sentences. With a weaker class, you could
elicit the meanings of the words first.
• Answers: 1  playhouse  2 stages  3 productions  4 playwrights  5 props  6 directors

Extension
Exercises 8 and 9
• Materials needed: None
• Preparation: Put the students in pairs. Tell them they are going to describe, compare and contrast the photos.
• Language: Elicit the words box office, technician, lighting, sound.
• Activity: Give the students 5–8 minutes to talk about the photos. Encourage them to speculate about what
the people are doing in the photos, and to personalise their answers and give their opinions. Then discuss
the photos with the whole class.
• Extension: Ask the students to discuss other jobs that people do in the theatre.

Solutions Third Edition Upper-Intermediate  DVD teacher’s notes 1 photocopiable © Oxford University Press
 1 DVD script

Theatre by the Lake

London has always been the centre of the British theatre world. It’s home to the West
End, a small area of central London with some of the most famous theatres in the
world. Not far away, there’s the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, arguably the most
prestigious drama school in the world. Many of today’s famous actors started their
careers at this school.
Before RADA and the West End, Shakespeare had made London his home. After he
became a famous playwright the shrewd Shakespeare opened his own theatre – the
Globe. Today, a recreated version of the Globe theatre attracts thousands of visitors
a year. They come to enjoy his plays in the same way people used to four hundred
years ago.
London’s reputation as a centre of dramatic arts is well deserved. All over the city
there are creative and industrious people staging all kinds of plays, from small,
intimate productions to huge West End shows. But London isn’t the only place in the
UK to offer good theatre.
This is the Theatre by the Lake, a small theatre in the beautiful Lake District National
Park in the north-west of England. Small companies had been performing around
here for decades before it opened in 1999, but this was the area’s first purpose-built
theatre space. With the support of some well-known celebrities, such as the Oscar-
winning actor Dame Judi Dench, the theatre has staged over 100 plays, becoming
one of the country’s best-known regional playhouses. These productions are all run
by a small, dedicated team of passionate staff. These selfless people work behind the
scenes, and although they often receive less attention than the actors, their work is
just as crucial.
I’m Ian Forrest and I’m Artistic Director at Theatre by the Lake. Really my job is to
be responsible for all the home produced work that we produce in the theatre.
That may be in any year up to eight productions. So I choose the plays, I cast them
together with a Casting Director and my Associate Director, and then we audition
for actors and we choose our companies, and then we rehearse the plays.
My name’s Andrew Lindsay, I’m the Technical Manager here at Theatre by the Lake.
And I look after the sound, lighting, video and staging resources, technologies and
the staff that implement those here at Theatre by the Lake.
My name’s Charlotte and I work at Theatre by the Lake as the resident Assistant
Stage Manager. So, on this particular production I’m on the book calling the show,
making sure all the lighting and sound cues happen at the right time in relation to
what’s happening on the stage.
My name’s Hayley and I’m the resident Assistant Stage Manager. So I work as part
of a team of three. There is a Company Stage Manager, a Deputy Stage Manager
and I’m on the bottom of the ladder as the Assistant Stage Manager. And so one
of my main duties is to source, prop and borrow or buy props, furniture and set
dressing for all the shows that we do here at Theatre by the Lake during the year.
Without this team, the theatre would never stage a production. They have to
be considerate of everyone’s needs. It’s their work that ensures everything runs
smoothly. Unlike London’s world-famous theatre scene, small, independent
playhouses are rarely in the public eye. But places like this, with its small but
passionate team and local, intimate setting, are producing some of the most
interesting theatre in the country.

Solutions Third Edition Upper-Intermediate  DVD script 1 photocopiable © Oxford University Press