A few good men meet a few good men!

The main gate at RAF Fairford

Here’s the thing - you’re an amateur theatre company, and your next production requires you to move, think and feel like US Marines.

But you’re an English civilian, who has no clue about how US servicemen salute or march, let alone come to attention. So what do you do?

Well, if you’re Swindon’s premier theatre company, OTTC, you ring up RAF Fairford – home to an American Air Force forward base – and ask if you can go along to be drilled by some genuine US non-coms!

Director, Lance Hodges explains a scene as M/Sgt Harden (nearest camera) and T/Sgt Vince Clark look on

And that’s exactly what happened. The cast of our April production, A Few Good Men, by Aaron Sorkin, rolled up to the front gate and were duly escorted to the base’s community hall where we were greeted by Master Sergeant John Harden, Tech Sergeants Franklin Castro and Vince Clark, along with Staff Sergeant Greg Shadman.

Our purpose in going was really to learn the very basics of US military drill movements – how to come to attention, stand at ease, turn about face and salute properly of course!

OTTC members Julian Smith (Left) and Allan Martin, get some tips from T/Sgt Franklin Castro

It’s the kind of thing that we could legitimately have watched a weekend of war movies to find out but you’re never sure how much they’ve changed reality to fit the plot in films, are you? So, what better than to ask the men who really know and with RAF Fairford on our doorstep, we’d have been silly not to!

It was an extremely worthwhile – and thoroughly enjoyable – visit too. Everyone in the cast came away with a much more confident approach to how we should be portraying those US servicemen and women in A Few Good Men. The apparently simple act of “About Face!”, proved to be something of a challenge to be overcome in rehearsals to come!

Sergeants (Left to Right) Shadman, Harden and Castro with the cast and crew of OTTC’s, A Few Good Men

We’re grateful to Sergeants Harden, Castro, Clark and Shadman for giving up their time, and to RAF Fairford’s Community Relations Officer, Jenny Collyer who organised the visit. We’ve invited them along to come and see the finished play – let’s hope they don’t feel the need to shout parade orders at us from the stalls!

For more photos of our visit to RAF Fairford see Photo Story.

Actors are drilled for the show

For their performance of A Few Good Men, the company wanted to move around the stage like real American Marines. So, RAF Fairford had 14 recruits for a day's drill training with real airmen.

The Old Town Theatre Company will be performing the box-office hit from Wednesday, April 6 to Saturday, April 9.

But, for this company it is not good enough just to learn your lines, especially if they're going to match the acting of huge stars like Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore.

Ashley Heath, 40, is a member of the company and believes that performances should be as authentic as possible. He said: "As a company we like to do everything as well as we can. A great deal of acting is the physicality, how you move. We are one of the companies that want people to believe the people on stage."

The majority of the cast was up bright and early on Saturday morning to be put through their paces with four non-commissioned officers from the American Air Force.

RAF Fairford's Community Activity Centre was transformed into a parade ground where the actors had to learn to speak, walk and talk like real servicemen.

Master Sergeant, John Harden, 39, has been in the American Air Force for 21 years. He said: "We like to get out in the community and to make a positive interaction."

Although they are airmen and not marines, the drill is similar. Sgt Harden said: "Commands must be delivered with a crispness so it's followed with enthusiasm."

Paul Saunders, 28, is playing the male lead, Daniel Kaffee played by Cruise in the movie. As a police officer, Paul was a bit more at ease with the moves than some of the other cast members. He said: "It would look a shambles without the right moves."

Tickets cost £5 from The Arts Centre Box Office on 01793 614837.

Lyndsay Scanlan
Swindon Evening Advertiser

©Evening Advertiser 2005 and used with their kind permission.

Old Town Theatre Company gets a really close shave!

To make sure our actors look as close to the real thing as possible, we’ve been to the barbers!

As 'A Few Good Men' centres entirely around the US military, we wanted to look just right.

The uniforms are important of course but they’re no good if our hair is too long, so we decided to ask SLiNKY, Old Town’s newest hairdresser if they could help.

Teri Brown is the owner of SLiNKY at 17 Bath Road. “It was nice to do something out of the ordinary and we were glad to help”, she said. “We stayed open late one night and all these men trooped in! We just grabbed the clippers and set to - it was great fun!”

Teri says the kind of barbering OTTC was after presented something of a challenge. “It certainly was a challenge, coming up with looks that suited the needs of the play, yet still meant the lads could go out everyday and not look too out of place. It was also difficult to resist the urge to put some style into their looks – it was back to good old fashioned barbering!”

As for the OTTC cast? Well, we all look just right, thanks to Teri and her stylists. It was a little frightening seeing all that hair on the floor but to be honest, some of us are looking at our new styles and thinking we might actually keep them!

Thanks very much to everyone at SLiNKY in Bath Road!

For more photos of our visit to SLiNKY see Photo Story.