The Dulwich Players, & being web-visible

At long last, I've updated my list of acting stints with the roles I performed when I was a member of the Dulwich Players in the late 80s and early 90s. In doing so, I had some thoughts about making yourself known via the web.

I say at long last, because for the life of me, I've been unable to find the programmes. I looked everywhere the last time I was in England at my parents', but to no avail. Stumped, that's what I am.

Fortunately, the Dulwich Players website has a list of past productions and someone has recently scanned the programme (or at least the pages of the programme that included the cast list) for each production. Wow, talk about a walk down memory lane.

I was able to feed the images through an OCR reader to get the cast lists as text (unfortunately some were not of high enough resolution for the OCR engine to work, so I had to interpret), and so I could prepare a page per production, with some notes on how and what I remember from each production.

Captain Jack Absolute in The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan for the Environment Players at the Abbey Community Centre, Great Smith Street, London. November 1992.
Eddy in Stags and Hens by Willy Russell for the Environment Players at the Abbey Community Centre, Great Smith Street, London. April 1992.
Cleante and Sganarelle in The Hypochondriac by Moliere, translated by Alan Drury, for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. January 1992.
Max in The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. October 1991.
Brindsley Miller in Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer for the Environment Players at the Abbey Community Centre, Great Smith Street, London. Part of a double bill with The Browning Version by Terence Rattigan. April 1991.
Clifford Bradshaw in Cabaret, book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, from stories by Christopher Isherwood, for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. October 1990.
Young Charles Marlow in She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith for the Environment Players, at the Civil Service Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, London. April 1990 .
Simon in The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard for the Environment Players. March 1990 (?).
Torvald Helmer in A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. January 1990.
Antipholus of Ephesus in The Comedy Of Errors by William Shakespeare for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. October 1989.
McTeazle in Dirty Linen by Tom Stoppard for the Environment Players, for the Civil Service Drama Federation Annual Drama Festival in the Civil Service Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, London. June 1989.
Tom Jones in Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, adapted by Joan MacAlpine, for the Environment Players at the Civil Service Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, London. April 1989.
Ralph in The Accrington Pals by Peter Whelan for the Environment Players at the Civil Service Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, London. November 1988.
Aimwell in The Beaux Stratagem by George Farquhar for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. April 1988.
Davenport in Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E Lee for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. January 1988.
Nick in Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. October 1987.
The Son in A Voyage 'Round My Father by John Mortimer for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. October 1986.
Inspector Messiter in The Magistrate by A.W. Pinero for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. January 1986.
Albert Timms in Lark Rise by Keith Dewhurst for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Church, Dulwich Village. October 1985.
Terry in Mother Figure from Confusions by Alan Ayckbourn for the Dulwich Players, competing in the NATHDA theatre-in-the-round Drama Festival at St. Philip's Hall, Norbury. June 1985.
Robin in Time and the Conways by J.B. Priestley for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. April 1985.
Ezekiel Cheever in The Crucible by Arthur Miller for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. October 1984.
Edmund Swethenham in A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie, adapted by Leslie Darbon, for the Dulwich Players at St. Barnabas Hall, Dulwich Village. January 1984.

I still have an envelope of photos from past productions, so I scanned some of them to go with the notes. In looking through them, though, I found that a lot of them (the B&W ones) were by Philip Gammon, a very good photographer who managed to take some great action shots at rehearsals. (Last week I was asked to do the same for a production here in the Springs, and let me tell you, without being able to use a flash this is Really Hard. I've a blog post to write and publish about my experiences as newbie theatre photographer and my fights with the guy who was videoing.)

The funny thing was, I decided to google Philip's name to see where he was and what he was doing. I was fully expecting to find his website, with pages that showed off his work. An indeed I did find a site with Philip Gammon photos, but it wasn't the one I was looking for. After some expanding of the search phrase in Google to narrow down the results, I finally tracked down "my" Philip Gammon as having a business doing wedding photos. Well, I'm guessing that he's "mine", but I don't know for sure since he doesn't have a website (I found his name on a business "yellow pages" site).

Sorry, but I think that's a little nuts these days. If you are a wedding photographer, what better way to sell yourself and your work (which, after all, is a purely visual medium, although I do have a cat that likes to lick the glossy side of photos, sigh) by having a website with some examples of your work? Or by having a blog (you don't have to post every day) where you discuss the problems and solutions of photography, especially of formal occasions like weddings? Given the way Google works, after a couple of months, your site rises to the first page for the search phrases that matter. (For example, I'm on the first results page for both "algorithms Delphi" and "algorithms C#", and, bizarrely enough, for "algorithms RPG". Crikey! Watch out you RPG programmers!)

And, no, by writing articles that divulge the secrets you're not putting yourself out of a job. Far from it. Take a look at Thomas Mahon's English Cut site: he talks about being a Savile Row tailor, about his work, the problems and solutions (I learned how to sew on a coat button from one of his posts), and he ends up with more work than he can possibly do. And he makes X thousand pound suits. I'd say it's the same with wedding photography: yes, someone could do it themselves, but are they really going to? I think not. But I'd certainly like to understand some of the tricks that go with controlling the people and the frame in a formal shot.

So, Philip, if you read this, email me. I think your skills and your artistry are good enough that you should be top of the list if I search for "wedding photographer london". After all, if I google for "tailor london", top of the list is Thomas Mahon's site.