Punk Rock - Subject Matter and Themes

The character, Bennett, embodies the theme of bullying through his connection with other characters in the play, his type of abusive language used towards the characters, Chadwick and Tanya, and his violent body gestures towards the two when he enters the stage. Examples of this are shown when Bennett puts Chadwick in a headlock and throws him up against a wall, whilst calling him abusive names.

The two characters, William and Lilly, who are known as the two main characters of the play, both embody the theme of love. In the play, William seems to take a liking towards the new girl, Lilly who doesn't like him but ends up liking another character, Nicolas. The theme of love is shown through William's body actions towards Lilly and his type of language used. An example of this is shown when William eventually asks Lilly out using romantic language, but is then rejected by Lilly. Soon after this, William's character turns and we see a more darker side to him because of her denial of his love towards Lilly.

The character, William, expresses the theme of education through his use of language when he talks to Lilly at the beginning of the play. William makes constant referrals to the theme of education. Example of this are shown at the beginning of the play, when William is introducing Lilly to his school and suddenly he starts talking about further education and his university visits with Chadwick - 'We went to Cambridge University together in the summer holidays. On a visit.' 'If my application's accepted, I'll have my interview next week' (Scene Two). Another example is shown at the end of the play where William has been taken to Sutton Manor Hospital and is talking to Dr. Harvey about the previous events in the play and eventually his future ambitions - 'I want to be an architect. Build buildings way up as high as I can get them to go.' (Scene Seven).

The play, Punk Rock, was written by Simon Stephens and is set in Stockport, Manchester, first in a library of a sixth form college then at a hospital, in 2009 (near present day). The play was first performed on 3rd September 2009 and as a co-production between the Lyric Hammersmith, London and the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. The play is aimed at younger audiences aged between 16 - 18 and younger audiences would understand this play as they are going through the same stages of education as these characters in the play are. If this piece of work was performed in front of a group of people of an older generation, adults would be more interested in the character's journey. For example, audiences would be interested in the character, William, and his story as it shows a big transition from the nerdy, more geeky boy we saw in the beginning to a raged, broken man who has had enough of life.

Performing Arts Business Report

When creating a play in a production company, there are a large deal of funding that needs to be considered to gather all of the resources needed to make the show. Funding is extremely important in a production because if there was no funding, there would be no show. Many production companies rely on ticket, programme and food and drink sales from previous productions to pay for their upcoming productions. Production companies also like to use annual subscription payments by members of that company to also pay for resources that are needed for a production. For example, The Mitre Players, a successful amateur theatre company, located in Sanderstead, South Croydon, has been running for over 50 years, and due to the massive success of ticket and programmes sales they have received over the years, they have been able to produce more upcoming shows for audiences' entertainment. Although, some theatrical production companies cannot just rely on ticket sales or merchandising, they might need more funding. There are two sectors that are always willing to donate money to the theatrical arts and production companies, some companies just make shows funded by their local government, local businesses or partnerships. These two sectors are called The Private Sector and The Public Sector.

The Private Sector
The Private Sector involves individual producers or a group of people that raise funding for theatrical productions. Some producers like to donate their own money as well to keep a production company going for years to come. Some production companies don't have access to local producers that are willing to donate money, so companies go to persuade private investors to fund their production. These local investors like to ask the production company if they can sponsor the production, so they are then mentioned in programmes (there is normally a full page description of the investor or the investor's company. In return, the investors seek out to promote the show to persuade audiences to go and watch their production. If the production company accepts the investors, as a generous gift, they may receive tickets for productions to give to their clients for their hard work. There are some individuals or organisations that sponsor performing arts theatre companies on a regular basis. This people are called Patrons. The amateur theatre company, The Mitre Players have always had patrons, and so they could always produce plays thanks to their funding. Here are some examples of private funded productions that have had funding by other companies or patrons:

The Public Sector

The Public Sector involves money that have been generated by the government or the National Lottery who have always funded the dramatic arts. The public money is given out to production companies at a national, regional and a local level. If the money was distributed at a local level and at a regional level, the money would have been generated by City or County Councils. These are known as Local Authorities. An example of a local city council is the London Borough of Croydon, who has been funding theatre arts as well as funding other non-dramatic activities for a number of years. If the money was distributed at a national level, the money would ben generated from The Department of National Heritage or The Arts Council of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Department of National Heritage (now known as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport), was created in 1992 and has combined and funded relations to the dramatic arts, as well as broadcasting, film, sport, architecture and tourist sites. The Arts Council of England was formed in 1994 who invest money from the government and the National Lottery and generate it only to the arts and culture across England. This money is distributed regularly to production companies and theatres. During the years 2009/2010, the Arts Council of England generated a budget of £575 million pounds to support the arts. This money was given to amateur and professional production companies. The professional production companies include the Royal Shakespeare Company,  the Royal National Theatre and the National Youth Music Theatre. The amateur production companies include The Barnstormers, who normally produce plays and theatre shows at the Barn Theatre, Oxted and The Minack Theatre, Porthcurno, Cornwall and The Tower Theatre Company, London. 

School and College productions can either generate their money through the private and public sectors. Schools can have patrons who normally donate money to the school to make sure the production goes through. They can donate money to the show to help pay for lighting equipment, sound equipment, microphones and refreshments. The most used case for funding is school fairs. During school and college fairs, teachers might ask a couple of students, aged between Year 7 to Year 13, to perform an extract from a particular play. After the play has finished, adults might like to make generous donations if their performance was a success and they want to see typical performances like that again. Schools could also ask for funding by the government, in which they could request from the Arts Council of England to grant them money to pay for expensive lighting equipment, for example, colour washes and light spots which can move around the room to make the production more colourful, and sound equipment including microphones, sound effects etc. if a school needs it or if they need this type of money.