Ever wondered who the 'gun' performer at HTC might be? Who was responsible for the more 'explosive' performances? Read on to find out as Prompts talks to BILL ROBERTS.
Snowy haired and genial you could easily believe Bill had turned up at HTC purely to be cast as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street. But under that gentle exterior lies a multi-talented man whose dedication and hard work has made him an integral member of our set construction team. Bill in fact is our set- making trouble shooter. Whenever there's a specification needing a certain technical acumen in its construction then Bill is the man we turn to. And when you look at his fascinating past this comes as no surprise.
Bill was first brought down to HTC, known then as Heidelberg Repertory Group, by Christine Frawley in 1979. The production was Tomb With A View and director Alice Bugge so loved his audition she had no hesitation in casting him. Before this Bill had limited opportunities for stagecraft, being busy in his work in the Victorian Police Force.
Bill had followed his father's steps into the Police Force though it wasn't his first choice as a career. He first worked in the Public Service in 1943 but soon grew tired of the monotony and dreamed of being an aircraft engineer. He managed to get a job as a draftsman and worked at this for 7 years while he studied architecture at RMIT and Melbourne Uni. Bill found this experience most useful, particularly in set construction. When involved in creating the lavish medieval set for our '91 production of Abelard & Heloise, Bill was given the task of creating Romanesque cloisters. Luckily for us he remembered an old History of Architecture text from his days as a student which proved vital in helping realise this historic set.
Bill grew restless working as a draftsman and decided to follow his father's lead and join the Police Force. Half of Bill's service was spent in various sections of the Forensic Science Department including five years in the Firearms Section. During this time Bill learnt much about the way guns worked as well as being able to amass a modest collection of antique firearms. This is where Bill's 'straight shooting' has proved most useful at the Theatre.
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A real headache for a director is when the script calls for a gun to be fired on stage. Stage guns, which use blanks, are notoriously unreliable, often misfiring or not firing at all (often amusing for the audience but not conducive to creating high drama!). In this area Bill has been a real boon (and boom!) to the Company. Using his vast knowledge Bill has created guns that not only look good but work every time. It was Bill who created the dueling pistols used in both the 1987 and 1989 productions of Nicholas Nickleby. Here he was fortunate enough to procure from a gun dealer a pair of percussion locks around which he built each pistol, both of which used Ramset cartridges as used in explosive powered tools. These pistols (we have it on authority from the actors involved) were most reliable and extremely realistic.
For our latest production, Our Country's Good, Bill created a 'Brown Bess' musket. He did this by converting one of the percussion locks used in the dueling pistols to the appearance of flintlock and then fitting it to a stock stripped from an old Boer War souvenir Mauser rifle. This became the musket fired by Governor Philip at the 'Cackatua Gallarita' in Act 1 Scene III.
Bill is not only handy with guns but also with knifes. In the '91 show Wait Until Dark, his job was to create a device that made a knife spring suddenly from a slot in the wall of the set, giving the effect that the knife had been thrown and impaled itself there. His final construction used a metal base, steel pins and rubber 'bunji' cord as the spring and was so effective it even had the knife quiver as if its point had just impacted the wall.
When Bill retired from the force in 1987 he may have mistakenly thought he was going to be a man of leisure. But not only has his work increased at HTC now he is also getting acting work in film and TV as well as in Opera. Along with this he is involved in projects such as building a house boat and helping his daughter and son-in-law extend their Deepdene home. A man of leisure indeed!
So next time you hear a gun go off on our stage or see a knife quivering beside our heroine's terrified face, think of our HTC 'trouble shooter' as its sure to have 'Made by Bill Roberts' printed on its back! |
