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The whistle has blown to indicate the start of a brand new theatre project – no one quite knows what’s going to happen but the prospect of some exciting action is there!

And if, from this, you can see the relationship between theatre and football - then get in touch with the Watford Palace now!

In partnership with Watford FC and Watford Museum, the theatre is looking for people to join its team of researchers to participate in a brand new community football musical called "Hello, Mister Capello" to be performed at the Palace in 2010.

You don't have to support Watford to take part!

The researchers will be used to gather stories, images and ideas from the community, which will then provide the launch pad for writer, Nick Stimson, to create an exciting new play, which will combine football action, drama, and existing songs with original music.

A team of local community writers will also get the opportunity to work alongside Nick, creating their own plays using the material generated by the research group.

James Williams, the director on the project, said:

“We’re looking for participants of all ages (14+) and backgrounds who share a passion for football, theatre or history, or all of the above!

“We want the group to record the stories, hopes, dreams, failures and heartbreaks of footballers past, present and would-be. We also need material from friends, families and supporters, in fact anyone who finds their life (for good or bad!) revolving around football.�

James told us more about the project and who they are looking for!

Can you explain more about what the project is?

James: We’d been wanting to do something football related for a long while. The writer Nick Stimson approached us with an idea for a new football musical which we thought would be fantastic and ideal for a big community piece.

The project is going to be built up in several different phases and will take community participants through from researching the material, to the writing process to creating their own material alongside the work of Nick Stimson. Then we will bring in performers, singers and people with football skills and acting skills to create the actual performed material later next year. It’s a really multi-layered project that we’re really, really excited about, that will revolve around football and around Watford as a place and its passion and love of football and the modern phenomenon of the huge number of people who support [the game] or desperately want to be footballers.

It would also be about young people who want to get into football and the generation who have maybe missed their opportunity or who did play and have now retired and still continue to either work in the game or support the game. It will be everything that’s surrounded by the footballing dream that is to play football.

People who are either interested in or play football is a massive audience in this country so presumably it will bring a different audience to the Palace as well?

James: Yes, that’s certainly what we hope. But the core of the project and one of the reasons this started off is a very interesting thing. A long while ago Nick Stimson and myself used to have so many conversations about how we both loved theatre and both loved football and how some people found that strange, when actually for us, we totally see the two things as being completely interlinked.

Of course – both have an audience and there’s drama in both – the only difference is that in one somebody knows how it’s going to end and in the other you’re not quite sure – there’s no script?!

James: Absolutely, that’s literally the only place where it diverges and yet in everything else it shares so much. We were both really excited about doing a full scale football piece.

It works fantastically together and of course will coincide with the World Cup next year?

James: Yes – that was another bit of our thinking! Not least that once the World Cup’s over everybody’s kind of left either jubilant or, if we’re being slightly more realistic, possibly feeling slightly bereft and that we need something to replace it, so I think that the timing of this project works perfectly. And it’s called Hello Mr Capello and Mr Capello has done the job of getting us to the World Cup.

So, the story will evolve over the project, and the first job is getting all the material together, so who are you looking for at this stage to start off the project?

James: We’re basically looking for anybody with an interest in either football, theatre, or local history (or all three!) or somebody who is maybe curious about journalism because we need a team of people who can go out and speak to people and gather and collect material.

This could be images, ideas or interview material of memories that people might have.

They would not just be talking to people who play football, we’ll be looking for friends, family and people who find their lives surrounded by football and don’t even like the sport because we want everybody’s angle on this. [They will talk to] people who have had careers [in football], people who never made it but desperately wanted to play, people who had to turn to coaching or maybe got injured – and just get a whole array of different stories that surround what it is that makes this game so special and why so many people either support it or want to play it. And we will look right across the generations as well.

We want the kind of people who can go out and speak to young academy players currently working with Watford FC who are one of our partners in this, but who can also talk to the 90-year old who has memories of going to see matches long ago.

We’re also interested in women’s perspectives on the game, particularly a lot of girls who have come up through the game and have been nurtured through fantastic youth programmes, but get to a professional playing age and find that there isn’t quite the same level of opportunity. We want to find all those kind of stories and dramas that surround the game which will go together to make this piece.

This town has such a passion for football and in some cases a loathing for it, because if you live anywhere where football is so prevalent not everybody shares that! And we’re interested in those stories too – we want every angle.

You mentioned that Watford FC are involved in this but the memories don’t have to specifically be about Watford do they?

James: No, we’re looking for general experiences as well as those around Watford. But because it’s a community piece and because it’s going on in Watford, the final piece will inevitably have something of a flavour of people’s football experiences within the town at its core. We’re bringing in the museum as well as a partner. They are helping us with the local history aspect and they have a gallery at the museum with a lot of resources that they’re hoping to put a lot of material from this project into, and also help us to archive the material because we’d hate for it all to go to waste afterwards!

So we are keen for local stories as well as those from further afield. Each club and each town has its own tales to tell but football has a wider audience and a wider meaning to people so that’s important too. Obviously with the title of the play there’s that England connection as well, so we’re looking at things on all sorts of layers.

How do you get involved in this first stage?

James: We’ve got three initial meetings set up – workshops that will work with the research group in developing their skills and giving them a much clearer flavour of exactly what we’re looking for. If you’re interested we just need people to email us or contact us by phone by Tuesday 13th October. We’re looking literally for anybody of all different ages – as long as you’re over 14 – and of any background whatever your interest is – football, theatre or history – or all three. We’d like the group to be as rich a mix of people as possible.

And both sexes?!

James: Absolutely, it’s really important at this stage that we get as many perspectives and as many different stories [as possible] so that we maximise the amount of ideas.

As well as helping Nick in the writing of the actual musical, the material created here will also provide the spark for a writing group which will be our second phase. They will create their own footballing plays and stories based around the material generated in the first phase.

The idea is that it will be a number of mini projects that will slowly build over the coming months.

Further details

If you're interested in getting involved with "Hello Mr Capello" then:

Telephone: Watford Palace Theatre on 01923 810307

Email: capello@watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk

No previous experience is necessary, just self motivation, enthusiasm and availability for the following research workshops:

Friday 16 October, 7-9pm at Watford Palace Theatre, Clarendon Road
Monday 26 October, 7-9pm at Watford Museum, Lower High Street, Watford
Monday 30 November, 7-9pm at Watford Palace Theatre, Clarendon Road

The closing date for expressions of interest is Tuesday 13th October. Places on the project are limited, so please contact them at the earliest opportunity.