Piers Plowright returns to Stowe
3 August 2015
On Tuesday 2 June we were lucky enough to spend the day with Piers Plowright (Temple 56), the eminent Radio Producer, who worked for the BBC producing dramas, documentaries and innovative features for over thirty years. His work is extremely highly regarded; he has won several SONY Awards and three of radio's most significant award, the Prix Italia.
Piers is currently producing a documentary for Radio 4 called 'Stepping Stones' all about the ‘sounds’ of his life, which includes his formative years at Stowe, and especially having his first taste of the acting bug.
On his nostalgic trip back to Stowe, he wanted to recreate the infamous 1955 Historians production of 'Coriolanus' where he played the pig-headed Roman and made a spectacular fall, in full armour, down the Queen's Temple steps. Although the fall was not included on June 2, William Dinsdale (Upper Sixth, Temple) joined Piers in re-enacting the scene back on those familiar steps.
Alex Orton (Fourth Form, Lyttelton), John Balcon Perez, (Fourth Form, Walpole), Helena Vince (Third Form, Queen’s), Tom Fras (Third Form, Walpole) were invited for lunch in the Blue Room with Piers, his two colleagues, Ayesha Shaheen (Upper Sixth, Nugent) and William to discuss their feelings on how the surroundings at Stowe might influence their drama performances as well as some other tricky questions about their thoughts on Shakespeare. There was also some delightful musical accompaniment as Helena performed an off the cuff voice solo and Arthur Marriott (Fourth Form, Chandos) and Finlay Sutherland (Fourth Form, Grafton) played the trumpets at the Queen’s Temple.
Piers seemed absolutely delighted with his visit to Stowe and we are hopeful that the sounds and interviews he recorded will make for an excellent ‘Stowe based’ episode of his documentary. It will be aired on Tuesday 11 August on Radio 4, at 1.45pm.
A great many thanks must go to Mr Bayley and Miss Brassell for making the arrangements for the day and to the catering team who provided a delicious lunch for our guests and the Stoics.
Anna Semler, Old Stoic Society Director