The Wizard of Oz was a great success, seen by around 1000 people and hugely enjoyed by all involved. The next show will be Benefactors: Michael Frayn's play is a brilliant construct. On the ground floor it is about a master builder who builds tower blocks for planners rather than homes for people, and the rows he gets into over his concepts. On upper floors it is about tolerance and dogma, love and betrayal, life and death and good and evil. The Guardian's Michael Billington described it as a total pleasure. It is a play about sex and principles clashing amongst the four people (two couples) whose lives are changed by their beliefs and discoveries.
We have not yet had our stolen costumes returned, but the theft has been reported
in publications as diverse as the Ham & High and The Big Issue, as well as being
reported on ITV's London Tonight, so we live in hope.
Update: Newspaper reports in; Ham & High, Camden New Journal
Our costume store in North Finchley was broken into last Thursday along with other garages in the same block. A local resident saw some men around the garages and made a note of the van's registration number. See pictures of some of the missing costumes.
The incident with these details has been reported to the police who are investigating. Well over 300 costumes have been stolen, many of which are irreplaceable.They include the Munchkin Mayor's costume needed for our production of Wizard of Oz in 2 weeks' time.
The costumes included some mediaeval ones used in The Lion in Winter," some Tudor used in "The Prince and the Pauper" many Victorian and Edwardian such as those used in "Pygmalion" and "The Importance of Being Earnest".
Some date back to the earliest days of the society in 1910. The society is unusual in making nearly all its own costumes and the Costume Team are proud of the fact they have won many awards for the accuracy and brilliance of their work.
Frances Musker who has been a leading light in making costumes for 40 years use to lecture in costume design at the V and A. She made the following comment: "To lose nearly all our costumes two weeks before our next show is devastating. I cannot imagine how we are going to replace them. The amount of detail and the range of costumes makes them a unique collection. I cannot even begin to think about how much they are all worth." We would like all drama societies and costume hire shops to be on the look out if they are offered costumes.and report it to the police.
A Christmas Carol last week was sold out for three of the four performances, which was excellent news and well deserved. Pictures will be available soon....
The Wizard of Oz is well into rehearsal and the cast are all working hard on their singing and dancing. Tickets are already selling well, especially for the matinees, so call the box office on 020 7723 6609 to book yours!
Coming up soon will be the audition for the first of our two summer extravaganzas, our pageant to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hampstead Garden Suburb. Entitled Dame Henrietta's Dream, it has been written especially for us by Ian Davidson who has written for Dame Edna Everage amongst others. Audition details here.
On the same day as the Pageant audition there will be a workshop for the second of our two summer shows, The Tempest. Details here.
24 October
Brighton Beach Memoirs was excellent and played to good sized houses. Reviews and pics will be posted on the BBM page soon. Wizard of Oz auditions are next Sunday (Nov 29th) so this is your last chance to read a copy of the script - click here for audition details.
Tickets for A Christmas Carol are already selling well and, if our last experience Upstairs at the Gatehouse is anything to go by, performances will sell out so book now on - 020 8340 3488.
We have a new Chairman - Terry Rogers, who took over from retiring Chairman John Colmans at the AGM. Many thanks to John for all his hard work over the last four years, and good luck to Terry!
Brighton Beach Memoirs is on this week...... don't miss it, reports coming from rehearsals say it's going to be an excellent show. Call the box office on 020 7723 6609.
Our March production..... after five attempts (all which were denied licences on the grounds of a professional production coming up - Roger really has got his finger on the pulse!) we can finally announce that the show will be Benefactors by Michael Frayn, directed by Roger Rose, Upstairs at the Gatehouse, 22 - 25 March 2007. Auditions will be on 10 December.
I've started a resource download area for staging and other useful documents such as stage plans, stage managers' reports etc. If you have anything of this kind which might be of use to others, please email me and let me know. Even if you've only got a paper copy, it can be scanned in.
the GST calendar of events for the coming season is now available..... click on the downloads link at the top of this page or click here. Auditions for The Wizard of Oz will be held on 29th October.
the new season starts HERE!....... coming up first this season we have Neil Simon's "serious comedy" Brighton Beach Memoirs. At the Henrietta Barnett School Theatre, Central Square, NW11 on 19, 20, 21 October at 8pm. Call 020 7723 6609 for more details.
Following that we will be performing A Christmas Carol Upstairs at the Gatehouse in early December, The Wizard of Oz in February, another show Upstairs at the Gatehouse in March, a Pageant (to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hampstead Garden Suburb) and finally The Tempest in July. Both those last two shows will be in our lovely open air theatre in Little Oak Wood - more information soon.
19 July 2006
Lots of member news for the upcoming months;
Miranda Colmans - "Our show is the week beginning Monday 24th July (so the second week of the summer show!) and is part of the abbeyfest festival in The Colour House Theatre in Colliers Wood. We are devising it ourselves and it's kind of about folk tales and urban myths. More details to follow soon but here is the link to the website "
Stiofan Lanigan O'Keeffe - Stiofan is conducting Jude the Obscure, Rosslyn Chapel, Hampstead, 22 or 24 June, 7.30, £10. More details to follow.
Jon and Gabriel Musker - Performing in Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant musical Merrily we roll along July 17-22. BOOK NOW TO AVOID MISSING IT...
Francis Beckett - Click here for information about what Francis has been working on.
David Lane and Edd Turner - David Lane is performing (as a slave driver who is killed by Moses and loads of chorus bits) and it is written by Edd Turner who MD'd Rumplestiltskin and Babe. Edd is in it as is Julian, who played drums in the band on Rumplestiltskin. It is on at the Millfield from 25th to 29th July, and you can get tickets from the box office 020 8807 6680 or through the website - www.exodus.org.uk.
Advance news: the audition for Brighton Beach Memoirs will be on July 2. More information to follow shortly...
Next season.... will be an exciting mix of old and new with, we hope, something for everyone whether acting, audience or backstage. Not all shows are yet confirmed but we are certain of the following (licences permitting!): In October Ros and Michael Berg will be directing Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs at the HBS Theatre. This will be followed by Debbie Lane directing (a version of) A Christmas Carol Upstairs at the Gatehouse. Our family show at the HBS theatre in February will be The Wizard of Oz, directed by Emma Solomons. Then in the spring it's back to Upstairs at the Gatehouse (play not confirmed), followed by a Pageant to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Garden Suburb, directed by Colin Gregory. Then finally in the Open Air Arena in July we will be performing Shakespeare's The Tempest, directed by Mary Musker. Keep up to date by joining us!
A successful night for us last night...
At the Wakefield Festival, Round and Round the Garden was awarded Best Set Design, and Ashley Collins was nominated for the Best Actress award.
Furthermore, the award ceremony for the 2006 Barnet Borough Arts Council awards (aka BBAC, or the "Barnies") was held last night. Our entry this year was our March production Fallen Angels, and we did well, receiving the award for Best all-round Production (the Finchley Press Trophy). Additionally, Terry Rogers was awarded Best Producer, Mary Musker received Best Actress and Susan Quine shared the award for Best Supporting Actress with the Incognitos Theatre Group. Additionally, Tim Solomons was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. The adjudicator this year was Robert Clarke.
Some of the Fallen Angels team with our cups: From left; Susie Quine, Debbie Lane, Simon Ramsey, Terry Rogers, Mo Colmans, Mary Musker. No, I don't know why Terry's looking so serious either! We were also celebrating the news that Simon and Susie are engaged. Congratulations to them both!
The runners-up to the Best Production were deemed to be The Compton Players for Visiting Hour who also received the Adjudicator's Award and the Comedy Award, and other awards were received by Potters Bar Theatre Company (Best Theatrical Production), Good Companions (Best Set Design, Best Actor); Incognitos (Most Ambitious Production), the Radlett Players (Best Supporting Actor) and Cotts School (Best Newcomer)
Our production of Amy's View had a successful outing to the Isle of Man Drama Festival over the Easter break: Paula Morris won the award for Best Supporting Actress, and we received two nominations; Natalie Adzic for Best Actress and Adam Snell for Best Newcomer.
The Garden Party in Little Oak Wood, held during the run of A Midsummer Night's Dream, was a great success. As well as helping to raise important funds for the society, everyone who came had a great time with all the games, stalls, and Punch and Judy.
Our July show was Peter Whelan's The Accrington Pals, from the 19th - 21 May. It is a drama containing fictional characters, but is set against the background of the true story of the tragic fate of a real battalion, raised locally from the town of Accrington and neighbouring villages, at the start of the First World War. For a detailed account of the story click here. We were graced with the presence of the author himself on the last of the performances, and he expressed himself well-pleased with the production.
Richard Kinder recently played Zoltan Karpathy, the hairy hound from Budapest, in "My Fair Lady" from May 11 to May 14 with the Graffham Rustics, Graffham, West Sussex. Follow links to www.graffhamrustics.co.uk for more information.
For a full calendar click here.
Our production of Look Back in Anger last year won two awards at the Barnet and District Drama Festival. Kate Saunders, who played Helena in John Osbourne's seminal classic, won Best Actress, and Robert Jayes won Best Director. The show was also runner-up in the Best Production category. Kate is appearing as Lucy in Dracula. Unfortunately, this year's entry for this festival, The Accrington Pals, did not win any awards.
A group of us went to the 30th anniversary party of Martello Productions, of Wicklow, to which we and a number of other drama groups who have played in Douglas, Isle of Man received an invitation. They invited us to put on a one act play for an invited membership audience the day before the party, 24th September. We performed Bermondsey, by John Mortimer, one of the four playlets in Come As You Are (1970). Martello themselves performed The Man who Wouldn't Go To Heaven by F Sladen-Smith. We performed The Lady's Not For Burning at the Buxton Fringe Festival last July, to great critical acclaim. Read the review here.
The new costume garage has now been kitted out and the costume team are starting to move and sort our large collection of costumes, currently being stored in miscellaneous spare bedrooms and attics. If you have any costumes that you have worn in a show and not yet returned, please email me and I'll arrange to get them picked up.
Andrew Craze recently performed Upstairs at the Gatehouse for the Tower Theatre in The Lion in Winter. If anyone has a link to an online review of this, please let me know so I can post it here. Last summer we saw Nick Vause playing Bottom at the Minack Theatre in a production by The Herfordshire Players of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The society goes to the Minack biannually; this is the only show they produce, and they draw their actors from groups all over Hertfordshire and surrounding areas. Playing Helena in the show was Julia Riley who earlier in the year played Sheila opposite Jon Musker as Bry in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at the Pump House Theatre, Watford.If you are performing in a show for another group, let me know and I'll post the details here.