The 2007/2008 Season Starts Here

 

The good news is that affiliation and adjudication fees will remain unchanged.

Forms herewith to enable you to pay promptly – please.


Those of you who came along to the AGM / Awards evening will know that our treasurer of many years - Margaret Boschi – has now retired and your committee has appointed Gerry Card in her place.

 

Thank you Gerry for taking on what many consider a thankless task.

 

Of course that does not mean that Margaret Boschi will cease to be a familiar face at Cheshire Theatre Guild events. As many of you know as our new President Margaret Boschi will be filling the shoes of Margaret Thomas who retired at our AGM.

 

Margaret Boschi (isn’t it confusing having 2 Margarets! ) intends to come along to see some of your plays – time allowing as she is a very busy lady.

 

We will continue to send Margaret Thomas our newsletters and diary to enable her to keep up to date with members plays and Cheshire Theatre Guild activities.

 

Again “Thank You Margaret” for all your hard work and enthusiasm over many years  as you helped Cheshire Theatre Guild to grow from a modest membership to what we have today.

 

 

Handbook

 

Keeping pages up to date is quite a task, chairpersons and secretaries do seem to change quite often and this information does not always filter through – newsletters particularly get sent to the wrong person and do not always get passed on.

 

To those organized groups who do advise of changes – my sincere thanks. Perhaps we should have some extra awards for those super efficient secretaries!

 

 

WEB Site

 

This is another area where keeping information up to date is important. Not just chairpersons and secretaries but contacts for costume hire and props hire.

 

So as I requested at the AGM – KEEP ME INFORMED OF CHANGES.

 

Another area where I would welcome your input is for the “News from the groups” section of the newsletter.

 

A special year for you, an outstanding achievement by a member, news of a refurbishment programme, in fact anything you consider to be of interest.

 

 

News From the Groups

 

Knutsford Little Theatre

A summer (?) programme of restoration and essential maintenance concentrated on renovation of the stage – much of the work done by members to conserve funds. Last season the dreaded woodworm was discovered in the old part of the building (Club Theatre were also affected and quite a major job it proved to cure the problem).

 

For those who can only dream of having a theatre of their own problems such as this can be major headaches.

 

 

Nantwich Players

A “de-cluttering” exercise in the foyer has turned out to be a bigger job than anticipated. The principal aim was to rearrange photographs of previous productions including archive material from 1933.

 

This year Nantwich Players celebrate 80 years and on October 16th there will be a reading of “Loyalties” by John Galsworthy – the first play read by the Play Reading Circle that became Nantwich Players. On December 18th there will be an 80th anniversary party when it is hoped members who have moved away from the area will be persuaded to come along for this special celebration.

 

 

Macclesfield Amateur Dramatic Society

Founded in 1947 means that MADS celebrated 60 years and have a season of “Five Evocative Plays” to mark the occasion.

 

This starts with “Look Back in Anger” to mark the 40ss/50’s and continues with plays for the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s/00’s. See the diary for full details.

 

 

The Club Theatre

Plans for a tidy up of the wood store turned quite traumatic, with the discovery of woodworm in some of the wood stock. The result was the complete removal of all wood in the wood store and all flats and wooden furniture / props being treated. Several electronic fly zappers have been purchased to destroy the woodworm fly as soon as it emerges, to make sure they have now got them all.

 

 

Stage Further Workshops - 2007 programme.

 

These have now finished and it will be some time before I am able to give you details for 2008. Watch this space.

 

In the meantime just to show what you missed here are two reports from the set design and the directing workshops.

 

Inside the Director’s Studio – directors workshop 7th July 2007 at Knutsford Civic Centre

I have been asked to write a short article of my experience of the Director’s Workshop.

 

I reserved my place for the workshop on the night of the 54th Cheshire Theatre Guild awards with chairman of the guild John Powell. Only three days later, on the Saturday morning, I arrived early to meet fellow thespians, budding and seasoned directors – all looking forward to the day’s events.

John  was there to meet, greet and look after the administrative side of proceedings, before introducing Chris Honer, artistic director for the Manchester Library Theatre Company, as our guest leader for the workshop

 

Chris introduced himself and briefly outlined the aims and objectives for the workshop; each participant then introduced themselves stating their previous experience and expectations. Although I have acted in plays over recent years, I had not directed at this point, so I was reassured to find I was not alone in this.

 

In order to do my part in saving the rainforests, I will not go into detail about the many and varied exercises we went through, but simply stat for the record that eac and every one was well structured, innovative, fun and very relevant to a director’s role. Each built on the other to such an extent that by the end of the workshop, I not only felt I had grasped the fundamentals of text analysis, scene setting, entrances and exits, power positions within a scene and relationship dynamics, but also realised that I had just experienced a director’s masterclass.

 

Throughout the day, Chris unreservedly shared his knowledge, skills, suggestions and numerous gems of wisdom gained over many years as a professional director. He quickly established the level of the group experience as a result of the various exercises we performed. His friendly, supportive and approachable style created the ideal safe learning environment in which all participants were able to contribute freely. I also noted that Chris actively involved every participant during the day. A consummate professional!

 

As a NLP trainer and forensic hypnotist, I have attended many workshops for which I was obliged to travel around the UK and overseas. When you consider that the Director’s workshop cost only £10 and was held within the County, I consider it to be fantastic value for money and a great local opportunity for anyone with an interest in the theatre.

 

In conclusion, I would like to thank the guild for providing these outstanding workshops and urge members to seize these continual professional development opportunities.

 

Mark Hughes (Actor) Impact Theatre Company

 

 

A Stage Further – Set Design Workshop by Judith Croft

What makes a workshop good?

 

One that lingers in the mind? One that you find yourself quoting, referring to, returning to for inspiration? A course given by an expert in the field? A course that opens the door to a previously mysterious, inaccessible field of knowledge?

 

If the answer to any of these is “Yes” then was indeed a good workshop.

 

Judith Croft is a master of her craft and a practised teacher, and her confident, easy manner soon had us all at our ease and even willing to reveal our motives for being there ( “so I can negotiate with the set builders / costume department / lighting and sound crews on an equal footing” for example).

 

We discovered ( and saw demonstrated ) how a set can draw into the action or repel it from the play entirely. We saw how inspired set designs are based on research. Information gathering, discussion, refinement, model building, reflection and negotiation. We all had a chance to try the process out. It works!

 

What lessons did we take away?

 

The secret lies in planning ahead. If you want a great setting for your play, give all those technical talents supporting it a chance to come together and stimulate each other – and you – as soon as you decide that the play is to be produced. Leaving it to the last minute ( whether that is 3 weeks or 3 days ) constrains their talents, cramps their imagination, reduces the materials you can assemble and generally impoverishes the final effect.

 

If you don’t believe me go and see some of Judith’s work at the Library Theatre in Manchester or Theatre Clwyd.

 

We ended by pressing her and Cheshire Theatre Guild to consider running a second workshop, perhaps on how to bring some of our ideas off the page and onto the stage., with emphasis on paint effects and set decoration. Meanwhile our thanks are due to Cheshire Theatre Guild and Vale Royal Arts for putting the course on. It is part of a series of courses this summer I am really looking forward to the next one.

 

Caroline Young – Harlequin Players.

 

 

Baptism of Fire

 

The call came on Sunday 29th April: “I think we are going to have to cancel My Friend Miss Flint”. Chester Theatre Club had never in it’s long history had to do this before; and it had to happen on my first production as box office manager. We’d already sold 500 tickets.

 

A quickly held committee meeting led to an action plan: the newsletter would be posted out immediately with a slip attached ( as we have a lot of members this occupied several people! ); a notice would be put on our web site; the press would be notified – the Midweek Chronicle came up trumps with an eye catching photomontage above the cancellation notice, with more in the Friday Chronicle and Margery Alexander and I set about telephoning everyone who had booked tickets.

 

I had the relatively straight forward task of calling around 80 season ticket holders, plus block bookings, while Margery tackled the complex task of ringing people who had booked individually, and for whom we often had no more than a surname. We tried to speak to everyone personally, rather than leaving a message, in case we had the wrong number! Everyone was unfailingly kind and tolerant – what wonderful patrons we have!

 

For each evening of the cancelled play, club members waited at the theatre until 7.30pm in case anyone turned up. In the event, only two unfortunate parties arrived all week – many apologies to them for not having managed to contact them.

 

After that came the task of moving bookings on to the next play, arranging refunds and so on, always with the fear of a double booking ( the Box Office Manager’s nightmare ). Another concern was having to explain to those who had not booked for Miss Flint, but who did want to book for Love on the Dole that the choice of seats was already very limited.

 

Hearty thanks to everyone who helped out in our crisis, will it be allright on the night? I do hope so!

 

Liz Stafford – Chester Theatre Club

 

 

In Brief

 

If you don’t know that the ban on smoking in all public places commenced on 1st July 2007 you’ve been living under a rock. The law of course applies to theatres as well – with a notable exception. Unlike their Scottish counterparts, actors in England will be exempt from the ban during performance if and when smoking is necessary for a play’s artistic integrity. Many theatres will post signs to warn theatregoers when this is the case, similar to how they already do with gunshot and strobe lighting effects.

 

 

Good Week / Bad Week

 

Good week for Tom Stoppard, whose trilogy The Coat of Utopia won seven Tony Awards – the highest tally in Broadway history.

 

Bad week for the West End which was reported to be in crisis, in the last year at least 25 major productions have closed prematurely due to poor ticket sales – the latest being the critically acclaimed The Lady from Dubuque, starring Maggie Smith.

 

 

Political Correctness

 

An amateur dramatic society in Devon is having trouble recruiting a black actor for a production of The Full Monty. The musical requires a black man to play the part of “Horse” but two local newspapers have refused to run adverts specifying the actor’s colour for fear of upsetting readers.

 

 

And Finally

 

Good Luck with your productions for 2007/2008.

Don’t forget if problems arise we are here to help if we can possibly do so. For casting difficulties your first point of contact is Jean Teggin on 01606 75210. This is an evening number with an answerphone to record your message and Jean will return your call.