Important Dates
Now is the time to get a couple of days in your 2008 diary - on your websites -in your own newsletters and on your notice boards.
The first of these days Monday July 7th for the Cheshire Theatre Guild A.G.M.. This will be held at Knutsford Little Theatre.
The second is Wednesday, July 9th for the awards evening. Venue to be announced.
So, for the first time the AGM and awards are on two different evenings - a decision taken by your committee and something of an experiment. It may not work so next year we may have to go back to the original format.
Why have we made the decision to change?
Well, no one likes an AGM. They are not very interesting as a rule, but they have to be held like like them or not.
We are hoping that bribed by a glass of wine and some nibbles (complements all Cheshire Theatre Guild). We will get a least two members of each group along before the shortish meeting, followed by a chance the aforesaid refreshments.
The Awards
we are hoping to create more of a party atmosphere. Don't expect party poppers, balloons, or silly string. What you will get is more time to chat with other groups and more time to get your drinks at the bar. This is when we celebrate a year of drama and make the awards.
I am confident that adjudicator Jon Kerr will help give us a really memorable evening as he summarizes the season, and as usual, we will have some play extracts to keep you entertained.
A history of pantomime
pantomime is a John are particular to Britain in the Commonwealth but when did he told "you can surprisingly, it is not petitioning origin but came to us via ancient Greece and Rome and later from what we now referred to as medieval Italy.
The name itself is derived from a masked dancer known as one of many who improvised traditional stories with gender role reversals being quite common. All then developed in Britain from around the restoration onwards we the famous character HARLEQUIN first appearing in the early 18th century.
As Theatre evolved so did pantomime. Special stage effects and topical storylines coldest of to increase dramatically and the vast majority of modern day plots were here by the 1860s only Peter Pan being a 20th century creation following the success of J M Barries play.
The traditional pantomime must have audience participation, villains booed and heroes cheered with the ” principal boy” played by a girl in the pantomime dame by a man. A friendly animal is a must – a good fairy entering stage right which once symbolised heaven. While the villain enters stage left for hell. The dame sometimes does a striptease removing several layers of costume before invariably coming up with a notice saying “The End”.
Early panto stars were Joseph Grimaldi , Dan Leno (1860 – 1904), Stanley Lupino (1893 – 1942), Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd in the 1960’s.
Most London theatres were able to book at least one famous name for their panto but the London Palladium with a seating capacity in excess of 2000 usually boasted several top names.
Posters from the 1950’s had “Sleeping Beauty” with Charles Drake – Bruce Forsyth – Bernard Bresslaw and Edmund Hockeridge. “Cinderella” starred Max Bygraves – Jon Pertwee – Richard (Mr Pastry) Hearne and Julie Andrews. “Mother Goose” – Max Bygraves again this time with Peter Sellers – Richard (Mr Pastry) Hearne, obviously a panto favourite, and Shirley Eaton. Finally billed as “London’s most Lavish pantomime” Humpty Dumpty saw Harry Secombe teamed up with Alfred Marks, Roy Castle and the exotically named Svetlova.
Quite a contrast from the soap “stars” – so called “celebrities” and the winners of “reality” television shows that appear in so many of our pantomimes today.
Spirit of the Age
Panto performers in Norfolk have been banned from throwing sweets to children in case someone gets hurt. Organisers at the Pavilion Theatre made the decision after learning they weren’t covered for sweet-related accidents. A confectionery company has since volunteered to supply less dangerous marshmallows for the forthcoming run of Babes in the Wood. “They’re very soft and surprisingly aerodynamic” said a spokesman for Tangerine Confectionery.
The Arts Council: No Sign of Excellence
The head of the Arts Council of England, Peter Hewitt, must've felt his worst nightmare had come true, said Mark Brown in the Guardian. He found himself on stage at London's Young Vic in front of an auditorium of angry actors, having to defend the council's decision to cut funding from 194 cultural organizations across the country. It was because those particular theatres and arts centres were judged to be underperforming. Hewitt explained - a hot case to make given that the Department of culture's latest review had just trumpeted the dawn of a ”new renaissance” in British arts. The thespians, Kevin Spacey, and Sam West, among them, booed and hissed, before passing a motion of no confidence in the council.
What a shambles, said Terence Blacker in The Independent. There's not much wrong with sir Brian McMaster's review - which, with its commitment to “excellence” rather than popularity, is assumed to be the rationale for the council's cuts. The problem is how it has been interpreted. Yes, let's support excellence, but don't then slash the subsidy of, say, London's excellent and innovative Bush Theatre, which has put on first plays by the likes of Conor MacPherson. The council claimed the eight to one seat venue doesn't play to enough people - but its figures were wrong; it underestimated odious attendance by a factor of three. In any case McMaster had slated adherence to “simplistic targets”, and what could be more ” simplistic” than audience figures as a measure of an autistic excellence?
But then is at danger of complacency when funding is taken for granted, said The Independent, and the council was right to make grants dependent on high standards. What was wrong was the insensitive way it announced the cuts just before Christmas, and then told people they had only five weeks to appeal. For 50 years, this inept, secretive bureaucracy has had power of life and death over small theatres and publishing houses, said Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (London). The council conspicuously falls short of its own standard. Let funding, henceforth be decided by the Department of Culture - and for heaven's sake, let's put the Arts Council out of its misery.
News from the Groups.
Knutsford Little Theatre
Customers at Booths supermarket enjoyed a treat on a Saturday before
Christmas. Mike Wilding, Jamie Arrowsmith and James Broughton entertained with
a medley of jazz ranging from Rudolph the red nosed reindeer to Georgia on my
mind. The trio, along with bass player Dave Arrowsmith, are the regular band at
Knutsford Llittle Theatre. It was also a good opportunity to give some
publicity to the Knutsford Little Theatre panto “Jack and the Beanstalk” that
was staged in January.
Nantwich Players
Over the Easter week, around 20 members of the players will be off to the
Isle of Man to take part in the full length play Festival. The play they will
be taking is “SEPARATE TABLES” - to be staged in the players own Theatre from
February 16th – 23rd (not 17th) - see diary for
details of how to book tickets.
Harlequin Theatre
An open day on Sunday, January 20th (1pm – 5pm) paid off for the
group despite fears that very few would actually come along around 30 people
enjoyed a backstage tour -saw a rehearsal in action, a lighting and sound
display, and took part in a play reading. A good proportion of those that came
along joined the Harlequins that day. And when “Pride and Prejudice” is staged
in April. Some of the new members will hopefully be in the cast.
Congratulations.
To former Cheshire Theatre Guild adjudicator Colin Snell who was recently appointed as an associate of GODA (Guild of drama adjudicators).
Colin joins Jeff Brailsford and Robert Meadows, who, of course, also adjudicated for Cheshire Theatre Guild.
Colin is now in his third year adjudicating the all England Theatre Festival - West Pennine division.
His “In Yer Space” is constantly busy, and is taking “Be My Baby” to the east full length play Festival in the Isle of Man.
Jeff is also busy directing for Preston Drama Club - “Hindle Wakes” in the autumn of 2007, “Seasons Greetings” in “January and “Night Must Fall” for April. How does he find the time?
Shakespeare works wonders.
Shakespeare does wonders for the mind. Researchers discovered in January, when people read Shakespeare the brain “lights up” with activity. Imaging techniques also showed that Shakespearean text spots activity across a wider area of the brain. Researchers put it down to the Bard’s obscure words and complex sentence structures.
On Golden Pond
10 facts you may not know about this ever popular play.
1. The play had its Broadway
debut in 1979.
2. When the play opened there was a newspaper strike that denied the critics
the chance to kill it off.
3. A casual conversation between an usher at the Kennedy Space Centre and Henry
Fonda led to him suggesting to his daughter that it could make an okay movie
4. The screen adaptation came along in 1981.
5. In the 1990s there was a musical version.
6. When there was a live television version with Julie Andrews and Christopher
Plummer.
7. There has been productions in Israel, Tokyo, Lebanon, Argentina, Poland, to
name just a few.
8. The play has been translated into 25 languages.
9. In 2005. It was back on Broadway with an all-black cast.
10. When Ernest Thompson wrote the play. He was an out of work actor
The King of Gossip Has the Last Laugh
Ned Sherry legendary raconteur’s book “Voices from the Wings” published recently by J R Books Shortly after his death.
The book is full of anecdotes from mini chapters to a line or two.
There are many gems to be savoured, but this is one I thought you may enjoy.
I'm actor who was being direct by sharing was so frustrated by the lack of attention he was receiving that when he spotted his director writing during a dress rehearsal, he wrestled the path from him to see what gem of wisdom. It might contain.
All it said was “remember to buy codeine”.
John R Powell
Chairman