AGM/Awards Evening July 9th 2003

As notified in the last newsletter this will again be at Winsford Civic Hall and with a similar format to last year. Again “cabaret style” seating will allow you to bring the all important liquid refreshment back to your table!

Enclosed is a form for you to complete and return with your ticket request – payment in advance please – this makes life a lot simpler for our treasurer.

There is also a form for you to nominate any of your members who feel they may like to join the CTG committee. If you require any information on what this involves please contact our secretary Maureen Melville on 0161 888216.

Who Am I and What am I doing Here?

That was the question posed by Derek Slater former principal lecturer in Theatre Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University on Sunday April 27^th, when 34 Cheshire Am-Dram practitioners met at Knutsford Little Theatre. The sub-title of the course was ,  “the actors role in creating character and establishing relationships” and Derek recounted some past experiences to lead us into the main activities.

Our first task was pure improvisation – in pairs, to create a conflict situation. Several couples volunteered to act it out; it was interesting to see how difficult most people found it to “let it rip” with strangers – I suspect some family members would have been very surprised.

Then we moved into Knutsford’s cosy little theatre – how I envy them a permanent home for their activities! More improvisation, but with varied plots – embarrassment, breaking bad news, meeting a stranger and so on. Between each little scene, Derek discussed the relationships between the characters, emphasizing that much drama depends on the development of these relationships.

After our lunch break, we tackled some scripts. We read excerpts from Mixed Doubles, Perspectives on Marriage by a variety of modern writers – the one we saw was by Ayckbourn; Waiting in the Wings by Noel Coward – a good play for groups with lots of “ladies of a certain age”; The Chalk Garden, a drama by Enid Bagnold. Nor were the classics neglected – we had an excerpt from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and the opening scene from Ibsens Hedda Gabler. Each script had been chosen because of what the scene revealed about the characters, and about the relationship between them, which Derek discussed in some detail.

When one is enjoying a really interesting experience, one hates to see it coming to an end. I could have happily gone on into the evening, but no doubt Derek was not sorry when four O’clock came. He had worked very hard, with almost twice the number anticipated. This could have been due to Playmakers – we have had a recent influx of new members, all keen to learn as much as they can about stage work. All of us who attended felt that the day had been well spent, and was well worth the £5.00 fee. It was a very good learning experience for everyone – more please!

Jennie Radley - Playmakers Stockton Heath

Bums on Seats

I am delighted to announce that Tudor Players have stumbled, albeit accidentally, on the perfect way to sell your show.

At Easter we took our usual trip to the Isle of Man to compete in the Manx Full Length Drama Festival. We were playing on the last night, presenting “Kindertransport” by Diane Samuels. This is a lyrical, haunting and at times quite passionate play about one of the German Jewish children who was sent away from Germany by her parents shortly before the outbreak of WWII, telling the story of her leaving home at the age of 9, and arriving and settling in England, and, parallel to that, her history from 40 years on, when she’s denied her roots and background and grown up very “English” and non-Jewish, even keeping her personal story from her own husband and daughter. Not for the faint hearted, but a superbly written play, with a tremendous amount for audiences and the cast, and staggering openings for music and effects (and lighting, but I’m not so notorious for that!)

On the a afternoon before the play, Stella Blackburn – now our President, since the sad death of dear Blackie – was standing outside the Gaiety Theatre when she saw three people looking at the playbill displayed there. She overheard enough of their conversation to see the possibility of three more “bums on seats”, to give us an even bigger audience. They asked her what “Kindertransport” was about, and she gave them a thumbnail sketch of the story, telling them how much she was sure that they’d enjoy it. The ladies looked contemplative; the man looked at Stella and demanded, “IS it a musical?”

And Stella, bless her, said “No; but it could be arranged”

A Small prize for the best offers of plays that would best (or least) well work if you turned them into musicals!

Jeff Brailsford

PS The same play was entered into the Wakefield Full Length festival. Congratulations to Nikki Brailsford who was awarded “BEST ACTRESS” as Eva. Meg Cooper was also nominated for the role of “LIL”.

A few months ago I had a telephone request from a Mr Allan Percival. He had written a one act play and he would like to get this published – but needed a group of actors to perform the play to see how it came off the page – did it need some fine tuning? – would it work at all? –Cheshire Theatre Guild to the rescue!

A newsletter appeal and again at our Chairmans / Secretaries lunch and Ashton Hayes Theatre Club and Bollington Festival Players “volunteered” to help. Ashton Hayes Theatre Club could find a ‘slot’ fairly quickly and contacted the author to obtain scripts.

The result was a rehearsed reading on May 17^th of “Look Into my Eyes” – described as a farce. The cast is 4 male & 2 female plus an extra.

When a local dentist (Harry) learns how to hypnotize people he thinks how useful this will be with nervous patients. His wife is sceptical and annoyed at the amount of money he has spent to acquire his powers – she doesn’t even believe he can do it, and challenges him to hypnotize Fiona – a friend – already under the influence of gin. He promises she will drift off to dream of an exotic holiday – wishing some attention and TLC from her husband she dreams instead of an erotic holiday! Who better to share a holiday with than the new neighbour who just happens to be a ‘Chippendale’.

Enter Gerald (Fiona’s husband) and the scene is set for misunderstanding – compromising situations and positions. The added complications are that Gerald is also put into a hypnotic trance to calm him down and unfortunately Harry is unable to get people out of a state of trance!

It was all good fun and certainly got a lot of laughs from an audience of 30 plus Ashton Hayes Theatre Club supporters. This was a rehearsed reading only but it was easy to see the potential for visual humour and business.

The cast enjoyed working on this one act play and the author had been to a rehearsal to talk to the cast and discuss the play – sadly he was unable to come along on May 17^th to see and hear the reaction of an audience.

To complete the evening Ashton Hays Theatre Club had arranged a delicious buffet supper followed by home made desserts and cheese and biscuits. If this was not enough a game had been arranged and we split into 4 teams with the challenge of listing as many song titles as we could about the weather “Singing in the Rain”, “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” – each team had to sing a few lines of the song (la la-ing allowed in moderation) and if opposing teams have the title they cross it off their lists and eventually a winner will emerge with a song title still to sing! I say “eventually” because at 11.15 pm we were still going strong and the hall was to be closed at 11.30 pm. We were all declared winners and received a prize to share.

It was a good evening (held at Manley Village Hall) and with news from chairperson Gill Ridley that soon the refurbished Ashton Village Hall will reopen – a November full length production will hopefully be staged.

Ashton Hays Theatre Club are seeking anyone willing to guest direct – any volunteers to work with this small but welcoming group should contact Gill on 01928 724417, Email gill.ridley@alvaney.37.freeserve.co.uk

First Aid Course

Attended by 14 persons from 4 theatre groups.

It was a glorious Sunday morning – not the sort of day you want to spend indoors, learning things. I know I had some mildly resentful inner mutterings about how I could be better occupied in the garden at home, but I changed my mind very rapidly as the day became more and more entertaining and informative.

Phil Barnes (the tutor), was a mine of fascinating facts and invaluable information about how to deal with everything from a cut finger to a heart attack. He also provided some grim examples from his 20+ years as a serving police officer.

We watched videos, answered lots of questions and over and over again we used moth to mouth resuscitation and cardiac massage to save the lives of the dummies he had brought with him. We bandaged each other and put each others’ arms in slings, (which sometimes resembled unmade beds rather than the neat result he produced to show us), and one course member dutifully fetched a sling for him when he was bandaging someone’s leg (think about it!).

At the end of the day we each received our ‘Certificate of First Aid Competency’ – actually a plastic card – describing us as Appointed Persons to tender first aid for the next three years. I’m very glad I did the course (thank you Cheshire Theatre Guild for organizing it) but I hope I’m not called on to demonstrate my competency in the near future.

Meg Cooper - Sale Nomads

Due to the success of this course and the increasing level of care placed upon public performances (duty of care regulations and insurance provisions) Cheshire Theatre Guild are considering repeating this course next year.

And Finally

“An actor’s a guy who, if you ain’t talking about him, he ain’t listening” – Marlon Brando quoted in the Times.

See you at the AGM / Awards!

John R Powell - Chairman