Manor Players News articles:
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DANGEROUS OBSESSION
The rehearsals for our June production "Dangerous Obsession" are now well under way. And judging by the pictures below it would appear that all the cast and crew are having a great time doing it.
Director
Carole Edwards
Mark Driscoll Sally Driscoll John Barrett
David Young Lucy Winter Nigel Smith
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New Manor Players Stagecraft Course -
One of our experienced directors, Gerry de Faoite, will be running the new Manor Players stage craft course, at Riverside Arts Centre, from 23rd April until 25th June. Places are still available, so please contact Gerry if you are interested in taking part in this course.
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Annual General Meeting
The Manor Players 2009 AGM, took place at Riverside Arts Centre, on Wednesday 6th May at 8pm in an upstairs room.
Message from the Chairman
At the AGM, in the absence of any new nominations, the committee were re-elected en bloc, with the exception of Rebecca Hopkins who resigned due to other commitments. This means there is one vacancy on the committee at the moment.
I was re-elected Chairman, and Liz Cheetham as secretary and Amber Harries
was appointed as our new Treasurer. She takes over some healthy accounts
from Peter Norgate which show a surplus on the year's operation.
Expressions of gratitude were expressed for the way Peter has looked after
our accounts for the past few years.
The votes were counted for the Houlding Award and this was won by Geoff
Buckingham for his almost life-like role of Fleshcreep in the panto.
Well done Geoff!
After the formal business closed, many items were discussed including our
involvement in the Shepperton Village procession and fair, and the Sunbury
Regatta and associated social functions; an away-day to the NODA area
conference in Lewes; arrangements for our proposed play on Radio Wey; the
possibility of running tap dance classes for beginners; and our future stage
productions.
The first of these, “Dangerous Obsession” directed by Carol Edwards, is well advanced in rehearsal for its performance in June.
For “Strawberries in
January” to be directed in September by Rebecca Hopkins which is set in a
french-style cafe, it was agreed that we would endeavour to re-create such a
cafe for the audience rather the normal seating arrangements. Finally
on-stage this year Gerry confirmed that plans for her provisionally titled
'Some enchanted evening with Manor Players' were nearly all in place and
will include at least drama items as well as dance and song etc from both
Manor Players members and Sally Pond Dancers.
And finally this year we have the formal dinner - this time to celebrate 61
years of Manor Players!
Keep your eye on our web-site
www.manorplayers.org (brilliantly managed by Sam Newman) for more news
on what is happening within Manor Players
And don't forget we are at the Riverside every Tuesday and Thursday evening
from 7.30 until about 9.45, so why not pop down to see how things are
progressing and enjoy a drink at the bar
David Young
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Dear all,
I am writing to let you know the details of the new Manor Players production
scheduled for September, in case any of you are interested in taking part or
know somebody who might be, or so you can get the dates in your diaries to
come see it!
There's plenty to do front of house and backstage, and
with set design and construction as well if that is where your interest
lies.
Please forward on to anyone you think may be interested.
The details...
'Strawberries in January' by Evelyne de la Cheneliere
From the cover: Do you ever wish love could be more like the movies?
Francois does. A cafe-bartender slash frustrated screenwriter, he
uses every event in his life as inspiration. He casts Sophie, his flatmate,
opposite Robert - a cafe regular. Outside the city, Sophie's childhood
friend Lea runs a B&B. A surprising encounter provokes her to seek out
Sophie for a reunion. Their stories collide and interweave with intriguing
serendipity. Strawberries in January is a biting, heart-warming comedy
about four romantically challenged singletons who stumble through life in
search for love.
The characters:
Francois - male, mid 20s to late 30s. A cafe owner and screenwriter
Robert - male, late 20s to late 30s. A university professor.
Sophie - female, mid 20s to late 30s.
Lea - female, mid 20s to late 30s. A B&B owner.
The ages are guidelines. Basically the cast needs to be roughly the same
age.
The running length is an hour so no copious amounts of dialogue to be
learnt!
The action takes place mainly in Francois's Cafe.
Performance dates: Thursday 10th to Saturday 12th September
Venue: Riverside Arts Centre, 59 Thames Street, Sunbury-on-Thames,
Middx, TW16 5QF
Readings (informal auditions)
take place on:
Tuesday 9th, Thursday 11th and Tuesday 16th June, 8pm in
the main hall at the Riverside Arts Centre. This simply involves sitting
and reading through the script as a group, no audition piece necessary! So
come down and say hello.
Rehearsals start week commencing 26th June and will take place every Tuesday
and Thursday, 8pm at the Riverside Arts Centre. This is an extended
rehearsal period to account for the fact that people will probably be away
for some of it on their holidays!
If you'd like any more info then give me a call: 07702 491430
Look forward to seeing you there!
Rebecca
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What a busy 12 months for
Manor Players
Early in the year due to last minute licensing
problems with our planned production of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" we
hurriedly
presented for two nights our own pretend broadcast in "Radio Riverside". A
selection of songs, comedy, excerpts from plays and readings, and a first;
'sitting down tap dancing on radio'. Ironic that later in the year we were
to make several actual broadcasts on local radio promoting the June
production of 'Black Comedy' and our pantomime.
The summer was very busy off-stage as we appeared in costume at local events, such as the Sunbury Regatta and the August Ashford Lions fete. Hot sunshine for the first, overcast for the fete and then freezing cold at the Lower Sunbury Christmas market in December. Such appearances will be repeated in 2009 plus some other events, and it is even rumoured that we may be taking to the water at the regatta!
In October despite some excellent performances by Gerry, Christie and
Marilyn in Geoff Buckingham's "The Legacy" we failed to achieve any honours
at the Spelthorne and Runnymede Drama Festival. The second disappointment of
the year as earlier our strong entry of "100" directed by Rebecca Hopkins
gained no prizes at the prestigious Leatherhead Festival.
In November our attention was again off-stage as we celebrated 60 years of
producing good drama in Sunbury with a gala black-tie dinner here at the
Riverside. In the presence of the Mayor and Mayoress of Spelthorne and Manor
Players stalwarts from the 50s, 60s 70s and 80s, Ken Busby was honoured for
his long outstanding service to the group. Over 80 people enjoyed an evening
of good food, reminisce, cabaret and dancing. Such a success that we have
decided to make this an annual event.
(This year, November 28th, and tickets will be hard to come by !)
All the hard-work towards the end of the year came to fruition in January with an outstandingly successful panto; oh yes it was !
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It hardly seems possible that after all those months of hard work that the panto has come and gone. And what a success it was!
Three 'Sold Out ' performances and the other two houses with good audiences, from the financial point of view we could hardly have done better.
The success was matched by the the on-stage performances both by the actors and the excellent Sally Pond dancers.
Every performance was very appreciatively received by the audiences and there have been many complimentary remarks about the level of entertainment provided to both young and old.
Congratulations are in order to all of the cast, the dancers, and the back stage gang, the sound and lighting technicians, and the set builders, but most of all to director Gerry de Faoite; as the old cliché goes "without her this would not have been possible".
The DVD of the show will soon be available to members for training purposes and the date of the evening showing will be advised shortly.
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Ken Dalston does not often appear on the stage for Manor
Players these days, but he is behind the stage most weeks presenting his Punch
and Judy shows at all sorts of functions from children’s parties to corporate
events. You can find information about Kendal Entertainments at
www.kendalentertainments.co.uk
Please feel free any Tuesday or Thursday evening to come and meet some of our members and directors, view the facilities at the Riverside Arts Centre, and have a chat about joining us in any capacity to help us continue presenting great theatre in Sunbury. Contact 01784 452589 or email info@manorplayers.org
Whoever you are, we will be pleased to welcome you to participate in our future varied programme of events. All ages are welcome and we undertake a wide range of Drama, Comedy, Pantomime and Musicals.