First Night of Murder Mystery

Friday Night's performance of "Who Killed the Director?" by Chris Martin was well received as was the slap up supper. The cast camped it up to melodramatic proportions and the audience responded with cheers and boos in all the right places.

The photo shows Geoffrey Speechly as Ralph Williams, the director; Sally de Sancha as Prudence du Maurier, the leading lady and former lover of Ralph; Graeme Christie in his debut role as Alex Pickles, stage manager and former convict; Louise Braybrook as Kathy the wannabe starlet and Richard Aston, the debonair but not particularly talented darling son of Prudence.

The three of us slaving in the kitchen had a flavour of the action through the roller shutter. Many thanks to Ruth Wheeler and Dave Bingham who laid everything out and served nearly 50 meals. Dorothy sweated over the stoves checking that nothing was burned or underdone. Ruth has asked to be on wine duty on Saturday in the hall at Ditton Priors as that way she'll get to see the play. Dave says washing up and trying to offload melting ice-cream was good therapy and it took his mind off other things.

We sold 43 tickets out of a maximum capacity of 48. Not bad at all! I noticed that most people were known to members and wonder whether there is any merit in newspaper ads when word of mouth seems more effective.

On to Ditton on Saturday 20th, where more of Keith Alderson's excellent beef stew will be served, with lashings of clues and lots of laughter!

A Stab in the Dark

Whew! Our Murder Mystery this Friday is heading towards us like a runaway train. Everyone is on board to make it a fun evening, despite a few dramas of our own, and our audience is guaranteed a good feed and entertainment. It is a bit of a stab in the dark for us as we've not tried this style of performance before, but "Who Killed the Director?" should keep our audience amused.
Looking ahead, we are making plans for a full length play at the end of November and early December - "The Time of Your Life" by Alan Ayckbourn. All members are invited to take part and newcomers to the group will be welcomed too.

Characterisation workshop

Workshop for grown up kids – The Two Minute Panto

Naomi had us in groups, pretending to be household appliances as a warm up. Some folk really moved it as a washing machine and the interpretation of a fridge was most inventive. Then it was on to the main event.

We all know what makes a panto don't we? Oh no we don't. Oh yes we do!
A beautiful heroine and laddish hero, a dame, comedy, slapstick, a celebrity, triumph over adversity, good over evil, a reversal of fortunes, songs, a chorus, colour, jokes ott characters and most important, a happy ending.
With that in mind, a well known tune to work with, minimal props and a piece of paper, we split in to 2 groups and prepared a story board with 6 scenes. Fortunately, one member in each group actually knew the stories and bossed everyone into order – very necessary as we only had 10 minutes to prepare ourselves.
First away was Snow White with newcomer Graeme making the most of the role of wicked stepmother, the lovely Liz H talking back as the mirror and John S with the help of a hand puppet and his trusty baton/axe as the woodman. The choice of the youthful Snow White was not in question and Ruth took to the role like a duck to water. One of the dwarfs should have ducked as she took a hit from a cupboard door on the bonce. They earned a well deserved round of applause.
Next up was Sleeping Beauty starring Patricia, with wonderfully naggy parents, Dave and Linda. The fairies, Richard, Chris C and Dorothy aka Julian and Sandy and Marylin, serenaded the baby a la Monroe to the tune of “Happy Birthday”, but it was not enough to deter the bad fairy, Sally, from her evil intent. Mark, as Nanny, tried to protect her, but with GCSE revision threatening, Beauty headed up the tower to hide and tried her hand at spinning as an alternative life style. Prince Sloane Ranger rescued his princess, after a typical teenager lie in of approx 100 years, and it all ended happily in a family rave.

So, in the space of less than 1 ½ hours, we all learned a bit about characterisation and throwing ourselves into the role. Above all we had a good laugh. Many thanks for motivating us all, Naomi, and helping us get so much out of what was a short time.

Annual meeting

May 6th 2009 Summary of annual meeting

Apologies

Apologies from Tom W and Louise B

Attendance

17 Members signed the attendance sheet.

Report and accounts

The committee presented its annual report reviewing the year and looking ahead, plus the expenditure and income accounts.

Appointment of officers

Nominations were received for Liz Herdson, Dorothy Leiper and Maureen Callon and they agreed to continue in office as chairman, secretary and artistic director for the year ahead. Liz Fisher was nominated as treasurer and joins the committee. All nominations were seconded and agreed unanimously.

Health and Safety policy

The members agreed to adopt the NODA templates 1 and 3 for H & S Policy Statements and appointed Catherine Cochrane as Health and Safety Officer.

Membership and Subscriptions

It was agreed to introduce a membership subscription of £12 per annum, running from the May AGM each year. This covers the named member and their household. The level of the annual subscription is based on the need to cover the fixed costs of insurance and NODA membership, which all members benefit from. People joining part way through the year pay pro-rata.

People taking part acting in productions must be members.

Newcomers are welcome to attend two meetings as guests, but would be expected to join on the third visit.

The £2 monthly meeting charge will continue, £3 for guests. This covers the hire of the venue.

It was also agreed that the cost of rehearsal space will be allocated as a production cost, but actors will continue to bear the cost of their script.

Any other business

No other matters were raised, but please note the following:

Donation of stage flats

We are very grateful to Sally deSancha for the donation of the flats. Sally had these professionally made when she went on tour with “Shirley Valentine”.

Tickets for Arsenic and Old Lace

Friday June 19^th at The Rose, Kidderminster, for those who put their names down, are available from Dorothy. Please settle at or before the June meeting. They are £8-50 and cheques should be made out to “Bridgnorth Players.”

The business concluded at 8.20 and we welcomed Naomi Conway who lead us in a drama workshop.

Murder Mystery Auditions

"Who killed the Director?"
Auditions 7.30 at Cinnamon Coffee House, Cartway, Bridgnorth on Thursday 16th April 2009.
No experience necessary, just a desire to take part and have fun.
The Murder Mystery suppers take place on Friday 12th June at the Community Hall in Low Town and Saturday 20th June at Ditton Priors Village Hall.

Death by Drama

As in "Death by Chocolate" - overindulging in something rich and enjoyable.

This week has brought out the blossom and some really good plays. The shame is they all happened this week, so getting to them was tricky for those of us not taking part and impossible for those who were.
Belfrey, BroADS and Albrighton Players - we need to talk!

TOTS beat the rush with "Dial 'M' for Murder",by Frederick Knott, directed by Richard Aston. He can be justifiably pleased with the result. It's a cracking story, (though the intervention of the Home Secretary in the final scene can be considered artistic license) with the audience held in suspense to the end. The production was an effective collaboration of an excellent cast from Wellington, and various Bridgnorth folk creating a convincing set and providing back-stage support.

On Thursday I made by lone way to the Birchmeadow Centre in Broseley, whilst other Players headed for the Drama Festival at the Belfrey in Wellington. The play, "Dangerous Corner" by J B Priestley was played in the round, the set being a 1930's drawing room. I didn't know the story, but it reminded me of a Poirot tale, with each character in turn being exposed in some way as the spotlight of suspicion fell on them. An interesting ending. I had hoped to chat with the director at the end, but had to leave before he was free. I shall certainly make a point of going to see other BroADS productions.

On Friday, Q and I headed to Albrighton to see "Abigail's Party" by Mike Leigh. This one is set in the 1960's and the set brought back memories! The audience found quite a lot to be amused at in this dark tale and the character of the cringeworthy Beverley, in a long lime-green dress, was well portrayed. In fact, all the actors were good. The only down-side was that some local oik had scored the car, which was parked (tucked in and not blocking any driveways) outside the school.

Had a lovely chat with chairman Debbie also Gill and Mark at the end and ascertained that the Albrighton Players' next production, a farce, will be the 3rd weekend in November, so we must ensure that our end of year production does not clash; mind you, AP also recommended the Pattingham Players, one at Codsall and one at Wightwick, so I guess there is bound to be a clash somewhere. Perhaps we should get together at the start of the year and divvy up the weekends?

Dorothy

April meeting summary

Pat brought a play to read; alas, I can't remember the title, but it was about the attemps of two feuding nieces to remove their aunt from her increasingly expensive town centre flat; however, they are outmanouvred by the wiley old bird.

Catherine read a lively piece from Richmal Cromptons "Just William's Christmas" and Rosemary did a creditable Oxfordshire accent reading a couple of Pam Ayre's poems.

Auditions for our June Murder Mystery play will take place at Cinnamon Coffee House on April 16th at 7.30.

Auditions for our end of November production will be in June, with rehearsals starting in early August. Script extracts will be available at the June 3rd meeting for anyone who'd like to have a read-through before auditions.

Our May meeting celebrates Bridgnorth Players' first anniversary with an acting workshop. Please bring any guests who might be interested in joining the group. We need at least one more person on the organising committee to take on the role of treasurer. It has been suggested that no-one should be able to hold a role for more than 3 years, to prevent it becoming a long-term committment or burden, to encourage members to have their say in the running of the group and to ensure that no individual ends up monopolising how things are done. So step on up!

Dorothy