Tag Archives: Amateur Dramatics

Petuaria Blog

Professional help….

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Gareth Tudor Price to assist in staging our January production.

We are excited to announce that Gareth Tudor Price has offered to assist in the staging of A Kick in the Baubles by Gordon Steel.  Gareth is a freelance theatre director and producer and a longtime friend of the Petuaria Players.  As an actor he has had credits in The Bill, Prime Suspect, Heartbeat and GBH amongst others.  He was artistic director at Hull Truck for nearly 10 years during which he commissioned, developed and directed this play for its first production in 2005.

Gareth Tudor Price

When he heard that we were considering A Kick in the Baubles he was keen to offer his help and we were equally keen to accept. Gareth will be providing invaluable artistic direction and advice and we hope to gain from his professional insight.  Rehearsals will start in November.

Before then Gareth will be directing Moby Dick adapted by John Godber and Nick Lane 19th October to 3rd November in what promises to be an adventurous production in-the-round at the York Guildhall.

Tickets available from York Theatre Royal.  For more information click here on MOBY DICK

 

Petuaria Blog

Spirit Level

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Finally – its time to announce our new season.  Our programme is now confirmed. All that reading of new plays over the summer and then the hard work of casting is done and we are excited about the year ahead. This year we have a nice blend of three very different comedies and all no more than ten years old, one of which will see professional involvement….  but we’ll leave that for the next post.  Our first play however will be –

SPIRIT LEVEL by Pam Valentine

October 27, 28, 29 2016

Before their recent untimely deaths, Cobbler’s Cottage was home to famous author of crime novels Jack Cameron and his wife Susie. A young couple, Flic and her husband Simon, an aspiring crime writer, are especially keen to rent the cottage when they discover the connection with the previous tenants, despite the odd behaviour of the somewhat spooked and nervous estate agent. But does Cobbler’s Cottage have a stronger connection to Jack and Susie than they imagined? And can they help the young couple through their problems, not least with Flic’s monstrous interfering mother, even from beyond the grave?

A funny and warm comedy play from Pam Valentine, produced by Jayne Hewson.

Cast: (order of appearance) Steve Howland, Gill Collins, Wyn Price, Tom Fryer, Nic Johnson, Barbara Failey, Sue Hart.

Petuaria Blog

Summer, what summer?

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The Petuaria Players continue to enjoy their summer break – or to be more accurate – their break – we are all still awaiting the arrival of a summer….

Those of us who are not escaping to warmer climes continue to meet every Monday and read potential scripts. The biggest change this year, and a great improvement over the past, is the use of more trial versions of digital scripts which we can group-read using eReaders and tablets such as iPads and Kindles. Obtaining plays to read with sufficient paper scripts can be extremely challenging but this method widens our scope resulting in more choice.

No we are not bored we are reading scripts out loud on our eReaders...
No we are not bored we are reading scripts out loud on our eReaders…

And that choice is almost upon us. Our first meeting takes place this week to look at our three plays for 2016/7.

But deciding upon our programme is not as easy as it sounds. We have to look at our cast availability for October, January, May. How many males and females are available for each one? What are their age profiles? Can we give a role to everyone who wants to act? Who is available for backstage work, sound and lights? This can mean that a play we think would be a popular success doesn’t even get past first base.  It usually involves casting one play as a keystone and then selecting the other two to meet any casting availability limitations. It means our programme can turn out to be quite different to how we expected before we start the process.

The Producers will meet and thrash it all out – imagine the closed door Labour Party National Executive Committee meeting today and you have an idea of what its like…  I’m kidding. Maybe.

But the end result will be another exciting and challenging programme. Watch this site for news.

Petuaria Blog

Decision time

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What a time we have had recently eh?  Decisions to make. Debates. Arguments. Reading, reading, reading. Will there be resignations? Who will be the new leader? Who will fill the various posts? Do we have a plan going forward? What about our finances?

No, not the Referendum… our Annual General Meeting on Monday.

Yes it’s been a summer of reading scripts to decide upon our 2016/7 programme.  A big effort has been made this year to source new plays and we have enjoyed reading them.  That part is almost complete and in the next couple of weeks we will be looking at the potential plays to perform and it looks exciting.   As soon as we have the programme agreed we will announce it initially through this page and our Facebook site.

The AGM agreed the society posts for the coming year. We are very pleased to announce that Mo Spence has accepted our request to retain her position as President once again.  The committee members will remain the same as last year and Richard Bateman was voted to remain as Chair.  (View our committee  here.)

Ticket prices have been frozen again at £6.  No that’s not a typo – six pounds will get you a night’s live entertainment and a free programme and a hot or cold drink and biscuit.  Now where else can you get that?

The meeting also elected our Producers for this year and again, details will be announced when we have the programme agreed so watch this space…..

Meanwhile keep the 27th, 28th, 29th October free – whatever we choose you know it will be a good night out.