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.

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.