Finally. At last. Two years later. The Petuaria Players are back. Last night saw the first official rehearsal with part of the cast of Flatspin as we now resume our activities with scheduled performance dates starting on the 28th April.
Half the cast gather for rehearsal with Flatspin’s producer Richard Bateman
Of course, it is all arms innoculated and fingers crossed that nothing gets in the way of this, our second attempt to put on this play, having had to cancel our programme in early 2020.
It was certainly a good atmosphere as we resurrected our old scripts and attempted to remember and decipher our pencilled hieroglyphics in the margins.
So with 64 days to go to our first night follow us on here to keep up to date with progress and announcements – including ordering tickets as we open up the box office – details in our next post.
Traditionally, tonight, the Thursday at the end of January, would be curtain up on the first play of the new year. It seems quite amazing that a long drawn out two years have passed since Say It With Flowers graced our stage and we performed for our audiences.
The cast with Say It With Flowers author Jane Thornton in January 2020
On the positive side though, as stated in our previous posts, we will be back on stage this April with Flatspin, the Ayckbourn play that we had intended for April 2020 and had started to rehearse before lockdown cancelled it.
We will announce when the box office is open, probably sometime in February, so ensure you follow us on this blog or via our Facebook page to follow our progress. See What’s On for more information.
Rehearsals will not be starting until late February and that is because we are supporting one of our members, Sally Morland, who is producing a full on entertainment night at Blackburn Club in Brough in aid of Dove House and Macmillan charities.
It promises to be a great evening of music and fun and all for charity – see the poster below for details and order your tickets from the contacts shown. You may even see some of us…
Yes, it’s true. At last. We will be treading those boards once again and welcoming our audiences to live local theatre. So many people have been stopping members to ask – when is the next play? Well we have the answers – read on.
Recently the membership gathered together at The Forum for the first time since March 2020 for our much delayed Annual / Extraordinary General Meeting. One thing was clear – everyone was keen to get back to the stage. The sensible approach would be to wait until after Christmas and the New Year before embarking on a renewed schedule of meetings and rehearsals for a play.
Back at The Forum again
We also agreed that the most sensible choice of play to kick off our return would be Alan Ayckbourn’s FlatSpin. This was the play that was originally scheduled for April 2020, one which we had already been rehearsing and preparing for. It would be a good way of easing our way back in and, having been semi-rehearsed already, more able to cope with any unforeseen circumstances that this winter might still throw at us.
With some necessary casting changes agreed, a renewed performance licence obtained and dates booked at the Elloughton-Brough Village Hall we find ourselves in the position of having at last a plan for our return.
Make sure you have the dates 28th, 29th, 30th April marked in your calendars as tickets are sure to be in demand when we open the box office (probably in the New Year).
Ensure you are subscribed to this website or to our Facebook page for more updates. We look forward to seeing you all in 2022.
At last! Today is another milestone step on the nation’s roadmap to recovery as we open up a little more. But if anything confirms The Petuaria Players rational approach to not making premature decisions then the appearance and potential threat of the new variant that is now showing its ugly face is it.
Already there is talk within government that the total lifting of restrictions planned for June may be in jeopardy. That is one of the reasons that we have not scheduled a meeting of our planning committee until that time.
Like ourselves our followers and audience regulars are keen to see us back on the stage and are asking when that will be. The short answer is, we don’t know yet.
It is always a challenge at the best of times to find three plays that fit our cast and their availability and our stage. At the moment we are faced with too many unknowns. We are eager to get there but we need to be in a position – months ahead of a performance – where we know actors and backstage people can commit their free time to a play, are in a safe position to be rehearsing and performing in sometimes very close or intimate proximity and that they will not have to halt a production because a cast member has to self isolate. We have no stand ins. And then we have to know how we can safely bring an audience into our venue and pay our costs.
Many assume we are ready to return to rehearsals but both the rules and the above constraints mean that day is, sadly, still a little way off. Professionals are in a different position and new ways of performing to limited audiences are now in progress and that is to be welcomed.
Hopefully, next month we will have more clarity and be better informed to make decisions. And as soon as we have more news we will be posting it on here and on Facebook. Make sure you are following us to stay informed.
To sum up, our thoughts over these unknowns are about as clear as that infamous statement from Donald Rumsfeld.
….as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know….
Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary for Defence 2002
Stepping Out. We can all step out now, just not like this.
Petuaria Players 