Newnham Players
The group welcomes new members for all aspects of drama from acting and directing to make up and construction, costume skills, props, sound engineers, front of house, etc.
Forthcoming productions
2010 December Cinderella, directed by Sue Pemberton
2011 April Dad’s Army
2011 June Supper Theatre
2011 November Classic three act play
In addition the club offers a varied social programme. See the July/August Newslatter and the Newnham Diary page for details.
For more information about the Players contact secretary Pam Elgar:
JULY/AUGUST NEWSLETTER
PAST PRODUCTIONS AND EVENTS
MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
The committee passed on their praise to everyone involved with this production. It was a challenging play, both on and off the stage and everyone must be congratulated for their hard work in getting this show onto the stage.
NEWNHAM STREET FAIR
Thanks to everyone who gave up their Saturday to help serve teas at the Street Fair. The share of the Newnham Players profit will be given towards the Street Lighting and Street Fair.
PLAYERS BBQ
Thanks once again to Dave Reid for organising the summer BBQ.
SCARECROW FESTIVAL
The committee thanked Sue for making the players scarecrow (at the very last minute) for the festival. Henry 8th looked great as a scarecrow and attracted attention for Man for All Seasons. Juliette also thanked the players for taking part in this festival.
FUTURE PRODUCTIONS
PANTO – CINDERS -THE TRUE STORY
This year’s panto is Cinders – the true story, written by David Tristram (remember the Little Grimley plays!) and directed by Sue Pemberton. Sue has also written a prologue for our Junior players which “bolts” onto the main panto script. Auditions went well and the panto is now cast. Anny Reid is our producer and anyone who wants to help please get in touch with her.
DADS ARMY
Dads Army will be our first major production in 2011, directed by Pam Elgar. Anyone who would like to know more about this show or is interested in taking part should contact Pam, the audition date will be given in a later newsletter, performances will be in April.
FUTURE EVENTS
1ST OCTOBER _ MEET AND GREET EVENING
7.30 p.m. at the Old House.
Dave Reid is organising a meet and greet evening so that we can invite new members to come and meet us all and to invite friends, family and others who may be interested in joining the Newnham Players. Please speak to Dave about this evening.
PLEASE COME ALONG AND BRING YOUR FRIENDS.
15TH OCTOBER – PLAYERS QUIZ EVENING
7.30 p.m. at the Club.
The players quiz evening is here again! Teams of up to 6 people, £5 per team, BYO food, buy drinks at the bar. Teams, please let Dave Reid know you are coming.
11TH DECEMBER – PLAYERS CHRISTMAS DINNER
After the very successful Christmas Dinner last year, Dave Reid is organising the “do” again on a similar basis. Please put the date in your diary. As before, it will be posh – black tie and evening dresses – a DIY buffet – which Dave and Anny will be organising. (Request from Sue P – Please can we have the snowman again?)
PROGRESSIVE SUPPER
As you already know, Bryan and Christine decided to step down from organising this event, but, it isn’t the end!!!
Dave Reid and Ian Walker have taken up the challenge of organising this for us. So, thanks to Brian and Christine for all the hard work they put into this event and thanks to Dave and Ian for taking up the reins.
NEWSLETTER – OTHER DRAMA GROUPS AND NEWS
PRESENT LAUGHTER - PRESENTED BY ALTAR EGO
16th, 17th and 18th September – at the Club, Newnham
A witty period play directed by Pam Elgar and performed by players members for the Church. Tickets will be available soon, more details will be circulated via email very soon.
84 CHARING CROSS ROAD – PRESENTED BY CODS
18th – 25th SEPTEMBER – at The Playhouse, Cheltenham
A charming play based on letters sent between Helene in America to Frank in Marks Brothers, 84 Charing Cross Road. Sue is providing costumes for this period drama. Tickets available via the Playhouse website.
THE ART OF THEATRICAL WARDROBE
Tewkesbury Heritage and Visitor Centre – until 16th October.
Royal Shakespeare costumes will be displayed and visitors will be given an insight into the making of costumes for the stage. Further information on 01684 855040.
Reviews of Past Productions:
The Birthday Party, 26-28th September 2010, by Harold Pinter, directed by Pam Elgar
A village theatre group doing Pinter! Can’t be done, of course. The local theatre going public will be sceptical. People won’t enjoy it. People won’t understand it. The actors won’t be able to sustain interest. What about those famous pauses? What’s it all about, anyway? Surely people only go to local theatre to watch people that they know in exotic costumes, making jokes on the stage.
These were some of the reservations when Newnham Players undertook to perform Harold Pinter’s ‘The Birthday Party’ last week. Some of them turned out to be true. There would have been some people who didn’t enjoy it, or didn’t understand it. But there could have been few who did not feel that they had witnessed a profound and disturbing theatrical experience.
It was not an easy project to undertake. The play is difficult; mood is created just as much by what is not said as what is said. The subject is uncomfortable, and, in the light of recent national and regional events, highly topical. We are in the realm of menace, the bullying of the weak, with undercurrents of fear and danger.
It is set in the living room of a seaside guest house. Stanley, a long term resident with an unspecified mental health condition, proves vulnerable to the brittle charm and unspoken threats of two mysterious overnight guests.
Chris Griffiths is the shambling, untidy, bewildered Stanley, an innocent in a familiar world that has suddenly turned nasty. Ian Walker is Goldberg, the leader of the visitors. With a look, a word, or a gesture, Ian Walker turns Goldberg from a sociable and genial visitor into a psychopath threatening unimaginable terror and humiliation. It was an astonishing achievement by these actors to sustain the oppressive atmosphere of this uncomfortable play throughout. I was surprised to hear that Graham Moore, who played Goldberg’s sidekick McCann, and Nigel Hughes, the guest house landlord, had never been on stage before. They, with Di Oram as the landlady and Teri Walker as Lulu, the plaything of the two mysterious guests, completed a cast which provided a convincing interpretation of a complex drama.
The show was a triumph for director Pam Elgar. It was a brave project to take on, the direction was tight and precise, and a claustrophobic and menacing little world came alive. It worked wonderfully well.
Supper Theatre 24th and 25th March 2010
Newnham Players presented a particularly well balanced programme of one act plays at their ‘Supper Theatre’ at the Armoury Hall last week. I mentioned in this column a couple of weeks ago the exciting and ambitious range of activities and events that Newnham Cricket Club has arranged for junior cricketers over the summer. The village drama group has been just as active in developing young actors, and the junior players, under the direction of Pat O’Hara and Sara Cleal, got the evening off to a great start with two amusing sketches.
‘A Day at the Seaside’ is a familiar story about the stresses and anxieties which traditionally accompany a British family day out, and the young cast made the most of it, playing a range of characters from mum and dad, the kids, gran, to the policewoman who brought the ill-fated expedition to an abrupt end.
The juniors’ second offering was Roald Dahl’s cynical interpretation of ‘The Three Little Pigs’, delightfully presented by the enthusiastic youngsters who were clearly enjoying every minute of it. This was the juniors’ first appearance at Newnham Players’ Supper Theatre, and it was so successful that it must become a regular feature of this annual event.
And for something completely different, Teri Walker, under the sympathetic direction of Chris Griffiths, triumphantly took on the challenge of performing one of Alan Bennett’s ‘Talking Heads’ monologues, ‘Her Big Chance’. Teri Walker plays Lesley, a fading actress dreaming of greatness and oblivious of the sleaziness or even worse the indifference of the small time film hustlers in her sad world. To convey all this and to sustain it over a 40 minute solo performance, without a single prompt was an astonishing achievement of great courage, stamina and skill.
And for something else completely different, Sue Pemberton directed ‘Reunion’, the second in a trilogy of black comedies of which the first, ‘Funeral Tea’, was performed at this event last year. The ashes of dear departed Jacob Starkie, having disconcerted his nearest and dearest last year, return to disconcert them all over again this year. He should have been scattered at the Kirkstall Lane End, Headingley, like any good Yorkshireman. I look forward to new macabre ways in which Jacob will return to haunt his grieving friends, relations and hangers-on next year.
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS 9th-12th June 2010
Newnham Players’ production of Robert Bolt’s great dramatic panorama of 16th Century English political history ‘A Man for All Seasons’, performed at St Peter’s Church from 9th to 12th June 2010, was their most recent production.
A Man for All Seasons featured the Medieval and Tudor musicians ‘Waytes and Measures’. Waytes (or ‘Waits’) was the name of old town bands and a measure is a tune or dance.
For more details contact: G Davies, “Sweets of May” 11a Greet Rd, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire GL54 5JT. Tel: 01242 603094. Email: gwilymd@cmarge.demon.co.uk or visit the website:http://www.myspace.com/waytesandmeasures
REVIEWS
It was a very ambitious project executed to a high standard. It was particularly encouraging to recognise the inclusive nature of the casting with
first time ’Newnham’ performances from a number of the cast. Well done to you all. J and A
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What an excellent play. I think they all did very well – there was so much to learn and your main man and wife were brilliant. The others played good supporting roles. A difficult play, so well done for creating such good drama – and the church was the perfect setting. CM
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Speaking as someone who does not watch or particularly like historical costume drama – I’m converted!
It’s the best thing I’ve seen in a long while (and that includes visits to Malvern) it was very believable and the costumes just amazing.
Newnham has certainly been offered a rare treat – I hope tonight’s audience appreciate that as much as we did last night.
Can you please pass on to cast dont have, especially King Henry who could not have been more perfect – Great casting! TW
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From St Peter’s Church
I know this has already been said by lots of people, but I really want to say …
- WELL DONE
- Thank you
- It was really excellent……
I thought the preformance was great, the stage and costumes were brill, the many lines were delivered perfectly, it was a credit to the village, and a real credit to The Players.
I was so glad that you approached me to use the church, it lent itself perfectly to this production, and the space around and above made it feel like a proper auditorium. Any other plays that you’d like to do in St Peter’s…just ask.
Even with a funeral taking place, along with a couple of services of communion, we didn’t feel like your presence was in any way an inconvienience (just proving that that building is plenty big enough for the ‘whole’ community!)
And thanks for putting everything back so swiftly today….I hope you liked the way I constructed a benefice service in Awre so you could have a night off !
Anyway, thanks again. You should be very proud of yourselves.
Juliet xxxx
Rev’d Juliet Stephenson Vicar of Newnham, Awre and Blakeney
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I believe the staging of A Man for All Seasons, as well as being a triumph for Newnham Players, is an excellent reflection of the way in which the church and the community can collaborate in the use of the church building. I hope we can continue to work in this way. SF
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I’m writing to thank you and your team on behalf on behalf on the PCC for the way in which you made it so easy for us all in St Peters to maintain church services during the rehearsals and the days of the performances. Particularly for the speedy way in which the building was restored this morning.
It is one of the current aims of the Church of England to ensure its buildings are used for both religious worship and community pursuits . The Man for All Seasons production team made this a happy reality for us and I shall be reporting this to the PCC at their next meeting. JS