Christmas

Me, Hannah and Sally at Roz's surprise birthday party!

I've not written a blog post for a couple of weeks, the main reason being how busy we all are in the run up to Christmas. Having recently attended a surprise birthday party in fancy dress - which was a first for me, actually, followed by my own birthday which on included watching one of my step-grand-daughters in a dance show and then singing in our Musical Society's Christmas Concert, this week is no less busy! After spending a couple of hours on Sunday morning tidying up, cleaning and putting the chairs out at the theatre between us, Keith and I were running the final rehearsal last night for the Junior Section's performance at our annual "Oscars Night" on Wednesday. Straight after that we rehearsed (rather badly, I have to say) for the adult section's next play. Tonight, I am singing again in our second Christmas Concert with Hull Musical Society, tomorrow night is the aforementioned Oscars Night, Thursday will be spent building the set ready for the January play at BADS, Friday is allocated last minute shopping and wrapping presents - although I've yet to wrap the gifts for the children at drama for tomorrow night, having bought them on Sunday.

I wrote our Christmas cards on Sunday evening/Monday morning - posted yesterday. This year I've only made a few, having had less chance to do any more, so the rest of them, which I bought, are charity based. I may even stop sending them next year - lots of people donate to charity instead or simply do not send them, but I must admit I still like to receive a card through the letterbox!

Last night, Keith took the photo we will be using in the poster for our next play - he is currently manipulating it ready for when I design the poster a bit later on.We are performing "Fringe Benefits" which is a comedy by Peter Yeldham and Donald Churchill. It is the very first play I performed in at BADS nearly 23 years ago - this time round I am playing one of the older wives instead of the scantily clad young female I played back then!. Where did those 23 years go???

On Saturday 22nd I will be at my last craft fair of the year- at the UpMarket in Prospect Centre, Hull. I have not yet made any new stock so my table may be spread out a fair bit! Sunday 23rd we will be looking after my 3 year old niece, and plan to take her to see the Christmas Tree display in our village church in Preston. It's always an excellent display and I'm sure she will really appreciate it this year as she is really, really excited about Christmas!

Christmas Eve may be a relaxing day, although I'm sure I will still have some presents to wrap and we will probably spend some time planning our festive quizzes for when the family are here over Christmas!

I will leave you with the reading I have prepared for the concert tonight, considering it's apt:

The first thing that came to my mind when I was asked for Christmas memories from my childhood was an overwhelming sense of excitement. I think I felt it more than my brothers and sister because my birthday is only ten days before the big event itself.

Specific memories of mine relate to the pleasure of giving gifts and the disappointment of one year in particular – the year I desperately wanted a horse for Christmas. Watching Black Beauty on the television probably influenced my desire, and I couldn’t understand why I didn’t get one. I thought it would be easy to keep a horse in our little back garden (we lived in a terraced house) and had vivid visions of me trotting along down the ten-foot and round the block on my personal steed!  I remember Mum trying her best to explain how impractical (and costly) the idea was, but it took me a while to appreciate that fact.

I particularly loved giving gifts to family members, especially ones I’d made myself. I started a tradition of making sweets to give as gifts, and look back with such happy memories of spending time in the kitchen with my Mum to make them. I would create batches of peppermint creams and coconut ice. I never liked coconut ice, but loved making it – particularly the part where I added the food colouring. Mum encouraged us to think of presents for others that we believed they would appreciate, and for some reason I will never forget being proud of a pair of red, spiral shaped candles that I spent 19pence on for an aunty!

Food and family were a big part of my childhood Christmas – combining the two for Christmas dinner when our Grand-dad, Grandma, Nanna, Great Uncle Fred & Aunt Olive all joined us. I honestly don’t know how we all squeezed round the table in those days, or how my Mum managed to cater for everyone, but she did so without fail and our Christmas days were happy times – until the arrival of the sprouts. I’ve always disliked them; despite trying them in different ways (disguised in a cheese sauce, for example) and my Christmas dinners will probably always be sprout free!

I have two brothers and a sister, so we used to share the opening of the advent calendar – although I always opened it on my birthday, whether it was my turn or not! On Christmas morning, it was usually a race between me and my younger brother, Daniel, to get downstairs first to see if “he’d been”! We continued this up to the time we were adults, and that excitement is still there when I wake up on Christmas morning.

I can clearly remember one or two of my favourite presents from my childhood – in fact I’ve still got one of them now. “Connect 4” was my main present in 1974 and I have played it again recently with my 3 year old niece, Charlotte. This game of strategy and planning is somewhat simplified with her, however – I think her favourite part is letting the counters out at the bottom when the game is finished (or more often than not, whenever she feels like it).  I also remember getting a “Potter’s Wheel” one year, which I was so pleased with, but I think I expected to be creating masterpieces in my first attempt, so was quite disappointed with my misshapen mound of mud! My other memorable gift was a creative game called “Construct o Straws”, which I’m pleased to see you can still get today. This game involved connecting many flexible plastic straws together to make as many different shapes and constructions as you could. As with most of our childhood games, we usually shared them, and I think we all got a lot of pleasure from that game. 

 

We used to put our Christmas tree up and decorate the house with streamers and/or tinsel as close to my birthday as possible – that’s a tradition I’ve maintained to this day. The whole family were involved, I loved arranging the little felt elves on the Christmas tree. These elves were three dimensional, with porcelain faces (I think) and long, spindly legs that could be tucked under their arms at the front.

Christmas seemed to go on forever when we were children, and there would nearly always be some sort of party on New Year’s Eve at our house or a neighbour’s house. If it was held at our house, we got to stay up really late and Daniel and I soon worked out that if we were quiet enough and stayed under the dining table, we could stay up even later – out of sight, out of mind, I think!  I always remember loving it when my Nanna started to play the piano at these parties – most of the songs I didn’t know at all, but the adults did, and used to sing along with her. Over the years I got to know the songs – a lot of war-time classics such as “We’ll meet again”  “The White Cliffs of Dover” and  “White Christmas”. Although I didn’t really like them at the time, when I hear them now, I feel quite emotional.

Christmas in the 1970s wasn’t complete without watching the TV “Specials” as a family. We loved Morecambe & Wise, The Two Ronnies, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em and The Generation Game. All firm favourites in our house, and in those days, I actually liked watching Sir Bruce Forsyth on the TV, so much so that I longed to go on “The Generation Game” with my Dad, but it never happened.

If I had to summarise my childhood Christmas memories in one word, it would be “magical”. That’s what Christmas should be for children and I’m glad to say that mine always were.

Oklahoma!

It's show-time again this week for me. Hull Musical Society are performing the classic musical Oklahoma at the Hull Collegiate School, Tranby Lane, Anlaby, Hull. Performance dates are Thursday 1st November, Friday 2nd November and Saturday 3rd November at 7.30pm. There is an additional matinee performance on Saturday 3rd November commencing at 2.30pm.  I will be singing in the chorus, so am not missed so much if I'm not at rehearsal - which is a good job, since I've missed a couple this time due to illness, not something I like to do!! Anyhow,  yesterday was the last rehearsal held at my other Society's home, the Bilton Theatre. We've been rehearsing there on Sundays for the past 4 weeks, as an additional rehearsal to the weekly Tuesday nights in Sutton. As we are so near the production now, many of us did the rehearsal in our costumes, which always helps to create the right mood and focus for the show. Here are a few shots taken at the rehearsal (thanks to Andy Collinson):

You can just see me on the extreme right of this shot!

My face is hidden, but I'm 2nd on the left here!!!!

Neal Edlin and Richard Foot, playing Ali Hakim & Will Parker, love rivals of Ado Annie.

In case you don't know Oklahoma, it is the classic musical, which is the story of Laurey and the two rivals for her affections: Curly, a cowboy, and Jud, the hired farmhand. The play takes place in 1906 in an Indian territory of the American West during the time when Oklahoma was established as a state. It tackles class issues between the farmers and the cowmen in the still-developing, rugged landscape of a state in its infancy as characters struggle to find hope, love and the fulfilment of "the American Dream." It is also a romantic tale of love. Curly and Laurey both have feelings for each other but have difficulty expressing it because of their stubbornness. Just to spite Curly, Laurey accepts an invitation to the local dance from the evil Jud Fry. Eventually, Curly and Jud duel it out, with Jud ending up falling on his own knife and dying. Meanwhile, Will Parker has returned early from his trip to Kansas City. Unfortunately, his girlfriend, Ado Annie, just can't seem to say no to other men. All turns out well in the end as both couples end up happily married.


Tickets are priced at £7 for adults and £5 for children and can be booked in advance by ringing Jo Blanchard on 07879817583, or bought on the door each performance.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) we will be rehearsing at the venue for the first time, then we have a Dress Rehearsal on Wednesday prior to the 4-performance run. Tonight, I will be rehearsing for the next play at Bilton - which will take place in January. So this week is a busy one, I guess Sunday will be a very lazy day indeed!

There's something about being involved in any team event, whether it's a play or a musical, that I love, despite any drawbacks that you may encounter along the way (there's always one or two!). I think it's the feeling of belonging and all being in it together that I like - and the fact that you share the buzz of performing with others who all enjoy it, too.

Please do try and get to see the show if you are in the area and have an interest in musicals, it is great value for money and an entirely different way to spend your evening (or afternoon, if you like the idea of a matinee).

Well done BADS

It's been a busy week for us this week, having the production at Bilton Amateur Dramatic Society on for 4 nights, preceded by two rehearsal nights. However, as I reflect on the whole process, it's been a great success and I am extremely pleased with the end result. Producing and directing a play at amateur level is much more hands on than a professional director I would imagine, since there are no allocated jobs  for things such as wardrobe, make-up/hair or props, and the director is also the producer, therefore responsible for the whole production, including (in my case, but not everyone is the same) organising cover for Front-of-house (even if it means doing so myself), and having a say in what costumes each person is going to wear. I'm quite fussy about that, as I really believe that what you wear in a play can add so much more to your character, that it's important to pay attention to this.

This play was set in the 1980s, so I was thrilled to re-live my youth by crimping Ellie's hair for her each night - with my own crimpers from the 1980s, I might add! Ellie was less thrilled by it, and couldn't understand why we all had such big hair then, but it just shows how much fashion changes. Every new generation find it hilarious to look at the clothes and hair of their parents or older friends - I remember thinking how weird the beehive hairdo was that my mum used to wear in the 1960s!

I was quite an intense director, I think - and I must have irritated the cast at times with my insistence on attention to detail, yet I was pleased to hear from the NODA representative who came on Thursday, that he appreciated the fact that everything was "real" as he put it - we try to make everything as credible as possible in our society, otherwise you may as well not bother, I think. He recognised also that a lot of work had gone into the production. General comments throughout the week were all complimentary - Ellie was, quite rightly, highly praised for her faultless American accent; Nikki on her superb characterisation; Mike on his fine acting skills; Charlotte on her gentle interpretation of the young wife and Andy on his sterling performance of his character. There were no "weak links" in the words of my step-daughter, and she is very critical of amateur productions, so that was praise indeed!

I was particularly pleased with the way everyone developed throughout the week - adapting their delivery of certain lines in order to get the most out of them, and for the best audience reaction. I even gave notes prior to the Thursday night performance, having been in the audience for the previous two nights, and I'm happy to say that the cast listened and acted on my notes, which I believe made for a perfect final performance on Friday.

Charlotte, our newest member, very kindly baked us a cake which was delicious, and I was presented with a gift of some beautiful flowers and a bottle of my favourite red wine, McGuigans Black Label - couldn't have been better!

Next on the horizon is the Junior and Youth production at the end of July - casting is changing week by week as members drop out, so we may have to have a recruitment drive in order to ensure we can put the plays on, but I'm sure it will all pan out in the end.

Shop Local

On Friday last week, our microwave oven finally packed up. We've had it for just over 20 years and a few weeks ago the light stopped working, but we thought it would be OK to continue using it rather than call out an engineer to replace the bulb - you can't do it yourself with a microwave oven light fitting, apparently. I have always been a firm believer of only replacing things when absolutely necessary, as I think we live in a very disposable society these days. I've even known friends to replace large items (such as washing machines) in their house because the colour doesn't match everything else. Each to his own and all that, but there has to be a limit, doesn't there?

Anyway, the microwave oven stopped working altogether on Friday, so after a quick internet search for a replacement Panasonic model (our old one was Panasonic and we were very happy with it), we rang Comet to check if they had it in stock for collection. No - they could order one in for us but it would take 5 or 6 days to arrive. When you need a new microwave oven, it has to be there and then or not at all, doesn't it? How else can you cook Oatso Simple, or baked beans - two of life's everyday essentials (I actually cooked my Oatso Simple in a pan, and to be fair, it worked just as well, but I then had a pan to wash as well as the bowl my oats were in!).

Instead, we rang Hansons Electrical, a local company who we've used before on the odd occasion. A very helpful salesman advised us of the models they had in stock (the one we wanted wasn't in the Holderness Road branch, nearest us, but at the other side of town). Off we popped, managed to get parked right outside the place, we saw a different model which was more expensive than we'd wanted, but as it was the display model, we got £35 knocked off the price, and the salesman even carried it out to our car for us- which I was relieved about, as I try to stop Keith from carrying heavy items these days, and I sometimes struggle to carry heavy stuff due to my back problem. The whole shopping experience reminded us of what it used to be like when you visited shops, rather than how it tends to be in some of the larger stores these days. More often than not these days, you get unhelpful, unknowledgable or just downright rude sales assistants, and that is one of the reasons we tend to shop online for most products.

Straight after that, we visited another local shop to try and get some wallpaper border to finish off the set for the play this week. I'd already tried to source some from the B&M Home Stores, where we usually get our discounted wallpaper from - but the cheapest rolls of border they had were at £3.99 a roll (although the sales assistant had told me the cheapest was £5.99 so obviously didn't know her stock) , and as we'd need 3 rolls, I wasn't going to spend that much. Not expecting to find much in Home Decor, on Holderness Road, we chatted to the owner, Denise Noble, and she was extremely helpful in our search. They had a whole range of borders for £1.99 - and when I'd chosen the design, I was even more surprised to learn that we would only need two rolls, as they were 10mtr rolls instead of the usual 5mtrs! Fuelled by this run of good luck, we also bought some more border adhesive and masking tape!

We both felt that we had been dealt with in such a way that we were certain to go back - that is so rare these days, which is a real shame. I wonder if customer care will ever be great in the UK - certainly in the service industry it seems to be lacking - is it just the way the world is heading or have we always been so crap at serving customers in this country? Maybe I'm doing a lot of people a disservice, but I do know that if I was sure to get customer service as good as last Friday, we would spend less of our money online, and do much more shopping locally, which surely would be a great thing.

Home Decor are on the East Yorkshire Web site here, and Hanson Electrical have their own web-site as well as a FB Page. I can heartily recommend either to anyone in the Hull & East Yorkshire area.

Don't Misunderstand Me - Bilton Theatre

The next production from Bilton Amateur Dramatic Society, "Don't Misunderstand Me" by Patrick Cargill, takes place next week, from Tuesday 22nd May to Friday 25th May inclusive. The play is a comedy based on the complications and misunderstandings that arise when Charles and Margery prepare to entertain Charles's younger brother, Robert, and his new wife, Jane - whom they have never met. Robert arrives whilst Margery is out, without his new wife, and it transpires that Charles has had a brief fling with a young girl, Jaynie, in America during a short working vacation.  Much to Charles's surprise, Jaynie turns up at the house unexpectedly - Charles panics and tries to pass her off as Robert's new wife to Margery, whilst pretending to Jaynie that Robert is married to Margery. Matters get even more complicated when Robert's real wife, Jane, arrives and everyone is desperately trying to cover up for someone or pretend they are someone else!

At times fast and furious, the play is character-driven and, as director of this particular production, I am very pleased with the way in which the cast have all taken on their relative roles. We have a very competent team on stage and off - with Steve Haughey doing Sound & Lighting, and Keith Davison (my husband) doing Stage Management. We had our final "normal" rehearsal last night, which went remarkably well - only a couple of errors here and there. I hope Ellie has recovered from walking into the door that Nikki was using to go off-stage!

I will be proud to watch the play every night next week, as we will be having a couple of dress/technical rehearsals before the opening night - I will probably still take notes and ask the cast to slightly alter the way in which they do odd things, but that is my way - I always believe you can improve the whole production, even during the run.

If you are in the area, please book your seats now - or you could try turning up on the night if you are not sure which night you would like to go. The play commences at 7.45pm, doors open at 7. There is a car park right outside the theatre. Seats are £6, with all concessionary seats at £5. To book your seat, please ring Steve Dale on 01482 812750.

Plays cast!

After a bit of a struggle to find something, I'm pleased to say that I have now managed to find and successfully cast a play to direct for our next production in May. Plus, on Monday this week we also read and cast a play for the Junior Section. So, just the Youth section to sort out now!

The Juniors are to be performing a version of "The Emperor's New Clothes", which will go on in July. Fortunately they all enjoyed it and are happy to play the parts we cast them in (with perhaps just one minor gruntle, that is!)

The adults are going to be performing "Don't Misunderstand Me" which is described as a frothy comedy by Patrick Cargill. I reckon a lot of the play is more like farce than comedy, but the main thing is that the reading went very well. It was a very hard decision I had to make over the final casting of the young girl "Jaynie", however. It needed to be read with an American accent, and there were two young girls up for the part, both of which had an excellent accent, despite both saying beforehand that they didn't think they could do one! I was debating in my head as we read the play as to which one I would select, but I had to be quick in making my decision in the end as I didn't want to drag it on. I opted for the actress who "sounded" like Jaynie, in my mind. I see her as a naive girl, and Ellie's voice came across as slightly more innocent than Kay's - I hated to disappoint Kay, as I have known her since she was 8 when we first began the Junior section (she's now 23) but I'm sure she's OK and is still involved as she will be prompting.

I've got the first rehearsal tonight, which will take place on the floor rather than the stage, since we haven't yet dismantled the set from the previous production. I've been blocking the moves out in anticipation - I've used the model of our stage that Keith made, and the little fimo people, moving them into position as I plot all the moves out and write in the script.

Directing a play allows me to use another side of my creativity, and it can be very rewarding when you see the play develop exactly as you imagined it to in your mind's eye.

This is a layout of the set as I'd like it to be built.

Two of the model figures on the model set.

My notes on the moves - written in pencil ready for any changes!

I've nearly finished Act 1, must dash off to do it before we set off for the Youth session - leaving the house in half an hour!

Reflecting and planning....

As most of you probably know by now, my main hobby is drama. That, for me, encompasses every aspect associated with an amateur dramatic society. I enjoy and have done in the past: acting, directing, set building, set painting/decorating, finding props, prompting, stage managing, Front-of-house duties, car park duties, secretarial duties, publicity officer duties, cleaning. As my husband and I also run the two separate Junior & Youth sections of our particular society, we are never short of something to do related to our theatre. Particularly as the theatre we use is purpose built and held in trust for us as a society, we are also responsible for the maintenance and general upkeep of the building itself. Having recently had a great run for our last production in January ("A Night On The Tiles" by Frank Vickery - the title is a link to Frank Vickery's production page) and everyone thoroughly enjoying the show (cast and audience members), it is now that I start to reflect on past plays - particularly when I am directing the May one and am now in the process of reading many plays in order to find a suitable one. In case you are wondering, "suitable" in this case means a number of factors need to be taken into account. Based on past experience, we always give new members relatively small parts. The play I choose has to be one that I love, not just like, but also one that the cast love as well. Having people perform in something they are not 100% happy with is such a hard task for a director, with little reward. A comedy would be preferred, since our audience almost demand it, and love to leave the theatre with a smile on their faces - it also helps during the rehearsal process, too, if we can laugh at the jokes in the play. Cast-wise I am limited to 2 men (ages approximately 30 and 45, though slight alteration either way can be achieved if the play is good) and 3 or 4 women. I say 3 or 4 because, although I have 4 women available and keen to act in a play, if I cast them all, then I will have no-one left to prompt. Despite the fact that not one prompt was given during the last production and we try to aim for that every time, we still like to have the "safety net" there should we require! The women are all young - late teens to early 30s, and any of them could play those ages, but nothing over the age of 35 without being heavily made up and suitably "wigged" !

I have bought 6 plays (two of which were 2-in-one), read a further 6 and plan to read at least 2 more from a short-list I made based on the cast available. I've also held a play-reading recently just for fun, and to initially assess the ability of our newest member. Sometimes, new members turn up and simply cannot read, so we can never assume. Fortunately, we had no problems at all with the latest one. The play we read this week was "Black Comedy" by Peter Schaffer. This is the first play I directed at BADS, and I remember the time very fondly. It is a shame we can't perform it again, but we simply do not have enough people to do all the parts and take on back-stage roles as well.

I will need to make a trip to the library in Hull for 2 more from my list, then it's back to the drawing board, I'm afraid. I don't want to do a play that is just OK, it has to really grab my attention. At the same time, Keith and I are currently scouting for plays that the Junior and Youth sections can perform in July - this seems a long time off, but past experience has shown that we need plenty of time to organise this, as no doubt changes will occur along the way as children drop out/ become ill/change their minds about being in a play etc etc.  We've so far read or are about to read 5 plays for the Juniors. In some ways, they are easier to cast, since there are lots of plays for younger children with large casts that we can easily cut down. The Youth are a bit more fussy about what they like, however, or have great ideas about doing plays by "devising". Perhaps they can do this at school or college, since they obviously spend more time in their lessons than the one and a half hour we can give them each week. Devising a play takes a lot of dedication and attendance from everyone at all times, which is never going to happen with a group of teenagers who would sometimes rather just be hanging out with their mates or playing computer games! I know they're not all like that, and in the main we do have a great group of children, it's just that their priorities lie elsewhere - they can't be expected to be as committed as we are to the production of a play, yet we still try to instil that attitude in them from a young age.

Until my search ends, and we have found plays for all three sections of our society, here are some photos of the set from our last production (which got a round of applause all of its own each night as the curtains opened) and a few taken at the after-play party which Nikki and Mike hosted!

Amy as "Mary" in the game....

Andy as "Abraham".....

Josh as "Joshua".....

Mike as "Jesus" - a name he rather likes the sound of!

Nikki as "Noah"

Scott as "Samson".

The game we were playing involved remembering your "name" (it had to be a biblical one) and that of everyone else in the room. If you failed to ask the question correctly (even if you got one word wrong) you then received a black mark on your face. As I was driving and therefore not in the slightest bit drunk that evening, I went home without a mark on my face! A very funny game!

Audience feedback

Just thought I'd quickly share some of the amusing snippets of conversation overheard from our audience members during this week. More often than not, our typical audience members seem to think that when we are acting on stage, we can't hear them - or perhaps they think they are watching telly - whichever it is, it certainly makes for some entertaining dialogue.


Since the play is set in a garden, we've obviously had to decorate the set to look at least something like one - but that still doesn't stop the astonishment from some of them when the curtains open to reveal "Ooooh, there's grass! It's grass on stage. Grass!". 

The character I play is not at all pleasant, which makes it a real joy to play as I can get as vile as I like without worrying about what people may think of me. Thankfully, I must be doing the job properly, as one woman in the audience commented on the first night with "She's the Mother-in-law from Hell"

The funniest so far is one from last night. In one scene, Amy (who plays the part of my daughter-in-law in the play) starts the scene sitting on the garden bench. It is the first time the audience have seen her. When she stood up, however, one lady was obviously shocked at how deceptive the stage can be as she blurted out "Ooooh, she's a lot taller than I thought she'd be".

Over the years we've had many comments either spoken in a loud voice or even shouted from the audience as they work out the plot or whenever a new actor joins the society - they never cease to amaze and amuse us all. The one I will never forget is when we were doing a play set in  the 1940s and I had my hair styled accordingly. When I walked on, someone at the back of the auditorium "whispered" to her companion "I don't like her hair in this one". Priceless!

If there are any more gems tonight I will report back!

A Night On The Tiles

One week to go for the opening night of our next production at the Bilton Theatre. This is part of the reason I've not blogged since before Christmas! I have several ideas for blog posts to come, but for now, I just wanted to share the countdown to our production week!

Summer Production - some pics!

OK, so this is slightly later than anticipated, but here are a few photographs that I took of some of the children involved in the Summer Production at B.A.D.S. last month. I have also included a photo of the ark we made for the Noah play, along with the rainbow that appeared at the end of the play and the tree stump that Noah sat on.

All the plays that were performed on the two nights were so well done by all the children and we were really proud of them all. Each time we start rehearsing for a junior or youth section play, we wonder how on earth it will ever be ready to show to their parents, but somehow it always seems to happen. Children who we thought weren't listening to us at the last rehearsals before the night suddenly do everything you asked and more besides - the younger members perhaps impressed us more this year than ever before, simply because there were no prompts required from any of them, which is quite an achievement for them. We did tell them that one of our aims at Bilton is to never have a prompt, but fully expected to give one or two out on the night due to nerves or lack of concentration. However, it would appear that we are actually having some influence on them, which is so rewarding and fuels our passion for passing on our skills even more. I think one of the best things about watching the children (whatever their age) perform is to see the joy on their faces at the end of the night, when everything has worked and they receive the applause they rightfully deserve.Considering the fact that we were several animals short with only a couple of weeks to spare, we are immensely grateful to Mr Jowett from Preston Primary School, since he helped us fill those places by sending along some keen members of his drama club - they all performed really well and we look forward to their return in September.

Mrs Noah with the girls in the family

The three "boys" (even though one of them is a girl in real life!) of Noah's family.

Noah, Mrs Noah, Rebecca, Japheth, Shem, Ruth, Rachel & Ham.

The animals as they walked to their entrance with me.

Waiting to make their entrance via the auditorium!

This animal also made a convincing God - see next pic!

God - complete with obligatory white beard!

The final scene when the rainbow appears as if by magic!

Youth members backstage waiting for their turn in "Panto Question Time"

"A trio of lovely girls" from the Youth Section - backstage ready for "Emporium 2".

Unfortunately, these are the only photos we managed to take - we didn't have time to take any during the performances as we were both tied up backstage.

The first night was a huge success. We invited some of our patrons to support the younger members and was happy to see that a fair few of them came along. To the delight of the audience (with the exception of one or two of the junior members who happened to be sitting on the front row at the time) a chair that is pushed to the floor during the course of the action in "Last Tango in Little Grimley" ended up rolling off the stage and onto the auditorium. This rendered the remaining cast speechless, the audience were screaming with laughter and the cast members were trying desperately to finish the scene without laughing.There then followed a moment of absolute farce when one cast member (during the scene change which was done in blackout) retrieved the chair from the audience, and another cast member came on looking for it without realising that it had been taken into the wings! Thankfully, nobody was hurt and the 4-strong team continued to the end of the play without losing control of their emotions. Credit to them all - it was a difficult play and they certainly did it justice.

I am pleased to report that our N.O.D.A (National Operatic & Dramatic Association) representative managed to watch the plays on the second evening and I spoke to him at the end of the night. He was impressed with them all, even if he wasn't too keen on one of the Youth Section plays (he's at least honest, which I like) and he seemed most impressed with the junior section's production of Noah.

Our next task is to source material for the Hornsea Speech & Drama Festival -this takes place in November each year and all our members take part in various classes to try and win trophies, but mainly for the experience of being adjudicated by a professional drama practitioner. We start rehearsing for this as soon as we meet again in September, so not much time now for us to get enough material prepared - we haven't yet received the syllabus either!!!

Unoriginal Sin - the first night.....

Cast Shot for our production of "Unoriginal Sin"

The first night was not as packed as we'd have liked, since some of our groups failed to confirm their usual bookings this time. Despite that, we were nearly half full, which doesn't sound too good but their reaction was more than enough for us to enjoy the evening.

First bit of bad luck was when our box office manager turned up without his reading glasses. This would not normally have been such a bad thing, since the seating plan has, until this play, been hand-written by Steve himself. However, this time Keith had written a computer programme to make the booking system easier to use for Steve, so he had to try and read from the laptop by means of various differing head angles and squints!

The play opens with a sermon in front of the tabs (Stage curtains) by a priest. Once that has been delivered, the intro music begins and then the tabs open to let the play commence. Last night, the audience obviously enjoyed the opening music so much that they ALL (except maybe one or two) started singing along with it! In case you're wondering, it's "Love & Marriage". I am on stage alone at the very beginning of the play, and I found it very hard not to smile when they failed to stop singing after the music had stopped playing! However, I think that introduction just set the scene for the rest of the night.

Everything went smoothly and the two new members, Mel and Liz, settled into their "roles" serving refreshments and selling raffle tickets for us with such a pleasant attitude that I'm sure it influenced the mood of the audience - thanks girls!

We love to hear the comments from the audience on a Tuesday night in particular, as I'm sure many of them think we can't hear them! The first comment was "Oooh, she's packing her bags, look". Yes, that particular lady got ten out of ten for observation! Then it was just regular little remarks and the fact that they were pre-empting the action which amused us back-stage and on.

Another new member, Paul, was helping out on car parking duties. That is always a thankless task - Keith was helping him last night, and they are both amazed at how people refuse to reverse into a parking space!

Sometime during the second half of the play, a pop and a flash signalled the demise of one of our stage spotlights - certain areas were a tad darker than required. So, instead of the usual celebration of the first night at the pub, several of us stayed back to change said spotlight (which I think had blown because 2 fuses had gone?) Keith and Neil to the rescue! Scott helped me set the stage, wash the glasses and cups, then replenish all the drinks that get used for this production, ready for tonight's performance. Not only had the spotlight blown, but just as we were about to leave, we noticed that one of the emergency exit lights had blown, too - so that had to be replaced as well!

I have thoroughly enjoyed being in this play, as have the other cast members, I'm sure - if we get as good a reaction from the audience tonight, we will be happy King Leopolds. (You will have to come and see the play to understand that little gag!)

Andy Jowett, Eloise Guy and Dave Hawxwell in the "chase"

This is one of my favourite photos!

It's nearly time for my bath, I'm desperately trying to stay calm, but I don't think the nerves ever leave me until I'm actually on that stage - even then, like last night, I can still feel incredibly nervous. I was shaking when I came off at the end of my first scene, not realising how much the adrenaline had been pumping through me!

Oh, one more thing I MUST mention about last night - Ellie (Eloise) had made some brownies for us all back-stage. I can't eat a thing until the play is over, but at the end of the night I had two and they were absolutely delicious! Thanks Ellie, my birthday is in December!

Winners awarded prizes

Apologies for the delay in writing this and posting the image - my mind has been a bit distracted by other things of late.

Here are three of the four talented winners in the competition we held to design a Mother's Day card at the Craft Fair last month.

Pictured left to right are Chloe Gray (6), Laura Jones (15) and Mikey Kellaway (8).

The cards were judged by the adult members of BADS and it was a close thing but winning the 1st prize in the 10years and under category was Chloe Gray, whose simple yet heartfelt message on the front melted our hearts - and everyone adored the little bumble bee she'd added to the scene. In second place, Mikey Kellaway was praised for the amount of time and effort that he had spent in creating the card.

A clear winner in the 11 to 16 year age group was Laura Jones. Her drawing skills impressed everyone, particularly the shading she'd created on the vase of flowers, the heart and the table.
Second place went to 14 year old Amy Burnitt, whose card stood out from the others due to the inclusion of an image of her mum created through a combination of drawing and collage. Unfortunately Amy could not be there to receive her prize. Congratulations to all the winners - we look forward to more entries from them at the next craft fair (which will probably be a Christmas themed competition).

L-R: Chloe Gray, Laura Jones and Mikey Kellaway.

Craft Fair Success - Vote of thanks!

Well, after weeks of planning, organising, worrying and creating new items (including a few nights of waking up in a panic about the failure of it all!) the first Craft Fair I organised was a success for (nearly) all concerned. I say nearly, because one lady (who'd only booked in for the Saturday) left early (2.30pm) as she'd left her dog at home, so she obviously missed out on a few more sales for the rest of that afternoon. Also, a last minute entry for the Sunday table was taken by a lovely lady called Helen Hall who didn't really sell enough to cover her cost this time - but she wasn't put off by it and is still happy to take part in the next one, so I must have done something right!

I must begin, however, by giving thanks to all the people and companies who so very kindly donated items for either the tombola (HUGE success)  or as prizes for the Children's Card Competition. So, please join me in thanking the following - I have included links to their websites where relevant so please pay them a visit, too.

Andrea Farmer - fellow Rogue Gene Collective artist, friend and talented artist. Andrea donated two sets of her button hair-grips for the tombola:
andreafarmer.co.uk
andreafarmerart.com
Andrea on etsy
Andrea on roguegenegallery

Lorna Storey -  fellow East Riding Artist member and supporter of BADS - who donated a beautiful beaded spider for the tombola stall:
Lorna Storey
Lorna on Affordable British Art

Mike Finley - another Rogue Gene Collective colleague and amazing photographer, who created a set of stunning A5 sized cards just for the event, which I split over the two days for the tombola stall:
Mike Finley photography
Mike on roguegenegallery

Amanda Hunt - the third "A" of the Rogue Gene Collective (Andrea, Aitch & Amanda!) and a really lovely artist too! Amanda sent me a couple of small prints of her works, a key-ring with one of her paintings printed onto the design, and two small original works of art:
Amanda Hunt Gallery
Amanda on roguegenegallery

Georgia Coote - Georgia is another artist on the Rogue Gene Gallery website and her surface pattern designs are for sale as prints on there. Georgia also creates vintage-inspired jewellery - including necklaces and brooches. She kindly donated a couple of necklaces, brooches and pocket mirrors for the tombola stall. I was very happy to win one of the necklaces on Sunday!:
Georgia Coote 
Georgia on roguegenegallery

Di Jennings - Di is an art tutor who loves to pass on her knowledge to all her pupils and regularly features them in her blog - "Painting My Way". Di sent one of her original oil paintings of poppies in a field as a donation for the tombola stall.  I know Di through various online art forums, and once met her when we were on holiday in Shropshire!:
Di Jennings

Annette Cox -  I have met Annette once, and chatted online to her for about 4 years now. I was thrilled when I received an acrylic/ink landscape painting that she'd created just for the tombola - as was the winner of it on Saturday!:
Annette on Saatchi website

Artists taking part at the Craft Fair also deserve a mention for donating their works to the tombola stall:
Nichola Foster - I first discovered Nichola's finely crafted pieces of jewellery on Etsy last October when I did a search for local sellers in order to raise some interest in the Craft Fair. Nichola has been supportive throughout and proved to be great company at the event as well as a generous crafter, donating a bracelet and handbag charm to the tombola stall:
Nichola on Folksy
Nichola on Etsy

Katie Railton - Katie is a self taught photographer specialising in floral photography. She was also sought out on Etsy last year for the original dates in December and stayed on board for the April Craft Fair instead! Katie donated a large floral print:
Katie Railton Photography
Katie Railton - Etsy Shop

Lynne Smith donated a huge amount of prizes for the tombola - lots of soft toys, hair accessories, jewellery and framed pictures. Her silver jewellery sets were very popular - I bought a couple of coloured bangles from her for my grand-daughters, after I'd tried them out on myself first!

Lesley Wadforth of "Health In Harmony" donated two gift vouchers for the tombola stall. Lesley is a qualified General Nurse who now runs workshops and courses on holistic therapy including aromatherapy, yoga, reiki and stress management:
Health in Harmony website

For other tombola prizes, thanks go to friends and parents of our younger members at BADS - in particular Lisa Jones, Jenny Benge and Debbie Smallwood. Also, our neighbour Margaret was kind enough to donate a couple of prizes, too.

When I originally set the date for the Craft Fair in December (which had to be cancelled due to the bad weather) I contacted a few online Art/Craft suppliers that I regularly use in order to ask for donations. I am therefore very grateful to the SAA and Fred Aldous for supplying me with enough materials to cover the prizes in the "Design a Mother's Day Card" competition and  for some extra tombola prizes.
Society for All Artists
Fred Aldous

I hope I haven't left anyone out, as I am really grateful for all the donations we received - the tombola stall alone raised £132. Thanks also must go to the stallholders, without whom I obviously couldn't have run the event. They all put their faith in me for this first time venture, which really made me feel good. So thanks to Joan Hardy (Jams & Pickles), Christine Petch & Mary Wood (Wooden Figures), Lynne & Steve Smith (Silver Jewellery), Katie Railton (Floral Photography), Nichola Foster (Beaded Lampwork Jewellery), Kathy Marshall (Paintings, silk paintings and greetings cards), Anna Carter (Textile art and craft) and Helen Hall (Baby clothes and teddy t-shirts, cross-stitch cards). Thanks to Andrea Farmer too, for sending me a selection of her wearable art and small ethereal paintings to sell.

I would also like to thank two members of our youth section for giving up their time on Saturday afternoon to help out with the tombola stall - Molly Smallwood and Bethan Holloway.

Special thanks to my mum, June Greendale, for making the delicious cakes we sold and to my Dad, Albert Greendale for helping her sell them and the drinks on Saturday. I will treat you next weekend for your Mother's Day, mum!

Thanks to Scott Roberts and Steve Dale, both members of the Society who helped selling drinks and cake on Sunday. Thanks to everyone who turned up to support us.

My biggest thanks, however, must go to my best friend and husband, Keith. Not only did he help with creating the signs for outside the theatre on the day and prior to the event, he also helped with delivering leaflets, sorting and packaging the tombola prizes and actually running the tombola stall both days (as well as selling drinks when necessary). He supported me throughout and helped me fulfil the idea I'd had last year. Thank you so much.

I will be posting a bit more about the sales I made and any bits of news related to the success of the fair in another post, but for now, here's a few photos to show you:

The competition prizes donated by SAA, Fred Aldous and myself.

My stall

Mother's Day Card entries - 10years and under

Mother's Day card entries - 11-16 years

Hand-crafted wooden figures for the garden. All unique, and great gifts! These were really popular. Prices ranged from £3.50 to £5. A percentage of their sales go to a Meningitis Charity.

Exhausted, Emotional and Expectational!

Well, now that the play is over I may be able to start thinking of something other than drama! What a week it's been, however. Last night was amazingly good, with a full capacity audience. I was on car park duties last night, which was a very cold job as the temperature plummeted to minus 2 (which felt like minus 10 for me!) but it was nice to see our regular patrons turn up - it feels like greeting family members sometimes, as they feel as though they know you so well even if you don't recognise their faces at all. After that, I helped out with the refreshment/front of house duties for the rest of the night, so didn't get to sit with the audience, but luckily we do have a monitor in the foyer so that we can at least see the play on that. It was such a good audience, too. Very responsive to the unfolding tale right from the start. That always gives the cast a boost and in turn they give a better performance, I think.

It was the night for a lot of the cast's family, too - my parents, my younger brother and my sister were there, as were my aunt and uncle, so even though I wasn't performing, I was still nervous as I wanted it to go well. Dave and Carol's family were also in last night, as were Adam's parents and sister. All reports so far are very favourable, I'm pleased to say! We will be having a week away from the adult rehearsals now and only meeting up with the Junior and Youth sections next week.  I was quite emotional at the end of the night - even more so when I was presented with a Thank You card and a bottle of red wine (how did they guess???) from the cast and crew! That was such a lovely surprise, since we tend not to go in for gifts at BADS unless it's a director's first time, so I felt exceptionally appreciated. We all went out for a curry afterwards and I tried a chicken Methi for the first time, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Having a late meal meant we didn't get to bed till gone 2am, so I slept in till about 9 this morning, then was soon out of the house to take my two entries into Hull for the Ferens Art Gallery's Open Exhibition. I managed to get parked on a meter not far from the gallery and just had a few minutes free to have a quick look around the gallery after I'd unpacked and left my entries there. I don't very often go into the centre of Hull these days, despite the fact that the Art Gallery hosts some fantastic pieces of art and various exhibitions - I sometimes get claustrophobic in anywhere vaguely museum-like and have to rush out of the building immediately so it's not something I regularly do.

However, I was so pleased to have seen one painting in particular, by an artist called Victor Newsome. I've tried to find the image online, but there's not much of his work out there. The painting was done in acrylic but what amazed me when I looked at it was the fine details of the shading. In order to create each shaded area of the painting, he'd painted tiny cross-hatches - really effective and a method I will certainly employ in one of my future paintings. The painting was of a nude submerged in a bath, although you could only see her head and chest. Her head appeared out of proportion due to the fact that it was positioned further forward from her shoulders and her hair was made up of hundreds of narrow lines of colour.

I wish I could show you the image of the painting - but if you are in the area please try and get to the Ferens and have a look yourself, it's worth it. He started his artistic career as a sculptor and studied at the Leeds School of Art. You can see some of his works online if you google his name, but not the one I saw today!

Oh, and the two paintings I entered into the Open Exhibition (which starts on Saturday 12th February and finishes on Sunday 3rd March) are "3 Wide Men And An Interloper" and "Red Rocks"  - the same two paintings I had in the East Yorkshire Open Exhibition at Sewerby Hall last summer.

Scenic Painting - the process

Now that I've managed to stop myself from doing any more to it, I thought I'd share the images of the scenic painting on here. I can still see flaws in it and would have liked more time to spend making it perfect, but ultimately I had to leave it and let the cast have their dress rehearsal with a finished backdrop.

I can honestly say this was the most challenging piece of art I've ever had to create. I started off relishing the challenge and looking forward to creating such a big painting. Over time, however, that enthusiasm waned slightly and as I progressed, painted over, and repainted certain elements I started wondering how on earth Rolf Harris does those huge paintings he was famous for when I was growing up!

The plan was to create the illusion of a Spanish Villa - the terraced area overlooking the garden and surrounding countryside of the Sierra Blanca. I researched images of the area- it stated in the play that you could clearly see the mountain range in that area (the Sierra Blanca takes its name from the Sierra Blanca mountain range of which La Concha, the mountain that towers above the urbanisation, is part). I also wanted to feature a bougainvillea bush as it's mentioned several times in the play. 

The first job we had, which we (my husband Keith and I) did soon after the New Year was over, was to paint the walls of the inside of the "Villa" with a magnolia colour. We'd already built the set in September/October so most of the rest of the work was electrical and decorating along with ensuring everything was safe.

Stage one commenced on January 3rd - as you can see, we have so far painted the walls of the villa and the living room door. We are at the point where we are about to erect strip lights above the two arches on the upstage wall - these will help to convey the light of an outdoor scene. The back wall is as yet untouched.

 Day 2 - January 4th. Having completed the painting (two coats of magnolia) on all the living room walls, we started on the back wall, covering up any previous wall covering with white at the top and a magnolia effect on the lower half - this would soon become the wall of the villa's terrace. 

Day 3 - January 5th. Not much has changed in this view - I've blocked in a basic sky and straightened the level of the wall, since I forgot to take the spirit level yesterday! It's also had another coat of magnolia. As you can see, the strip lights are already shedding a fair amount of light in the two archways.

Add caption

Close up of SL arch showing gridded plan

Close up of terracotta wall tiles painted onto the lower edge of the "terrace" wall.

Day 4 - January 9th. A long time was spent today painting in the top of the terrace wall, the shaded areas to give some texture to the surface of the wall, and the tiles at the bottom of the wall. Keith helped by marking out a grid on the wall for the plan of where all the mountains would be placed - if you look at the close-up images you can just about make out the pencil lines and in one of the images you can see the plan I was working from. I also blocked in an area of green as a base colour for the garden.

Mountain line drawn in and basic sky colour blocked in.

Low line of clouds painted in at the top of the mountain range.

 Day 5 - January 10th. I pencilled in the mountain range first, then blocked in the basic sky colour, as seen in the first image for today. Then I added a low line of clouds at the foot of the mountain range, and finally I painted the individual mountains, using my gridded plan as a reference.

 Day 6 - January 12th. Didn't have much time to spend on the painting today as we were starting rehearsals with the Youth section again after the Christmas break and needed to do the lesson plan etc. However, if you look closely you can see that I've painted out the clouds that I did last time and repainted the whole of the sky. I didn't like them!

Day 7 - January 14th. Keith decorated the "hall" wall with some plain white textured wallpaper today (you can't actually see it in any of these photos, will show full stage later). I blocked in the mountains and created a new sky/cloud formation. I've also pencilled in other areas ready for painting - a house just beyond the garden, and the corner of a swimming pool which is supposedly in the garden.

Day 8 - January 15th. Most of the greenery has been blocked in now, the basic house colour painted in and the shape of the swimming pool painted in - you can just about see it on the left of the arch. I've added the rough shape of the bougainvillea too, along with a few small trees in the distance.The mountains in the distance have also been lightened to give the illusion that the they are much further away.

Here you can see I've added some basic colour to the bougainvillea bush, painted in the roof, window and side of the house, coloured in the swimming pool and surrounding area and added some houses in the very distant green hills on the right.

Day 9 - 18th January. Branches, leaves and more colour added to the bougainvillea to give it some shape and definition. A creeping ivy styled tree was added to the side of the house.

Day 10 - 19th January. I wasn't at all happy with the effect of the swimming pool in the garden - it just didn't look credible so I decided to paint it out and just have lawn instead. I added some highlights to the bougainvillea bush and painted several different washes over the various levels of green in the distance - and added some hedge lines here and there to help delineate them.

Day 11 - 21st January. I painted in the suggestion of another small bush creeping over the wall in the SL archway,  changed the appearance of a tree positioned in front of the house, in the SR archway and added some more greenery to the creeping plant at the side of the house.

Day 12 - January 23 (Dress Rehearsal day) After adding some shadow on the wall for the bougainvillea plant and the green shrub SL, I also added a path down the centre of the lawn and a low wall at the perimeter of the garden, I enhanced the buildings in the distance that had been painted over with washes, and added a few more splashes of colour to the bougainvillea leaves. The set was dressed with fairy lights for the two arches at the back (to represent evening approaching) and three of my pieces of artwork - as can be seen in the images below. One of them is a collaboration with fellow artist Rob Kirbyson, the Baobab tree. He painted the background and I painted in the tree, All three paintings are still for sale, so if you come along to see the play and are interested, please see me at the theatre or contact me via email to enquire about the price.

"Reading Between The Lines" and "Baobab"

"Watching Paint Dry". 

I am happy to report that last night, at the end of the play, one of the women in the audience spoke to me about how much she enjoyed the play. She then asked if I'd painted all the scenery, to which I said "yes" (I was cautiously replying because I didn't know what she was going to say about it, good or bad). She then said "It's brilliant". Result! All that time spent painting, planning, repainting etc has now officially been worth it. I always say that things are worth doing even if just one person notices - so my job is done!

My next piece of artistic output will be something much, much smaller - a postcard painting for an exhibition in Scarborough to be handed in for Monday!

I would like to thank Anna from http://nature-trail.blogspot.com/ for allowing me to use some of her photographs of bougainvillea as reference images for the scenic painting.