Latest news from CADS
February news (January 26, 2010)
Reel theatre
Hardly have we paused for breath following the 2010 Town Pantomime (reported below) than we’re back to business as usual with our regular programme of monthly meetings and the first of these happens almost before everyone’s sobered up after the post-production party!
The first of these, scheduled for Wednesday 3 February, is another in our popular series of “guided” play readings, where a member of the group introduces the work of a particular playwright, followed by a round-the-room reading of some of that writer’s work. For the February meeting, Michael Young is presenting the intriguingly titled “Monroe, Hitch and Dick: an introduction to the plays of Terry Johnson”. Johnson’s best known works includes The London Cuckolds, an adaptation for the stage of the movie The Graduate, Insignificance (subsequently filmed by the brilliant British director Nicholas Roeg), and Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick. These last two titles exemplify Johnson’s frequent incorporation of real-life characters into his work – in the first instance, fictionalised versions of Marilyn Monroe, Senator Joseph McCarthy and Albert Einstein, and in the second some of the actors who formed the regular cast of the “Carry On…” films.
Michael’s presentation focuses on these two plays and on Hitchcock Blonde in which a middle-aged film studies lecturer tries to piece together the crumbling fragments of an early Hitchcock film to try to find out what made the director tick, and which appropriately features cameo appearances by ‘Hitch’ himself.
Our meeting on Wednesday 3 March is currently scheduled as an ‘open evening’ which we hope will encourage people to come along and find out more about the group and its future plans – more details in the next newsletter – and our April meeting (probably Wednesday 7 April but still to be confirmed) will be the group’s AGM – again, more details next time
Panto
At the time of going to press we were halfway through the run of the 2010 Royston Town Pantomime, and while it would seem premature to review it before the end of its run, it’s worth saying that so far it has been hugely successful, visually and musically brilliant, and generally thoroughly enjoyable. The first night broke all records for advance sales and the Saturday 30 January matinee has actually sold out completely now. There are, however, tickets available still for the remaining two evening performances (Friday 29 January and Saturday 30 January at 7.30 p.m.) but it looks as though you’ll need to move quickly if you want to book! Tickets cost £7 each (concessions: £5) and are available from the Box Office on 01763 242906.
Subs
Yes, it’s that time of the year again when our Treasurer stalks the corridors of Greneway hand outstretched, demanding your subs! In case you’ve forgotten, annual membership costs £15 for adults, £10 for concessions (under 18, students or over 60). Temporary membership (for one production) is £5. This year we introduced an added incentive for you to part with your moolah – fully paid-up members now qualify for one free ticket for any one performance of all productions during the year.And, because we appreciate that many of our members will inevitably be involved in productions in some way, whether on stage or off, your free ticket can be transferred to a friend or relative as you wish. Contact Phil Rowe on 01763 231749 to arrange handing over the readies.
Riotous blog
From dosh to Josh! Those of you who know Josh Hyde, sometime member of CADS, may be interested to hear that he’s off on his travels again, this time working in the Sydney area for a few months to earn enough to do some proper travelling around North America. As before, Josh is writing an irregular blog of his adventures, which you can see at http://orangenosh.wordpress.com/2010/01- the first instalment has already been posted but I should perhaps warn you that it does contain scenes of an…er… adult nature. Definitely “parental advisory”!
Gongs
The winners of the two annual CADS awards - the Fred Sillence Award "for outstanding contribution to the performing arts" and the Lizzie Houghton Award "for outstanding contribution to youth drama" - were still a closely guarded secret at the time of writing, but we’ll be giving them full coverage in the next newsletter – watch this space! However, if you can’t wait that long, why not come to the last performance of this years’ pantomime on Saturday 30 January when, as is customary, we’ll be presenting the awards?
What the…? Who the…?
CADS was delighted recently to receive a donation from Barbara Doyle - elder daughter of the late, great Fred Sillence after whom one of our annual awards is named – of some vintage black-and-white photographs, mostly from the 1970s, showing CADS (or its predecessor, the Corvus Theatre Company) in performance, or in some instances in the sort of stylised rehearsal shots that local newspapers are so inexplicably fond of. (It’s curious how publicity photos of local amdram groups from any period between about 1950 and 1980 look oddly alike!) Many of these were pictures that had appeared in the Royston Crow and are thus helpfully labelled on the reverse with the name of the show and the date; some had been annotated with the date but not the show; and many remain at present a complete mystery. We've posted all of them to a new photo archive section on the CADS website in the hope that someone may be able to put a name to some of the faces and hopefully tell us what the show was, when it was performed and so on.
Hoodies
A while ago, we ordered a batch of customised hooded jackets (hoodies) which we offered for sale to members, and we’re thinking of ordering some more. The hoodies are Fruit of the Loom and are made with the CADS logo embroidered on the front. Two styles are available: without zip for around £12.50 + VAT (less if we order more than a dozen at a time) and with zip for about £14.50 + VAT (again, less if we order more). If you’re interested, please contact Pauline Rowe for further details of sizes and colours, or e-mail us via the Contact page of this website. You can also visit the manufacturer’s website for more information at http://www.whittakersembroidery.co.uk/products/embroidered-hoodies-products.html
Next newsletter
If anyone wants us to put information in the next newsletter, or you would like something discussed at the next committee meeting, please contact Michael Young or call 01763 223805. Deadline for sending stuff for inclusion in the newsletter (e-mail preferred) is 22 February. Don’t forget, if you need to contact the club we have an e-mail address you can use - cads_royston@yahoo.co.uk - or you can use our Contact page to send us a message.
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