Latest news from CADS
May 2023 newsletter
(May 05, 2023)Boots goes marching on
It's very nearly time for the performance of our one-act play submission to this year's Welwyn Drama Festival. We're scheduled to appear on stage as the third of three plays on Friday 26 May at the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City, and it'd be great to see as many CADS supporters there as possible. Tickets are already selling well but there are still seats available for that evening - just go to the Barn Theatre website to obtain yours!
As you'll have read here before, our choice this year is Nick Warburton's comedy Don't Blame It On the Boots which takes place during rehearsals for - and subsequently the first two nights of - Hamlet. Liz, the wardrobe mistress, has a pair of boots worn by her late father at Stratford and wants her fiance Eric, who's playing the ghost of Hamlet's father, to wear them for the show. Eric is less than keen and, besides, has his eye on the young and impressionable female actor playing Ophelia. Trying to keep the production on an even keel and to avoid everyone falling out is their director, the ever harassed Kate who, on reflection, would rather have produced Macbeth. On the opening night, the boots do make an appearance but under mysterious circumstances...
The full cast consists of:
Ophelia - Lucy Talbot
Eric - Rupert Jordan
Kate - Alison Bass
Liz - Donika Jordan
Stage crew (non-speaking roles) - Jo Buggey, Darren Dunford, Patrick Key
We were amused to see, given the subject matter of our play, that the first piece on the Friday evening appears to be a performance of the opening scene(s) of Hamlet featuring the self same ghost! Should be an interesting evening!
All we hear is radio dra-ma
CADS has recently been approached by Royston Radio with a view to the group recording one or more plays for broadcast on the local station. As it happens, we've had some experience with radio plays over the past few years - Emma Daintrey adapted Romance is Dead from a radio script a few years ago, and we've had some more recent success with Stephen Wyatt's Strangers on a Film, first done on Radio 4. Further back in time we performed The Hitch-Hiker by Lucille Fletcher as a staged radio recording at Haverhill Drama Festival and there's even the possibility that Roy Maddox's Seven Movies, which won awards at the "virtual" Welwyn Drama Festival during lockdown could work well on radio.
We'll bring you more news when we've firmed up our plans but it's likely that we'll need to hold auditions for at least some of these, so watch this space!
All change (well, partly)
Following our AGM, there have been a couple of changes to the committee line-up. Pauline Rowe, who has served on the committee for more years than almost anyone, decided to step down this year, while Joe Daintrey, who had left while acting as Technical Director for the pantomime, re-joined us around the table. In addition, the AGM agreed to Michael Young acting as both Chair and Secretary (which, in the absence of a Chair last year, he'd effectively been doing for the past twelve months) and Ruth Durrant was appointed Vice Chair, which seemed only logical as the post also acts as Child Protection Officer. After the sterling work she had done during panto, this seemed a natural choice. Zoe Nesteriuc, who returned to the committee earlier in the year, agreed to take on the role of social media guru once more and with her help we hope to make greater use of that medium in the future.
It's ahead of you!
It's getting towards the time of year when we really need to start thinking about next year's pantomime! (This year's sell-out performances of Sleeping Beauty will be a hard act to follow but then we say that every year and always seem to come up with a hit show.) Actual auditions are likely to take place in early October but planning for the show is a lengthy process, from selecting a script to booking the venue to organising a technical team. At the moment, we don't have a director willing to take this on so we're appealing to anyone who thinks they might like to do so to step up and be recognised. If you haven't directed before, or haven't directed pantomime, there are always plenty of experienced people who can assist so if you have ideas, do please get in touch through the usual channels or have an informal chat with one of us
Getting techie with it
We're currently putting together a panel of CADS experts to run an evening looking at the backstage aspects of production, explaining the various roles - stage manager, deputy stage manager and so on - and answering questions about any technical issues. The evening will be aimed particularly at anyone who'd like to take on some of this work in future productions, but is, as with all our evening meetings, open to all . As yet we don't have a date for this but it's likely to be some time next month and will be completely free. If you'd like to attend, or if there's anything specific you'd like us to cover, by all means let us know by e-mailing [email protected] so that we can plan accordingly.
CommitteeOur next meeting is on 20 June 2023; if there's anything you'd like us to consider or discuss then, please feel free to contact any of us at any time via the Contact page of this CADS website