Category: Latest News

Now that the show is over…

Let me thank everyone who put in so much time, effort and money to make it happen:

• The actors: for all their time learning lines and their unmitigated courage in standing up in front of an audience (and) making fools of themselves.
• The technicians: for the stage, set, lights, sound etc etc which was almost flawless…
• The front-of-house: For making it all run so smoothly.
• The catering division: for producing enough delicious food to feed the five thousand – several times over.
• The audience: for giving generously of their time and money to make it all worth while.

Thanks especially to everyone who stayed on after the last performance to strike the set and make in unnecessary for us to stagger back in on Sunday morning to finish off…

YOU ARE ALL HEROES (and HEROINES!)

So, another production fades into the mists of time. It all went remarkably well, considering. Unfortunately, the audiences were smaller than we would have liked, but you can’t win ’em all. With luck, we’ll do better in the Autumn.

There will now be a short intermission… There will be no more meetings for at least the next three Fridays. Once everyone has recuperated, I’ll arrange a wash-up meeting and we can begin to plan our next extravaganza…

Welcome, indeed, to the new Stage 2 Drama Youth Section.

As those of you know who’ve been following our last few performances, a year ago we welcomed Tom to our ranks, and, at Christmas, we added Georgia, both of whom have put in sterling work on our behalf.

However, it’s hard to find plays that contain a suitable mix of geriatrics and neophytes to make full use of our new members. In addition, more youngsters have expressed an interest. This may mean that there are enough younger members to cast their own plays as well as help the oldies with theirs.

Hence Stage 2 decided to set up a Youth Section which will meet on Fridays, from 7pm, at Berrow Village Hall.

For more information, why not contact us using the

Welcome to 2013. New year; New play; New enthusiasm!

Following on from a rather disappointing year (in terms of aspirations rather than actual performance) Stage 2 emerges into the New Year with enthusiasm rekindled by the (slightly unexpected) success of the Christmas 2012 production.

It was always going to be a challenge, with the performance dates so close to Christmas, as not only did the prospective audience have other things to do on the cusp of the Festive Season, so did the members! A number of situations (including two – more – members moving away and several illnesses – after all, we’re none of us getting any younger!) threatened to take away a number of our key helpers and performers. This was offset somewhat by Tom (in his second production with us) and Georgia: two youngsters who – we hope – will form the core of an age renaissance for the group. All we need now are another half-dozen less-then-wrinklies and we’re sorted!

In the event, the production was a huge success, and all the comments we received were positive: the food was superb; the acting excellent (even given the last-minute drafting in of a couple to fill in for two stalwarts who couldn’t make it) and the quiz was a success, despite causing many competitors some considerable head-scratching!

The Group AGM discussed our next step and we decided to try to repeat the Christmas formula – with adjustments for the change of seasons, of course – for our spring production, so we are currently looking at a wide range of short plays which can be strung together to make a production. Shorter plays definitely impose less strain on individual performers (anyone who has tried to learn 80 or 90 pages of an Ayckbourn play will know what we mean!) and generally have simpler production requirements, too. A perfect opportunity for someone looking to dabble their toes in the slightly murky waters of Amateur Dramatics! So, if you fancy giving acting a try, or even if you prefer to help with costumes, props, set, technicals, production, publicity etc, etc, etc, then please come along to a Friday evening meeting (8-10 pm, Berrow Village Hall) and give us a try! Alternatively, call us on 01278 795619 and speak to us or leave a message with:

• Your name
• Your Telephone number
• What you’d be interested in helping with

and we’ll call you back.

“Calling Time” on the Grand Plan…

After a good spring production which emerged from many difficulties, we approached the summer of 2012 full of inspiration.  During set building and backstage work for “If I Were You”, we had talked enthusiastically about the possibility of writing and performing a tribute to Monty Python.  Over the next couple of months this developed into a grand plan to produce a big show with lots of participants.  The play was written and adapted on a local theme using lots of familiar Pythonalia and we read and refined the resulting script.  We then tried hard to gather recruits to play the parts necessary, but after a number of unsuccessful attempts a to get additional acting members, we were forced to shelve the idea for another day and perhaps look to interest another acting group in a collaboration.

So where could we go from here?  Performance dates had been set with great difficulty, and determined to use them and produce a fun show with some Christmassy elements we came up with a plan to find some short pieces which we could cast more easily. We found some great short black comedy pieces gathered into a work entitled “Calling Time” by Derek Webb.  None of us have come across Derek Webb’s work before but having read through the pieces which are all 2 handers, we could see the potential and quality of the script.  We also added in “Drinking Companion” by Alan Ayckbourn as the black comedy style seemed to fit in perfectly.

Since our performance dates were so close to the festive season we thought it would be great to have a fun Christmas trivia quiz and serve a light supper to give our audience a rounded and enjoyable evening of entertainment.  We thought that we might even sing a couple of carols if we need to clear the hall (in the event, we were dissuaded!)

As we’d hoped, we rewarded our loyal audience with some well-worth-watching drama, a delicious supper (with heart-felt thanks to the Catering Department!) and a fun quiz – and we gave a Christmas hamper to the quiz winner on each night!

Both nights were well attended – although the nearness to Christmas did impact somewhat on numbers – and generally the guests deemed the evening a success.