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The Festive Season: Ian and Tim wish all ex-members of YT a very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2014.
Do get in touch if you have any news of your own, or even if not!
We understand that Jane Fryers is going to be making another TV appearance as one quarter of the Shellac Sisters on Len Goodman’s Dance Band Days which is scheduled for transmission on BBC4 on Monday, 23rd December at 9pm. Lookout for the blond DJ in a period dress !!
IRW has continued to hear from ex-members of Harrow YT: Paul Diner and Gareth Cuttingin particular have got in touch and have supplied their memories about YT productions. Various bits and pieces of YT memorabilia have been starting to arrive (especially from Louise Gill) which will certainly add to the Archive — hopefully with more to come! We have also heard from Robert Glenister, who is going to be searching his cupboards for YT stuff! So thanks to everyone who has, or is, contributing! Now to stage two - how about some memories from the ex-members of Beaconsfield? Ian has sent an email out (and Tim has also posted it to facebook) although we had roughly a 25% “bounce” rate, (pleaselet us know if you change your email address!!). We‘re quite hopeful and waiting for the remainder of the responses!!! So far we have already heard from James Ivens, Tim Gray, Nigel Davies (& Karen née Beesley), Jo Roundell-Greene (née Harwood)and Cameron Gower Poole — with more to come (we hope!)
IRW has been busy trying to contact as many ex-members of YT Harrow in the build-up to the 50th Anniversary of the first meeting of the group in January 2014. So far he has heard from quite a number of ex-members including: Tricia Wardle (née Maskell) and of course IRW's own brother Martin , both of whom were there at that first meeting; Andrew Kitchen; Kay Koré; Jacquie Russell; Paul Moran and Mike (Midge) Williams both of whom were Group Directors at Harrow. Louise Gill (née Brooks) - who's now living in California - put IRW in touch with a number of other XYT-ites from Harrow including Claire Toeman. Clare's daughter Holly Gibbs is also an actress. After a successful acting career, Clare set up and runs Crocodile Casting. Ian has also heard from John Grantham (aka John Graham) who also followed a successful acting career by setting up a successful agency - Grantham Hazeldine. Ian is still tracking people down, but is already collecting some very interesting stories which we hope to collate into a special page, with their personal memories of YT, to mark the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the YT in January next year.
It was great to see and hear our first patron, Dame Sybil Thorndike , in full flow (!) in that wonderful voice of hers in the
BBC2 programme celebrating the formation of the National Theatre (Wikipedia) at the Old Vic.
The NT celebrated its 50th anniversary this month.
Globe Playground We know that few of you fit the age range (5 to 11) of this target audience, but even so we encourage you to explore the Globe Playground! This is the Globe‘s new child-focused website which was launched recently. As well as fun Shakespeare related facts, quizzes, galleries and craft activities in the Playground, there are also some amusing games in the ‘Play’ section. If you know anyone who might enjoy this please send them the link: shakespearesglobe.com/playground.
After the Fire
A new production starring my office, a magnifying glass, a joystick, paperwork and the Sun. That is the big burning yellow thing, not the “newspaper”.
Yes. Some idiot [me: Tim] left his ‘hands free’ magnifying glass on his desk and the afternoon sun was enough for a small boy to torture a wasp.
Downstairs, we could smell that neighbours were having a bonfire. They were not. A few minutes later Siobhanwent upstairs and saw smoke emerging from above the closed office door. I opened it. The smoke alarm went off (at last) and for the next few minutes we re-enacted Backdraft and Towering Inferno.
Actually it was about the size of a fire in a wastepaperbasket but on my desk against the side of a PC. But the mess! The smoke! The flames! The choking! The eyes! Yuck.
To cut a long story short: two fire extinguishers; a dozen microfibre cleaning cloths; a waterfall of Flash; hoovers; double-washed and four coats of emulsion on the walls;
every single little thing in the office washed and stored away. A month later, everything is restored except the terminally burnt things (see photo) and some clutter has ended up in the garage
including about two dozen theatrical pyros which were two feet from the fire, next to various aerosols and a gas blowlamp. The newish PC survived, thank goodness. Not worth an insurance claim is it?
All back up and running now. Sorry for any pause in transmission! Just do me one favour: have two fire extinguishers in the house.
Without them, who knows what our outcome would have been, even with the Brigade stationed at the end of the road? Thank goodness we had not gone out. But, oh! My lovely joystick!
The Globe is to experiment with the tradition of the child actor companies of Shakespeare’s time by forming and training a company of talented 12 to 16 year olds who will perform John Marston’s The Malcontent. This was first performed in the Blackfriars Playhouse by the Children of the Chapel, and later adopted and amplified by Shakespeare’s own company. It will be performed in the new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse which opens for its inaugural season in January next year. The Malcontent is scheduled to run from 3rd to 19th April 2014.
As of writing (17th April) we are pleased to see the current tally of signatories over at aTheatre4Beaconsfield is 255. That's almost a whole audience!! Please keep on supporting this.
Wouldn't it be nice if Beaconsfield had a theatre? Though there are performance spaces in the town, they have always been an adjunct to a cinema, a church, a youth centre, a sports centre, a school or simply are a small part of a multi-use community space. Well, there's a chance we could persuade the powers-that-be to let us have an itty-bitty piece of land on the Wilton Park estate in order to build our own theatre. Graham Southgate explains in what we hope is a very widely-circulated email (please cut and paste it from this page if you wish) :
From: Graham Southgate
Sent: Wednesday, April 03
To: Everyone
As some of you will be aware, I belong to all 4 theatre groups in Beaconsfield and generally love what I do with each group.
What I don't like is lack of access to a quality theatrical space, and know that many of you feel likewise.
There is a possibility that the council can be persuaded to allocate some land within the Wilton Park development (what is currently The Ministry of Defence School of Languages in Old Beaconsfield), but only if we ask with a loud enough voice - at the moment we are whispering in the wings...if they can hear us at all....
I think each group does a great job with the resources that it has to hand, but an independent home dedicated to theatre is what I believe we should all be striving for, that can be run for the benefit of the substantial theatrical and arts community in Beaconsfield.
THERE IS NO SUGGESTION OF ANY FORM OF MERGER OF ANY OF THE GROUPS. The groups already co-operate, and the majority of the actors have worked with multiple groups, and this is particularly true for the technicians. Each group already shares its rehearsal home with other activities. Wouldn't it be great to share your home with other theatrical activities.
All we are asking is that all the groups co-operate to lobby the council and Inland Homes to allocate land to us in their plans.
If you agree, please go to aTheatre4Beaconsfield.org and sign the petition - it is the big blue button on every page. Put in a comment if you wish, but most of all please sign the petition. There is lots of details and suggestions on that site as well.
This is not a short term plan. If the council do say yes, we will have several years of planning and fund raising to fulfil a dream - we are really looking to future generations to benefit from our work now.
Please, please support this endeavour and the petition.
If you agree with this - please feel free to forward it as you see fit, edit etc.. Please just spread the word.
Thank you
Graham
Are you an ex-member or member of either Harrow or Beaconsfield?
We'd like to hear from you.
More information please!
* Please note that stories are edited manually and may or may not appear in a few hours’ or days’ time.
If you have any information about past Young Theatre productions, or information about any Young Theatre activities, then do please get in touch; and if you know any other ex-members of YT, please tell them about this site - we would very much like to hear from them too.
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