Newsletters

First reading of the latest RTG pantomime offering “Mother Goose” took place on Wednesday 1^st October and even from this short exposure it’s showing great potential. John’s mind is reeling with set ideas and he is looking forward to trying these out. Joyce will be co-directing with John and Barbara has agreed to be the chorographer.

Already Gemma has set a high standard for the part of the frog with a West Indian accent that had some of us believing the ghost of Bob Marley was in the room. Come and see if you can do better.

RolePlay was very well received and has enjoyed good audience reaction. Attendance figures were very encouraging and Mark reported good sales at the bar. Many thanks to everyone involved for making it a successful and memorable production.

Gilly’s Gem and Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations are the two productions from the Youth Group being performed on Friday 21^st and Saturday 22^nd November at 7.30pm. The box office is now open for ticket sales. John, Jo and Anne –Marie will be directing the two plays. Your help is needed to source several items for the productions. Do you have; a set of boxing gloves, a small goldfish bowl, a small folding card table or any reproduction antique paintings

Jo also needs to source two ‘fat’ suits and German Army uniforms. Volunteers are also needed to help with set build on 8^th November 10am – 1pm and November 15^th 10am – 6pm. Back stage helpers are also wanted for 16^th November Dress Rehearsal and 19^th November Technical Rehearsal.

RTG would like to wish the best of luck to Katie as she leaves to study Dentistry at the University of Bristol. Katie will be sorely missed but does hope to be part of the group again in the future. What time did she leave? Tooth Hurty of course!

Following on from the success of the costume audit; you can see some of the wide selection of costumes and accessories currently owned by RTG on the Costume Hire page. Other interested groups may wish to take advantage.

Keyworth Drama Society is in urgent need of the loan of a two-seat leather settee and matching armchair plus a modern sideboard for their next production. If you think you can help please contact Haley Mason on 01159 416865.

Yes that’s right! It's time to arrange the Christmas Dinner. This year’s seasonal repast is at the Larch Farm Public House, Ravenshead, on Tuesday 16th December at 7.30pm.

The box office is now open for tickets sales for the September production of Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy RolePlay. Rehearsals are well underway and the play is taking shape. As with all RTG productions we can guarantee the audience a good time. John has once again designed the promotional material to his usual high standard. Who the girl on the poster is and where he got her photo from only John knows and so far he’s not telling!

A pleasant surprise was received recently from the author of ‘The Spiriting of Burd Ellen’ Ron Nichol. He congratulated the Youth Group on their recent success, performing his play at the NANDA Youth Festival.

Ron wrote: “I read of Ravenshead Youth Theatre Group's success with 'The Spiriting of Burd Ellen'. My congratulations.” Ron Nicol, author of 'The Spiriting of Burd Ellen.

It looks like the favourite for the next RTG seasonal offering will most likely be “Mother Goose”. Several scripts have been read through and various comments made. It was thought that while some had good dialogue they lacked either a good storyline or enough opportunity to include singing and dancing scenes.

John and Joyce will be co directing and John hopes that the first full reading will be after the September productions de-brief.

RTG are planning a trip on either Thursday 27th or Friday 28^th November (depending on seating availability) to the Theatre Royal Nottingham to see Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy ‘Absurd Person Singular’. Interested? See Julie for details. We can get a 10% discount for group bookings of 10 and over.

Members of RTG undertook a comprehensive audit of costumes on Saturday 30^th. The site of so many costumes, bits of costumes and “what on earth is that?” piled on tabletops was quite disconcerting.

The costumes were identified, photographed and finally logged. Barbara and Carole had organised suitable boxes and when completed the costumes were taken by members to be stored at their homes. Some of us had the dubious opportunity of posing in costumes to be photographed by Mark whose camera must now be filled with so much blackmail material we all need to be very afraid.

At the end of the day it was hard work but hopefully a worthwhile project. The master list will be able to identify what costumes the group currently has, what box (container etc) they are stored in and who has them.

Jo, Karen and Mandy recently attended the NANDA Awards (June 20^th 2008) and were thrilled to receive the award for best Front of House on behalf of RTG. The adjudicator was particularly impressed with the excellent front of house service provided by the group. Well done everyone concerned.

Congratulations also go to Chris Breach and Richard Turner who both received special commendations for their roles in Murdered to Death.

There was dancing, good food, drinks and speeches in abundance at the RTG 40^th Anniversary. Founder member Pauline Cooper initiated proceedings with a brief history behind the group’s formation (a story of begging, cajoling and apple pies). Then under the excellent vocalising of Dave Morton, those attending had a great time trying not to mix up their Allemande Rights with their Allemande Lefts whilst remembering to Promenade after completing a Do-Si-Do, with your opposite corner. That’s if you remembered whether you were an active or inactive couple, or if it was the turn of numbers one, two, three or four. Sounds confusing, but it was great fun. Have a look at the photographs at 40th Birthday Party to confirm this.

Carole wishes to remind people that readings are taking place of Pantomime scripts for the next RTG seasonal offering. Humpty Dumpty, Beauty and The Beast, and the new version of Dick Whittington have been previewed. Carole assures all those wishing to attend that their participation will be most welcome. John Birch and Joyce Townsley will be co-directing this year’s production.

The Youth Group has now finished for the summer break. At the last meeting John and Ann-Marie cast the two one act plays for the November production. The chosen plays are ‘Gilly’s Gem’ by Sandy Taylor and ‘Ernie’s Incredible Ilucinations’ by Alan Ayckbourn. John is to direct Gilly’s Gem and Jo and Ann-Marie will co-direct the other.

The Youth Group still remains fully subscribed and there is a healthy waiting list. Members of the group are off on a jolly on Saturday 26^th to the Theatre Royal at Nottingham, which is holding its open day. While there, they will be able to view a production of Robin Hood.

Rehearsals are well under way for the September production. Graham is feverishly whipping the cast into shape. John and Joy are sounding more Yorkshire than Fred Truman and Richard is getting in touch with his ‘vicious’ side. Terry and Julie are getting used to an unusual relationship, Jo has just nipped out for a fork and Mandy, well just wait and see.

As part of the stage set for September’s production we are desperately in need of the loan of a three-seat settee and matching armchair, preferably in a light colour. The settee and chair need to be a modern design to reflect the period of the play i.e. modern professional couple living in an apartment in London overlooking the Thames. Please contact Terry or John if you can help

At the last Committee Meeting Barbara suggested that in the near future an organised audit of all costumes (currently housed at different locations) should be undertaken. This will probably be a full day event and will enable the group to check, photograph (so that we know what each item actually looks like) and in some cases, dispose of costumes. We will need everyone who currently houses costumes to ensure that they are delivered by the required date. If you cannot be there on the day then please try and ensure that they are delivered to an agreed location before the audit takes place. We will keep you posted as to the actual date.

Graham has 2/3 Sony NP –FM50 rechargeable batteries and a number of unused mini digital camcorder cassettes available for anyone who may be able to use them. If you wish to take advantage of Graham’s kind offer please contact Graham as soon as possible.

This year’s Annual General Meeting was held in the Brammer Room on Wednesday 4th June. Existing Chairman John gave a rousing, humorous speech, setting out the past year’s achievements. All three plays/pantomime discussed, had shown healthy audience numbers and a fair return on receipts. John thanked everyone for their hard work throughout the year and handed over to Christine to go through the accounts. After the financial report it was time to elect a new Chairman, Officers and Members. Three candidates were duly elected for the role of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. There were seven nominees for the five other members' positions, so a secret ballet was undertaken and five were elected.

New Chairman Carole, asked the members to show their appreciation for the work the existing committee had done throughout their term in office.

Unfortunately the Youth Group had to pull out of the Church Festival because too many principal characters were already involved in the Burd Ellen production at the NANDA Youth Festival. The Youth Group is currently reading plays for the November production.

Casting took place for the September production of Alan Ayckbourn’s “Role Play”. Graham supervised the auditions and decided upon the final cast - Jo, Mandy, Richard, Julie, Terry, John and Joy. He thanked everyone for attending and left John to remind members that play readings would take place as usual for those who wished to attend during the lead up to the September production. Don’t forget the next one after the September production is the Pantomime! (Oh no it isn’t, oh yes it is etc etc) Dick Whittington has already been mentioned as a possibility.

The stars were out in abundance at the AGM night (it was a clear night after all). It was the first presentation of the Betty Kirk Award for Best Performance plus the Founder Member Trophy for Outstanding Contribution. In true Hollywood fashion Betty and Coreen kept up the suspense (Hitchcock would have been proud!) by taking their time opening the ‘winner’ envelopes.

This year’s winners were Terry Cox (best performance) for his portrayal of the inept Inspector Pratt in “Murdered to Death” and Ken Cumberpatch for his outstanding contribution to stage sets and props, also his tireless work for the Drunken Characters Guild of Great Britain (just joking!)

The Youth Group’s visit to see Tom’s Midnight Garden will be on Tuesday 1st July – see Ann-Marie for details.

RTG 40th Anniversary Party (Red and White Theme) Friday 4th July in the Village Hall, Ravenshead – see Jo for details.

AGM with a taste of the Oscars.

The Theatre Group held it's Annual General Meeting in the Brammer room on 4th June, but this year there was a glamorous addition to the usual reports and committee elections. We held our very own version of the Hollywood Oscars as we launched two, new, annual awards - The Betty Kirk Award for Performance of the Year and The Founder Members' Trophy for Outstanding Contribution to the group.

Regular audience members will be well aware of the many wonderful shows and pantomimes that Betty Kirk has produced over a great many years. This being our 40th Anniversary year it seemed only fitting to commemorate Betty's fantastic service to RTG by naming an annual award in her honour. Members were asked to vote for the best performance from our three productions since last year's AGM. This year's winner is Terry Cox for his portrayal of the inept Inspector Pratt in the September 2007 Agatha Christie spoof 'Murdered To Death'.

To honour our Founder Members, many of whom have been with RTG since 1968, we have also created The Founder Members' Trophy. This non-acting award gives members the chance to vote for the often unsung heroes who help backstage or
front-of-house, technical wizards, set-builders or directors. Founder Member, Coreen Brookes, after sharing with us a few anecdotes from the early years of the Theatre Group, presented the trophy to Ken Cumberpatch for his Outstanding Contribution this year. Apart from his exploits on stage, Ken is famous for his set-building talents, publicity activities and willingness to volunteer for anything . . . well almost.

The introduction of these annual 'oscar-like' awards forms part of our 40th Anniversary celebrations - more news on this in the coming months.

Well here we are, another year on, and it has been yet another busy and successful season. Our membership continues to be strong with numbers stabilised at just below 40. At a time when many amateur groups are contracting, or folding altogether, Ravenshead is still looking very healthy. The new faces that I mentioned in last year’s report have now become well established, and new directors; Ann-Marie, Barbara and Mark can chalk up successful debut productions this season.

With our membership numbers in mind the committee have made a conscious decision to encourage plays with a large cast, obviously to give as many people as possible an acting role. We have been looking at plays with an absolute minimum cast of 7 and I hope that next year’s committee will continue to follow that guideline. Unfortunately that can rule out some excellent plays which have smaller casts but we hope to read some of these in RTG2 by way of compensation.

This year I have been particularly proud of the way in which the Youth Group have combined with us on all of our adult productions. Youth group members were an integral part of Front of House for ‘Murdered To Death’, they were enthusiastic pirates in ‘Treasure Island’ – and let us not forget Laura Bishton and Matthew Womble’s acting roles – and RYTG and future RYTG members contributed much to the charm of ‘Under Milk Wood’.

Once again all the committee members have offered me sterling support – I prefer sterling to Euros! At our first meeting last year we discussed communication between the committee and the rest of the membership and I hope that you have noticed the improvements. Much praise goes to our Secretary, Jo Thomas, who has quickly followed each committee meeting with an informative Member’s Newsletter to give you all the latest and relevant updates. Mark has also made the content of the Newsletter accessible via our website.

In keeping with this theme of telling you – the members – about the workings of the committee, I thought that you might like some insight into what we actually do. Contrary to what some people believe, we do not spend committee meetings having a chat and eating cake and cookies. All of our meetings have taken 2 hours plus and, although we do take a 5 minute break for chat and cookies, we do pack a huge amount of stuff in per evening.

Here are some of the things we’ve achieved this year (and this list does not include anything related to individual productions and only a few RYTG matters, so this is only about 50% of committee activities this year):

We have new style printed flyers in colour and A4 and A3 posters are printed right to the edge.

Under Social I would especially like to mention our trips to see ‘Starlight Express’ and ‘Beast On The Moon’, which were both memorable evenings.

All of these things have been made possible by the hard work of the 8 people who make up the committee and I would like to thank them all again for their support and their commendable dedication to making RTG and RYTG an ongoing success.

As last year, our September production was directed by Ken Renno and it contained ‘murder’ in the title. “Murdered To Death” by Peter Gordon was a whodunnit spoof based upon all those Agatha Christie Miss Marple mysteries, with more than a touch of Inspector Clouseau thrown in.

You could tell from the early readings that the script would go down well with our typical audience who relish a comedy. Lines like “I’ll manhandle Miss Hardly-Trumping” and “Anything you say will go no further than my ears.” had us giggling like kids all through rehearsals.

I think that Ken did some excellent casting and it was great to see Joy Page back on stage again. I hope that the rest of the cast do not mind me picking out Ken Cumberpatch’s drunken scene as Bunting the butler, which drew spontaneous and deserved applause on the Friday and Saturday evenings.

I also have to mention Terry Cox’s performance as the inept Inspector Pratt, which carried with it a lot of pressure. We realised from the start that the play depended heavily on the audience finding this one character funny. It was an extremely tricky role to play and I thought that Terry did a wonderful job with it. Well done.

We have to thank David Balliol-Key for coming all the way from Newark to set the lights for us and I personally enjoyed doing the sound effects of doorbells, telephone rings and gunshots in the old-fashioned way i.e. manually from behind the set.

Ticket sales were very good again and feedback from the audience was full of praise, so we must congratulate Ken Renno on another successful September production.

And so into our 40th anniversary year and it seemed fitting to me that we selected a classic tale for our pantomime. ‘Treasure Island’ was one of my favourite books as a kid so I was delighted to be involved in it. Ann-Marie and Barbara were brave enough to step forward as co-directors, they chose a lively, modern-feeling, script and were open to creative ideas from other members.

With such a big cast, many of us had the chance to develop some very colourful characters, which matched the very colourful set and lighting. Jo Thomas was Principal Boy again and Richard Turner returned to the Dame’s role. Mark Breach’s dedication to the role of Long John Slither deserves praise as he tackled the discomfort and strain of acting on one leg from the very first rehearsal. For some of the other main roles our intrepid directors turned to our Youth Group’s most experienced actors, giving Matthew Womble and Laura Bishton the opportunity to rub shoulders with the adult group, which proved very successful.

I thought that the song and dance numbers in this panto were really strong and the Youth Group are to be congratulated on their enthusiasm. RYTG didn’t have a November production in 2007 so this allowed Barbara and Ann-Marie to rehearse the children at a much earlier stage and I’m sure this benefited the end result.

We had a pie-in-the-face routine, a fancy dress competition for the kids in the audience, great freestanding scenery pieces such as the mast, the stockade, the jolly boat, the cannon and the poop deck, a couple of Spaniards and the biggest, brightest parrot you’ll ever see in your life!

Rehearsals were always great fun, except for the final technical rehearsal when I think that it’s fair to say that panic set in. There were some very ambitious set changes in this one and Martyn, Gemma and all the backstage crew thoroughly deserved their curtain call at the end. The last minute introduction of Rob Pierce the flute player was inspired and gained valuable time for the scene changers, although we all now appreciate that this panto was a maybe a couple of scenes too long.

Ticket sales were fantastic, as they always seem to be for our pantos. ‘Treasure Island’ sold more tickets than any other pantomime in recent years, so Ann-Marie and Barbara should feel really proud of their production and I hope that their partnership will direct pantos for us in the future.

It was backstage during one of the ‘Treasure Island’ performances that Mark Breach first mentioned to me that he would like to direct ‘Under Milk Wood’ for our May production. Mark knew from our committee meetings that we wanted a serious play with more ‘weight’ to contrast with what had gone before. This certainly seemed to fit the bill, but there were some people who doubted that we would be able to transfer, what had been conceived as a radio play, on to the stage.

We needn’t have worried. From the outset it was clear that Mark had a real passion for this piece and knew what it should look and feel like.

With 60 characters to be played by 15 actors the casting process was different to say the least. You often hear the phrase “ensemble piece” – well this certainly was. With the exception of the two voices and Captain Cat, the lines were split equally across the rest of us and we enjoyed the challenge of making each of our characters different.

With a big cast to control, Mark’s disciplined approach ensured that every minute of rehearsal time was used effectively and with military precision he choreographed the actor’s complex movements.

Ken Cumberpatch has constructed some useful stuff in his time but the thrust staging for UMW will, I think, prove to be the most versatile yet and I’m sure we’ll make good use of it in the future.

I particularly enjoyed the scenes I played with Val and Jo out on that thrust stage, bringing us so close to the audience. There have been murmurs about doing a future production “in the round” which sounds an exciting prospect!

Audience numbers turned out to be good in the end and we did attract some new faces without putting off too many of our regulars, but it never ceases to amaze me how late people in Ravenshead leave it before they purchase their tickets. It’s certainly not good for the blood pressure.

So what did the audience think to it? Gathering together opinions from all quarters there is consistent use of the word “professional” – even people who don’t like ‘Under Milk Wood’ have said that it was superbly presented. Most of the credit for that should go to Mark and Iain. Obviously we have discussed the limitations associated with performing in a village hall, but laying those to one side, I think that this has been the most professional piece of theatre that RTG has put together since I joined the group.

‘Under Milk Wood’ will be a hard act to follow, but with Graham’s experience and a fantastic Alan Ayckbourn script, we have all the pieces in place to move forward into our next season.

This is my final day as Chairman and at the end of the meeting we will elect officers for the next committee, including a new Chairman. We will almost certainly have some new faces on the committee who will no doubt bring some fresh ideas to the group and I welcome that. Whoever the new Chairman is, I assure them that I will help them as much as I can, especially with the complex Village Hall and Church Hall booking arrangements.

Thank you all for putting up with me for two years. I wish every success to the new committee in the year ahead.

RTG Newsletter – May 2008

Under Milk Wood- May 15-17^th

Under Milk Wood was successfully completed last week and enjoyed by all it seems. Many congratulations to Mark for his vision and hard work in making this such a success. We seemed to have quite a few new faces in the audience and have had some very complimentary feedback. Have a look at the last production page for some fabby pictures. Audience numbers were healthy at 71, 90 and 76 which compare well with recent plays.

At Betty’s suggestion we held our first post-production review meeting at Wednesday’s meeting. Discussion was lively and productive and we followed this up at last night’s committee meeting and came up with a list of action points for future productions. This will be used in preparation for future shows.

Role Play- September 2008

Graham started a reading of this on Wednesday and this will be continued next Wednesday 28^th May and casting will be on Wednesday 11^th June, the week after the AGM. Please come along is you are interested in being involved.

RYTG

The Youth Group gave a spectacular performance of The Spiriting of Burd Ellen at the NANDA youth festival on 10^th May, not very ably assisted by myself who messed up the sound plot even more spectacularly!!. The children did us proud, and we won both awards for Best Actor/Actress going to Gethin Williams and Ellie Thomas, with Highly Commended certificates being awarded to Jordan Rodger, Marisa Milek and Saachi Oza. RYTG will commence work on their November production of two one-act plays; Gilly’s Gem and Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations after half term.

Annual General Meeting 2008

The AGM will be held at 8pm on Wednesday 4^th June in the Brammer Room. We have had quite a lot of interest from different people in standing for a committee post. Please let Jo have any further nominations.

Also we require nominations for our new Performance and Contribution Awards by next Friday, 28^th May please. You should have had these details with the AGM paperwork.

40^th Anniversary Party

Invitations have gone out for our Square Dance to all current members. Red and White theme, bar and excellent food included!! RSVP to Jo please asap as we have a reserve list of other people we would like to invite depending on numbers!!

RTG T shirts

As part of our anniversary celebrations we have commissioned T shirts bearing the new RTG logo. These will be sold at £5 each and should be available soon.

Social

The Youth Group are going to see Tom’s Midnight Garden at The Playhouse on Tuesday 1st July- please note date change- if anyone else wants to come let AMB know as soon as possible. (£8.50 per head).

And we will try to get tickets for Wind in the Willows which is part of the Stamford Shakespeare Company’ summer programme, on Thursday 17th July, names to Jo asap please. This is £12 per head.

RTG Newsletter – April 2008

New Logo

Our resident designer has been busy again and you can see the results at the top left of this screen, well done John.

Under Milk Wood- May 15-17^th

Mark and the gang are working very hard on this and it is coming along nicely. 9 members of the Youth Group are taking part as the school children; they have only had one rehearsal so far, but early indications seemed pretty good. Ken has also been working very hard on getting the staging built- thank you Ken as usual for all your hard work.

We decided that a buffet served at the back of the Hall could result in us still being there at midnight!! - Mo has suggested that we serve buffet food already plated-up and ready to go in tables in the Brammer Room, as we won’t need the Brammer for dressing room space this time. The committee agreed this was an excellent idea. Mo and Co would appreciate all offers of help for food preparation on the days of the performances please.

September 2008

We have already read Secondary Cause of Death and last week we read Role Play by Alan Ayckbourn, which Graham has put forward. Role Play was very well received. Terry has also put forward a possible production, which he would direct: Sailor Beware, which he and Julie have done before. We have arranged a reading of this at Barbara’s at 8pm on Monday 28^th. So please come along.

RYTG

The Youth Group are working hard on their production of The Spiriting of Burd Ellen, directed by Mandy, which is our entry for the NANDA youth festival on 10^th May. Watch this space for how it goes!! If anyone would like to go and watch please speak to Mandy or a committee member.

Annual General Meeting 2008

Please note the 2008 AGM will be held at 8pm on Wednesday 4^th June in the Brammer Room in. As usual committee posts are up for grabs, or democratic election anyway. We do need some replacement bodies for next year including a new chair, treasurer, secretary & general members, if you may be interested in standing please let a committee member know. Nomination forms will be distributed next month. We will also be seeking nominations for our two new annual awards; the Betty Kirk Award for the Performance of the Year and the Founder Members Trophy for Outstanding Contribution of the Year. Nomination slips will be available after Under Milk Wood.

40^th Anniversary Celebrations

We are having a Square Dance with a buffet supper at the Village Hall on Friday 4^th July. This will have a red and white theme. We need to limit the numbers because of space so we will need a definite Yes or No so that we know how much further we can cast the invite net. Invitations out soon!!

Social

We are going to see Laying the Ghost on Friday at Greasley. The Youth Group are going to see Tom’s Midnight Garden at The Playhouse, provisionally on Monday 30^th June- please let me know if you would like to join in.

After the success of the new programme format for Treasure Island we will be continuing with this. Programmes will be sold at 50p each, and we will not be having a raffle.

As mentioned in the last newsletter, we are departing from our usual play format of seating around tables and the food for the interval is to be served as a buffet at the back of the Hall. (Plus the bar of course!! )

We are still in the process of deciding the next production, the only thing being clear so far is it is to be a comedy. The next reading will be held at Ken Cumberpatch’s at 8pm on Friday 4^th April. This will be Role Play by Alan Ayckbourn, which Graham has put forward. He has directed this recently with both Greasley and Burton Joyce , please come along and see what we can do with it!!!

Please note the 2008 AGM will be held at 8pm on Wednesday 4^th June in the Brammer Room.

The 40^th Anniversary celebrations will be held at the Village Hall on Friday 4^th July. This is to be a Square Dance and Dave Morton has kindly agreed to call for us - he did the honours at Mandy and Arthur’s birthday party last year. In the first instance all current members will be invited plus one guest, and we then hope to be able to include past members and friends depending on the uptake.

We are arranging to buy two trophies, which will be presented annually at each AGM. The “Founder Members Trophy” will be awarded for the Outstanding Contribution to the group and the “Betty Kirk Award” will be given for the Performance of the Year. Nominations for both of these will be invited from all members via a nomination slip, which will be sent around before the AGM. In the event of the identity of the winners not being crystal clear, the committee will make the final decision.

Rehearsals are now well under way. Welsh accents currently somewhat variable, but we will improve!! This is quite a departure from our usual productions; it seems to be generating a few enquiries from potential new members and looks like it will attract some new members of the public to come and see it. The audience will be seated in rows set diagonally to the stage to increase the sense of nearness to the action; for this reason, we decided we would have a self-service buffet supper set at the back of the hall, rather than seating the audience at tables as we usually do.

The atmosphere is created by the lighting so the set is minimal, well, absent really, so that is good news for our long-suffering set builders, and there should not be too great a need for back stage help for this one.

Went off very well, despite our last minute preparations being as finely tuned as usual!! Thank you very much to everyone involved and especially to Ann Marie and Barbara for all their hard work.

It has been suggested that we ought to have a debriefing session after each production to discuss what went well, and less well and to ensure we learn from our mistakes for the future. The committee have suggested that this takes place at the first Wednesday meeting after each completed production, for the first half of the evening, after which we will crack on with the next reading.

The next production will be a comedy; we have had several offers and are currently arranging readings. So far we have read Secondary Cause of Death (the sequel to Murdered to Death) so watch this space.

Most of you will be aware that this year marks the 40^th anniversary of the founding of RTG. As such we really feel we need to have a party!! We plan to hold a barn or square dance in the Village Hall in the summer and to invite as many present and past members and friends as we can fit it. Watch this space for more details.

We are also working towards creating our own Mini-Oscar ceremony and will be presenting annual awards to mark the Best Performance and the Outstanding Contribution to the group at each AGM beginning this summer. So start practising those Gwynneth Paltrow moments!………..

Carole has suggested we go to see the Wind in the Willows at Stanford in the summer. RYTG are going to see Tom’s Midnight Garden at the Playhouse in June/July too, so if anyone would like to join in with this, please let us know.

Have welcomed 8 or 9 new members and are practicing hard for their entry to the Youth NANDA festival in May “The Spiriting of Burd Ellen". Several RYTG members will be needed for Under Milk Wood as well.

If anyone has any items they would like including in the newsletter- please let Jo have them.

And a very quick newsletter just to bring you up to date with a few bits of urgent news……..

Our committee meeting last night was more or less dominated with planning the set building for the rapidly approaching panto Treasure Island

Please please please- if you can spare any time – can we beg you to come and lend a hand painting, sawing, cutting sewing, carrying or making the tea……….

And a reminder for the cast to come in costume as far as possible for Sunday’s rehearsal- we should have the bits from Sandfields for then and we want to get some publicity photos sorted.

As the cast is so large- we are also a bit short of backstage helpers for the performances, so if you can help- or know anyone who might be drafted in to help, we would be very grateful.

John has worked very hard and has designed us a fabulous new-look programme- with 8 pages and a card cover. These will also act as a prize draw to encourage everyone to buy them. We are also having a fancy dress competition for children (big and small) in the audience.

And finally- we have booked the Village Hall for a couple of hours on the Sunday after the panto finishes so that we can strike the set in a bit more of a controlled fashion than usual, (and get to the pub earlier!!) so we’ll be asking for help with this. We are going to have the after show party this time at the Ranger- the landlord is going to put on sandwiches for us

Just very briefly, as you know from last time’s newsletter Mark is going to direct Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. We are going to have 3 readings of this, at 8pm on Wednesday 30^th Jan, 6th and 13th Feb. It will be cast the following week 20^th Feb.

And of course we are having to consider what will be the production for September. So if anyone has a yen to direct the next offering please let John know what you have in mind asap.

Rehearsals are well under way. Barbara and Ann Marie have asked if any one has a recording of Last Night at the Proms –type music which they could borrow for one of the musical numbers.

We are going to use a new design programme this time- we are having card outer covers printed, which can be used for every show- and then the 8-page insert will differ from show to show. As well as the usual scene synopsis and cast and production crew lists, we are going to include Director’s notes, cast members resumes, details of past and future productions and some advertising for the village businesses who display posters for us.

As so many members are involved on-stage, we need more volunteers than usual to help Front of House, taking tickets on the door, selling programmes, manning the tuck shop and tea and coffee bar etc. So please let a committee member know if you are able to help.

This is to be held on Saturday 8^th December. RYTG are performing a short sketch called The Boy Who Wouldn’t Stop Working. (Must be a nearly extinct breed………..!!) and Ken C has nobly agreed to co-ordinate some monologue readings from some of the adult members.

We had a very enjoyable trip to see Beast 0n the Moon at the Playhouse on 2^nd November. Thank you to Carole for organizing this.

The next activity is the Xmas do. We are going to have a Christmas meal at The Rushleigh (on the left up Nottingham Road, just past West Notts College). Names to Ann Marie please.

As well as participating in the Village Event the youth group is busy brushing up Star Dusters, to be performed for the WI on Wednesday evening 15th December. And when this is safely over, it’s all hands on deck for the panto.

RYTG also recently visited Nottingham Playhouse Theatre for a special Backstage Tour to gain an insight into what goes on behind the scenes in a professional theatre. Please see the RYTG section of our website for more details. Our thanks to Nottingham Playhouse for their hospitality and to Judy and Alan of the Village Bus for getting us there and back again on what was a fascinating and enjoyable afternoon.

Mark is going to direct Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. This is rather different from anything we have done before and we look forward to Mark leading us into a very interesting experience!!