Members of the society, Georgina Faed, Lynn Ireland and Bobby Hanlon, thoroughly enjoyed performing a selection of songs from Les Miserables alongside Jimmy Cricket and his lovely wife May Marion on Sunday 17th July in the Henry Travers Studio at The Maltings. Jimmy’s humour went down a storm to a very appreciative audience and our trio sounded great. For a clip visit our Facebook page.
9 to 5 Auditions & Rehearsals!!!!!!
9 to 5!! Whisking from one show to another, we have finalised first rehearsal and audition dates for our next musical 9 to 5!
First meeting/sing through: Wednesday 21st October 7 pm East Ord Hall. Open Auditions: Wednesday 28th October The Maltings (time to be confirmed). Break for cast to familiarise themselves with the script and songs. First rehearsal: Wednesday 18th November. Cote d’Ivoire As you can imagine, we are rather busy Hi-de-Hi-ing at the moment but an email will be sent about this asap. Please spread the word to those not on facebook. As usual, all are welcome and we love to see new faces..
NODA Awards 2015
A great night was had by all at the NODA awards ceremony last Saturday – huge congratulations to Maddy Cawthorn on her Rising Star award for her performance as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (of course we were lucky enough to have two outstanding Dorothys as Georgina Faed, our other Dorothy, had already previously won an award) and to the director, Lisa Summers, back stage crew, helpers and cast for their contribution to Best Production Award. A big well done to Bill Shardlow too for his runner up award as ‘The Cowardly Lion’. If only there had been an animal award for our two amazing Totos! Well done to all the other nominees and winners too one of whom was another local favourite, Jonathan Scott of Spittal Variety Group who won the individual performance award for his portrayal of Wishee Washee in Aladdin. Congratulations everyone!
*** ANNOUNCEMENT – 2016 MUSICAL ***
Dear Members and Supporters,
We are extremely pleased to tell you that our 2016 show will be 9 to 5: The Musical.
Three unlikely friends take control of their office and learn there is nothing they can’t do, even in a man’s world.
9 To 5 The Musical, with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and book by Patricia Resnick, is based on the seminal 1980 hit movie. Set in the late 1970s this hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era is outrageous, thought-provoking, and even a little romantic.
Pushed to the boiling point, three female co-workers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. In a hilarious turn of events, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy – giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains “otherwise engaged,” the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Hey, a girl can scheme, can’t she?
***
This is a first for us and a first for the area as the rights to perform it at an amateur level have only just been released.
Our Executive Committee would like to invite anyone interested in being part of the Production Team to please check their emails as details on how to be involved have just been sent out.
If you are not on our email list, let us know.
To hear a taster of the songs click on the following link:
http://www.josef-weinberger.com/musicals/musical/9-to-5.html
Help Needed …. Wardrobe Mistress
We would really, really like to get someone to step in to the job of wardrobe mistress/master. It honestly is not as daunting as it sounds as nearly all of costumes are hired in for productions, again, please get in touch for more information.
Family Disco
A big thank you to all those who came along to the Black and Gold on Saturday night to help us raise funds for the Wizard of Oz. The event was well attended and a hit with the children who grooved the night away to the latest tunes – along with the odd member or 2 of the adult cast! Keep an eye on the website for news of our next event and come along and join us!!
Opera hop on Deadwood stage
Last year they delighted with Disney but for their 2014 spring show, Berwick Operatic Society are taking audiences on a journey to the Wild West with ‘Calamity Jane’.
The 1953 film musical, starring Doris Day and Howard Heel is still hugely popular to this day and won an Academy Award for Best Song for ‘Secret Love’.
When the curtain goes up at The Maltings on Wednesday, March 26 the song will be song by Lynn Ireland, a familiar face to people in Berwickshire having starred as Belle in ‘Beauty & the Beast’ and Maria in ‘The Sound of Music’ in the last two years with Eyemouth Variety Group.
It was the pull of a role she’s always wanted to play that has taken her over the border although haven’t failed to land the role two times before, once in front of this year’s director Mark Pentecost, it’s a case of third time lucky.
“My first main part in an amateur dramatic show was Katie Brown in ‘Calamity Jane’ in 2001,” she explained.
“That was with Berwick Opera and although I did go for Calamity it was just a great show to be in.
“I also went for the part when Duns did the show a few years later. Mark was the director and picked someone else so I have to say the audition this time round was probably my most nerve wracking to date.
“It’s just fantastic have the role- Calamity has a lot to her.”
So what was it that made Mark put his faith in Lynn?
“There was absolutely no doubt in my mind this time,” the man himself commented.
“Everyone on the audition panel felt the same.
“I just felt she wasn’t quite ready for it at Duns but her stage presence is no much better now and her voice has just got better and better.”
Rehearsals for ‘Calamity Jane’ began in the August but Mark quickly noticed there was a severe lack of men in the cast.
He made an appeal through the pages of the paper for more men to get involved and he was happy to report that with a few weeks to go numbers were a lot healthier.
“At our worst point we had only one man which was just completely ludicrous; there’s a strong male presence in the show so we needed quite a few more.
“The main concern was the role of Danny but fortunately we’ve found a great one in the form of Slink Jadranko (last cast in ‘The Words in The Wires’ last summer). He’s the perfect fit for the role.
“We’ve also got Steve Sadler (Eyemouth’s Gaston in ‘Beauty & the Beast’ and Berwick Opera’s Renee in ‘Allo Allo’) as Bill and he’s a great addition.”
‘Calamity Jane’s is very much in the ‘old favourite’ mould but Mark hasn’t been afraid to ring the chances and put his own slant on it.
“The first thing that struck me was that act one is ludicrously long whereas act two feels really rushed through.
“So cuts have been made and it’s balanced out more.
“I’ve brought a bit of 19th century burlesque to proceedings to bring some colour to the rough frontier town the show is set in.
“As well as having great songs ‘Calamity Jane’s characters have all have a bit of meat to them, making them easy to love and identify with.”
*’Calamity Jane’ is on at The Maltings from Wednesday, March 26-Saturday, March 29 with evening performances at 7.30pm and a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.
Source The Berwickshire News – see article here Bonosky philipp .
