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February 2009 News
Dear FSC Supporters It is incredible to think that more than three months have passed since our main production of The Merry Wives of Windsor in October. Despite disappointing audience numbers, the play was well received thanks in large part to the skilled direction of Ian Cullen and to the talented cast. It was a real pleasure also to see several local schoolchildren taking the parts of the fairies, roles they played with great gusto. A.G.M. Our second Annual General Meeting was held at the end of January and there was much to report. Details of the meeting including the chairman's and treasurer's reports for 2008 will be available here on our website in due course.
After much thought the committee has decided to put on a well known comedy in the hope of increasing our audience numbers. The choice is Much Ado About Nothing which will be directed by Ian Cullen and will be performed in the Bourne Hall during the last week in October. Auditions will be held in the Studio Room at the United Reformed Church, South Street between 2.30 and 5.30pm on Sunday 31 May and Sunday 7 June 2009. As always, these are open auditions, so if you have any friends interested in performing in a Shakespeare play, please bring them along too. The Shakespeare Revue After the success of the Revue last year both in financial and artistic terms, we will be performing it again in the late spring/early summer in two or three venues in area. The hope is that we will be able to boost our funds sufficiently to enable us to consider finding a more suitable venue for our main productions, allowing us to put them on during the summer months. To this end, we are in the process of looking for alternative premises starting with the Performing Arts Centre at Frensham Heights. Assuming we are successful, our chosen play for July 2010 will be A Midsummer Night's Dream. Watch this space! Community Events Last year the Company was invited to take part in two important community events, namely the Farnham Community Arts Festival which took place in May and saw members taking over story time in Waterstone's, and the National Heritage Open Days weekend in September which gave us the chance to reprise some of the songs and sketches taken from The Shakespeare Revue, performed earlier in the summer to great acclaim. These were really enjoyable occasions and we intend to join in again this year. If anyone is interested in taking part please let me know. Social Events War Horse at the National Theatre has already been organised for March - all tickets sold. Much Ado About Nothing at Regent's Park Open
Air Theatre in May. Study Weekends at the Globe Theatre Around Romeo & Juliet 1-3 May More details can be found on the website www.shakespeares-globe.org
During the AGM, Ian Cullen talked to the membership
about the possibility of studying under his guidance for the RADA
Shakespeare Certificate. This would involve presenting a selection
of Shakespeare speeches or poems as solo, duo or group performances
at Bronze, Silver and Gold level. More information about the syllabuses
and cost can be obtained from the website ashbee.net/rada/certificates
Annual subs are now due at the same rates as last year, i.e. £15 for a single member, £20 for family membership. Please send cheques to Hilary Lee-Corbin, Raspuncher House, Frensham, Surrey GU10 3EQ. I and the committee are looking forward to another exciting year and to seeing you at many of the events planned for this year. Kind Regards, February 2009 Click here for news of other local Amdram groups The AGM took place at the United Reformed Church, South Street, Farnham on Thursday 29th January. Here is the Chairman's address in note form: Chairman: 2. Apologies for absence (Lyn Birtles, Maureen Collins, Nigel Morley, Bernard Whelan, Malcolm Corbin, Maggie & Phil Bridgett) 3. Looking back over a second busy year for the reinvigorated FSC a) performance side (ii) Main production was The Merry Wives of Windsor. Despite disappointing houses, it was artistically an excellent show. Our thanks go to Ian Cullen for his valuable contribution. It was a real pleasure to have some delightful young girls as fairies; also great team work from cast with everyone getting involved getting the show on the road - set-building, putting out chairs, producing vast quantities of food to keep us all going. All in all, a happy production. Reasons for that particular play not being well attended; choice; venue; timing; insufficient publicity. Another thing that came home to us is the impossibility of ever making a decent profit using the Bourne Hall. Even if we could fill the hall every night we are still constrained by 120 seating capacity. More on this later. b) community involvement (i) Farnham Community Arts Festival - story (ii) National Heritage Open Days - FSC performed extracts from WS Revue in Courtyard of Bush Hotel. Do it again in 2009 but probably extract from Much Ado. c) social events (i) Globe Theatre trip to see MWoW
a) main production to be Much Ado About Nothing
to be performed at the Bourne Hall during half- b) Plans to revive the Shakespeare Revue and perform it 2-3 times at different venues during the late spring/early summer; venues being looked into now including Camberley (High Cross Church), NFRAC's marquee, Haslemere Halls etc. c) Social (i) War Horse at the National (March) d) Community involvement as mentioned earlier. My sincere thanks go to my committee for all their
hard work over the last 12 months and I look forward to working
with them on our exciting programme for 2009/10. |