Calendar Girls - Gala Night

Last night, we were the first Welsh Amateur Group to raise the curtain on Calendar Girls, on our very special Gala Opening Performance.

The run-up to the show has been a hectic one, with getting the photos for our own charity calendar shot, organised and printed, appearing on the Welsh news (on both BBC and ITV respectively), along with the usual tasks of learning our lines, our moves and sorting the sound and light.

Here are the links documenting the past couple of weeks:

Our Calendar Girls Blog, where the ladies (and gents) of the show have written about their experiences.
http://bltcalgirls.blogspot.co.uk/

The documentaries from ITV and BBC - these include interviews with several members of the theatre, both cast and crew, and some shots of our rehearsals.
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19443316
ITV: http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2012-08-31/club-life-blackwood-theatres-world-record-bid/

The Gala Night was a tremendous success and we would like to thank everybody who was involved in the organisation of the evening, our sponsors and our wonderful audience.

It is not too late to book tickets - the show runs from September 4th - 8th. Please visit out website (www.blackwoodlt.org.uk) to book now.

Weekend at the Westend

After weeks of hard preparation and intense rehearsals, our Weekend at the Westend production proved more successful than we could ever have imagined. We performed to full houses with standing ovations for both nights of the show, rewarding our young cast for all their work and dedication.

It was a opportunity for the younger members of the theatre to show their talent - which they have in abundance!

Here are some of the comments that we received after the production:

What a fantastic night we had last night we loved every minute of it, well done to the Grummitt family for all their hard work it certainly paid off, the little kids were awesome thanks for entertaining us. (The Everson family).

Well done to all involved in last nights show. Really enjoyed it. (The Dinham family).

Amazing show last night well done everyone you were all fab! Looking forward to it again tonight! (The Dunstan family).

We are all looking forward to next year and hopefully, the opportunity to put on another youth show. Watch this space!

Weekend at the West End Pre-production Post

Well here we go, the eve before BLT youth perform the first of their 2 shows W@W. Dress rehearsal last night went very well with one or 2 small issues but resolved on the night. This really does promise to be a great show. I have to say well done to Ros and Sally for getting this together. There have been some very fraught moments over the last few weeks with the dates looming ever closer and the 'to do' list growing ever longer!! Sally has worked tremendously hard in choreographing the dances. Many a night have I been banned from the kitchen while dance routines are put together. Libby has ably assisted Sally during this time.

A huge thanks to Nye for putting together the lighting for this show. A good few midnight candles have been burned. However the effects will enhance the show without doubt.  Also our new member Ian Palmer who visited the theatre on our open day offering his services. Bet Ian didn’t realise just what he was letting himself in for.

Irene Livingstone has been a tremendous help in rehearsing all the soloists (yes including me)! Fay has been a real whiz on getting all the tracks together and cutting some of them to within an inch of their lives.

There is an army of people involved in this production and I would just like to say thank you on behalf of Ros, you know who you are.

I hope that people who look and hopefully read this will have an understanding of what is needed to get a show of this magnitude together.

I am in no doubt that those who have booked tickets will be thoroughly entertained from beginning to end. There are a few odd seats left so if you don’t want to miss out please get in touch before it is TOO LATE.

Cheers..

British One Act Final 2012

The final of the British One-Act Festival was held this weekend (6th and 7th July) at the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven.

We took our play, 'Biscuits,' written by Graham J. Evans, one of our members, to complete against three other plays from Scotland, England and Northern Ireland respectively.

We opened the festival on the Friday night, followed by Northern Ireland with their play, The Droitwich Discovery by Nick Warburton, performed by The Clarence Players.

Saturday night saw the remaining two plays - Scotland's Kirkton Players performed In the Blinking of an Eye by Jeremy Hylton Davies, and England with The Tempest by William Shakespeare, performed by Total Arts Community Theatre.

All of the plays were of a high standard. However, only one play could win, and the adjucticator, Ian Sarginson, had a very difficult decision to make.

We would like to congratulate Scotland's Kirkton Players on their success, and we are looking forward to competing in the next One-Act Festival in 2013. We are proud of our team for getting to the final and representing Wales - thanks to the DAW Team and everyone at the Torch Theatre for making this such a memorable weekend.

See you all next year!

Countdown to Considerably Bigger Buns begins with Casting

And so the planning for this big BLT theatrical experience begins with casting news! Firstly, a HUGE thank you to everyone who came to read - thanks to you I have had an interesting and difficult time with deciding on the large cast for this play!  I am delighted to say that I have come up with an exciting solution and I've been able to cast all the ladies who came to the readings and were available for the show. I would like to thank all the chaps who came along too - it has been tough to make the decisions on casting the four male roles and I'm sorry to disappoint some of you. However, backstage crew will be needed - any volunteers? Anyway....here goes with the cast for Calendar Girls - to hit the boards at BLT in September 2012!

Cora..............................Sarah Jones
Chris..............................Gwen Livingstone
Annie............................Frankie Baskerville
Jessie.............................Yve Price
Celia..............................Shelley Bethan Morgan
Ruth...............................Ros Grummitt
Marie..............................Claire Williams
Brenda...........................Claire Watts
John................................Bleddyn Jones
Rod.................................Jerry Grummitt
Lady Cravenshire........Val Rosser
Lawrence......................Matthew Oliver
Elaine.............................To be shared by Fay Grummitt and Emma Percy
Liam...............................Christopher Harris

I will be contacting the cast over the weekend to arrange first rehearsals.  These are such exciting times and I am looking forward to getting started with some of Blackwood's finest.  My dearest husband has reminded me that we also have a British Final to compete in, (and hopefully win!)  so things might be a bit fragmented for a week or two but we will then be able to get into a pattern of rehearsals.

See everyone soon.

Peta x

Welsh One-Act Final 2012

On June 9th, the Welsh One-Act Final took place at the Congress Theatre in Cwmbran. We had two productions taking part - 'Godfather Death' on the Friday and 'Biscuits' on the Saturday. It was announced, after six very good plays had been watched and adjudicated, that the winner of the final was 'Biscuits'!

The British Final is being held at the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven on the 6th and 7th of July. We will be competing for the title against the winning plays of the English, Scottish and Irish festivals. We will be performing on the Friday evening.

We are very proud to have made it this far and to represent our country in this festival. Hopefully we will bring the trophy back to Wales for the first time in nearly twenty years!

Please come along to support us - tickets are available from the Torch Theatre website - please click here.

Weekend at the West-End

The amazing talent of our youth theatre, are rehearsing hard to bring a high energy show at the end of July. Songs and dances from shows such as Cats, Chicago, Les Miserables, Grease, Annie and many more are all on the set list for this great show being put together by Ros and Sally Grummitt. Ably assisted by MD - Irene Livingstone, this show is selling really quickly. Please don't miss out and book your tickets now!

Please visit our website for more information.