Friday, September 22, 2006

Rehearsal in Progress

Rehearsals are now in progress for The Memory of Water. It's early days but it might be even funnier than we thought. I suppose I should tell you who is in it. Noleen, Dee, Susannah and Siobhan are the sisters and mother, Charles and Alan are the partners of two of the sisters. Not giving much away am I? The committee will be meeting to divy up the jobs and get things rolling very soon.
There was a New Person (Welcome New Person!) visitor to rehearsals last night - who even did some reading in for us. So you see, if you come down to have a look you might be made useful!
Oh, and if you know of a Charity that you could sell tickets with all the benefits going to the charity - we just ask for bums on seats - get in contact as we're always looking for worthy causes to support.

Friday, September 15, 2006

AGM Hon Sec report

The Hon Sec suggested you might like to read his report from the AGM... so here it is...
There was a sad start to the year with the death of Sheila Marlow. Sheila had been a member since 1992. She was a lively and active member of the society. She was meticulous in her preparation and whole hearted in her every performance.

Our two plays this year were by Charles Richards and Oscar Wilde. They are now level on four plays each. Both were large cast plays, each with 12 and they were well attended, well received and made money.
A Fete Worse Than Death left some audience members confused as to whether justice was done and indeed, who did what - which is a major flaw in a whodunit. A Woman of No Importance was beautifully designed and costumed. Credit is due too to Helena for her direction in her swansong for Leeson Park and a terrific cast.

Our outings this year were to ‘Hamlet’ at the Peacock, The Merry Wives of Windsor at Airfield and The Constant Wife at the Gate. The Hamlet was cut to two hours and there was a lot of cutting of body parts going on on stage that sent Roly and Helena to the bar for Act II. The Merry Wives..we decided wasn’t one of Shakespeares best but the setting in Airfield Gardens and the staging made for a terrific evening nonetheless. The Constant Wife was a delight.

We made full use of the Drama League of Ireland courses this year. Andrew attended a week end lighting course in Birr. On the strength of his additional expertise he was appointed lighting designer on a series of CDs on dissection produced by the College of Surgeons. Noeleen and Adrian attended the week long Summer School in Limerick. Adrian now does a very good impression of a packet of Rice Crispies running for a bus, Noeleen can do this as well but with the emphasis on the comedy. More seriously, the whole Summer School was very well run, good value for money, a lot was learnt, good contacts and friendships made. Adrian has booked for next year and Noeleen hasn’t ruled it out.

The play reading evening was held at Jean and Garrett’s for the 5th year running. Noteworthy were the Dancing at Lugnasa all female ensemble piece, Dee’s reading from Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads and Jean and Garret giving us their Basil and Sybil Fawlty impressions.

Fine weather saw us Bar B Q ing once more on Bray Head. Croquet was the game of choice, the Treasure Hunt had valuable prizes this year and Roger again led the more energetic out on the Inca trail.

While we supported our traditional charities during the year, we also helped Craig for the Mozambique project where he worked with orphans of the AIDS epidemic there.

Sinead and Siobhan read plays widely and produced an excellent list of plays with synopses that will be very useful in choosing plays for the Spring.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Auditions Auditions Auditions...

OK, so I'm going to repeat myself.
The Auditions for the next play are on Thursday (14th September). Members and prospective members are welcome to try out.
The play is called The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stevenson. It's a play about 3 sisters gathering in the family home for their mothers funeral. There are 6 parts, 4 female and 2 male.
Adrian Chapman is our director, his second play for LPP.
If you want more details either email the Hon Sec from the website (www.leesonparkplayers.com) or leave a comment here.

Friday, September 08, 2006

The Next Play...

Well it was the AGM last night and it was quite a good turn out. Important things were discussed and decisions made and that's always a good thing at one of our meetings!
The Next Play will be The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stevenson. A wonderful play about 3 sisters who gather for the funeral of their mother. Quite funny, Quite sad, Quite a lot to think about. There are 4 female parts and 2 male. Auditions will be on the 14th of September at 8pm in Wesley House... all welcome to come along. And remember even if acting is not your thing there are plenty of other things for you to do which are important to the staging of the play - lights, costume, sfx, props, prompt... to name a few.
As it's a New Year for LPP the annual sub is now due too, €15 for individual members or €25 for family/household membership, payable to the Hon Treasurer.
Hope to see you at auditions!