The Meopham Players group has a meeting on the first Wednesday of each month (apart from the holiday month of August). Sometimes, if there is a production coming up the same month, we have an Open Rehearsal which gives the actors a first chance to judge audience reaction to their performances. Other times, as with the forthcoming meeting on July 1st, we hold auditions - in this case for Adrian Mole.

But, many a time, we don’t have either of these and something will be organized by our Social Secretary. At the last meeting (June), we had a talk on:

Medieval Manners

 

At the monthly meeting in June, Imogen Corrigan gave a talk on Medieval Manners.

 

She immediately dispelled the popular image of people tearing away at great hunks of meat and throwing the bones to the dogs brawling away on the rush-covered floor.

It appears that, amongst the nobility, dining was a very civilised affair at trestle tables covered elegantly with cloths. It is true that meat of different kinds was the staple diet, many vegetables only being added to our diet at a later date. Originally hard flat bread was used as a plate, this later being replaced by wooden trenchers.

 

It was the custom of the time for the sons of noble households to be sent to other nobles for their education and training and part of that training was to serve at the tables, which was considered to be a great honour.

 

The talk was very entertaining and informative backed up with some excellent illustrations. Our thanks go to Imogen Corrigan for a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Thanks go to our current Chairman, Brenda Ogden for that report.

 

We are now concentrating on the next production, which is our entry to the Duncan Rand One-act Play Festival at the Medway Little Theatre, Quality of Mercy. There is a total of 12 amateur dramatic groups entered and 3 per night will be performing between Tuesday 14th July and Friday 17th July.

We have been allocated the 8.30pm slot on Wednesday 15th July, so if you would like to come along and see us, you can get your tickets from the Box Office on 01634 400322.

 

You might also like to know that we will have a stand at the forthcoming Big Day Out in Gravesend on Saturday 4th July where anyone interested in joining Meopham Players can come along and see what we are about. We had something similar in Meopham itself recently - on 20th June to be precise - which went pretty well. This is a report printed in our June newsletter:

 

We were a bit worried about the weather during the few days preceding the event and even contemplated cancelling our part in it if rain threatened. But we needn’t have worried. On the Wednesday before, John O rang up one of his Rotary cronies, Bob Grieves (pictured with the group below) and negotiated the loan of a gazebo, thus depriving us of our last excuse for not turning up.

On the day though, the weather was kind to us and there were only a very few drops of rain which the gazebo fended off without difficulty, so very many thanks for your generosity, Bob.

The event was pretty well attended and we had our fair share of visitors. Come to think of it, we had more than our fair share. The reason being the incredible performance put on by Matt Dallas in his guise of children’s entertainer. I had not seen Matt perform this role before but I am really pleased to have done so. If you liked Tommy Cooper, and can envisage him pitching his act at children, that would be a measure of Matt’s performance.

 

One of the great pleasures of being there on Saturday was watching the absorbed expressions on the faces of the children as they followed his antics. So, many thanks Matt for three hours (yes, three hours) of non-stop entertainment.

Thanks too to the rest of the crew for setting up and manning the stall, namely: John, Sue, Brenda, Margaret and some other bloke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6th June, 2009

 

Well, in the parlance of the film world, that’s another one in the can.

The performance of Priestley’s first play Dangerous Corner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week represented the culmination of a dream by its Director, Joy Roberts, who saw the play some forty years ago and from that time had an ambition to produce it one day.

It was worth the wait.

Arguably, it was one of best performed plays by our company, bearing in mind the complexity of the plot and the extraordinarily long passages the actors had to take on board. This latter point could have led to the Prompt taking a major part, but the thoroughness of the rehearsals and the competence of the cast resulted in her hardly having to intervene at any stage.

It was, without doubt, a triumph and one that can be looked on with great pride by cast and crew and indeed anyone who had a hand in bringing it to our stage.

 

But, moving on, we now have Adrian Mole in our sights. This will be produced and directed by John Winson who will be having auditions at the Village Hall at 9pm on Wednesday 1st July, immediately after the AGM. Opening night will be on Thursday 29th October.

John clearly has no time for a quiet life as he is rarely uninvolved with any Meopham Players productions. He has just finished playing the part of Charles Stanton in Dangerous Corner. But not content with going on to produce our next play at the Village Hall, he has also offered to take on the job of Stage Manager for our entry to the Duncan Rand One-act Festival at the Medway Little Theatre.

Outside of theatrical activities, he has a demanding job which requires him to travel around the country on many occasions and in his spare time he coaches local youth teams in the art of rugby football.

 

The Quality of Mercy is the play we are entering for the Duncan Rand Festival. Chronologically, it will be performed before Adrian Mole, quite soon in fact, some time during the week commencing Monday 13th July. At the moment, we do not know which day, but the moment we do, we will put it on the web site. Should we be fortunate enough to reach the finals, the play will also be performed on Saturday 18th July. Louisa McNally makes her directing debut with this one. Her cast is:

 

Mary                    Sam Oliver

Chapman            Alan Lawrence

John                     Tony Fish

 

The play is a black comedy in which the central character (not a nice man) awakes to find himself in a strange place, under interrogation. But where is he and who is doing the interrogating?

 

 

 

 

 

7th May, 2009

 

Just a small update. Those of you with AOL browsers will have realised that the music playing is not what it says in the top right-hand corner - it is still Sarah McLachlan. Very nice, but it is not what should be there.

We’re working on it.

There are a few other minor things as noted in the What’s New page.

 

 

 

 

1st May, 2009

The Box Office for Dangerous Corner is now open.

Please note: Curtain-up time (inadvertently missed from the poster) is 8pm.

 

THEATRE EXPERIENCE

 

Since the rather abrupt closure of the Kings Arms a few weeks ago, we were forced to consider making alternative arrangements for an addition to The George Inn for our Theatre Experience.  

 

I am delighted to announce that Bartellas Restaurant on Wrotham Road, Meopham just south of Hook Green, has agreed to provide the same facility.

 

This will start with our production of “Dangerous Corner” from 6.00pm on all three nights of the 28th, 29th and 30th of May.  Obviously you will need to leave by 7.30 at the latest, if you are to get into the car park at the Village Hall, but we have arranged with Meopham Secondary School for our patrons to use the school car park to should the Village Hall car park be full.

Those who know Bartellas, will appreciate that this is a great addition to our range and we hope therefore that you will encourage as many of your friends and colleagues to take advantage of both our Theatre Experience venues.  

 

For those who have not eaten at Bartellas, or have yet to use the Theatre experience, we can guarantee that the quality of food and the service provided at both establishments is excellent, and for only £16 a head for a two course meal, at either establishment, and a ticket to the play, it is astonishing value for money anywhere.

 

So, do come along and try the Theatre Experience, you won’t be disappointed!

 

John Ogden

Front of House Manager

 

 

 

 

 

 

19th April, 2009

Now here’s a funny thing - or at least it would be if I hadn’t spent a couple of days trying to sort it out, and failing. You may notice in the 16 April update I told you the music playing was the theme from Due South. Well, that is wrong. For those of you who have AOL, at least you have music, but it is not what I said it was. It is from Due South, but it is a piece written and sung by Sarah McLachlan called Possession. For those of you whose ISP is Mozilla Firefox, on the other hand, it seems you have no music at all although I have gone through exactly the same sequence as for previously successfully installed clips, so I don’t know what’s going on. But I hope to find out soon. I’ll keep you posted.

 

 

16th April, 2009

Time to change the music, especially as the band has now left the site. What we had before was the theme tune from the American series, shown from 1990 to 1996, called Dream on. Judging from the reaction I had, it was not terribly well known. I liked it though and that’s what counts until someone else takes over from me.

The new piece - to save you that agonising wait - I will identify now. It is the later, non-vocal theme  featured in Due South, a series which you just have to remember.

 

Right - PRODUCTIONS.

Opening night for Dangerous Corner looms ever closer - scroll down for details of dates and cast. The Box Office will open on 1st May. Tickets are priced at £6.00, but there is a concessionary price for old geysers like me of £5.50, so it pays not to be coy about your age. The box Office number is:

 

01474 814582

 

Next up will be our entry for the senior section of the Medway Little Theatre’s annual Duncan Rand One-act play Festival. The play chosen is The Quality of Mercy by Terry Fairhead. It will be directed by Louisa McNally who will be holding auditions at the next Monthly Meeting at the Meopham Village Hall on Wednesday 6th May. The play is a black comedy in which the central character (not a nice man) awakes to find himself in a strange place, under interrogation.

There are three characters involved:

Mary: middle-aged and well-dressed in a dark business suit. She is clearly someone with authority.

Chapman: a middle-aged, unscrupulous, hard man – a gang leader.

John: young to middle-aged. Well-built and well-dressed. Mostly cheerful, but can be menacing.

The play will be performed during the week commencing Monday 13th July, 2009.

 

Looking even further ahead, to the last week in October, 2009, we will be performing Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend. More details on this in a later update.

 

 

26th March, 2009

I am sure you will be pleased to know the Guest Book, as you may already have observed (even if you haven’t written in it) has now been brought back to working condition. So don’t hold back, use it to identify the show the tune comes from.

 

NEXT PRODUCTION

 

28th to 30th May, 2009 at

 

Meopham Village Hall

 

DANGEROUS CORNER

By

J.B.Priestley

 

                                      CAST

      Freda Caplan                         Keren Read

      Miss Mockridge                     Brenda Ogden

      Betty Whitehouse                  Becky Bridger

      Olwen Peel                            Jules Doe

      Charles Stanton                     John Winson

      Gordon Whitehouse             Matt Dallas

      Robert Caplan                       Alan Lawrence

 

The cast is already a good way towards being off the book and morale is high, so be ready to book your seats when the Box Office opens towards the end of April - this is going to be a really good one.

 

 

 

18th March, 2009

Just a short update this time to rearrange the band and to let you know the Guest Page is currently under construction by the company that provides the guest book - if it’s not one thing, it’s another. With any luck though, they won’t be too long.

 

 

  

 

10th March, 2009

Okay! It appears that my forecast of our imminent demise proved to be wrong, thank goodness. We have now made our transfer to our new domain provider. Not that there weren’t a few final hiccoughs. When we got to the point of uploading to the web, we found it wouldn’t take on AOL although it was fine on Mozilla Firefox - no idea why, of course. But eventually, after a lot more scrabbling about in the dark, it all came good.

 

So, it is back to business and I can tell you that preparations for Dangerous Corner are going well.

Although opening night is not until 28th May, some of our actors are already close to being off the book. For more information on this production, scroll down on this page.

 

Past Productions

Our pantomime, Once Upon A Time, has now taken its place on the Past Productions page. I don’t have all the photographs yet, so we’ll have to make do with a few snaps taken at the dress rehearsal for the time being - more will be added later as they become available.

 

Theme Music

The theme to Paddington Bear, as you no doubt realise, has given way to our new piece. It belongs to a very successful American series that ran from 1990 to 1996. The central character was male, in his early middle-age, who was constantly finding himself in situations which caused him to have sudden and total recall of old movies he had watched in his early childhood, when his mum had dumped him in front of the TV.

But what was it called?

Should you feel so moved, use the Guest Page to respond.

 

 

 

20th February, 2009

This could be the last time you see our web site in its current format. We have a problem, you see, brought about by the company from which we lease our domain deciding it no longer wishes to continue in this particular field. It has made arrangements for all its current domain holders to be transferred to another company, and for all I know the others may have gone through very smoothly. Ours hasn’t though and there is now less than a fortnight before the old company pulls the plug on us and deletes all our files.

I won’t bore you with details, but the correspondence - or lack of it - doesn’t fill me with the confidence that all will be resolved in time.

So, there may be a break in the service while we consider our options - one of which could be to get someone who knows what they are doing to run the site. Rest assured though that, like the phoenix, we will rise again.

 

Now, on to other matters. In the few days we have left, I’m sure you would like to know that the last piece of music was the theme from - yes, you guessed it - Twin Peaks, the cult series that began and ended in the early nineties. I won’t leave you in suspense over the new, and quite jolly, piece - it is the theme from Paddington Bear. Sorry about the image - it is the closest I could get from my clipart collection.

 

PRODUCTIONS

 

I still don’t have the photographs for Once Upon a Time, consequently I am unable to update the Past Productions page and for the reasons given above, I may not have the chance to do so now. Suffice to say though, it all went well and great fun was had by audience, cast and crew.

But now, it is on to the next production - Dangerous Corner by J.B.Priestly. This intriguing play, written in the Thirties, was of its time, but also ahead of its time involving, as it does, a hint of a homosexual relationship. It has now been cast and rehearsals have already begun even though it doesn’t go live until 28th May. Joy Roberts is producing this one which virtually ensures a meticulous production. Her cast and crew are:

 

CAST

Freda Caplan                         Keren Read

Miss Mockridge                     Brenda Ogden

Betty Whitehouse                  Becky Bridger

Olwen Peel                            Jules Doe

Charles Stanton                     John Winson

Gordon Whitehouse             Matt Dallas

Robert Caplan                       Alan Lawrence

 

CREW

Prompt                                    Sonia Williams

Stage Managers                      Matt Smith &

                                                 Terry Fairhead

Props                                       Sue White

Costume                                  Lisa Bryant

Lighting                                   Bill Bates

Sound                                      Fred Greenstreet

 

Director                                    Joy Roberts

Assistant Director                    Terri Horton

 

THE WILMSLOW GREEN ROOM

 

You may recall that last September we had an Email from Emma Toms from Chesire who had stumbled across our web site and noticed on the Past Productions page we had recently performed Nobody’s Fool. She was particularly interested because her group was going to do the same play this year, her part being that of Dee Dee.

Well, it is all over now and we have lots of photographs and a video slide show which though far too numerous to put on this site are well worth looking at. So, if you are interested, let me know by the Meopham Players Email and I will forward them to you. To give you an idea of the excitement which this play generated, I have copied below part of Emma’s Email she sent a couple of weeks prior to opening night:

 

We are actually two weeks away from show week and I tell you I am seriously LOVING being Dee Dee, she is amazing.

I have never so much enjoyed rehearsals, we do NOT stop laughing, but then I also love the tender moments with Uncie (Grampi is now Uncie because the two men are too close in age!), and Lenny when he's dressed as Myrtle.

Our Letitia, June is mad as a hatter so her scenes are going to steal the show!

Everyone involved is lovely and so talented. I played opposite Christina (Fran) as Alice to her Annabel in Snake in the Grass by Alan Ayckbourn in the first play of the season, so it's nice to do one with her where I can be nice!

I actually showed Charlie our director (who's fantastic, so encouraging and patient), your photos of the set because I thought it looked so amazing. I will send you all the photos I accumulate!

In answer to your original question about the phone and the fish tank, we have some very clever sound effects for various stages of distruction of Lenny's Mobile which works. And Myrtle's ringtone is " Dude looks like a Lady"... genius!

On the subject of music, we have a fantastic original piece of music Charlie wrote and performed called " Nobody's Fool" which is just the perfect introduction to Lenny's reflective opening scene.

I had the " My Mum ran off with an Italian and all I got was this lousy T Shirt" T Shirt actually made and I wear it in the second act which looks so funny.

I have made Dee Dee (with the glastonbury and Justin references) quite punky and unique, coloured hair pieces, dark make up etc.

We did however notice a few holes in the script like the phone ringing for Dee Dee (Once Lenny already disconnected it!), and updated it slightly, ie The Emirates instead of Highbury during the baby conversation.

All in all it's going really well and I cannot wait for show week :) I literally long for rehearsals and I know I'm going to be gutted when it closes.

 

 

2nd February, 2009

You can look on this as a sort of interim update, just to acknowledge the end of the pantomime season - at least as far as Meopham Players is concerned.

 

At the moment, I don’t have the photographs from this latest production Once Upon A Time, but the moment I do, I will update the Past Productions page. In the meantime, I can tell you that the show was very well received, especially by the children who responded with enthusiastic jeering each time the villainous Baron (Henry Roberts) appeared.

There will be a fuller report at the next update.

 

You will, without doubt, note the change of music. The previous theme, as I’m sure most of you will have guessed, was that from “Minder”, sung by Dennis Waterman. The one playing now is from what became a sort of cult series, which perhaps the music itself helped to foster.

What was the show?

 

 

10th January, 2009

Right! Well, that’s now sorted. You will note the music has changed - it’s easy when you know how. For those of you who didn’t know or recognise it, the last piece was the theme from the 1970s spoof series called SOAP. American, of course, and ground-breaking in its concept. I know it wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but I liked it.

No doubt, most of you will know the current piece of music, especially as the programme is now being repeated on one of the Freeview channels. But I won’t confirm what it is until we make the next change.