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On Saturday 8th
July, Parish Players celebrated its 50th anniversary by holding a
barbecue in the Glebe Field and an entertainment/presentation in the hall,
followed by a disco. Around 200 people joined the celebrations, members
from every decade since 1956 and from all over the country. Friendships were
rekindled, with people who had not seen each other for years catching up on
life since Parish Players.
Fifty years ago, Rev Heaton-Renshaw challenged Charles Flowers to find
something for the young people of the parish to do. Charles and his wife,
Mary, had a long discussion and decided that a pantomime would attract all
ages. Posters were put up and notices given out to anyone who could sing,
dance, act, sew or paint scenery, asking them to attend a meeting. The
response was overwhelming and Parish Players was started.
The
first production was Sleeping Beauty which was rehearsed during 1956
and performed early the following year. The next pantomime was written by
Rev Lewellyn and called Merton Make Believe and four members of the
cast, including the principal boy, were in the audience on 8th
July. Some wonderful 16mm film of some of the first two pantomimes had been
kept and this was shown at the entertainment, so those original cast members
could see themselves in action!
In
between the pantos came the “May Play” – which has ranged from comedy to
tragedy to kitchen sink to whodunit to musical. In 1964, “Look Back in
Anger” caused outrage among some of the regular audience, who refused to
come and see cutting edge drama. 40 years later “Cabaret” presented
fishnets and sleaze, transforming the church hall into a
Berlin
nightclub.
Some
of the present, and past, members of Parish Players performed scenes from
shows from each decade, starting with a small scene from Sleeping Beauty
and including the “mechanicals” scene from Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and
finally “Reach” from the last pantomime. The entertainment was finished off
(as have been all Parish Players’ pantomimes since the late 1960s) with all
the performers on stage singing “That’s the end of the Show” – the majority
of the audience joining in as well! John Ashworth wrote the tune for
“That’s the end of the Show” for a medical school review in 1967, the words
having been written by others; it had a verse and a chorus which John used
for a Parish Players’ panto (he thinks it was Cinderella in 1968 or
Aladdin in 1969). He then combined the chorus of “That’s the end of
the Show” with the chorus of “A hundred years from now”, which he had found
on a 1928 dance band record, and thus the Parish Players’ panto “anthem” was
born.
The
membership of Parish Players spans all generations, with the youngest
members aged 13 and the oldest in her 80s. Everyone is welcome to join as
Charles Flowers intended when he started the group fifty years ago. You
don’t have to act or dance or sing – anyone interested in set design or
building, directing, make up/costume, lighting, in fact anything that goes
towards putting on a production, is welcome. Many past members, having been
bitten by the “theatre bug”, have gone on to careers in the theatre, so if
that is a path you’d like to follow, Parish Players could be your starting
point!
Our
AGM will be at 8.00 p.m. on Tuesday 5th September and the
following week we will start work on the 2007 pantomime – and it will be
Sleeping Beauty, but not the one performed fifty years ago, this one is
specially written for us by Parish Player Chris Abbott.
If
you would like to join us, either come along on a Tuesday in September or
contact Robert Lawrence (membership secretary) at
ppmembers@hotmail.co.uk.
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