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DP News

16th June

 Death of a Salesman was a great success, with good audiences each night, and lots  of very positive comments.  It was very hard work , but the final production was a credit to Carol, our director, and not least the actors.  Congratulations to Neil, Chris, and especially Malcolm, for giving tremendous performances of such huge parts.
We are now having a well earned break before our next production,  which is to be 'The Mystery of Talbot Manor' , a murder mystery night in our usual October slot.  Jacqui Padden has agreed to direct that as she has experience of these productions, unlike the rest of us!  
Besides that, we are holding our reading and casting nights for the christmas panto on the 7th and 14th July, so if you want a part, make sure you're there.

                                                                                                                          

15th  February


We're now well under way with rehearsals for Death of a Salesman, with Carol directing.   It is a very challenging play, and I don't envy Malcolm having to learn the part of Willy.  It is starting to shape up though, and I think it should be a very successful production - all we need now are the ticket sales!
We held a committee meeting this week, and I thought you might like to know some of the decisions taken.   We have been invited to perform a Murder Mystery night for Carol's sister in September, and so  it was thought that it would be a good idea to make our October production the same Murder Mystery, with the usual hotpot supper.  That will save a lot of learning of scripts, and we hope it will prove popular (and profitable).
Peter has offered us his 'Old King Cole' for the christmas panto, and we hope to be reading the script soon.
It was also decided that as most people are involved with 'Salesman' there would not be sufficient people with the time or inclination to enter the Preston one-act festival this year, and so the committee will not be supporting any entry.
On the subject of money, we made a healthy profit on the End of the Pier show, and a reasonable profit on Wind in the Willows. This has enabled us to decide to order a full set of black curtains for the Civic Hall stage, which we should have in time for 'Salesman'.
It was also agreed to make a charitable donation from our profits to the NW Air Ambulance Service.
We are still on the look-out for cheap storage.  We looked at a potential site last week, but as is usually the case, it was too small, and very expensive. If anyone knows of any unused garage/barn/shed going cheap (ideally free) please let someone from the committee know.
Tickets for 'Salesman' will be available soon, so please start canvassing your contacts. As it is not a comedy we will probably have to try extra hard to sell tickets.

14th January 2008

Well, another one in the can as they say.  Wind in the Willows was a great success, and played to reasonable houses.  Everybody seemed to enjoy it, which is the main object of the exercise.  A big thanks to Irene for directing, Ann and Tony for providing the musical accompaniment, The Ormskirk Theatre Company for all of their excellent help backstage (we'll do the same for you sometime, guys!) to Caz for being stage manager and keeping everything under control, plus the loan of her splendid sound equipment courtesy of SCAT, and everyone else who helped out backstage and front of house.  Without these people we just couldn't function.

We'll be reading the next play on the 16th  (the day after tomorrow as I write this - yes, a whole 3 days off!), which will be Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.  We will see how it reads before we decide whether or not to do it.  I'll keep you up to date with developments.

16th November 2007

  As you can see this newsletter is a lot more informal than previous ones, as it is designed for email distribution and posting on our website.Please refer to the website in future for further newsletters. 

As we had a committee meeting last night I though it would be a good time to produce a short newsletter to let you know of our plans. 

Wind in the Willows is well into rehearsals now, and plans are in hand to   make most of the scenery cut-outs which will be required.There will be a 'work party' assembling at the scenery store on Sunday 18th November to draw and cut out the various pieces. Hopefully we will also be able to get some paint on as well.Contact Malcolm for further details as to times etc. 

I would like to reinforce Irene's call for anyone who is unable to attend rehearsals for whatever reason, or is expecting to be late, to please contact her and let her know. It is important that everyone be there on time.

We now have the final figures for Steel Magnolias, and the loss wasn't as bad as expected.The End of the Pier show was a great success and enjoyed by all.     We should also have made a healthy profit to help offset the other losses.Thanks to Peter for all of the organisation of EOTPS.  

We have 'Death of a Saleseman' pencilled in for our spring production, but this depends on whether Carol can cast it as she wants and how it reads in rehearsal.'You're only young twice' has been suggested as an alternative if 'Salesman' isn't suitable. 

  We have been asked to perform a murder mystery play, and Jacqui P has offered to cast and direct 'Talbot Manor' that we have previously purchased from OTC, but have not yet used.This will be our first venture into the field of murder mysteries and should be a lot of fun.

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