January 2007 Newsletter

TOADS SMall Talk

The Newsletter for TOADS STAGE MUSICAL COMPANY January 2007

Address for all correspondence :

Hon. Sec – Iain Douglas

Flat 1, Vaughan House, 4 Lisburne Crescent, Higher Woodfield Rd

Torquay TQ1 2LA

iaindouglas@aol.com (home)

iain.douglas@hooperwollen.co.uk (work)

TOADS STAGE MUSICAL COMPANY IS THE PROMOTIONAL NAME OF

TORBAY OPERATIC AND DRAMATIC SOCIETY

TOADS SMC IS A REG. CHARITY - CHARITY NUMBER – 268829

Contents

PAGE 1 – Society contact info ; Toads Lottery ; New Members audition date

PAGE 2 – Thoroughly Modern Millie rehearsal and audition details ; Lisa’s Pantry

PAGE 3 – Body Shop Session ; The Full Monty Oct 2006 ; The Full Monty August 2007 ; AGM details

PAGE 4 – Best Little Whorehouse ; New members auditions ; Cockhaven Party ; Sponsored Walk

THE TOADS SMC LOTTERY – BETTER ODDS THAN THE NATIONAL !!

PLEASE JOIN UP

We don’t have to remind existing members about the huge loss we made on our June 2006 production of “Summer Holiday” at the Princess Theatre. We suffered a loss of about £8,800, and while we are not alone amongst local amateur theatre groups in suffering such a loss, it does mean we need to put every effort into re-couping the lost funds. Our autumn show “The Full Monty” was a massive success (see article elsewhere in this letter) and has eased the situation somewhat, but in accordance with the requirements of our charity registration, we need to make every effort to raise as great a sum as possible each year. It really has to be the duty of every member to ensure the survival of the society. We have therefore set up a LOTTERY and the main details are on the enclosed leaflet. All we ask is that you “sign up” and the cost is £2 per lucky number. You can have as many as you want. A direct debit is set up into a special account we have opened. There is a monthly draw and one quarter of all funds collected that month go to the winner. One quarter each month will be accumulated and this accumulated total will be awarded as a Christmas bonus. One half each month will go towards society funds.

Another local society not so very far from here has just such a lottery and raises about £1000 a year from it, so we are hoping for great things. Clearly this will be a slow burner and will gradually gain in size and strength, BUT DO PLEASE RETURN THE ENCLOSED FORMS TO JULIE HALE, or hand to her at first rehearsal. Julie Hale has agreed to be “The Lottery Administrator” and will oversee its running.

NEW MEMBERS AUDITIONS – JAN 28th – SEE PAGE 4 FOR DETAILS

OUR NEXT PRODUCTION - THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE

PRINCESS THEATRE – TUE JUNE 26^TH – SAT JUNE 30^TH 2007

NIGHTLY AT 7.45 – MATINEE SATURDAY

THE SHOW .. everyone knows about this show by now. Based on the 1960’s hit film musical, the stage version expands the story and musical numbers. Recently released to the amateur stage we present the South Devon stage premiere. This is a big dance show, but there is a chorus as well, and it is a good one for our female performers. There are some great male roles too, but more for the women. It is expected that many of the dancers will actually be Millie’s friends (which are speaking roles and singing as a group) but it’s up to the production team how they marry the two requirements. Set In 1920’s New York, the show follows the fortunes of Millie Dilmount as she comes to town to find her fortune and ends up in love. Attend the get together to find about the great roles on offer. A great comic show and full of fun.  The show will be directed by RICHARD CLARK, Musical Director will be JOHN AMERY, and choreographer will be ELAINE JOHNSON. Our scenery is coming from SLX of Bristol, and costumes from Triple C of Stourbridge. Andrew Pryce is stage Manager. This will be an expensive show to stage (Budgeted at £45,000) therefore we MUST do the business. Box office is now open so start selling !!!!

FIRST REHEARSAL AND GET TOGETHER .. We start rehearsals with the first rehearsal and get together on THURSDAY FEBRUARY 1st. at the usual time of 7.30.  If you wish to be considered to be in the show, please attend on that evening. The production team will be present to tell you all about the show and what it entails and what they are looking for. IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND THE FIRST REHEARSAL YOU MUST RING IAIN DOUGLAS ON 290371 TO LET HIM KNOW, OTHERWISE YOU WILL NOT GET INCLUDED ON THE PROSPECTIVE CAST LIST. ONLY MEMBERS OR THOSE ACCEPTED AT NEW MEMBERS AUDITONS ON JAN 28TH MAY BE ELIGIBLE TO BE IN THE SHOW.

REHEARSALS. Will continue EVERY THURSDAY thereafter. Floor rehearsals will start on SUNDAY APRIL 15th and the floor schedule will be issued towards the end of March.

ANYONE WANTING TO BE IN THIS SHOW MUST ENSURE THEY ATTEND ALL MUSIC REHEARSALS THEY ARE CALLED TO. IF YOU ARE TAKING PART IN ANOTHER PRODUCTION BEFORE APRIL 15th YOU MUST ENSURE YOU DO NOT MISS MANY OF OUR MUSIC REHEARSALS, OTHERWISE YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE PART IN THIS PRODUCTION. AFTER APRIL 15th YOU MUST ENSURE YOU ARE FREE TO ATTEND FLOOR REHEARSAL WHICH WILL BE QUITE FREQUENT and involve Sundays and Fridays , but not for everyone all the time !!

AUDITIONS .. For principal roles will be held on SUNDAY FEBRUARY 18^TH at ST LUKES CHURCH HALL, AT 2.30pm. The production team will advise if the dancers are auditioned that day as well as of course the dancers may have be speaking roles, but that’s up to them !! We will see how many wish to be in the show before deciding if we audition the chorus.

COSTS OF BEING INVOLVED. Obviously the sub needs to be paid. At present that is £25. The appearance fee will be £15 per cast member regardless of size of role. There will also be a script/vocal part fee of £10. The script and vocal part come as one book and all cast members will require one.   Any new members who have passed the new members audition on Jan 28^th and who wish to audition for a part in the show MUST have paid their sub before Feb 18^th. All existing members MUST have paid their sub by APRIL 1st . Any cast member who has not paid their sub by then will have to pay a much higher sum. The appearance fee MUST be paid by end of May, after which it will increase to £20.

LISA’S PANTRY

For those fellow Toadies who have not yet heard, Lisa Maria Taylor and Kevin Scarbrough have opened a delicatessen in Castle Circus. It is next to the tax office and just up from Subway. They offer tea, fresh coffee, lunches, takeaway, lots of West Country cheeses, and a fresh deli counter. The main focus is minimum food miles and West Country produce. Please take a look at the website www.lisaspantry.co.uk. Please do pop in and support them. It takes guts to set up your own business so best of luck to them both. And they get married this year too.

MILLIE – FIRST REHEARSAL – BODY SHOP SESSION

Jenny Finnis will be present at the first rehearsal. Jenny is a Body Shop agent. You will be able to buy and order many Body Shop items. The society will get a small cut of the sales. Jenny will also run a raffle that evening. A similar session for Paignton Pantomime just before Christmas proved a worthwhile exercise. Please do bring your pennies and buy future presents and just stuff to pamper yourself with.

THE FULL MONTY – MARK ONE AND MARK TWO

It cannot have escaped the membership’s attention that our autumn production at the Little Theatre in October/November 2006 of “The Full Monty” was a huge success. The only empty seats at any of the nine performances were at the first matinee and we played to our biggest autumn show total attendance of over 2000 patrons. The cast played a blinder, and had a fantastic time doing it. The six male principals revealed all every night, and actually got quite blasé about it all. In all my years of performing I cannot recall a more happy show backstage and the entire cast really gelled. The production team also played a blinder. Sarah O’Connor directed a fast paced, very very funny production that had audiences roaring with laughter and then raising the rafters at the final sequence. Well, it’s not every day in Torbay that you get to see six penises all in a row !! John Amery gave us a superb band, one of the best we have had, and Elaine Johnson gave us her usual high quality choreography. Needless to say it was highly successful financially, and relieved our financial situation somewhat, but we mustn’t rest on our laurels. Our Treasurer had a big smile on her face (and it wasn’t because of the penis fest !!)

Right from the first performances, it was clear from what people were saying that they wanted to see the show again as they hadn’t had such a great time at the theatre in years, and the cast wanted to present it again. If it was going to be just as successful financially, we weren’t going to argue, and the end result is that WE SHALL PRESENT THE FULL MONTY ONCE AGAIN, for a repeat run.

THE FULL MONTY (Mark 2) will play at THE LITTLE THEATRE from Thursday August 23^rd to Saturday September 1^st 2007 Nightly at 8pm. At present there is no Sunday performance and no matinees. The Box office is now open, and everyone tells us they want to see it again, and in fact lots of folk couldn’t get in first time round, so they are wanting to book quickly for this repeat. We are confident of another sell out.

We are delighted that the original cast has agreed to reprise their roles (It wouldn’t be the same otherwise) but sadly Rona Perry cannot reprise her Cameo role due to work and holiday commitments. WE SHALL RE-AUDITION THIS PART SOMETIME IN LATE FEBRUARY OR EARLY MARCH. Any females interested should pass their names to Iain Douglas and he will be in touch with details when known. The role requires good strong singing ability, movement ability , and is one of the women frequenting the club where the male stripper appears. There will be a minimum of rehearsal time, so the cast are busy remembering their words and moves (we hope).

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

This will be on THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22nd at St Lukes Church Hall at 7.30pm. There will be no rehearsal that night but we do expect all cast members, non-cast members and new members to attend. As  a registered charity we do require a good percentage of members at the meeting. We usually get about 50 present. Lets see if we can increase that to 70.  The AGM agendas and minutes of last years meeting will be issued in a few weeks time.

AUTUMN PRODUCTION 2007 – YES… WE ARE STILL DOING ONE.

Despite our revival of “The Full Monty” in August, we have decided to retain our autumn slot. This means we shall be doing a first for a musical society in this part of the country by doing THREE musicals in one year.  Because of our August slot, the Little Theatre season is moved on by a week, so our autumn dates are somewhat later than usual.  We are delighted to announce yet another Torbay Premiere …. We shall present

THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS

Little Theatre - Sunday November 4^{th – Saturday November 10th}

Nightly 7.45 (Sun to Sat) with matinee on last day

This may seem an unusual performance schedule but we find that the extra performances at the Little ensure we can cover costs and hopefully make a profit. However when we encroach on more than one week the band often have to give up other work, so this way we can dress rehearse on Sunday afternoon, and open on Sunday evening, and get in the extra performance, all in one week.

Despite its racy title, this is a great comedy musical, made famous by the film version starring Dolly Parton. Once again the stage version is quite different. It tells the “sort of” true story of the crusade of a TV Reporter to close a legal brothel. The show will be directed by Sarah O’Connor. Musical Director will be John Amery. We have yet to choose a choreographer. More details in later newsletters BUT the music rehearsals will be married up with Monty re-run rehearsals, and floor rehearsals will not start until early September.

NEW MEMBERS AUDITIONS – SUNDAY JANUARY 28^TH 2007

These will be at 10.30 am at ST LUKES CHURCH HALL, SHEDDEN HILL, TORQUAY (Junction of Shedden Hill and Warren Rd). THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO JOIN THE SOCIETY. The only other way is if we fail to cast a role at auditions and find we have to ask someone in from outside. IF YOU ARE AN EX-MEMBER AND HAVE LET YOUR SUB LAPSE FOR 2 YEARS THEN YOU MUST RE-AUDITION TO JOIN THE SOCIETY. IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND WE CANNOT SEE YOU AT ANOTHER TIME. SORRY. NEXT NEW MEMBERS AUDITIONS IN JUNE OR JULY.

PLEASE CALL IAIN DOUGLAS ON 01803-290371 TO LET US KNOW YOU ARE ATTENDING. Please bring a song of your own choice. Sheet Music is a must. WE DO NOT want you singing to a taped song. You will be required to sing on your own in front of the committee. You will then be given a simple dance routine to learn as a group. You will then be given a short piece of dialogue to deliver. The auditions are carried out in a convivial atmosphere and are very friendly. The am is to ensure that all new members can sing, can move in song and dance to the level required of our chorus, and can deliver dialogue as we wish all members to be capable of at least performing cameo roles.

Acceptance at these auditions do not imply acceptance into the cast of shows. You will have to audition to gain a principal role or to become a dancer (where more complicated dancing may be required) . You may have to audition to be in the chorus depending if we audition the chorus for each show or not. That depends on numbers wanting to be in the show.

COCKHAVEN MANOR PARTY EVENING – SAT FEBRUARY 3^rd 2007

This is where we have had our Christmas Meal for the last 2 years. The Cockhaven Manor, Bishopsteignton are holding a party evening ONLY for people who have supported their Christmas Party evenings. WE have 20 places only. There is a buffet and disco. Starts at 7.30 . There is a small cost (I cant recall it). PLEASE CALL MARGUERITE GREEN ON 01626 – 364929 to claim your place. ONLY for those who have been to either of our last two Christmas meals.

SPONSORED WALK – SUNDAY MAY 20^TH 2007

We haven’t had one of these for a while. They cost nothing to stage and often bring in between £700 and £1000. Please put the dates in your diary. We hope all members will come along. More later.

TOADS Stage Musical Company . Founded in 1930s. TOADS presents a major musical each June at the Princess Theatre and a smaller musical at The Little Theatre in Torquay. It is a registered Charity. Registered Charity No. 268829

visitors to the site:

miles@toads.org.uk