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TOADS SMall Talk
The Newsletter for
TOADS STAGE MUSICAL COMPANY
May 2004
Welcome to the new style newsletter, which now has a name, thought up by Margaret Aulton. “TOADS SMall Talk“ incorporates the main initials of our new promotional name, along with an apt description of the newsletter!! (It’s all our talk and gossip and information in a small format !!)
We have agreed to formalise the newsletter, so that all members know when to expect it. There will be 4 issues a year, and these will be sent out in Mid Jan (ready for start of main show rehearsals) ; Mid May (with main show imminent) ; Mid July (ready for start of autumn show rehearsals) ; October (with autumn show imminent).
We are experimenting with the new double sided, 6 page, folded style, which be slightly more expensive to produce, but will have space for more information and news, presented in a better style than previously.
We will also include details of committee and contacts so that all members have that information at their fingertips.
Address for all correspondence :
Hon. Sec – Iain Douglas
Flat 1, Vaughan House,
4 Lisburne Crescent
Torquay TQ! 2LA
TOADS STAGE MUSICAL COMPANY
IS A REGISTERED CHARITY
CHARITY NUMBER – 268829
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FUND RAISING
Once again the point was made forcefully at the AGM, that fund raising has to be an essential part of society activities. The Charities Commission expects us to show that we have taken steps to try and get our bank balance up to what it costs to put one of our main shows on, therefore we must aim to have £40,000 in the bank. We cannot always rely on production profits and it is our policy to mix “box office” shows with those that you might not normally expect to see in Torbay. This is a “high risk” policy but means we attract good new members, and have an interesting output. Without the fighting fund, we would not have survived past 2001, therefore EVERY member must support the events. It is your society, you dictate it’s well being and future success. We will always have members who are only interested in strutting their stuff on stage and not supporting the events, but usually, those are the members who ultimately get very little out of the society, often moan and complain yet are not willing to do any work on our behalf. Every society is composed of willing members, those willing to work, and those willing to let them !!! Social events (such as the Xmas party and the such like) are primarily for us and the profits come from our pockets, but the larger fighting fund events are designed to get money from outside the society (i.e. the sponsored events) and need the fullest support of members. Please do bear these points in mind because we cannot rely on the occasional large profits from box office shows to keep us afloat. IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR SOCIAL OR FIGHTING FUND EVENTS – SPEAK TO ELAINE AND MILES and they will guide you on organising the event.
TOADS BLACK AND WHITE BALL
VICTORIA HOTEL – TORQUAY
FRIDAY JULY 9TH 2004
7 FOR 7.30 – CARRIAGES 1AM
DRESS : BLACK TIE OR LOUNGE SUIT
4 COURSE MEAL
DANCING TO “GAV AND THE GRIMNOTES”
TICKETS £26.50
If you cannot afford to pay all in one go, we can offer “The Ball Pool” – pay something each week between now and the event.
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SUBSCRIPTIONS
The AGM voted to increase the subs to £20 (Juniors under 16 £15) on the recommendation of the committee. However, surprisingly, the meeting also gave the committee the go–ahead to increase the non formal charges of appearance fees and book fees. This was unexpected, but the committee have since discussed these items and decided to raise the show appearance fee (payable by all cast members irrespective of size of role) to £15. The book fee remains at £5 for the current show (Guys and Dolls) but this in no way covers the book hire charges. In future we will work out what the rehearsal material costs us to hire in total, and divide it by the number of books, thus the charge will vary for each show.
To those members who feel the charges are too high, please consider very carefully the following point. If you appear in both shows, with a script for each, your charges are sub £20 + 2 app fees £30 + 2 books (Say £20) totalling £70. That is equivalent to a weekly sub of £1.34. Like societies in other areas have a far higher sub, and if you are a member of a sports club, some choirs, or many other types of organisations the sub is far higher than £70 when all the weekly payments are taken into account. We, and luckily, the AGM, consider that the costs of being involved with Toads SMC are still very reasonable.
SUBS ARE NOW OVERDUE, SO IF YOU HAVEN’T PAID – A RED BLOB APPEARS HERE. PLEASE PAY TO ELAINE ASAP, OR SEND BY POST TO IAIN DOUGLAS AT THE ADDRESS NOTED ON THE FRONT PAGE
REMINDER – IF YOU IN “GUYS AND DOLLS” YOUR APPEARANCE AND LIB FEES ARE NOW OVERDUE AS WELL !!!
CHEQUES PAYABLE TO TOADS SMC
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COMMITTEE 2004/05
Chairman – Jean Macer - Tel 01803-212698
Secretary – Iain Douglas – Tel 01803-290371
Treasurer – Elaine Gard – Tel 01803-402367
Margaret Aulton – Tel 01803-298106
Marguerite Green – Tel 01626-364929
Chris Hawes – Tel 01803-872518
Amanda Jenkins – Tel 01803-875925
Miles Opie – Tel 01626-356752
Jane Stewart –
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - 2004
This was held on Thursday February 26th at St. Luke’s Church Hall. There were 45 people present which was the lowest attendance for a while, but then it did snow earlier in the evening.
The main points of the meeting were that COPACABANA (Princess Th, June 2003) cost £42,137 to stage and made a loss of £4765. COMPANY (Little Th, Oct 2003) cost £10,528 to stage and made a loss of £2339. The General a/c made a profit of £319, the social a/c made a profit of £545 and the fighting fund made a profit of £1371.
The overall result was a trading loss of £4869 and the accumulated fund as at Dec 31st 2003 was £23,190.
Copacabana was seen by 3852 patrons (average 642 per perf) (3277 paid) and Company was seen by 971 patrons (average 161 per perf) (871 paid)
Fiona Humphreys did not stand for re-election to the committee, and her place was taken by Margaret Aulton, who we welcome on board. The rest of the officials and committee remain the same.
Hamish Turner remains as our supportive and ever present President.
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GUYS AND DOLLS
This show is now well into rehearsal, and looks set to be another winner for us. Richard, Wendy, Jonathan and John are working very hard to produce another presentation of the high standards associated with this society. The cast of 41 are working very hard and for the first time ever we have more men than women. Probably a first for any society in this area. Our Stage Manager, Andrew Pryce, is well advanced with technical arrangements. We have a fabulous double deck set coming from Scenic Projects (Beccles), and the costumes will be coming, as usual, from Homburgs of Leeds. Lighting design will be by Russell Payne from Stage Electrics, who did such a fabulous job for “Copa..” last year. We are pleased to report that advance bookings are progressing very well indeed and are only slightly behind the fabulous bookings we had for “South Pacific” 2 years ago. They are well ahead of last years “Copa..”
The show runs at the Princess Theatre from Tues June 22nd to Saturday June 26th, nightly at 8pm with a Saturday Matinee at 2.30pm.
Tickets can be obtained from the theatre Box Office (not through us) and the full price is £11 (with OAP’s at £10.50 and children at £6). There are generous concessions for group bookings.
Vice-Presidents please note that Civic Night is Wed June 23rd. Chairman’s Night is Thurs June 24th.
BINGO BANGERS AND MASH EVENING
SATURDAY MAY 22ND
ST. LUKES CHURCH HALL – SHEDDEN HILL
ENTRY/FOOD - £2.50
£2.50 PER 5 GAMES OF BINGO
REVERSE BINGO – 50P
RING MILES OPIE (SEE COMMITTE LIST)
WITH NAMES AND NUMBERS
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AUTUMN 2004 PRODUCTION
RED HOT AND COLE
We had many long discussions about what to stage as an autumn show this year. After 2 years of box office “risks” at the Little Theatre, we needed something that we could sell to our patrons there. We wanted a show new to Torbay, but with good appeal, and which we could present fairly cheaply. This show is a revue style show about the life and music of Cole Porter, who wrote “Kiss Me Kate” “Anything Goes” and “High Society”. It features almost 40 of his classics, and is presented in the style of a party at which the guests decide to “present” the life of Cole Porter and also play all the famous people that he associated with, such as Noel Coward, Ethel Merman, to name but two. They play them, not impersonate them. Thus, it is a singing show and the presentation style is “fluid” and very much up to the director. The band appears on stage and the show is written for 3 musicians. We hope that the popular music will appeal to our audiences and produce full houses. Requires a cast of about 15 or so, roughly 50/50 male/female.
Director will be JOE McNULTY, and MD will be JONATHAN WATTS. The show will run at the Little Theatre from Monday October 25th to Saturday October 30th Nightly at 7.45 with a matinee on Saturday at 2.30. The box office is now open, and seats are priced at £8 with OAP’s at £7.50. We are already taking group bookings, which indicates we made the right choice !!
Rehearsals will commence on MONDAY JULY 19TH and continue on THURSDAY EVENINGS. Auditions will be on SUNDAY AUGUST 15TH. These details will appear again in the July Newsletter.
Please telephone Miles Opie with your bookings for the Bingo Bangers and Mash Evening. On May 22nd. Details are given elsewhere in this newsletter, but the last one was very successful and enormous fun. Please also encourage as many of your friends as possible to come along with you to the BLACK AND WHITE BALL on July 9th.
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