the thespiAn Cowbridge AmAteur DrAmAtic Society (CADS) mARKET THEATRE Summer 2014 C ADS PRESENTS this comic spoof of a classic thriller, set in (among other places) the London Palladi- um, the Flying Scotsman and some desolate windswept moors. Complete with villains, sidekicks, conjurors, a succession of capti- vating leading ladies and dashing hero (with an extremely attractive pencil moustache and all his own hair). We are breaking new ground for CADS by incorporating live music into the show, along with smoke, wind and some new and snazzy lighting effects courtesy of our friends, the profession- al troupe Rain or Shine Theatre. We are also attempting an ambitious five-night run, in- stead of the usual three or four, so please do bring your friends along! Market Theatre doors will open at 7pm each day from July 15 to 19 inc, giving you time to relax at the bar before the curtain goes up at 7.30. Tickets £7 from WG Davies, 38 Cowbridge High Street, CF71 7AG; or ring 01446 773874. Keep an eye out for our planned ‘Dinner & A Show’ package (see Insider Gossip overleaf). n DIRECTOR PETER SAIN LEY BERRY (also performing et al roles) CAST Annabelle & Margaret RACHEL ARENTSEN DCI Albright et al JEFF GRIST Evil Genius et al PETER KNAPP Mrs McGarrigle et al BARBARA LEE Richard Hannay LLOYD LEE Announcer SUZANNE MASSEY Mr Memory et al ANTHONY MURPHY Pamela CATRIN THOMAS-PRICE Stage Manager JIM GROVE Assistant SM PATRICK DAVIES Lights & Sound ANDY CRAGG CADS Summer Production Events SUMMER PRODUCTION July 15 to 19 (Tuesday to Saturday) See above SEPTEMBER CLUBNIGHT Join the CADS regulars on a night out in Cowbridge; details to be confirmed HALLOWEEN CLUBNIGHT Bell, Book and Candle October 31 (Friday) To be confirmed, but it seems like a nice idea! Bell, Book and Candle is a romantic comedy revolving around two witches. Free entry, all welcome to attend this informal friendly reading and meet the regular CADS gang AUTUMN PRODUCTION November; exact date to be confirmed 7.30pm (doors open 7pm) Theft by Eric Chappell: returning from a night out, two couples catch a burglar in the act and hold on to him. But the burglar is not as defenceless as he seems . . . WIN FREE TICKETS! See back cover: tickets to the opening night perfor- mance are up for grabs. Members & patrons can double their chances
Transcript
the thespiAnCowbridge AmAteur DrAmAtic Society (CADS)mARKET THEATRE
Summer 2014
CADS PRESENTS this comic spoof of a classic thriller, set in (among other places) the London Palladi-
um, the Flying Scotsman and some desolate windswept moors. Complete with villains, sidekicks, conjurors, a succession of capti-vating leading ladies and dashing hero (with an extremely attractive pencil moustache and all his own hair). We are breaking new ground for CADS by incorporating live music into the show, along with smoke, wind and some new and snazzy lighting effects courtesy of our friends, the profession-al troupe Rain or Shine Theatre. We are also attempting an ambitious five-night run, in-stead of the usual three or four, so please do bring your friends along! Market Theatre doors will open at 7pm each day from July 15 to 19 inc, giving you time to relax at the bar before the curtain goes up at 7.30. Tickets £7 from WG Davies, 38 Cowbridge High Street, CF71 7AG; or ring 01446 773874. Keep an eye out for our planned ‘Dinner & A Show’ package (see Insider Gossip overleaf). nDIRECTOR PETER SAIN LEY BERRY (also performing et al roles)CAST Annabelle & Margaret RACHEL ARENTSENDCI Albright et al JEFF GRIST Evil Genius et al PETER KNAPPMrs McGarrigle et al BARBARA LEE Richard Hannay LLOYD LEEAnnouncer SUZANNE MASSEYMr Memory et al ANTHONY MURPHYPamela CATRIN THOMAS-PRICEStage Manager JIM GROVEAssistant SM PATRICK DAVIES Lights & Sound ANDY CRAGG
CADS Summer Production
Events SUMMER PRODUCTIONJuly 15 to 19 (Tuesday to Saturday) See above
SEPTEMBER CLUBNIGHTJoin the CADS regulars on a night out in Cowbridge; details to be confirmed
HALLOWEEN CLUBNIGHTBell, Book and CandleOctober 31 (Friday) To be confirmed, but it seems like a nice idea! Bell, Book and Candle is a romantic comedy revolving around two witches. Free entry, all welcome to attend this informal friendly reading and meet the regular CADS gang
AUTUMN PRODUCTIONNovember; exact date to be confirmed7.30pm (doors open 7pm) Theft by Eric Chappell: returning from a night out, two couples catch a burglar in the act and hold on to him. But the burglar is not as defenceless as he seems . . .
WIN FREE TICKETS!
See back cover: tickets to the opening night perfor-mance are up for grabs. Members & patrons can
double their chances
neWsChairman’s Musings
Camilla Hopkin
SUMMER IS JUST around the corner. The days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer — just, please, no one utter that immor-
tal cooking-and-eating-outside word that never fails to summon the rain — and this year summer is once again synonymous with football. Yes, it is World Cup time again! And for all the football widows and widowers out there who want an alternative form of entertainment, CADS has quite the line-up! This year CADS summer production is The 39 Steps, which started out as an outstanding book and then spawned more than one wonderful film (the first by the ingenious Alfred Hitchcock) and a delightfully bonkers TV production. Hitchcock is responsible for several films that I love: who can forget North by Northwest and Rear Window? He was a real master of creating suspense, and a huge character. Did you know that he was quite the prankster? During the filming of The 39 Steps he would handcuff Madeleine Carroll to Robert Donat and ‘lose’ the key!
Insider Gossip
Shhh! What ’s bubbling under
TWO BOLD new marketing initia-tives are under way to promote The
39 Steps and Market Theatre in general. We hope, in association with The Duke of Wellington Bar & Restaurant on Cowbridge High Street, soon to offer a ‘Dinner And A Show’ package. The Duke is in an ideal spot for providing pre-theatre dinners, just five minutes from the theatre. Hopefully, tickets will cover entry to the show, a two-course dinner and coffee. Meanwhile, our Chairman has issued a Challenge Quiz (see back page to enter), in which free tickets to the open-ing night of our summer show will be up for grabs. CADS Members can enter both the members-only quiz or the more general competition, shortly to be adver-tised in The Gem. Look out for it to dou-ble your chances. In another break with tradition, the June 13 Clubnight was held, not
at Market Theatre, but in the bright lights of Cowbridge’s tapas restaurant, Bar44. The Thespian is very pleased to report the subsequent signing-up of Patrick, our new (and much-needed!) assistant stage manager and chippy. Congratulations to Webmaster Chris Bowen on his successful nuptials! A small contingent of CADS bods attended the June wedding. Plans for a thorough revamp of the website are still under way (although clearly a slight postponement may have to occur, while a honeymoon gets under way). Returning to CADS after 30 years is former beauty queen and general lady-about-town Suzanne Massey. Suzanne last stepped into the spotlight when she starred in CADS’s Not Now Darling (the original poster is still up in the collage on the auditorium wall). Now she’s ven-turing on stage again for The 39 Steps, The Thespian looks forward to seeing if PSLB
can be persuaded to let the famous Miss Shropshire Legs (which we understand are still very good) be revealed on stage. Back in March, some scenes for an independent film entitled The Master-ful Hermit were filmed inside The Bear Hotel in Cowbridge. Rather flatteringly, the Director, Reg Noyes, asked CADS if it had any actors to spare. Shortly after which, Suzanne, Caron Reidy, Peter SLB and your very own Editor all stood in as extras for one day; and very fascinating it was, to learn exactly how it is that three minutes of footage requires eight hours of filming. Some more experienced ex-tras had come equipped with games and packs of cards; it ended up being a rather social and enjoyable experience (with a quick trip to the pub afterwards). As ever, we hope these efforts will help keep both the CADS Society and the Market Theatre alive. Please tell your friends and spread the word n
He reportedly wore a suit to set every single day. He was also refused rights to film at Disneyland in the 1960s because Walt Disney thought Psycho a “disgusting” film, a film that changed how people went to the cinema. It used to be that people could buy tickets for and walk into a film at any point from the start of the reel. Hitchcock organised it so that no one could purchase tickets once the film had started — thus we now show up before the film starts. John Buchan, the author of the original novel, was an-other very interesting man. His official title was First Baron Tweedsmuir, and he served as the 15th Governor General of Canada; he had a varied political and diplomatic career. The latest incarnation of the story is as a play that has enjoyed award winning runs in both the West End and Broadway, and the best bit of all is that said play graces The Market Theatre stage in July! The cast and crew have thoroughly enjoyed putting together what promises to be real treat, and I cannot wait! n
PRoductions
CADS Spring Production
Peter Sain Ley Berry writes: The 39 Steps — adapted by Patrick Barlow from the Alfred Hitchcock film, itself loosely adapted from the original John Buchan thriller — is a very funny play. How else could it have run for eight years with rave reviews in the West End? We are privileged to have been granted a special licence to perform it. The humour comes from John Bu-chan’s original book — the first spy thriller, you could call it — and certainly the first to be written in that larger-than-life, only-just-credible style. Hitchcock took Buchan’s novel and turned it into something almost completely different. He added female characters, for in-stance, which makes the saga far more interesting and complicated, the essen-tial theme of a man on the run, trying to save his country while pursued by vil-lains who will stop at nothing, is still at its patriotic heart. Patrick Barlow’s wonderful adapta-
tion takes the Hitchcock film — with its aeroplane crashes, big houses, an escape from the Flying Scotsman thundering over the Forth Bridge, political meet-ings and chases across dark moors to
CADS Summer Production
THE 39 STEPS: a director’s view
the god of carnageTHE GOD OF CAR-
NAGE ran success-fully in Market Theatre
for three nights this past April, after we took the new move of placing advertisements in local paper The Gem. Your Editor was pleased to attend the Saturday night of the show. Congratula-tions to the cast & crew for an excellent final per-formance (much funnier than the film!) and a house packed to bursting. We have rarely seen the Treasurer look so delighted as when he was cramming latecom-ers onto sundry seating equipment brought hastily in from the bar n
unlikely hotels and its incredible finale at the London Palladium — and puts it on the stage, turning it at the same time into a unlikely species of romantic com-edy. At one point, Pamela (one of three heroines) tells the hero, ‘You saved the country.’ Uncharacteristically modestly, he responds, ‘We both did that!’ The script pays homage to other Hitchcock films and even to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. See if you can spot the spoofs: there are allegedly 130 characters in this play, which works out at 16¼ characters per actor. Don’t blink or you may miss some. I haven’t counted; my actors are very clever at changing hats. The challenge for any director is to create a staging which does justice to this fine show and is just as compelling as the professional shows. Directing the sell-out show on Broadway, Maria Aitken said afterwards, ‘We had to take some pretty considerable risks.’ Well, it isn’t the considerable risks that worry this di-rector, it’s the blind leaps of faith that terrify me. As Richard Hannay gasps as he hangs from the girders high above the dark waters of the Firth of Forth, ‘Oh golly!’ My thanks go to a fine team of actors and marvellously capable, long-suffering and inventive backstage crew n
Some of the cast and crew
The InfoMARKET THEATREis the official home of CADS (Cowbridge Amateur Dra-matic Society). This fully- functioning theatre has a licensed bar and ample car park. The bar opens half an hour before shows begin.
Actors for HireIf you would like to hire CADS actors for private or business entertainment, contact Chris (07967 193179; [email protected])
Booking Market TheatreIf you would like to hire the theatre, contact Catrin (see Newsletter Editor, below)
CADS Clubnightsare held from 7.30pm on the second Friday of most months. For more details, contact Camilla (see Chairman, below)
CADS Membershipsn Members: £15 annuallyn Patrons: £10 annuallyEmail [email protected] or ring 07899 664528
Find the TheatreMarket Theatre, The Butts, Cowbridge CF71 7AP. Turn off the High Street by Market Place restaurant. Pass the small car parks, then turn right into the large car park. The theatre is at the far end
CADS is pleased to offer all our patrons and members two free tickets to the July 15, opening night performance of The 39 Steps. You may notice a similar competition in The Gem newspaper; this is a separate competition and you can enter both. The winners will be invited to stay afterwards for an end-of-show party and buffet, and given an opportunity to meet the cast, crew and director. To enter, just choose the correct answers to the questions below, and email them to [email protected] by midnight, July 8 (Tuesday); if you have already bought two tickets, we’ll refund them on the door. A random draw will be held at Market Theatre. The winners will be notified by email. Good luck!
Question 1Our production of The 39 Steps is the 2005 adaptation by Patrick Barlow. Which of the following partnerships adapted it for the stage 10 years earlier?a) Andrew Lloyd-Webber & Alan Ayckbourn
MAY 9 CLUBNIGHT
*Theft* Camilla Hopkin writes: The Theft reading went very well, we had a good turn out and I managed to cast the play. A lovely enjoya-ble evening. Lots of not-often-seen faces turned up, which was great.
JUNE 17 DIRECTOR’S TALK
Why is the Spy Thriller so Popular?Peter Sain ley Berry talked about the life of John Buchan, author of the original The
SociAls
39 Steps, in the very pleasant surroundings of The Sycamore Tree Inn in Colwinston village. The talk was presented as part of the Colwinston Philosophical Society’s an-nual series of debates, which, in the past, has ranged across topics including the pros and cons of new social media, the UN in Afghanistan, and a special talk by former MP Anne Widdecombe. If anyone is inter-ested in joining the Society to attend future talks, contact Andrew (tel 01656 667221).
b) Simon Corble & Nobby Dimon c) Tim Rice & Elton John
Question 2The original novel by John Buchan featured Richard Hannay (a prototype James Bond) as its hero. How many Richard Hannay novels did Buchan write in total?a) Five b) Tenc) Three
Question 3The Forth Bridge is one of many famous locations in the play. When did it open?a) 1 May 1880b) 10 July 1850c) 4 March 1890
Question 4Another location in the play is the London Palladium. How many seats does this thea-tre provide? a) 3400b) 2200c) 4300
