Martin Wimbush will be putting on another show at the Rye Arts Festival, this time called I Am No Good At Love, based on a Noel Coward poem. It’s a musical revue show and will be at the Rye Community Centre on Saturday evening 30th September and Sunday afternoon 1st October.
The revue features songs and words by Stephen Sondheim, Burt Bacharach, Van Morrison, Alan Bennett, Cole Porter, Dorothy Parker, Gerard Manley Hopkins, W B Yeats and William Shakespeare, with excerpts from Noel Coward’s Private Lives and Terence Rattigan’s The Browning Version8.
Following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, Rowland D Hill’s play Draining the Swamp, previously read at AWL, runs from 28th to 30th September at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead. Rowland D Hill plays Sir Oswald Mosley; the cast also includes Dawson James.
AWL support greatly appreciated: Maidenhead is only 20 mins from Paddington on the fast train; it’s also on the Elizabeth Line. Very accessible from Hammersmith via M4.
We do also have bookings for March/April next year.
Joseph Creaser appears in Interwoven’s TIE touring production of Kindness: A Legacy of the Holocaust. The tour continues into the autumn
Kindness is a play based on the testimony of Hungarian survivor Susan Pollack, aged only 13 when she was sent to the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau in the summer of 1944.
“beautiful and empowering”, “extraordinary”, “breathtaking”
Fiona Tong is understudying the roles of Dotty and Belinda in Noises Off by Michael Frayn at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 27th September until 16th December.
Avena Mansergh-Wallace will be playing multiple roles for the Touring Theatre international / America Drama Groups production of 1984, rehearsing in August and beginning in October.
Nirjay Mahindru writes:
“The charity I run, InterAct Stroke Support, are running a short story competition which might be of interest to AWLies.
Writers are challenged to write a short story in any genre; 1,000 words maximum. We look for positive stories that can be read in the sensitive environment of a hospital setting.
Closing date for entries: 21st December 2023.
See website for further details.”
Teresa Jennings is guest vocalist at Melbury Music’s Jazzy Lunch: OSO Sunday 8th October, 1.30 - 4 pm.
Katherine Alpen’s solo show Thought Monster is playing at The Hope Theatre on October 15th and 16th at 7.45pm. Written and produced by Katherine, it is a fun and bizarre tale of living with and recovering from OCD.
Laura Fitzpatrick appears in Can’t See for Looking, a fast-moving and shocking drama based on extensive interviews with five Filipina domestic workers rescued in London from modern slavery: Cockpit Theatre, 18th October to 4th November.
This is the second play by Carolyn Lloyd-Davies’ at the Cockpit, following Penetration in 2021, which The Spectator described as “a script to raise whirlwinds”. Produced by Ambrose Hogan and Stephanie Connell for Living the Drama.
Gavin Fleming’s new play Sabbath will be staged at the OSO in Barnes from 31st October to 5th November.
All Hallows’ Eve: 1589. By the light of a half-moon, five women gather in secret in the shade of a ruined kirk. What transpired between them that night would set the kingdoms of Scotland, England, and soon all of Europe, alight with terror.
The play is based on the spine-tingling, true testimonies of the North Berwick Witch Trials.
Mansel David portrays a cornucopia of colourful characters in a dramatised reading of Charles Dickens’ ‘Crummles’: a faithful and humorous re-enactment of the theatrical episodes from The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
25th November at 7pm, St Nicholas Church, Arundel.
David Hampshire’s Funny Turns, first read at AWL and having already had two sold-out London productions, transfers to Grove Theatre, Eastbourne from 7th to 12th November. The play is directed by Maurice Thorogood. Cast includes Mansel David, Crissy Mullen & David Hampshire.
Set in a theatrical boarding house in 1935. Struggling comedian Norman Tate passes his time rehearsing his average act with Sally, the daughter of his landlady Alice. When Norman’s ex-wife Nellie Price moves into his lodgings it sets in motion a chain of events which changes Norman’s life forever. A tale of humour, heartbreak and eventual redemption which demonstrates that life is indeed full of Funny Turns.
Viv Lake has done quite a bit of research into theatrical and family history and accumulated a lot of information which might prove useful to other AWL members who have been looking into family or theatrical history.
She has lists of information such as stage names and aliases, biogs, obituaries, where they are buried, census returns which mention performers, old theatrical companies and theatres, actor-managers, and photocopies or pdfs of very old playbills, as well as text from theatrical journals and newspapers, most of which are from the Georgian and Victorian eras, and earlier, in Great Britain and America.
If you’re interested in Viv doing just a basic search for free through her files, please speak to her at an AWL meeting, or email her via her AWL page.
Stephanie Connell is an award winning web designer who has been creating websites for the past seven years. Each website is handmade and specific to the client’s requirements and is therefore unique. She will guide you through the process and provide design and practical suggestions where necessary. She offers aftercare service which she feels is just as important as the creative process. A discount to AWL Members only.
AWL Members who have had their websites created recently: Carolyn Pertwee, David Hampshire, Julia Haythorn and Hedley England
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