The St Mark's Church Drama Group
The Latest Drama News
The Spring Plays have been and gone and were, once again, a great success. The New Hall saw Jack Christie and Gail Hogg as Mr & Mrs McFarlane (John & Maggie) owners of the local shop who had to contend with a never ending stream of late evening customers as John tried to write an "impromptu" speech for the opening of the new hall, next week. They also had to contend with grannie (Carol Brazendale) whose game of patience would have tested the patience of a saint and the on/off romance of shop worker Alex (Ricky Garden) and daughter Jessie (Sarah Low).
The Robing of the Minister saw the ladies of the Guild spend more time gossiping (would ladies do that?) than addressing the serious business of chosing a representative to present the new minister's robes. Matters were complicated by the lack of knowledge of Miss Young's (Margaret Rennie) actual age which turned out to be greater by two years than that of Mrs McKenzie (Elaine Macdonald) and by the lack of a strong hand from the chair, Mrs Lawrie (Rosalyn Rennie). Mrs Blair and Mrs Dunlop (Lynn Low & Kay Montgomery) were more intent on the gossip than the business and haughty Mrs Ritchie (Dianne Morrison) more concerned about her many medical conditions than either!
Saturday 27 March 2010
I can now bring you two "hot" items of news. Firstly the Spring Plays will be performed on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 June 2010 at 7.30pm. These will be two One Act Scots Comedies written by Agnes Adam, whose work we have done before, "Robing the Minister" is clearly very relevant to our own current position and "The New Hall" is another very funny play now in rehearsal.
Secondly I bring news courtesy of "The Edinburh Evening News" and "The Scotsman" (whose Copyright is acknowledged) about a dramatic performance by the Saughtonhall Drama Group, Edinburgh.
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"Far better was "Bloomim' Disgrace". With a great pace, pithy laugh-out-loud lines and an excellent performance by leads, Murray Petrie and Betty Meston, the audience spent much of the evening in gales of laughter. Directed by John Webster the play - centred on the underhand tactics in the run-up to the Genshoogle flower and produce show - zings with life and well observed touches. As they'd say on the Beechfrove Garden, bloomin' marvellous." |
"Bloomin' Disgrace" was of course written by our own Garry Watson and received it's World Premier on the St Mark's stage courtesy of the St Mark's Players.
The 2010 Spring Plays
From the Spring 2010 "Messenger"
In the previous Messenger I wrote how difficult it was to write a review of the Christmas Panto for a magazine with an October deadline. This time around as it gets close to the end of February I have to write about our Spring Plays when the only thing that is certain is that you will get a fabulous Farmhouse Tea during the interval. And even that is not completely certain because I don’t know if we are going to do two one-act plays or one play with one act or perhaps two!
Regardless of that minor complication you will get a fabulous Farmhouse Tea. - Don’t you always?
There will be a Spring Play or Plays and later in the year there will also be a fresh new production by our younger members in Stage Door. Planning for both of these productions is in the early stages but you are guaranteed great entertainment, judging by the comments you have made on previous occasions.
Once final decisions have been made on dates, content etc. the latest news on titles and more will be updated on the website and will also be intimated in the Pew Leaflet.
“Break a leg!”
The trouble with the Christmas Magazine is that the Editor’s deadline is in the middle of October and it makes it quite difficult to say very much about our panto which will have been performed after this piece has been written and before the magazine has been delivered. Nevertheless I am prepared to “stick my neck out” and say that the panto will be, is and was, fabulous!
I can say that because at the time of writing, rehearsals are underway and everyone involved is pulling out all the stops to make it so! Police in Boots was the very first production the St Mark’s Players put on, way back in February 1991. A few of the current “Players” took part in that production but some of them weren’t even born then! The script has been re-written and updated, new music has been chosen and all of the principal roles are being played by new faces, so the whole thing has a fresh, up to date look, feel and sound, yet remains a traditional panto story with everything you have come to expect from us.
Taking charge this time around is Ricky Garden. Ricky has been with the Players for a number of years now, having been brought along by his wife Paula who told us, “he can sing a bit”. Something of an understatement as those of you have seen our performances can testify. Ricky is also known for his comic talent and he brings all of this to his role as Director.
With performances from some of our younger, Stage Door, members, Police in Boots, performed on 19, 20 & 21 November was a terrific show and if you missed it - too bad!
“Break a leg!”
The "Spring Plays" - August 28 & 29 2009
"Health & Safety" and "Nearly Departed" were performed at the end of August and congratulations must go to Garry Watson for the immensley funny scripts for both plays. Audiences will never look at a chip shop black pudding in quite the same way again and if they are unfortunate ever to end up in hospital they certainly won't want a "Jean MacDonald" in the next bed. From lobotomy to anispeptic and the revelation that God is indeed a woman Jean's stay in hospital was an education in itself!
Those of you who do have to encounter the "Health & Safety" man in your daily life should hope that you don't go through the trauma experienced by the staff (and patrons) of the Glenshoogle Gastronome in anticipating his (or in this case her) visit! To see a flavour of the plays click here
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We now turn to Panto season and are looking to re-work our very first production of “Police in Boots” with an updated script and music. Final performance dates have yet to be fixed* but intimation will be given in the Pew Leaflet nearer the time. This will be a joint effort involving the senior members of the Players and the younger members of Stage Door who you last saw in “A Stage full of Music and Laughter” in June.
* Breaking News * Breaking News*
This didn't make the "Messenger", so for web users only the performance dates are now:-
Thursday - Saturday 19th - 21st November
at 7.30pm nightly with a Saturday Matinee at 2.30pm.
Spring Plays and Farmhouse Tea
Since this article was originally prepared for the Easter "Messenger" arrangements have moved on and the plays will now be performed in August rather than May.
Our plays will be performed on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th August and as usual there will be a Farmhouse Tea. The Stage Door production will be on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th June. Details will be announced in Church and printed in the Pew Leaflets.
Last year's Panto was well received and members were delighted that we attracted a number of new faces. We hope that these "first-timers" will remain with us for 2009 and if you or anyone you know feels like "treading the boards" please just get in touch. You will be assured of a friendly welcome and an enjoyable experience as a member of the Players or Stage Door, or both.
You can read below about our most recent production.
"Break a Leg"
As an added extra to our usual productions the St Mark's Players decided to "write out" one of our popular characters regularly featured in Garry's One Act Plays. Jean Black has played, Glenshoogle village character Mrs Agnes Broon in several productions and wanted, as they say in the business, to "rest". What better way to deal with the very unpleasant Mrs Broon than to have her "murdered". So, for one night only on Saturday 21 March 2009 the "Players" performed a Murder Mystery in Glenshoogle, Fa Killed Mrs Broon?
The cast included several well known characters, each of whom was seen and heard on the telephone to Mrs Broon and each it seemed had a reason to do away with her. Abigail Twigg of "Slim Kwick" fame wasn't keen to have her refer all the slimming class members to a rival organisation, Simon Powel was keen to avoid payment of compensation for a black pudding problem, Karen Osbourne didn't want her lack of an "Equity" membership to be revealed and Rev Godfrey Goodchild wanted to keep his secret past secret. The Guild ladies, Brady, Hunter & Graham hated losing the bowls championsip, Jean McDonald didn't want her scone recipe hijacked and local undertaker, Hughie Walsh appeared to need the extra business. Line Dance champion, Rochelle Devine had discovered Mrs Broon's tally of medals were not all her own and wanted them back and Highlight Zone owner Angelina Buchan did not want her customers diverted to another salon.
In a final twist however after hearing the local police explain all the evidence it turned out that Agnes was murdered by her own sister who had returned from Australia having discovered she was being written out of the will. And in what really was a final twist the sister turned out to be Jean's own sister Elsa who appeared in the final line up disguised as Karen Osbourne and completely unrecognised by the "deceased" who had taken her place in the audience to find out, "Fa Killed Mrs Broon"!
You can see the outcome here.
By the time you are reading this I hope many of you will have seen and enjoyed our "Christmas 2008" Panto, Beauty and The Beast. If you didn't you missed a great show full of fun and laughter, great songs and awful jokes! (courtesy of the Minister!) You can now see our on stage efforts here and there are more cast pictures here.
It's difficult to write about what we are doing before we do it and before you read about it after we have! If that all makes sense. Having just finished our 2008 Panto it's a bit early to think about our next production but 2009 will once again see the Spring Plays and Farmhouse Teas although we have no idea what they will be. At least we can guarantee you'll enjoy the Teas!
Putting on a Panto is a big undertaking for everyone involved and we want to THANK all of our audiences and everyone else who helped out in any way. Special thanks are due to Keith Donaldson and Sets in Motion for the flats we used as backgrounds during the show (and to Ian Lord for the painting). Just to show how grateful we are to Keith we wish him well in his new venture with Trap 4 Ltd. and this year's Inverurie Panto - Cinderella.
If you missed ours (or even if you saw it) why not book for Inverurie? The show runs from 13 - 24 December and Tickets are £12.50 & £10.50 for the balcony and £10.00 & £8.50 for the stalls. Our own Ricky Garden plays Buttons and tickets are available on 0845 527 8151.
Break a leg
(An "Uncle Sandy" production © 2008 for the St Mark's Players & Stage Door)
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