An Evening with Alistair Donkin

After all the hard work from many different members of the Society, last Friday's night seemed to be enjoyed by everybody. It was an excellent sign that more tables had to be hastily brought out to accommodate all the guests that had turned out for Alistair's entertainment and it was lovely to see people from not only our Society but also from the Hereford Musical Theatre Company who are currently working with Alistair on Me and My Girl.

Alistair was on sparkling form and had the audience in stitches with his many stories of life behind the scenes of the D'Oyley Carte Opera Company, particularly when he was telling some slightly 'naughty' stories of swearing in the wings and chopping scenery into tiny pieces to get it on stage!

As well as recounting some of his funniest stories, Alistair also sang a huge range of 'patter' songs from a variety of different Gilbert and Sullivan shows. Despite protesting that he hadn't sung some of the songs in many years, he was note and word perfect and the applause at the end of each song proved that he had impressed everyone with his skills! The final wonderful element was Rhiann Morris, our pianist, who accompanied Alistair wonderfully and even managed to keep up when Alistair finished the Major General's song at such a pace, most of the audience were left behind!

Thanks to everyone who came and supported, sold tickets, provided food and drink, sponsorship, prizes for the draw and helped with the setting up and packing away. Without you all we wouldn't be able to survive!!!

'Dame' Hannah

Dedicated members have got a few years experience between them...

And by a few years, I actually mean 560 in total!!!!

John Hyde has been busy organising and totalling up all the years members, both performing and non-performing, have dedicated to G & S throughout the years, and Louise Hickey, the regional NODA rep was on hand to award the medals. So here is the run down of who earned what:

John Chapman - 25 years service

Anne Hawthorne - 25 years

Gordon Auty - 30 years

Pat Dooley - 30 years

Peter Dooley - 30 years

Jill Ridley - 30 years

Daphne Sayce - 30 years

John Hyde - 35 years

Alan Durman - 40 years

Gill Haslam - 40 years

Jill Hyde - 40 years

Alec Dawe - 50 years

Ann Dawe - 50 years

Audrey Hart - 50 years

Geoff Rawcliffe - 55 years

It is hardly surprising that with this level of dedication, our Society is truly fabulous! And seriously, some of the people on this list don't even look old enough for their awards... ;-)

'Dame' Hannah

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Congratulations to absolutely everybody involved in another cracking show!! We have all worked SOOOOO hard and it has paid off in the form of an amazing week. I celebrated by sleeping in until lunchtime (hey, I deserved it!) so I hope you've all had a chance to relax and unwind. After all, we've got to start work on Iolanthe pretty soon ;-)

I hope to see everyone in their glad rags on Friday at the Blind College to celebrate and have fun!

'Dame' Hannah

Sun on Saturday, please!

I hope you are all busy at home doing a little Sun Dance for the Society, as on Saturday a number of members will be out and about in High Town handing out leaflets, talking up the show and getting shops to display posters in an effort to sell loads of lovely tickets. There will even be some brave souls such as 'Dame' Hannah (me!) and the actual Dame Hannah (Gill), along with scary Mad Margaret (Karen but without her equally terrifying wig!!!) parading round in our wonderful costumes. So if we could all keep our fingers crossed for a warm, sunny day, I personally would be very grateful...

So, if you are in town on Saturday between 10am and 3pm, come and say hello - don't walk past pretending you don't know the crazy people ;-)

See you on Saturday,
'Dame' Hannah

Lots of leaflets!

I've got loads and loads of leaflets ready for publicising the show - so now we need helpers to distribute them. We're having a day handing out leaflets on Saturday 5th March between 10 and 3 (in or out of costume!) and plastering town with them but where else can we put them? If you can take any number and put them up in your local village shop, library, doctor's surgery or pub then please see me at rehearsals. The more prominent we can make them the more tickets we can sell.

If you have any suggestions for where they can go, let me know!!

See you on Tuesday night,

'Dame' Hannah

First floorwork rehearsal went well - I think...!

It's that time of year again - the first rehearsal with THE DIRECTOR! We might be a very small cast this year, but good grief we work hard! I suppose I shouldn't tempt fate, but apart from forgetting the lyrics now that we have to multitask (move about the room AND sing!), we were pretty good! We just need to remember it all again next time ;-)

I'm off to write down what I'm supposed to be doing, if I haven't forgotten it already....!

'Dame' Hannah

PS On Tuesday we need to take a whole cast photo and possibly the principle cast head-shots so please remember to a) smile and b) tart yourself up (if needed!!!)

New Year's Resolutions

As we enter the final weekend of January, is it too late to reveal one of my New Year's Resolutions? My Resolution has been to blog more... So, that's gone well so far!

Seriously, I don't quite know where December and January have gone. One minute we were all rehearsing furiously for Trial by Jury and suddenly, BAM! we're having full read-throughs of Ruddygore. In between we have all worked super hard: Trial by Jury was a great success and a very enjoyable night (check out February's Herefordshire and Wye Valley Life for the write up and pictures), our Christmas party was a lovely get together at the end of the year, the Society's small Christmas concert at the Town Hall in December raised a wonderful £600 for our chosen charities of St Michael's Hospice and Help for Heroes, and last weekend the Roper family kindly held a fundraising masked soiree at their home where the small audience were treated to a beautiful violin recital from Hannah and the most gorgeous and tasty buffet ever laid on - I wasn't the only person who went back for seconds! As you can see from all the exciting events that have taken place over the last few months, the Society has had a jam-packed schedule and there will be plenty more exciting events this year too. Check out the Society website www.herefordgandssociety.org.uk for the dates calendar to see what the next event is to attend.

So, back to my resolutions. Is it too optimistic of me to hope I manage to write at least one blog entry a week? Watch this spot to see if my will power and blogging skills match for the rest of the year...

Wishing you all a belated Happy New Year!
'Dame' Hannah