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Newbury and West Berkshire, reaching out to Oxford, Basingstoke
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Posters of forthcoming productions, audition notices and requests for help are below
In case you hadn't noticed, it's panto time. As usual, there's a big
collection of pantos and Christmas shows. Here goes. First off the block
was
Hook Players with Mother Goose
on 6th November followed by the Watermill with Pinocchio,
Oxford Playhouse with Sleeping Beauty and Newbury
Corn Exchange with Dick Whittington.
Into December, Creation Theatre Company brings us Hansel and Grettel.
Now they're coming thick and fast with Sleeping Beauty,
Mother Goose again, A Christmas Carol and Snow
White. Into January with Puss in Boots, Dick
Whittington and Cinderella, with
KATS bringing up the rear in February with
Treasure Island. Phew!
Newbury Theatre has joined up with
Penny Post
to give updated theatre information, and it will also appear here. Penny
Post is a great source of local information - if you don't know it already,
I can thoroughly recommend it.
Online theatre
The National Theatre
are making their NT Live recordings available online. You can subscribe for
£9.98 a month or rent individual plays for £7.99.
You can search for reviews of previous productions -
there are more than 1000 pages of them in the Archive!
Latest news
Date
Item
13 Nov
Reviews of Compton Players' Dracula: "intelligent, faithful adaptation... [Pete Watt and Naomi Read] command the space with skill and are central to some of the strongest moments in this production... I would commend it to lovers of literature and classic horror alike" - NWN; "an enjoyable production... the story with its quirks and surprises was well received by the appreciative audience. Well done Compton!" - NODA.
10 Nov
Drayton Players are performing Last Christmas in Little Steventon on 23rd November at Harwell Village Hall and 30th November at Steventon Village Hall.
5 Nov
Triple Threat Theatre's Our Favourite Things is on 16th November at the Haymarket in Basingstoke.
3 Nov
The Aldermaston York Nativity Play returns from 5th to 8th December as it has done in the parish church of St Mary the Virgin every year since 1957. The play is an adaptation of 6 plays, that tell the story of the first Christmas, from the 400 year old York Mystery Cycle .
Now and coming soon
New Era Players invite you to our Improv in Drama sessions. Maybe you quite fancy trying your hand at drama, but don’t want to learn lines or face an audience? This could be just the spontaneous, fun and friendly activity for you! Sessions are fortnightly on Mondays at the New Era Theatre, Andover Road, Wash Common, Newbury RG14 6NU. Come and join us from 7-8pm, sessions are free for members and £3 for non-members. Please contact the organiser, Neil, rather than just turning up as dates are sometimes subject to change. For more information please contact Neil Taylor on 07761 061545 or email
Drayton Players are performing Last Christmas in Little Steventon on 23rd November at Harwell Village Hall and 30th November at Steventon Village Hall. Little Steventon Amateur Drama Society is in trouble. Membership has dwindled to four, and audiences aren’t much bigger! Time for dramatic action. “There's only one thing that sells tickets these days – sex” argues Gordon the Chairman. But how will the locals react to the promise of a sizzling sex comedy?
Kingston Bagpuize Drama Group's next production from 28th to 30th November is Calendar Girls. When Annie's husband John dies of leukaemia, she and her best friend Chris resolve to raise money for a new settee in the local hospital waiting room. With varying levels of encouragement, they persuade four friends and fellow members of the Women’s Institute to pose nude with them for an "alternative" calendar.
New Era Players' next production between 28th November and 7th December is Boeing-Boeing, a frantically funny and fast-paced farce, The action is set in the late 1950s and follows the exploits of American lothario Bernard, who has three fiancées, all stewardesses with different airlines. He likes to think he has ‘one on the ground, one about to take off and one in the air’, but his bachelor bliss is about to come crashing down as faster jets bring changes to the schedules, upsetting his carefully managed love life. This is a play that manages to take off from its 50s time zone and entertain you with timeless comedy.
The Aldermaston York Nativity Play is from 5th to 8th December. This version of The York Nativity Play Cycle was made in 1930 by E. Martin Browne. The text was revised in 1952, after E. Martin Brown’s experience in producing the York Mystery Cycle Plays. It is this 1952 edition that we perform at Aldermaston. The adaptation is of 6 of the Mystery Cycle plays to form a single Nativity Play for a performance in a church with multiple staged areas. The text was adapted from the translation of the York Mystery Plays.
Enter into the spirit for decking the halls with some festive choral readings at New Era this December. Join us for seasonal literary fare, including pieces from Charles Dickens, P G Wodehouse, Dylan Thomas, Laurie Lee, Kenneth Grahame and Benjamin Zephaniah, amongst others, in an evening of nostalgia and festive cheer to get you in the mood for Christmas. There will be a mix of prose and poetry, of comedy and drama, of modern and traditional: but all are Christmas Crackers! Performances are on Tuesday 17th, Wednesday18th, and Thursday19th December. We will be serving mince pies and mulled wine, included in the ticket price of £15.
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The 
Enter into the spirit for decking the halls with some festive choral readings at 