GASLIGHT
VOLUME 17 – ISSUE 1 – JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2010 EDITION
Hi Folks!
On behalf of the Chair and Committee a happy new year!
I have been enjoying “The Palace Peeper”, the journal of the New York G&S Society. Among the plenitude of articles, a production of “HMS Pinafore: Her Majesty’s Starship”, with “We sail the Milky Way and our saucer ship ’s a beauty!” It is set in the future, as imagined in films and TV from 30 or 40 years ago. The cast were without pointy ears or space suits – mercifully! Sir Joseph Porter KCB (I prefer Riaan Hunter’s KFC!) is described as the Ruler of The Galaxee. Dick Deadeye is portrayed as a three-cornered alien mutant –oo, er!
Another item is the NYGASP’s foray into Wikipedia wherein may be found a fount of knowledge and information, thanks to Sam Silvers. Be sure to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:G&S.
We had a wonderful time on 16 December at the 2009 Opskop!! Thank you to everybody who joined us for the social prior to Pinelands Players’ evening performance of “A Christmas Carol – A Pantomime”. We had such positive feedback on this ‘new’ way of spending 16 December together, that it makes one wonder what the 2010 EXCO will have up their sleeves for this year’s gathering… 😉
!! AUDITION NOTICE !!
You are invited to audition for the G&S 2010 musical production of “Annie”
Musical Director:- Alastair Cockburn
Choreographer:- Roxy Levy
Set Design:- Dicky Longhurst
Production dates: – 12th November to 5th December 2010
At the Artscape Opera House
The company will include +/- 80 performers, including 2 casts of children (11 girls in each cast – including Annie), 6 Principals & Supporting roles, 2 Cameo roles, 14 Dancers and a Chorus of +/- 24. This includes a supporting (performing) cast for all the Principal & Supporting roles.
Auditions are to be held on:-
Sunday 21st February:- Chorus (Male & Female) from the ages of 18 to 60
Saturday 27th February:- Children (Girls only) from the ages of 8 to 15.
Sunday 28th February:- Principals / Supporting roles / Cameo’s.
Saturday 6th March:- Call-Backs
Sunday 7th March:- Dancers (Male & Female) from the ages of 18 to 30.
All auditions will be held at Springfield Convent School, Wynberg, in the Centenary Hall.
CHILDREN (Girls ages 8 to 15 years)
Benita Faiers on benitaf@vodamail.co.za or benitaf@genelouw.co.za, or 0791568384
ADULTS
Jennifer Moss on anniemail2010@gmail.com, or 0745589283
Please ask Benita or Jennifer to send you the list with regard to the specifications of roles available and what to prepare. All song are from the musical “Annie”. A pianist will be available for accompaniment. If you wish to bring your own pianist, you are most welcome. You may use a backing track as long as there is no vocal accompaniment in the backing track. A CD/tape deck will be available or you may bring your own.
Auditionees will either be told at their first auditions or via e-mail/telephone if they will be required to attend call-back auditions and what to specifically prepare for these auditions.
You are free to audition for more than one role. If we consider you have the potential to fill another role we may ask you to prepare an additional song from the show as part of the call-back audition. This does not mean you are eliminated from the prime role you are auditioning for.
Please note that this is an amateur production and there will therefore be no remuneration.
There are a lot of opportunities for acting roles, superb singing roles both in principal and supporting roles and a lot of lovely little acting cameo roles plus a large chorus of many characters. You will certainly be busy and will never be bored. Hope to see you at auditions!”
BUT WHERE DID IT ALL START?
As we will be in the company of this famous little girl for quite some time, I thought it might be interesting to find out a little more about her… Isn’t the internet just a wonderful resource?!
In 1924, Harold Gray created Little Orphan Annie for the Chicago Tribune. Gray’s original concept starred a boy named, Otto. (That’s right, Little Orphan Otto!) Thankfully, there were many strips featuring boys and none about a girl, so Gray changed the protagonist’s gender and name.
Comic strips in the 20’s were very different from today’s strips. Dailies were printed in a much larger format and often only one Sunday strip appeared on a newspaper page.
Adventure strips ran stories for many months and sometimes for more than a year!
Harold Gray died in 1968 and never saw his little orphan girl’s big moment when “Annie,” had its world premiere on August 10, 1976 at the Goodspeed Opera the Musical House in East Haddam, Connecticut. The original Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on April 21, 1977.
This success story was followed by, you guessed it… the film.
This Columbia Pictures’ movie was released in 1982 and starred amongst others Aileen Quinn as Annie, Carol Burnett as Ms Hannigan and Albert Finney as Mr. Warbucks.
CATA Awards Evening – 22 March 2010
Congratulations to all our G&S Members who are nominated for the 2010 CATA’s! We are very, very proud of you. The Awards Evening will take place on Monday, 22 March at 7:30 for 8:00pm. Dress is smart, but not formal. Champagne will be served upon arrival and a finger supper will follow the proceedings. The prizes will be presented by Paul Griffiths, well known professional actor and director.
Bookings are open and we therefore encourage all nominees and members to book early to ensure your seat. There is no cost to attend, but due to limited space you must book in advance. Remember to mention whether you are a nominee or not!
Please contact Hayley Fargher to make your bookings on 021-788 6999. She is available for booking on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10.00am till 1.00pm.
Here is a list of the Categories and respective Nominees:
BEST PLAY, BEST MUSICAL, MOST ADVENTUROUS PRODUCTION, BEST DIRECTOR OF A PLAY, BEST DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL:
Other nominees: Birga Thomas – Hello, Goodbye (MADS) ; Marlisa Doubell – Private Lives
(Milnerton) ; Barrie Howard – Time of my life (Constantia) ; Sue Bolton – Breath of Life
(CDS) ; Graham Boxall – Isn’t it romantic (CDS) ; Kyla Thorburn – A Christmas Carol (Pinelands)
BEST CHOREOGRAPHER OF A MUSICAL:
The other nominee: Kim Harris-Dalla – A Christmas Carol (Pinelands)
BEST ACTOR IN A PLAY OR MUSICAL:
Other nominees: Wesley Figaji – Hello, Goodbye (MADS) ; Trevor Joubert – Private Lives (Milnerton) ; Dennis Benneyworth – Time of my life (Constantia) ; Shaun Browne – A Christmas Carol (Pinelands)
BEST ACTRESS IN A PLAY OR MUSICAL:
Sian Atterbury-le Roux – HMS Pinafore (G & S)
Other nominees: Yvonne Copley – Breath of Life (CDS) ; Suzy Gehr – Hello, Goodbye (MADS) ; Tamryn Spiers – Private Lives (Milnerton) ; Jane Cohen – Time of my life (Constantia) ; Carey Wallace – Haunting of Hill House (FHDS) ; Jo Darby – Abigail’s party (Constantia)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY OR MUSICAL:
John Carne – HMS Pinafore (G & S)
Other nominees: Theo Swartz – A lesson from aloes (HHDS) ; Alastair Duff – No sex please, we’re British (FHDS) ; Gordon Molloy – Trap for a lonely man (Milnerton) ; Scott Cooper – Appointment with death (MADS) ; Michael Harris – A Christmas carol (Pinelands)
ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION:
Heather Earp-Jones – HMS Pinafore (G & S)
Riaan Hunter – HMS Pinafore (G & S)
Sian Atterbury-le Roux & Ferdi Oosthuizen – HMS Pinafore (G & S)
Kim Harris-Dalla, Victoria Harris, Jennifer Moss, Christine Thonissen – HMS Pinafore (G & S)
Other nominees: Margaret Mortelmans – Private lives (Milnerton) ; Phoebe Snayer – Rodgers and Hart, a celebration (Milnerton) ; Glenda Carmichael – A Christmas Carol (Pinelands) ;
Jennifer Moss – A Christmas Carol (Pinelands) ; Laura Bosman and Graham Stabler – A Christmas Carol (Pinelands)
BEST CAMEO PERFORMANCE:
The other nominee: Jane Philbrick – Haunting of Hill House (FHDS)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY OR MUSICAL:Denise Dubber – Time of my life (Constantia) ; Trish Sutton – Time of my life (Constantia) ; Michele Belknap – Isn’t it romantic (CDS) ; Victoria Harris – Return from Oz (CDS) ; Laura Bosman – A Christmas carol (Pinelands) ; Jennifer Moss – A Christmas carol (Pinelands)
MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER:Kevin Smith – Play Misty for me (HHDS) ; Angela Lee-Wright – Haunting of Hill House (FHDS) ; Thomas Agates – Spring and port wine (HHDS) ; Curtis Dunn – Abigail’s party (Constantia)
BEST SET:Jane Philbrick and Margi Blewett – No sex please, we’re British (FHDS) ; Anne Coetzee – Play Misty for me (HHDS) ; Debbie Bentley-Buckle and Barrie Howard – Time of my life (Constantia) ; Finn McCormick – Trap for a lonely man (Milnerton) ; Debbie Bentley-Buckle and Barrie Howard – Abigail’s party (Constantia) ; Richard Whittaker – A Christmas carol (Pinelands)
TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE:Roland Sweet – Special occasions (Milnerton) ; John Blewett – Time of my life (Constantia) ; Gary Fargher – Isn’t it romantic (CDS) ; Andrew Ward-Cox – Trap for a lonely man (Milnerton) ; Gary Fargher – Haunting of Hill House (FHDS) ; Dylan Ford – Haunting of Hill House (FHDS) ; Grant Faiers – A Christmas carol (Pinelands) ; Kyla Thorburn – A Christmas carol (Pinelands)
A FUN THING TO DO ON VALENTINES DAY!!
Attend the G&S Concert at the Masque Theatre
Ten years ago, Lorna Hansen was asked to give a lecture on the work of Gilbert and Sullivan to the Fine and Decorative Arts Society. She thought that an unillustrated lecture on the works of our boys would be deadly dull, so she opted to round up a group of people from the Society, who illustrated the talk with different numbers from each of the operas in the canon. This group has, with some additions and alterations, been performing around Cape Town and surrounds since then.
Lorna says:” At the end of last year, we were asked if we would give
a Valentine’s Day Concert at the Masque on Sunday 14 February, at 15h00. So we have chosen a whole lot of songs which have something to do with LOVE. We’ll be singing them (with Mike Nixon, who usually plays the trombone in our orchestra, conducting, and Helen Broekmann at the piano).”
If you are interested in having a fun afternoon, and supporting your Society at the same time, contact the booking office at the Masque on 021 7881898, and book.
R50-00 per seat for members of the Masque, R60-00 for non-members.
You can also get G&S Society prefs at R50-00 per ticket by sending the money, with your name and contact details to Lance, our Treasurer (lance@gilbertandsullivan.co.za), and he will ensure that your ticket(s) are either delivered to you, or left in an envelope with your name on at the box office on the day. Hope to see you there!
An official notice with more detail will be distributed to our members in due course, but be sure to pencil the date in your diaries so long!
2010 G&S MEMBERSHIP FEES
A reminder from our Membership Secretary, Michele Belknap:
Membership fees and categories are as follows:
Couple: R110
Student/Pensioner: R50
Patron: R600
If you prefer not to pay your subs at the AGM, you can send The Treasurer a cheque, or do an electronic transfer or do a direct deposit.
Cheques can be posted to:
The Treasurer
Gilbert and Sullivan Society
P O Box 23941,
Claremont
7735
If you are unsure whether you have paid or not, or if you have any queries, you are welcome to contact Lance Kotze, our Treasurer at lance@gilbertandsullivan.co.za or on 082 770 7782.
I’m off to the Masque Theatre to go and support our Membership Secretary, Michele, who will be in the Muizenberg Dramatic Society’s “Improbable Fiction” from Friday, 05 February until Saturday, 13 February!! This comedy is directed by Coleen van Staden.
To quote Michele: “It is quite zany and a good laugh!” To book, contact the Masque Theatre during office hours on 021 7881898.
Adrian
