Claremont Chat
Claremont Dramatic Society Newsletter
12 Eden Road, Claremont, 7708
Tel: 021 671 2888 Cell: 083 414 7003
email: claremontdramatic@gmail.com
www.claremontdramatic.wordpress.com
April 2013 – Number 119
Hello All,
April is upon us and we have some treats in store. What with winter on the way we have a members’ evening planned to warm the cockles of your hearts. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved, so those of you who are interested in doing some acting, writing or directing, your time has come!
We would like to welcome Dean and Candy Howarth’s little one, Robyn Ann to the world, born 13 April 2013. We all cannot wait to meet you.
Erika Mitchell passed away recently – she was widow of dear lighting whizz Ken Mitchell. She always sat in the auditorium industriously knitting and worried about Ken climbing the stairs to the lighting box and walking on the cat walk in his late eighties. Our thoughts are with her loving niece Karen.
Members’ Evening Friday 26 April 2013:
Don’t forget our next members’ evening. Blind wine tasting and general knowledge quiz…or is it general wine tasting and blind quiz…
Hello all, Liz here, your new members’ evening organiser. I am excited to be part of CDS and am hoping to bring you some entertaining evenings this year. I would love to hear comments and suggestions to bring something new to your evenings. This month, as the season turns chilly, we have decided to start with something warming and fun.
A blind wine tasting to begin the evening will include wines selected from the award- winning Graham Beck cellar; after that, the ever popular quiz hosted by our favourite quiz master, Roy Oldfield. Prizes up for grabs!
Remember to RSVP to Pam for catering. See you there!
Please pay your membership SUBS.
“The theatre is the only institution that has been dying for four thousand years and has never succumbed; it requires tough and devoted people to keep it alive” John Steinbeck.
Bank details: Claremont Dramatic Society, Standard Bank Claremont (025109), Current account number 072637676. Please use your name as the beneficiary reference. Member: Single R40, Couple R60, Pensioner/student: R30 Couple: R45
Future Members’ Evenings:
Members’ evenings are becoming opportunities to perform and on Friday 19 July this year Jenny Brandt and Liz Roodt will be staging play extracts to obtain their directing tickets and hopefully entertain us. They are going to need actors and some technical assistance. These performances will hopefully have a life beyond just one members’ evening and will hopefully travel to other societies and perhaps even have a chance to be performed in its entirety in the future.
Jenny Brandt has already narrowed down her choice: “It is the first scene from the play ‘Not about heroes’ by Stephen MacDonald and depicts the friendship between the World War I poets, Wilfred Owen and Stephen Spender. I need two male actors between the ages of 18 and 35, who, preferably, have some understanding of speaking poetry.”
Contact Jenny on either her cell (082 492 5984), or work (021 713 1528), or home (021 7857610) or e-mail (jennybrandt74@gmail.com).
Call for Writers!
Members’ evening on the 4th of October is a New Writers Showcase. Those of us who fancy ourselves as the next Agatha Christie or Athol Fugard are welcome to submit a 15 minute program for this evening. You would be responsible for your 15 minute showcase including writing, casting actors and directing. How you present your work is entirely up to you from a basic read to a staged performance, it’s your show.
The only requirement is that the piece performed is self-written. Please contact Liz if you are interested (lizroodt@yahoo.co.uk). There are only four slots for the evening, so book your place now…
Hok clean up – new date:
The date has been moved to the 5th of May starting at 10:00am. All I can say is many hands make light work of this monumental task. It will also be fun to sift through 60 years of CDS life. Come one come all… Please let Simon know if you will be joining us (simon.d@mweb.co.za), as there will be a brig-and-braai afterwards, with your committee providing fire, rolls and salads.
Downton Abbey Day:
Back by popular demand is Downton Day, a chance for all of us to sit back and relax and sip tea (i.e. wine) while the upstairs and downstairs come to terms with Maggie Smith in Season Three.
This will take place on the 26 May at our newly cleaned Hok from 2:00pm for Episodes 1-3 and 6:00pm for Episodes 4-6 plus the latest Christmas Special.
As before, we will order pizza when we’re peckish.
Who, what, where and why:
AUDITIONS
MADS is still looking for a “Helen” for Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca!!Calling all grey-haired femme fatales!!!
Now is your chance to strut the boards again as you play one of South Africa’s most innovative artists – Miss Helen of The Owl House fame. MADS is planning to stage Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca from 26 July to 3 August 2013 and is looking for a talented and committed mature actress to play this challenging yet rewarding part. Miss Helen’s character is based on that of Helen Martins, one of South Africa’s foremost ‘Outsider Artists’, a style of art described as “fantastic, raw, visionary art created by individuals often with no art training, who work outside the mainstream of the art world”. Fugard describes Helen as ‘a frail bird-like little woman in her late sixties. After her husband’s death 15 years ago, Helen stopped attending the local Dutch Reformed Church. Instead, she began making ‘strange’ statues out of cement and glass which now fill the garden around her house. These statues are a mixture of Christian, Islamic and mythological figures, most of which are facing ‘Mecca’. Her art occupies her whole life which has ostracised her from the friends of her former husband and the activities of the small village in which she lives. At the time the play begins, Helen is facing a double crisis in her life, not only a breakdown in her health but also what she regards as much more life threatening, the drying up of her ‘visions’ that provide the inspiration for her artworks. Added to this dilemma, is constant pressure from the ‘do-gooders’ in the tiny conservative Karoo enclave in which she lives, to give up her independence and move into an ‘old-age home’. Please contact director Barbara Basel on 0826511695, 021 7614289 or barbara.basel@gmail.com to arrange an audition.
Carnivals of the Heart will be holding auditions on Sunday 12 May for the award winning Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire, which will be staged in September 2013 at the Playhouse Theatre, Somerset West. The play will be directed by Darryl Spijkers and requires 13 actors, 6 principal dancers (possibly interchangeable for actors) and 3 singers. For further information & to book a slot email thedashingwriter@gmail.com.
Milnerton Players will be holding an audition at their Playhouse on Saturday, 27 April at 14:00 for A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur by Tennessee Williams. It has a cast of four women: two are aged 30+ and should be able to speak in a Southern American accent; the other two are closer to 40 and are required to have German accents. The play will be staged July/August with rehearsals starting in the last week of May. For further info or extracts from the script, contact the director, Judith Herbig on judekins@hotmail.com or 0842799557.
CALENDAR
30 Apr – 11 May Sumé’s Dance Studio at The Playhouse, Somerset West. Inspired by the dancers’ wish lists, dreams and ambitions, the choice of music ranges from the 50’s to the latest hits. Details, times, prices & bookings (both productions) on 021 852 5182.
2 – 5 May Alice In Wonderland presented by the Blesbok Arts Trust at Klein Libertas Theatre in Stellenbosch. MADS members who have been with the Society a while will remember Melanie Horn who is directing this production. And they will also remember Trevor Le Gonidec who is playing the white rabbit. Melanie advises you to book soon as the theatre only seats 140 and there are only 4 performances – Thurs and Fri at 20:15, Sat and Sun at 14:30pm. You are invited to join cast and crew for tea after the Saturday and Sunday matinee performances or linger for a drink after the evening performances. Tickets are R60. Bookings can be made through klt@klteater.co.za or on 021 883 8164.
3 – 11 May Arsenic and Old Lace, by Joseph Kesselring, directed by Jane Philbrick and presented by Fish Hoek Dramatic Society at the Masque. The play takes place in Brooklyn, New York in 1941. It is a clever combination of the farcical and the macabre and centres on the Brewster family. The Brewster family comprises two aunts and three nephews who could be described as odd if not eccentric. In his clever mixture of comedy and mayhem, Kesselring satirizes the charitable impulse and pokes fun at the conventions of theatre.
5 May Songs My Uncle Teach Me, for one show only, featuring Klaza Kalishi at the Masque. Here we have something completely different and entertaining for music lovers who embrace all genres. Steve Draper is a personable and talented man who loves Gypsy and Eastern European music; it has a passionate rhythm which is easily expressed on the guitar. He also loves the work of great cabaret performers and musicals so he has combined these genres to compose the music and become a real persona for entertainment viz. “Klaza Kalish”! Listen and sway, tap your feet, feel a tear or have a laugh or just drink in songs like Songs My Uncle Teach Me, Olden Days, Comrade, The Carnival and much more, all from the pen of Steve Draper. “Klaza Kalish” with his Russian gravelled voice, provides the show. Share this special, intimate evening with a group of friends or family – and enjoy! This is a Foyer Show, starting at 20:00, presented during the run of Arsenic and Old Lace and tickets cost R75 (R65). Snacks (including Russian style) on sale.
12 May Masque AGM – 19:00 for 19:30 at the Hok
12 May Trumpet & Soprano, a Mother’s Day Special, presented by Shirley Sutherland and friends at the Masque. Vibrant soprano, Shirley Sutherland, will be on the stage with acclaimed trumpeter, Mike Blake, and well-known accompanist Ivan Meredith. They will be performing a programme of sacred duets, timeless classics and Broadway favourites with special Mother’s Day highlights. Shirley will be performing a medley of favourites from the musical Phantom of the Opera and a selection of well-known Eliza Doolittle favourites from My Fair Lady. Show starts 18:00 and tickets cost R75 (R65).Please note days, times and prices for Masque Theatre productions (unless otherwise stated) are Thurs & Fri performances at 20:00, Saturday matinee at 14:30, Saturday evening at 18:30, Thurs eve and Sat Matinees R55 (Theatre Club members R45), Other Nights R65 (Theatre Club members R55).
Bookings on 021 7881898 or at the theatre Mon-Fri, 10:00 to 16:00 (During shows also 9:30 to 12:00 on Saturdays) or bookings@masquetheatre.co.za
A special thank you MADS for their calendar and beautifully written tribute to Erika Mitchell.
“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
– Oscar Wilde
All my love
Sheldon Cross
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