Hi Everyone

Following on from the success of our recent Murder Mystery evening at Downtown Crabbey, we are now full steam ahead and focusing on our next performance events.

For those of you who are on the Forum Players Facebook page, you will have seen these dates already.  For those of you who aren’t, I would like to share with you the following:

– Wednesday 6th June (this coming week)

…we have another club evening to start firming up ideas and availability for the 50th Anniversary variety show. This will be in the Bourne End Community Centre main hall.

The idea behind the variety show is that for each of us who will be involved, there will be ‘bite sized’ pieces to perform.  Nothing too onerous in term of line lining or rehearsal commitment.  We have the live band confirmed and lots of ideas beginning to flow.  The show will conclude with a lively and fun ‘sing along’…audience participation is required!  Song sheets to be provided.

– Wednesday 11th July – Target Room

…Panto reading.  It’s that time of year again when we beginning to think about our next pantomime production.  Come along and join us for this initial read through and register your interest.  More details regarding the chosen Panto and audition dates will be released nearer the time.

That’s all for now, hope to see as many of you as possible this week.

Best regards

Kerry

Chairman, Forum Players

Hi Everyone

Hopefully we will have the promised ‘sunshine’ this weekend and we can all enjoy a dry and bright bank holiday weekend.

..talking of which, we still need to sell more tickets for our social event on Saturday 12th May.  Please support this production both by buying tickets and encouraging friends and family to come along.  Should be a good fun evening with a tasty dinner.

Following on from our 12th May social evening, coming right up after that is our Club evening to discuss plans for our 50th Anniversary show.

Important dates to be aware of:

 – Wednesday 20th September (evening) – Dress Rehearsal
– Friday 21st September – Performance
– Saturday 22nd September – Performance

Please come along and join us on Monday 14th May, in the small hall at Bourne End Community Centre.  Jill Hyde, our Director for this show, will share her thoughts and plans for a variety show.  You are all welcome to bring your ideas & anecdotes of past performances.  Plans will be ‘organic’ and evolve as we all share our thoughts with Jill and get involved.

See you all there.

Kind regards
Kerry
Chairman, Forum Players

Dear All,

Thank you for attending the last few meetings about the Summer Festival. I hope this has given you a good idea what this is all about. As a next step, I need to know who would definitely want to be involved, and their availability for mid/end of June.

If you are interested in taking part, please let me know via email as soon as possible (by 29th March at the latest) so I can plan the festival and proceed with the booking of the venue, subject to the interest.

Many thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Kind regards,

Rick

All

At the end of January I stood for another year of chairman of the group, however over the past couple of months it has become increasingly apparent that my personal and work commitments do not allow me the time to give the club the attention is deserves.

As such i am standing down as Chairman with immediate effect.

Kerry Hudson has agreed to take on the role of Chairman and I am sure you will join me in thanking her for taking on the task and supporting her in whatever way possible.

I will remain on the committee and will continue to support the club.

Thank you for your support over the past couple of years.

Ros Bartlett

Dear All,

As organiser of the proposed 2018 Summer Festival, I would like to keep everybody up-to-date to make sure everybody has the same information. We will meet as a group on 5th, 12th (in the Small Hall) and also 14th March (in the Target Room), to have a look at some potential plays.

Last Monday we had an initial meeting which was attended by Leigh, Jill H., Kerry, Emily, Fiona and Rebecca, Sally, Sue, Karin and myself. As Sally and Sue are relatively new to the club, I improvised a little speech to introduce the Summer Festival and what we did in the past, which I would like to share with everybody.

The Summer Festival was a series of evenings in which the club split into little teams in order to perform short plays lasting half an hour, taking advantage of the local library, which is an ideal space for informal theatre. This was organised by myself, Linda Perry (the “Crocodile’s” mum) and Karin (aka Mrs. Darling). I was Chairman at the time, and the rest of the club collaborated. The purpose was to provide an opportunity for all club members, actors, set decorators, stage managers, young and old, mixed ability, to gather in a different environment and experiment with theatre. It was great for me as a set designer to be able to perform alongside Roger and Wendy in Chekhov’s famous “Proposal”, and our audiences loved the “Deckchairs” series, about two women friends in seemingly familiar situations with an unexpected twist. We even had a local theatre pro, Jenny Quille, direct one of the farces and read poetry. The energy created was fantastic; the buzz of a new theatre festival in Bourne End, people meeting in each others houses to rehearse, and bringing in audiences between 30 to 60 people who enjoyed the evenings. Despite being informal, there was some publicity, we had a simply A4 programme with a synopsis of the play, biographies of the actors, etc. etc. The space, although small, still was sufficient as a changing room for the actors. A typical evening consisted of either two short plays with an interval, or a poetry reading and a short play. One evening we had a monologue (“Roller Coaster”) in the first half. There is lots of room for ideas!

The festival ran for 4 years. Many of the members at the time have left the club, and so this may be a good time to revive the spirit of a festival, with the new members, and providing an opportunity to bring friends, and promote the club. Looking forward to see everybody at the next meetings!

Kind regards,

Rick

I just wanted to update everyone on the club meeting from the 19th February.

Rick has kindly offered to lead the summer festival for the club and the plan is to put on 3 evenings over the summer with 2 shows for our adult cast and 1 for our youth members.

The plan is to meet again on the 5th and the 12th March so please come along if you are interested.

If you cannot attend but are interested then please let me know

thanks

Ros Bartlett

Sylvia Deane was mum of Shirley Roberts.

Sylvia Deane lived in Orchard House, Bourne End for many years before moving to an Assisted Living Home in Hazlemere. Sylvia was involved in making costumes for Forum Players, Brownies when Bourne End had a carnival and was a volunteer for the Red Cross locally. Sylvia was healthy and doing very well until she broke her hip in September, had a perforated gall bladder in October but managed to recover enough to get home 2 days before her 95th birthday party. Then a week before christmas she fell and broke her wrist. Sylvia died peacefully in her sleep in her home.

We will always remember her for her baseball caps, walking frame picking up money which had been dropped, and giving it to charity.

Sylvia’s Celebration of Life is to be held 16th January 1.15pm at Chiltern Crematorium, all welcome.

Regards and thanks

Pat Jones – daughter