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KENDAL COMMUNITY THEATRE PRODUCTION REPORT 2021- 2022
Curious Botanicals Street Theatre
Kendal Community Theatre actors were delighted to join in this project in collaboration with Ragtag Arts and under the umbrella of the Torchlight Festival.
Directed by the brilliant Jayne Davies and with amazing costumes by Kate Reid, this took place in five locations in the town and was followed by joining the procession in the afternoon along with many other community groups. In addition we had a stall where we publicised KCT. Thanks to all concerned.
The Threepenny Opera
Face-to-face distanced rehearsals began at the end of May, directed by Emma Rucastle with actors who had been part of the show during lockdown, and involved in the open-air performances, drawing on their memories of Chris Taylor’s direction. Things went slowly at first, due to people being quarantined or unable to attend for different reasons, although we
were able to bring them in on zoom on occasion. Summer cover for direction was provided very ably by Ginny Moss and Beth Saunders. Once Emma returned at the end of September she was able to pull everything together and the final result was a performance to be proud of. Because of Covid, and for access, Jill and Anne elected to be present at all rehearsals between us, with Anne Cleasby kindly filling in when we couldn’t be there.
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Rather more actors than usual pulled out for a variety of reasons, but fortunately we were able to recruit excellent replacements quite quickly. were particularly sorry to lose Jay Dodd, to whom we had offered a
mentoring package to help with College course.
Our main problem was in the
of stage management. It was lucky that we were doing Brecht, with only the most basic props and costumes, mainly supplied by the actors themselves. Jill stepped into the breach and helped with costume where necessary. However in future productions it is absolutely essential to have a stage management team in place to provide continuity and backup for the director.
We had to book larger spaces than usual to allow for distanced rehearsal, but we were offered very generous discounts by Castle Street Centre and Holy Trinity and St George Catholic Church.
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Ticketing using Trybooking online services was very successful and actually seemed easier to use than The Brewery’s service, although it did lose us some publicity opportunities which the Brewery previously offered. Most people seemed to be able to book online and a very few that couldn’t, Anne was able to help by holding tickets for them to pay on the door.
Our pianist George, a second year Royal College of Music student, added an extra dimension to the performance with his excellent performance. It was a huge advantage to have a live musician and the funding to pay him. It was also good to be able to offer him that experience to add to his CV. To run a successful show of that size, with a cast of seventeen, despite covid, floods and gridlocked traffic, was, in our view, a remarkable achievement. Brecht was
always going to be a challenge, and it was a pleasure to see Kendal Community Theatre rise to that in the most difficult circumstances. Audience members told us that the performance was excellent, and we were extremely proud of the cast. Some of the feedback we received below:
A friend of mine came from Lancaster last night to see the performance (I didn't know he was coming). He has just messaged me to say how much he and his son enjoyed the show.
Apparently my friend has been a Brecht fan for a long time, but has never seen any Brecht outside London - and hasn't seen any at all for years. He said that last night reminded him of why - and how much - he likes Brecht's work, which I think is pretty high praise! Well done all I greatly enjoyed the show, as did Frei, my guest. The dynamism, technical competence and joie de vivre of the production were all most impressive. By sheer chance, this morning I found Peachum gazing earnestly out of the pages of Cumbrian Wildlife, the magazine of Cumbria Wildlife Trust, by whose London equivalent my daughter is employed; Stephen Lockwood is a very capable singer too, as is Sarah Cox, who has a strong stage presence - as does the anti-hero Tim Tranter. Eleanor Brook also stood out, but it was essentially a collective enterprise: congratulations all round. I look forward to your next show. Hi. I saw your production of ‘Theepenny Opera’ on Wednesday and thoroughly enjoyed it. So glad to see Brecht up and about again.
Playreadings on zoom Jan to Feb 2022
As Covid surged this winter, we decided to run another series of zoom play-readings. We were delighted that 21 of our actors were interested in taking part and enjoying a variety of roles.
Anne Banks and Jill Clough
Photos by Stuart Atkinson
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| KENDAL COMMUNITY THEATRE | KENDAL COMMUNITY THEATRE | 01.10.20- | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FINAL ACCOUNTS | 30.09.2021 | |||||
| INCOME | EXPENDITURE | |||||
| GENERA | ||||||
| GENERAL | L | |||||
| AGM | 31.65 | late invoice | ||||
| 645.0 | ||||||
| Membership | 575.00 | Storage | 0 | 90/50 | ||
| 194.4 | ||||||
| Donations | 425.00 | Ionos | 1&1 | 0 | now 2.40 per month | |
| 221.3 | ||||||
| Insurance | 4 | |||||
| Insurance | 16.00 | amend policy | ||||
| Insurance | 30.92 | upgrade policy | ||||
| Castle St Room | 494.5 | |||||
| Hire | Summer 2020 | 5 | late invoice | |||
| Room Hire | 31.40 | |||||
| 120.0 | ||||||
| DirectingAdvent | 0 | |||||
| Miscellaneous | Miscellaneous | |||||
| Costume Hire | 50.00 | 3.01 | Torchlight Festival | |||
| sale walkie talkies | 130.00 | Van Hire | 55.00 | |||
| transport costumes to | ||||||
| Ionos Repayment | 96.79 | new store | ||||
| 1843. | ||||||
| Totalgeneral | 1276.79 | Totalgeneral | 27 | |||
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THE THREEPENNY OPERA PERFORMED DURING FINANCIAL YEAR 2021-2022
| THE THREEPENNY OPERA |
|
|---|---|
| PERFORMED DURING FINANCIAL YEAR 2021-2022 |
|
| INCOME to 30.9.21 EXPENDITURE to 30.9.21 |
|
| Room Hire Workshop 78.50 |
|
| Room Hire Rehearsal 84.41 |
|
| 195.2 0 |
|
| GRANTS | |
| West/land Arts Trust 1000.00 |
|
| Arnold Clark 1000.00 |
|
| Hadfeld Rathbone 1541.00 |
|
| Actors Prod Fee 30.00 |
|
| Lighting 7.95 |
|
| Licence Temp alcohol 21.00 |
|
| Threepenny Opera income 3571.00 Threepe nny Opera expenditure 387.0 6 |
|
| TOTAL INCOME 4847.79 TOTAL EXPENDITURE 2230.33 |
|
| Bank Balances | |
| Opening 01.10.2 0 Closing 30.09.21 |
|
| Account 1 969.95 426.66 |
|
| Account 2 7619.76 10952. |
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| 60 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cash | 97.69 | |
| Total Bank | 8589.7 | 11379 |
| Balances | 1 | .26 |