indmill Thornton Players aeveleys AGM 2023 REPORT PACK ## **A Message from our President** Welcome to the 2023 A.G.M of the Windmill Players and I say again it is a great privilege to be President of this super Drama Group. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Trustees, Officers and Committee for their tireless work and commitment this past year which has been hard with all that has been involved with moving to our new venue. I am confident the future of the Windmill Players looks positive with the increased membership and the talent I saw in Angela’s Theatre Workshop production at Thornton library. The Windmill sails will keep turning. Maureen Mccrea ## **Secretary Report for AGM – 2023** A welcome to all our members to the first AGM to be held in our new studio location “Starlight Studios”, our new home since January / February 2023. We were excited to introduce all our members to our new studio location at the Mince Pie Evening in December; we would like to extend our thanks to all members for supporting our Social Event in June to officially welcome everyone to the new studio. When we received notice to leave the old studio, various options and locations were considered; we are pleased with our new premises at Starlight Studios, which has all we were looking for in terms of accommodation, location and cost. It is also giving us valuable links with the owner and members of the dance school and musical theatre company, which we are pleased to be able to develop. The past 12 months since the last AGM have been successful, exciting and also eventful for the Windmill Players. Our plays presented at Thornton Little Theatre have been well-received; we’d like to extend congratulations to Denise Flynn for her NODA nomination (Best Supporting Female in a Drama) for her role as Florence Boothroyd in ‘Billy Liar’. Our second play of the season, ‘Ladies Down Under’, was a popular follow-up to ‘Ladies Day’ presented the previous year, and received a very positive NODA review. And our third play, a thriller ‘The Incident Room’, was directed by one of our newer members, attracting many new members to the Windmill Players; a glowing NODA review praising the production, direction and characterisation has since followed. We’ve had much involvement in community events, including our ever-popular Murder Mysteries in local libraries, and presentations for the WI. Members continue with their valuable support of N- Vision’s talking newspaper. The Theatre Workshops continue to be successful with many new attendees. Members of the Trustees and Committee attended the Y11 Awards at Millfield School, as the Windmill Players sponsors one of their awards annually, and we are seeking to develop further links with the school. We continue to adhere to all the new procedures and policies, terms and conditions from the licence holders to enable us to perform their plays. Over the past 12 months, Wyre Theatres have made changes to their own policies regarding payments (including deposits) for hire of Thornton Little Theatre; they have also made changes to their times for hire of the theatre. We have necessarily, therefore, had to make our own changes to days and times of rehearsals and performances during play week to reflect Wyre Theatres’ new policies, and to keep our costs at a minimum. These changes include reducing the number of performances to 4 per play, including a Saturday matinee; we have also had to change our performance start time to 7pm; and ‘get-ins’ will now be happening on Sunday afternoons. To offset some of the new costs from Wyre Theatres, we have increased our ticket prices per play to £12. Thornton Little Theatre has been provisionally booked for all 2024, 2025 and 2026 plays. We have welcomed 14 new members; we now have 58 members. We’d like to thank all members and Friends of the Windmill Players for their support this year. Cath Edmonds, July 2023 ## **Directors’ Group Report** The role of the group is to manage and facilitate the calendar of our forthcoming productions. This means everything from reading plays submitted by potential directors and advising on their suitability for performance, to agreeing dates for play readings, auditions and rehearsals to avoid diary clashes. The group has three members currently; Angela Hudson, Di Timmins and Colin Johnston. We met five times last year and assisted where required with the three productions: **Billy Liar** directed by Angela Hudson and Louise Evans **Ladies Down Under** directed by Colin Johnston **The Incident Room** directed by Harry Chambers The last (a modern true crime drama based on the Yorkshire Ripper investigation) was a real departure from Windmill Players’ usual fare, but the group believed it was an excellent piece of theatre, and so it proved. We have continued to perform our acclaimed Murder Mysteries (written and directed by Di) at local libraries during the last two weeks of September. These have been - along with Angela’s Theatre Workshops - an excellent training ground for less experienced actors, and to allow everyone to hone their improvisational skills. We have had new and established directors approach the group over the past few months with some exciting ideas for future plays and we are now firming up productions into 2025. These don’t always come to fruition so please approach us if you have a burning desire to direct, and a play that you feel is right for us! ## **Report on “FRIENDS OF THE WINDMILL PLAYERS” for the AGM 2023** As soon as each play is cast, the Friends’ Secretaries write a letter to the Friends of the Windmill Players (comprising of those formerly on our Patrons list, our Life Members and those on the Mailing List). This letter is sent out either by post or email, informing our Friends the dates of the Production with a short synopsis of its theme, and telling them that it is now advertised on Wyre Theatres website, and how they can book tickets. A reminder is sent out to those on email about four weeks before each Production, reminding them about booking, if they haven’t already done so. We are finding that the list of those receiving notification by email is growing steadily all the time – they join by accessing the link on our Windmill Players website. We recognize that a number of our audience perhaps leave it to the “last minute” to book seats, and that reminders and good publicity (on social media and with printed flyers) bring in those who book seats on the night at the Box Office. We do feel that our audience numbers are slowly starting to pick up after the lockdowns. Linda Whitworth and Pauline Powell ## **THEATRE WORKSHOP. ANNUAL REPORT for August 2023.** The Workshop opened again in September 2022 and worked steadily each Wednesday throughout the term. Just before Christmas we presented “An Evening with Noel Coward” in Thornton Library. We had lots of fun working on the comedy numbers, and our grateful thanks go to “Elsie” who played her keyboard. Our weekly classes continued after Christmas and during this time I have seen some excellent class work. In May, Emma Davies came to give us a Master Class on “Mime and Physical Theatre” which, I know, the members enjoyed very much. During March 2023, and alongside the Wednesday workshops, some of the members began rehearsing “Is Witchcraft a Crime”. This was part of the Library’s CRIME MONTH and again was performed in the library. The presentation, set in the round, was based on Margaret Atwood’s poem “Half Hanged Mary” and was based entirely on improvisation. This was an interesting challenge for us and a learning curve for me. Grateful thanks to Jack Evans for his innovative and atmospheric “sounds”. If anyone missed this and would like to see it, the Workshop members will be performing again in various Libraries in July. We have welcomed several new members this year, most have supported our plays. Some have joined the Windmill Players; some would like to act with them, and some have already been in a play. The members pay £3 to attend these sessions, and we have therefore contributed approximately in excess £1,200, since September. We have, without a doubt, had a very successful year, and our grateful thanks go to all who have supported us, particularly to CHARLOTTE, from Starlight. THANKYOU. Angela Hudson. THE WINDMILL PLAYERS BALANCE SHEET ASAT30JUNE 2023 C4PITALACCOUNT HSBC CurrÉnt Account 4,831 Balance bll 25,590 HSBC S&rfngs Account 14,199 ProfitllLossl foryear 5,339 HSBC Money Market Cash in hand 1,221 20.251 20,251 In 8ccordan¢e with Instructlons Blven to us, we have prepared without carrylng out an audlt. the above finaftcial statements from the accounttng records of The Wlndmill Players aAd from information and explanations Eiven to us. Mlller Roskell Limited Chartered Certlffed Accountants 17 Vi¢torla Road East Thornton Cleveleys lancashlre FY5 5PtF 10 2oi} THEWINDMILL PLAYERS INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2023 Overall P&L £llly Liar- Profit Ladles Down Under- Profrt Incldent Room- Proflt Other Income Other expenses Agreed correttion 2,101.48 987.41 211.74 5,751.89 14,402.41 11.34 See Allson E-mail - Vdriance agreed wSth committee PrOfit/lL(>￿) 5,338.55 IHE wINDMILLP￿YE￿S INCOMEAND EXPENDITUREACCOVNfFOR ThEYEAREbX>ED 30JUWEtOZ3 ItECEIPTS PAThIEr Bllty Lknr Subs ck Proyammes Raffl RoYa￿le5r&fUTrJed Donatl¢ns Theèlre Hire ?ndCotnmk%slon 5,010.Th) L756,20 516.(K) 122.98 Scrlpts C05tumes Set Print1￿, Pubikityaftd Banner Other 462.90 35. 550.72 387.53 71.99 5,507.90 1406.42 ladksDowm Undtrr Subs nckets Pro8rammE5 Raffle Donat]on$ Theatre Hlre Comma￿1 Licence Scripts Costurne5 Set PrlntlnB. PubWtyaThl 8aMer Other 2.958.80 510.W 87.26 125.98 426.29 391.52 71.71 569.OD S,5$9￿0 7L59 Subs Tlckets Programmes Rafnè Theatr*Hlre and CoTnm&*on Lkence styts 4,110. 2,903.20 340.90 33.00 137.14 49.84 Costumes Set PrinUn& and B¥nner 4083.90 293.54 4.27116 01her￿¢*1pts Members sub5 Addltlonal donatlon$ Interest Workshup subs Prloryear Little Grfmleys3ks 15ee note91 Murder tery onatlrns herpayments StvdroRentsi Gas and EIÈ¢triGny NOOA Insuran NOOAmembershlp tsoTrAiion5 andsod FEr*rèp0rtar￿ SaEetyeq￿wWt I,¢MSL 230S2 123ts7 1,160.70 1930.OD 6.775.00 1.907.07 422.30 19D. 33119 21&00 Otherequipment ?28￿3 BankChafBeS 93,40 Moving Expenses 486.75 OtherE¥pensÈg 502.18 Futurep43ys I,￿.00 UtrfeGdmleYtheètrea￿I set¢oty. 1692.49 S,751.89 002 TofALRECflPYS U.302.69 TOTALPAYMEJVTS 26h5Z.S% ProlWlkn531