St Austell Players News Page

News Page	New Lease	Box office help needed
	AETF One-act Play Festival	Club Nights

New Lease
     On Wednesday, 28th May, at the St Austell Community Centre and Arts Theatre AGM, Councillor Shirley Polmounter presented a letter of intent to the new Executive Committee Chairman, Mike Franklin, confirming Restormel Borough Council’s intention to grant a new 30-year lease for the Centre’s premises.
    The letter of intent ends the years and months of speculation and uncertainty about the Centre's future and brings some long-hoped-for security to its member groups and many users.
     The Centre’s Executive Committee will now be able to press ahead with plans for improvements at the venue, and the Centre’s members and Committee are grateful to the Council Members and Officers who have worked so hard to reach this position. At a Public Meeting on June 20th, Denis Bennett, Executive Committee Secretary, outlined the Centre's history and proposed broad plans for development as the basis for general discussion among the representatives of both current and potential users of the Centre. Suggestions and ideas arising from that meeting will be used to consolidate plans to carry forward to a further consultation meeting on a date to be announced. (Keep an eye on Diary of Events.)

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Glyn Stephens & David Banks	AETF One-act Play Festival. There was just a touch of déjà vu about the AETF’s Cornwall Festival of One-act Plays on Saturday April 5th at the Arts Theatre, when Freddie Rowe’s eye for a festival play once again hit the target as St. Austell Players’ entry, Green, by Les Clarke, won the Newquay Challenge Cup and therefore goes forward to the next round. The cast of this three-hander, Sam Teague, Glyn Stephens and David Banks jointly carried off the Doris Berryman Memorial Cup for Best Actor. Congratulations to Freddie and ‘The Boys’!	David Banks & Sam Teague
Among the other competitors in this round, Meneage Arts Players Youth Group were judged to be best in the junior section of the competition and their Director, Emma Bushnell, earned the Best Director Award for her fine work with her children in The Girl Who Fell Through a Hole in Her Jumper, by Naomi Wallace and Bruce McLeod. Susan Lutherborrow’s performance in Newquay Dramatic Society’s production, Plastered, an extract from Richard Harris’s Visiting Hours, won her the Best Actress award and Newquay’s representation of a hospital ward also won them the Best Set award. Also competing were Meneage Arts Players (Seniors) with Close to Croyden, by Gillian Plowman, and Launceston ADS with Pity about Kitty, by Jimmy Chin. As adjudicator Mary Mckeown said in her kind and constructive remarks, it was most encouraging to see that talent, particularly young talent, is flourishing in Cornwall.
Sat 3rd May. Well, it was a closely run thing. Our three lads and Green didn't win the AETF Western Quarter-finals at our own Arts Theatre this evening, but they go through to the semi-finals as the highest-scoring runners-up. Triangle from Torbay pipped them at the post by just one mark with a fine production of their specially-written play, Playing with Daisy. One of its two players, Mary Fossey (who writes as Eleanor Fossey), was also the author, and her companion, Suzy Miles, carried off the Best Actress award. The Best Actor award was won by Jeff Harrison of Colyton Theatre Group, playing Gordon in the ever-popular festival play, Last Tango in Little Grimshaw. Congratulations too to Freddie Rowe on being judged the Best Director. Teignmouth Players competed with Act 1 of the all-female version of The Odd Couple. Jane Levan, the Adjudicator, gave most constructive and enlightening comments that were much appreciated by both the competing groups and audience alike. We hope the two proceeding groups will benefit from her wisdom and guidance when performing in the next round. The author of Green, Les Clarke, has been following our lads' progress with great interest and sending his good wishes before each round. He must have a magic touch for writing festival plays, since another product of his pen, You're in Room Eight, that premiered in the Ilminster round, has also made it through to the Western Semi-final at The Merrifield Theatre, Verwood Hub, Dorset, on May 17th. Can you cheer for two plays in one competition? Some of us won't have that dilemma. We'll just be rooting for our boys. Good Luck, lads!

Sat. May 17th.
     The Western Semi-final at the Merryfield Theatre, Verwood Hub, Dorset coincided with performances of Glorious! back at the Arts Theatre, so resources were little stretched, to say the least. Fortunately, the Banks family was able to step in to the breech, with Julie acting as driver, Gerald as stage manager and Lisa as techie.
     During the early run-through on Saturday morning (meaning that a two-night stay was necessary), it soon became apparent that no adjustments or additions to the pre-set lighting rig were available. But Green, with its straightforward technical requirements suffered less from this than some of the other productions, particularly Triangle's Playing with Daisy, that we well remember as the winner of the previous round, with its differently coloured lighting areas.
     Green perhaps drew the short straw in being the first of the afternoon performances, followed by Oaklands Youth Theatre and then Triangle and Taunton Thespians in the evening.

The StAPs contingent at Verwood Hub

Everything went well and our lads performed possibly better than ever. It was enough to win an Award of Merit, in adjudicator, Chris Jaeger's view, but not enough to win the round. That accolade went to Oaklands Youth Theatre and their controversial production, Graham - World's Fastest Blind Runner, with its large cast and musical score.
Our team was not, and had no reason to be, disappointed and came away not just with their Award but a whole lot of wonderful experience that will stand them in good stead, wherever they choose to go from here. Thanks for representing us so well. Well done, all of you!

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Box office help needed
Can you help? St. Austell Players would be more than happy to hear from anyone who is willing to man (or woman?) the box office on performance evenings. No formal training is needed, just 90 minutes of your time - an hour before curtain up and half an hour after – on as few or many performance evenings as you care to offer.
If you can help, then please contact our Hon. Treasurer, Tony Pickup on any of these numbers 01726 813690 or 0845 6912973 or 07747 890 653, or click here to email him.

Wednesday Night is Club Night

Every Wednesday, the Theatre Bar will be open from 8:00pm. For those of us not currently in rehearsal, Wednesday evenings will be an opportunity to relax, socialise, exchange the latest gossip and find out what is really going on. You can even play a silly game, if you really want to. Come along - bring your friends - it's fun!

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