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What does a donkey, a Centurion and basket of bread all have in common? They are all found in a Passion Play and you might see them in your local town or city this coming Easter!
Free, live performances of the Easter story take place each year across the UK. Events from the last week of Jesus Christ’s life are retold by local actors working with professional theatre companies to create compelling live theatre that is free for everyone. For many people, they are the best way to experience the story at the heart of Easter. Whether you know the story very well, or know nothing at all, you can experience it in through drama and music as it unfolds on the streets around you.
Historically, the word ‘Passion’ was originally used to describe the intense anguish and suffering of Jesus on the cross and the word is used for the plays that focus on his death. Today, Passion Plays dramatize Jesus’ life, including his teachings and miracles, as well as his resurrection to show the context in which his death took place.
Passion Plays are examples of unique open-air theatre. People doing their shopping or taking a stroll in the local park have been surprised at the sight of people dressed in flowing robes and sandals or as Roman centurions with sword and spear. Or others have witnessed a scuffle on the high street that turned out to be actors in modern dress dramatizing a scene from the Easter story.
Whether you are familiar with the Easter story or not, watching a Passion Play is a way to experience the full story. You might be familiar with Pontius Pilate washing his hands like Lady Macbeth or Judas who betrayed his friend for 30 pieces of silver, but how do they fit into the full story? Seeing it enacted in familiar spaces is a unique and moving experience and many people come back year after year.
“It was so moving. It just brings everything to you. It blew me away!”
“I brought my brother who is usually quite critical of religious things but he said it was very impressive.”
“I’m not religious but what an amazing day…a wonderful project bringing a diverse community together.”
“It was the first time I thought of Jesus as my friend.”
“First Class! Thought provoking and challenging is the best way. I did not want it to end.”
Some people get so much out of the plays that they want to take part in them and being in the large community casts is a unique and rewarding experience. Whether they have had prior acting experience or always dreaded being on the stage, they work with professional actors and directors to learn new skills, meet new people and overcome any fear of speaking in public!
What is not commonly known is the fact that England once had a long and rich history of Passion Plays. Plays about the death and resurrection were performed within the medieval Mystery Play cycles that were performed in York, Coventry, Lincoln, Chester and other places around the country. Every Easter people who were often illiterate could see the story of Easter take place in elaborate productions that used expensive costumes and fake blood for the crucifixion as well as fireworks and a flaming hell mouth for the resurrection and the defeat of the devil.
There were also additional scenes, such as the ‘Harrowing of Hell’ which attempted to dramatize what happened on Easter Saturday between Jesus’ death and resurrection. Since the Bible hints that Jesus descended into hell and set free the devil’s captives, the imaginative creators of the ‘Harrowing of Hell’ scenes had great fun showing the devil getting his just deserts in the bowels of hell.
Unfortunately, the Mystery Plays came to an end during the religious upheavals of the Reformation when the plays were thought to be too Catholic because they were performed on a Catholic feast day. By royal proclamation, all dramatization of religion and politics was banned and the Mystery Plays were no longer performed in public.
Today, however, Passion Plays are enjoying a resurgence and can be found performed across the UK every Easter. The Medieval Mystery Plays began this resurgence when they were publicly performed during the Festival of Britain in 1951, and today they are performed regularly in York, Chester and Lincoln.
We’d love you to join us at our Open Evening next Wednesday 17th August at 7.30pm as we launch our 50th Season of Drama ! More details below:
Stewarton Drama Group start their 50th season on Wednesday 17 August 2022 with an Open Evening for those over eighteen in the local area who are interested in any aspect of drama or theatre arts. On the night, there will be an opportunity to chat to group members, browse the photo gallery, see a slide show of group highlights and enjoy an informal reading of short comedy play.
The Group hopes to recruit new members and new patrons as they build back after two years of challenges brought by the pandemic. Throughout this period, they have maintained their momentum, by performing monologues and short comedy sketches on Zoom to local audiences, and in the past year, they’ve performed short plays in their own small theatre in Stewarton, to invited audiences of patrons and friends.
The Group are now very excited to build up activities in the months ahead, keeping quality local theatre alive and accessible.
In its 50th season, the Group is also acknowledging the contribution of Ismay McKenzie, founder member and first SDG President. Ismay performed in many plays and pantomimes, but she also produced many plays. One of her favourites, was the very funny one-act comedy, ‘The Devil His Due’, by Seamus Fail, which she first produced in 1984. So, aptly, the Group’s first production in season 2022-23 will be ‘The Devil His Due’, produced by Nancy McPherson, the current President. After an informal reading of the play at the Open Evening, the casting will take place the following evening, Thursday 18 August at 7.30pm. The production will be staged on 20, 21 & 23 October 2022 - more details coming soon !
If you’re interested in reading for a part, or taking on any of the many jobs such as building scenery, painting the set, collecting props, operating lighting and sound, managing costumes, doing make-up - or just coming along to join in the fun, you will be made very welcome.
Drama Group President for Season 2022-23, Nancy McPherson said:
"Stewarton Drama Group has connected very well with the local community over its 50 year span. Now more than ever, we value those connections and the friendships we’ve forged over the years. We are lucky to have our own small theatre in Corsehillbank Street, as well access to the larger theatre in Stewarton’s Area Centre. This has given us flexibility in planning our varied programmes. We have also built up a remarkable store of sets, costumes and props - not to mention experience in all aspects of the theatre.
"So, with all this to share, we’d love to meet you if you’re interested in participating. Please don’t hesitate - come along and meet us at our informal Open Evening on Wednesday 17 August in our Premises in Corsehillbank Street Stewarton, next to the tennis courts.
“If you’d like more information please email us at stewartondramagroup@hotmail.co.uk or follow us on Facebook at Stewarton Drama Group by clicking the ‘LIKE’ button at the top of the page to receive all our news updates.”
Best wishes
SDG Publicity Team
Posted on 10/08/2022
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As we now begin to go back to the theatre with a greater sense of well-being, I would like to remind you that our plays have been successfully performed for many years. We offer a huge range of titles, over 3,000 across all genres and for all casts – youth, mixed cast and all-women.
We can supply a free pdf of all our titles for approval purposes – a hard copy can be ordered if you prefer. Our book prices and performing fees are extremely competitive. You can choose from our back catalogue of well-established authors, such as Constance Cox, David Campton, Derek Benfield and Eric Crozier; or you can choose from our new, award-winning authors, such as Scott Marshall, Joe Graham, Ros Moruzzi, Mark Green, Ellie Fossey and Don Hill.
Please visit our website, www.cressrelles.co.uk, and download your free copy of all our catalogues – take a look through and email me, simon@cressrelles.co.uk, for a free pdf of any play for approval purposes.
Pantomime season is fast approaching, so if you haven't already chosen your panto, please head over to our website: www.cressrelles.co.uk and download our free Pantomime catalogue. Take a browse through the listings - including newer pantomimes from Joe Graham and Ellie Fossey, both popular and accomplished authors - as well as older classics from Tony Edwards, Pat Bisson or Susan Sachon, amongst others. We offer free pdfs for approval purposes, or I can post you a hard copy at our usual approval charges.
Best wishes for a great Summer,
Simon
Posted on 06/07/2022
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One wonders if Paula Hawkins (as she sat down to write her best-selling novel The Girl on the Train) ever thought it would become a 2016 film starring Emily Blunt, enjoy a stage tour in 2019 with Samantha Womack, and be picked up by Netflix for their Hindi/Indian film market in 2021? Imagine how excited she and adapters Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel must be that Banbury Cross Players have included it in their post-Covid come-back season!
The episodic style of this psychological thriller, the composite set, clever use of lighting and video, and the repeating train/bottle-smash/scream sound motif make this an all-round sensory experience for the audience. Flashback scenes gradually reveal more about the characters, their various relationships with each other, and they tease the audience by slowly uncovering the events of the fateful Saturday when Megan Hipwell disappeared. They mirror lead character, Rachel’s, slowly recovering memory of that same night and her involvement in it. Although the reveal is gradual, that’s not the pace of the play. It rattles along apace ... somewhat akin to rehearsals.
With a very tight schedule the cast are cramming in three rehearsals a week. "Scripts down" is very much in evidence. Lighting and Sound Plots are in place. Set design has been ticked off the list. Furniture and Costume remain a work in progress. There have been some very interesting in-bar-post-rehearsal discussions on such topics as tie-dye, waistcoats, jeans/no jeans and whether "Bright Squirt" or "Coagulated" will produce the best effect.
“Ambitious” and “fascinating” were some of the comments about this play from BCP members when it was proposed. We hope you’ll want to be in the audience with us on show week.
Tickets are available from The Mill Arts Centre on 01295 279002 or online at www.themillartscentre.co.uk We look forward to seeing you!
IN THE CHAIR
WELCOME to our new Chairman, Clare Lester
Clare took over the hot seat at our AGM in May (even though she was away on holiday at the time) and will steer the BCP ship for the next two years.
BCP is most definitely in Clare's blood. She is, after all, married to a founder member's son. Actor, director, play selection chair, archivist - Clare has performed these roles for BCP and many more.
We look forward to hearing what plans she has in store and wish her all the best on her new appointment.
COMING UP on the Thursday sessions
23 JUNE - Acting Coach and Director with All The World’s a Stage – a professional company based in Oxford - Charlotte Miranda Smith leads a practical workshop including warm up, projection, character development and movement. Anyone interested in acting really should come along.
30 JUNE - Read through of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Director Clare Lester takes us through our November 2022 production
7 JULY - Professional practitioner, Richard Kidd, takes us through a Stage Combat Workshop
12 & 14 JULY - Auditions for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Follow the Calendar link on the BCP website for more details
2022-2023 Season
November 2022
THE WOLVES of WILLOUGHBY CHASE
Adapted by Russ Tunney from Joan Aiken's novel
Directed by Clare Lester
March 2023
ROMEO and JULIET
William Shakespeare
Directed by Katy Roberts
July 2023
THINGS I KNOW to be TRUE
Andrew Bovell
Directed by Chrissie Garrett
Posted on 21/06/2022
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Putting the Spin on Agatha Christie's "Spider's Web"
Press Release April 2022
Click on the flyer to watch the video to hear the 'alibis' the suspects have come up with...
Your roving reporter snuck into the Spider's Web rehearsal room this weekend. It’s quite a privilege. The rehearsal room is a sacred space for a cast and production team. It’s a safe place to try out characterisations, that pesky accent, a real plate of sandwiches, or how to murder your fellow actor without causing actual bodily harm. It’s somewhere to make mistakes without fear of reprisal (mostly!). It’s a place to discuss if your wellies actually fit the period (who knew?).
It was also, for this observer, the place to see where the attention to detail is being paid; where the group dynamic is building, and most of all where a disparate bunch of people with a love for theatre (and all things Agatha Christie) work together to bring a show to a state fit for a paying audience.
There were some great fun moments (not just the period welly conversation) as I watched a steady stream of beautifully drawn, over-the-top characters leap off the pages of the script and into life with energy and enthusiasm. At one point, a character remarks “people are not quite what they seem” and this is most definitely true as the Queen of Crime weaves you expertly in one direction and then another.
I’ve got my ticket. Have you?
COMING UP on the Thursday sessions
• 28 Apr - Adrian McGlynn reveals his new project - George Orwell's A Clergyman's Daughter
Follow the Calendar link on the BCP website for more details
Preparations for The Girl on the Train are going ahead in the background. Director Linda Shaw is gathering her team around her for the final production of BCP's "post-Covid" Season.
If you would like to be part of the team for the show, please get in touch.
It’s quite something for a community theatre company to have been running for over 75 years. It’s also quite something when, among their membership, is a founder. And it is quite something else when that member celebrates their 100th birthday. Members of Banbury Cross Players, past and present, young and old, gathered at The Mill Arts Centre, Banbury, on Thursday 31 March 2022 to celebrate founder member Nevill Turner’s 100th Birthday.
The evening – devised by Archivist Clare Lester - began with a fascinating insight (presented by his son, Jem) into Nevill’s education, his move to Canada, and his work life on returning to the UK. Dr Turner’s explanation of the thesis which earned him his PhD in metallurgy proved somewhat complex for all but Nevill himself!
Nevill was then subjected to a gruelling two-minute round of Mastermind. He scored 10 points and no passes on the specialist subject of – you guessed it - Nevill Turner.
Key productions from Nevill’s time with BCP were highlighted with members asking Nevill about his stand out thoughts and memories of them. First up was Noel Coward’s Hay Fever - BCP’s inaugural production. Then followed Jean Anouilh’s Ring Round the Moon. Hugh Whitemore’s Pack of Lies (directed by Nevill in 1989 and revived by BCP in 2015) was next. And finally came Arthur Miller’s The Crucible which Nevill directed the first ever amateur production of in 1964 and was revived by BCP in 2016.
Cake and champagne were served up with a tribute from BCP’s current Chair, Chrissie Garrett, and the assembled members stood to raise a toast to Nevill.
Nevill closed the evening with his own tribute to members no longer with us, and signed off with a story of The American and The Elizabethan Folk Tunes that almost got him (Nevill) arrested in the 1950s (sounds like the title of a play!).
A most erudite and entertaining raconteur with extensive theatrical knowledge who BCP members feel privileged to know. Happy 100th Birthday Nevill!
COMING UP on the Thursday sessions
• 7 Apr - Vocal Workshop with Professional Opera Singer Rebecca Moseley-Morgan. See Rebecca’s website for more of her background https://www.inspectorvoice.co.uk/
• 14 & 21 Apr - Liz Riley continues her Directing Workshop sessions with input from BCP directors on their own approaches
• 28 Apr - Adrian McGlynn reveals his new project - George Orwell's A Clergyman's Daughter
Follow the Calendar link on the BCP website for more details
Auditions for The Girl on the Train saw a mix of current, new and returning BCP actors. Director Linda Shaw had a challenging time making the final decision but can now announce she is looking forward to working with the following "Girl" team.
Rachel - Ellie Alsworth
Tom - Justin Clinch
Megan - Imogen Tredwell
Scott - Jack Curran
Anna - Katy Roberts
Kamal - Suchit Kulkarni
DI Gaskill - Philip Fine
Congratulations all! If you would like to be part of the Production team for the show, please get in touch.
