REPS REPORTER – JANUARY 2010

Dear Members and Friends

Here’s a short note to you to start off the new year.

First off, best wishes to you all for a very successful 2010. I hope your Christmas and New Year celebrations were good and that you had a safe and peaceful festive season. Reps has been extremely busy during this period, with two excellent shows on stage and a major social event on New Year’s Eve, as well as visit by many former members or supporters who now live out of the country but who ‘came home’ for Christmas. Thank you to all those members who have already paid their subs for 2010 and a reminder to everyone else to please get yours in before January 15, please.

The year ahead is an exceptionally busy one and if all goes according to plan we shall have one of the best years for the theatre and society! What we need is your continued support and involvement – and perhaps an even greater involvement from some members who are not at present actively involved in any area of endeavour within the society.

Our 50/80 celebration is now underway as we mark the 50th anniversary of the Reps Theatre on January 13 and we take it right through to the celebration of the Repertory Players’ 80th anniversary on February 17 2011 – 13 months of activity. There are a number of productions lined up for this year, many of them Reps productions but others are joint venture or hire shows. They will all be good and each of them needs support from members and promotion from members among their family, friends and colleagues.

You can now buy a Season Ticket for 12 productions being staged during 2010 – at a really good discount price. Call Erin Cooper at the Reps office to find out more. While there, check out our anniversary memorabilia catalogue and find out when the next orders will be placved for these excellent mementoes of our 50/80 celebration.

Our theatre’s anniversary will be celebrated with a production called 50 Golden Years, written by Dawn Parkinson, directed by Sue Bolt and with musical direction by Meg Mackenzie. It has only four public performances after a gala night start – Jan 14 (7pm), Jan 15 (7pm), Jan 16 (2.30pm and 7pm). This will be a delightful revue that will entertain family audiences.

Next up is a drama called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, written by Tom Stoppard and directed by Kevin Hanssen, featuring Repteens and other young actors and actresses. It runs from January 26 to 30.

In February Reps presents a musical show called Seasons In The Sun, directed by Stan Higgins as a follow-up to Those Were The Days and Top Of The Pops. This fun shows will once again feature music from the 50s, 60s and 70s, presented in song dance by a wonderful cast of singers and dancers.

Zane E Lucas, who had such hits during 2009 as Cabaret and Striking 12, will present Noel Coward’s Hay Fever in February in the Theatre Upstairs. This will no doubt be as well-produced as his other productions and well worth watching.

Until later in this month, when we shall send out a second January newsletter, here’s wishing you well and inviting you to share in the excitement of Reps during 2010.

Yours theatrically
Teri Grimmel, Chairman