Company Theatre

Company News

 

November production announced. 

Little Gem by Elaine Murphy. Directed by Des Smith.

Little Gem is an award winning play written by Dublin playwright Elaine Murphy and was first produced by Guna Nua at Dublin’s 2008 Fringe Festival. It has been in continuous production since its debut. Three generations of Irish women: daughter, mother, grandmother, tell the story of one year in their lives, each from their own perspective. The stories are full of humour and pathos.  “This is a play that makes you feel better about life when you leave the theatre than you did when you entered.” A true “gem” of a play: funny, moving and unusual.

Auditions completed for It's Just Sex.  See Current Production.

 

 AGM held on 18th February 2013.

President's Report by Sherry Ede

Company Theatre President Report for AGM  2013
Welcome to the Company Theatre AGM.
2012 was an unusual year in that for the first time in our history, we were only able to produce two shows.  The middle production Ding Dong had to be cancelled at the very last minute, due to the withdrawal of the leading man, after a potentially serious arm accident, the week before Pack In.   As it happened to be my own production, I know there was a huge amount of disappointment - but on the bright side, from a Company Theatre viewpoint, we made more money from the two productions this last year, than we did from the three shows the previous year!

So for 2012 – thank you to directors, Kathy Gent and Sian Davis for Fawlty Towers in March, and The Mousetrap in November. We will long remember these two productions.
Both of them were popular for different reasons and thus offered a good contrast in styles for our patrons.  We enjoyed the antics of Basil Fawlty and Manuel but also the antics of Mr Paravicini and Mr Christophe Wren– to name just a few.  Overall the acting in both was superb, the characters so well depicted, and the sets….I think we truly excelled even our own high expectations with the fantastic two level set for Fawlty, and the wonderful atmospheric grey toned manor house recreated for The Mousetrap.  From design, to costumes, to set construction to lighting and sound – in all areas, these two productions were First Class.  I can’t remember receiving so many emails and phone calls from happy patrons wanting to pass on their thanks to Company Theatre for a great night out.   Congratulations to the cast, the crews and the FOH helpers for the successes of 2012.

Improvements during 2012
Over this last year we have further enhanced our facilities:
1.  Firstly with the development of an extra storage area under the auditorium. This is to be primarily for wardrobe - with a very small section for properties.  Over the coming months we will begin the move from storage at the Barracks to this new area. 

2. Secondly, we have sourced more funding to continue the Mezzanine development and it is almost complete! Thank you to The Rose Centre Board for their help in this area.  The final stage will go ahead around the middle of the year giving. Finding space to rehearse will be a thing of the past! This deserves an opening ceremony celebration later in the year.

3. Thirdly, our website is increasingly a useful and time saving application for the running of the society.  Our newsletter is now more easily prepared and distributed through it, with a new professional looking format, and no postage costs!  Anyone interested in what’s happening at Company Theatre, the website is now the best first, free and open step.  We have nearly 600 subscribers - who receive an email alert when a new production is about to open.  In view of the internet era committee feels it is time to update our Membership description that hasn’t changed for about 10 years.  A new motion will be presented to this AGM meeting.

In November this year we celebrated 20 years at The Rose Centre.  Champagne and a wonderful big chocolate cake were enjoyed by invited guests, followed by the opening night of The Mousetrap.  We looked back, to November 1992, our first production in The Rose of Habeas Corpus and it was great to see some of the people from that first production still involved with Company after 20 years!

Overall Company Theatre is in a good financial position for the year ahead with another exciting and varied line up for 2013.   The Committee continues to be very careful in play selection. This is a time consuming job each year.    We are conscious of trying to involve new people, as this is essential for our growth, whilst also relying on some of the same experienced Company Directors.  

We continue to have an excellent base of people dedicated to the contribution they make.  Attention to detail at all levels is one of the reasons for our success.  If there is one area to improve on this year, it is to grow the support base for our FOH. We need many helpers for each performance and need to make sure that participation is enjoyable and rewarding for those volunteering their time.   

Thank you to the small committee of 2012.   We started with ten committee members.
Early on in the year Lynne Davis, Phil Davis, Sheila Copus and Linda Camplin all resigned for different personal reasons but on the whole, the remaining six have worked well together.  They were our Vice President, Kathy Gent, our Secretary Ruth Chapman, our Treasurer, Richard Parmee, and committee members Alastair Fletcher and Graeme Webber.

Overall I believe we can be proud of our productions and the high standing we have in the local community.  Our shows are valued not just by our members who participate in them, and the happy patrons who see them, but by many Service and Fundraising groups like Probus and Rotary and Lions, who look with anticipation for our next production - confident it will be worth a visit for themselves - and their group.   In this way Company has helped raise hundreds of dollars for the local community in the last year and we are planning to continue this in 2013. Our first production for the year, Calendar Girls will have a performance with all funds to the North Shore Hospice. 
I wish you all good times with COMPANY for the coming year ahead.   
Sherry Ede  (President 2012)

 Company Theatre celebrates 20 years at The Rose Centre.

On Friday 9th November, a special event took place to mark our 20th year at The Rose Centre.

The Rose Centre opened in Belmont in September 1992 and the first Company production, as the resident theatre group, was Habeas Corpus by Alan Bennett in November 1992.   The Rose is now a flourishing Community Centre, Pre-School and fully equipped theatre facility – available for hire to other societies and performers, in between Company’s three major productions a year.  
Members of Company Theatre sit on The Rose Centre Board and help with the running of the Centre as a whole.

This special celebration included welcome drinks and nibbles and a cake was cut by Sherry Ede, President of Company Theatre, (left) and Paddy Stafford-Bush, Patron of The Rose Centre (right). 

The first performance of the just released, (for amateur rights), classic, murder thriller The Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie was presented by Company Theatre to invited guests.

Below is a photo of Sian Davis, Director of The Mousetrap and Janet Williamson, Set Designer for The Mousetrap.

Other guests included regular users of The Rose Centre, eg The Rose Centre Writer’s Group, The Rose Centre Pre-School staff, representatives from the Auckland City Council, members of other theatre groups who use the facility from time to time, past Presidents and Committee members of Company Theatre, past and present members of The Rose Centre Board, and other people who have contributed to the success of The Rose Centre over the last 20 years. 

Some of the special guests were (in photo) Sue Gross, Past President of Company Theatre, Phil Davis in charge of Set Construction and Gary Jenkin.

Thanks were given to the current Manager of The Rose Centre, Richard Parmee, (below) for his input in making The Rose a successful community facility.

 

Alastair Fletcher, barman, and Past President of Company Theatre, welcomes guests.

Phyllis Andrews from The Rose Centre Board, helps to welcome the guests.

Second from left is Graeme Webber, Company Committee Member, then Brian Stafford-Bush, and on right is Tony Sandy, one of the longest members of Company Theatre (and husband of Cathie Sandy, Company's fabulous Wardrobe Mistress.)

NEWS FLASH! October 2012

*NEWS FLASH* Company Theatre has the rights to present Calendar Girls by Tim Firth.  Based on the true story of eleven WI members who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund, Calendar Girls is the fastest selling play in British theatre history.

Huge interest in Calendar Girls!  Below is an article that appeared in the Sunday Herald, August 19th 2012.

PLEASE NOTE The girls in the photo are not all in the final casting that is now complete. They just helped out with this photo shoot for the Herald.  For details of FINAL CASTING, see CALENDAR GIRLS page.

 

Jill Chamberlain, Claire Wingfield, Sue Golding, Liz Brown, Julie Collis, Jan Judson and Julia Brannigan. Photo Anne Rimmer

Article below by Russell Blackstock

Hundreds of everyday Kiwi women are showing plenty of naked ambition to join a world record bid.
The release of the amateur rights to perform the hit play Calendar Girls has sparked unprecedented interest from theatre groups around the country.
"It is the biggest response we've ever had to a production," says Bill Griffith, from the Play Bureau in New Plymouth, which licenses the show in New Zealand. "We've been deluged with applications from Dargaville to Balclutha and everywhere in between."

Such is the worldwide demand to stage the play that the release window has been extended from 12 to 18 months. Rival theatre companies overseas have even been fighting over putting it on at the same venues.

The producers want to establish a world record for the most productions of one play and donate a percentage of the box office to leukaemia and lymphoma research. Thirty New Zealand groups have so far applied to stage the play.

Calendar Girls is based on the true story of a group of Yorkshirewomen who, in 1999, posed naked for a calendar in aid of charity after the death of one of their husbands from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A 2003 film version starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters made almost US$100 million.

Among the first to strut their stuff in New Zealand will be the brave women cast in a production on Auckland's North Shore. The Company Theatre group in Belmont is auditioning for 10 women - and four blokes - for an extended run of Calendar Girls at the Rose Centre, starting in April next year. A few enthusiasts got together this week over some cupcakes from local cafe Little & Friday.

Director Kathy Gent is in no doubt about what she is looking for at the auditions in two months: "Women of 40-plus with some stage experience and who don't need to have figures like supermodels.
"Oh, and not being too shy would certainly be an advantage."