Author: Merlin Beedell

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Merlin Beedell/ / WYTKids

Our January 2020 production is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the musical)

‘Come with me, and you’ll see, there’s a world of pure imagination’.

WDC and WYTKidz are well into rehearsals for this well-loved Roald Dahl musical in January 2020, directed by Amanda Dann whose production of Private Peaceful last November received a NODA award.

Performances are at the end of Jan 2020. Want to get involved, backstage, front of house, making props or something else? Then, contact Amanda on 01580 200948 or email info@dramatiks.co.uk.

Oct 2019 – “Free & Easy” a very entertaining musical show

Merlin Beedell/ / Productions

17-19th October 2019: Free & Easy from The Very Merry Roosters and friends

Set in 1960’s London, Eric and Iris Dobbins run a friendly neighbourhood pub (The Last Drop) with a regular ‘Free & Easy’ evening (an ‘Open Mic’ Night). Everybody knows everybody – it’s a real family pub, somewhere to feel safe and comfortable. This peaceful existence is threatened by a visit from Ron Stone, the brewery’s new consultant who presents them with a 5-year business plan and revised tenancy agreement. Seeing the ‘marketing potential’ of The Last Drop, Stone has persuaded the brewery to demand £25,000 for a new agreement. Failure to pay means eviction – and will allow the consultants to transform the pub into an ‘entertainment centre’ for pole-dancing and other salacious events. Eric, Iris and daughter Tracy are distraught, barmaids Vanessa and Sharon are devastated, and the regulars are disconcerted. How can this be stopped? Ah! You need to wait until October 2019.

Free & Easy will be performed by our Lamberhurst-based friends, ‘The Very Merry Roosters’, by special invitation from Wadhurst Dramatic Club.  With over fifteen songs from the 50s and 60s performed live on stage, there’s a guarantee you won’t be disappointed.  If you’d like to get involved on-stage or off-stage, there will be some room for Wadhurst actors/ singers & dancers too. 

Want to get involved? Contact the director Russ Kirton on tvmroosters@gmail.com. Get your 60’s gear ready and your dancing shoes warmed up – come and join us!

Review of 2018 (AGM)

Merlin Beedell/ / Meetings

Join us at our Annual General Meeting when we discuss ideas for the future – we’d welcome your input.

Wednesday 13th Feb 2019 at 7:45 in the Commemoration Hall


Without a new Commemoration Hall on the horizon, we need to look at how we can improve and enhance the performance, rehearsal and storage space that we have – so anyone with ideas is very welcome to come along.  In this past year, we’ve invested in new sound, light and stage equipment, so we have a very real contribution to make.
We are a very inclusive drama club, we don’t have members, so all supporters are welcome at all our events.  We are looking at restructuring the committee to try and broaden the contribution while reducing the individual workload, so there is plenty of opportunity for involvement without too much commitment.  If you’d be prepared to our friendly committee, just click reply to this email. we’d love to hear from you. And of course there’ll be nibbles and drinks to toast the success of ‘Allo ‘Allo, W.O.T.T., Private Peaceful and Bah Humbug! and to welcome in the next dramatic year!

Bah Humbug! A success!

Merlin Beedell/ / Productions

Read NODA’s fantastic review of Bah Humbug!

Bah Humbug! the Poster

It may not be a Panto, but it is just as much fun for all the family… and it’s a story not just for Christmas.  A reminder, perhaps, to be more forgiving and generous in the year of Brexit.

Once again brilliantly directed by Kay Sasada, it features toe-tapping songs from the pen of Bill Francoeur, who you may recall from “Flapper!” and the hilarious “Way out West in a Dress“.

Private Peaceful – the NODA review

Merlin Beedell/ / WYTKids

This moving story of a First World War soldier by Michael Morpurgo is translated into a powerful, thought-provoking drama performed by the Wadhurst Youth Theatre group, WYTKidz, directed by Amanda Dann.

Our local rep of the “National Operatic and Dramatic Association” (NODA) was very touched by the performance as can be seen in her: Private Peaceful NODA Review



‘Private Peaceful‘ is the story of a 16 year old, First World War soldier, Tommo Peaceful, who is awaiting the firing squad at dawn.  The night before, he relives his joyful childhood at school, his adventures with Molly, the love of his life, and the injustices of the war that brought him to the front line.

 

The three performances were on:
·         Friday 16th November at 7.30pm
·         Sunday 18th November 1.30pm and at 6.30pm

 

 

AGM 2017 – The results

Merlin Beedell/ / Meetings

At the end of November we had a good ol’ catch up and not only reviewed 2017 but looked forward to 2018 and beyond. We celebrated our two Accolades of Excellence awarded by NODA South East Region for WYTKidz’ Grease and WDC’s Way Out West In A Dress. John Bush, our president, presented the NODA certificates to the respective directors, Amanda Dann and Kay Sasada. They will hang on our new picture rail in the Orchard Room.
The elected committee are John Bush (President), Jan Lynam (Chair), Marianne Johnson (Treasurer), Catherine Whitehead (Vice Chair), Jill Haskell (Minutes Secretary), Dot Smytherman, Amanda Dann, Anneka Bones, Merlin Beedell, Russ Kirton, James Edwards, Paul Desrosiers and Penny Bones.

Hairspray the musical – Read the Review!

Merlin Beedell/ / WYTKids

The Noda review is now in! Photos and NODA Report

A vibrant and talented young cast will be taking to the Commemoration Hall stage at the end of October to bring you the scintillating and funny 60s musical, ‘Hairspray’.

In 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, plump teenager Tracy Turnblad’s dream is to dance on The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance programme. When Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight, and meets a colourful array of characters, leading to social change as she campaigns for the show’s integration.
In 2003 the show won eight Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical, out of 13 nominations. It ran for 2,642 performances, and closed on January 4, 2009. Hairspray was adapted in 2007 as a musical film and also had a London West End production nominated for a record-setting eleven Laurence Olivier Awards, winning four including Best New Musical.

 

Tickets: £8 for adults, £5 for under 18s, £25 family ticket (2 adults & up to 3 children) – available from the beginning of October on TicketSource or from Southern Cross Travel on Wadhurst High St (right next to the Commem).
Special rates for groups of 10 or more – please contact Catherine c.m.whitehead@btinternet.com or on 01892 783384.
Performances start at 7.30pm on Thursday 26th, Friday 27th and Saturday 28th with a matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday 28th October.  Doors and bar open half an hour before curtain up.

We’ll have you dancing in the aisles, you’ll come away singing and wowed by the young talent we have in Wadhurst!

“Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!” The NODA Review!

Merlin Beedell/ / Productions

“Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!”
The play, by Nobel prize-winning Dario Fo, is a combination of comedy and satire. A spontaneous demonstration by women against rising prices ends in a riot and mass theft. Crazy disasters pile on each other as Antonia and Margherita try to conceal from their husbands what they have stolen by pretending to be miraculously pregnant and try to convince a sceptical police inspector that all the local women are celebrating the feast of St. Eulalia, the patron saint of fertility. This leads to characters eating dog food, making soup from strange ingredients, hiding in coffins and a Maoist police sergeant following Giovanni and Luigi’s lead and looting goods from a jack-knifed lorry.
The comedy is fast and furious with an undertone of real pathos and contains some coarse language.

See the Full Programme and Review for the production that took place on Thursday 18th, Friday 19th and Saturday 20th May, starting at 7.45pm.