Jan 19, 2025
Our autumn production for 2025 will be A Brief Encounter with Noël Coward, and open auditions will take place on Thursday 30th January.
We will be staging two short plays by Coward at the Broadbent Theatre in October 2025: Still Life, which was the basis for the classic 1945 film Brief Encounter, and Come Into the Garden, Maud.
You are invited to audition for parts in either or both plays. Ages shown are for guidance only.
In Still Life, directed by Martin Noble, Alec and Laura meet and fall in love in a railway station tearoom. Their relationship is mirrored by the courtship rituals of two other couples. But Alec and Laura are both happily married – will they follow their hearts or bury their love forever?
Roles and playing ages:
Alec Harvey – mid to late 30s
Laura Jesson – mid 30s
Myrtle Bagot – 40s-60s
Albert Godby – 40s-60s
Beryl Waters – early 20s
Stanley – early to mid 20s
Bill and Johnnie – 20s
Mildred – early 20s
Dolly Messiter – mid 30s to mid 40s
Young man – any age
In Come Into the Garden, Maud, directed by Su Toogood, an American couple are staying in a luxury Swiss hotel. Anne-Mary is petulant and domineering, while her husband Verner is quiet and philosophical. Verner is drawn to a wealthy widow, Maud Caragnani, who pays the couple a visit. Will he take a chance on love, or remain stuck in his loveless marriage?
Roles and playing ages:
Vernon Conklin – 55, American accent
Anne-Mary Conklin – 50s, American accent
Maud Caragnani – 44, English accent (a few lines in Italian)
Felix, a waiter – 20s – early 30s, French (a few lines in Italian)
Auditions will take place at 7.30pm on Thursday 30th January 2025 at St Mary Le Wigford church hall, next to Lincoln railway station.
If you are interested in auditioning but unable to attend, please email stoogood1946@gmail.com.
Jan 8, 2025
There was a good turnout at our company meeting on 7th January despite the cold weather and flood situation.
We finalised dates for all our forthcoming productions and reported a very healthy bank balance!
Minutes of the meeting will be circulated to everyone on our members’ mailing list. If you’d like to be added to the list, please send an email to our Secretary, Su Toogood.
Jan 1, 2025
We’ll be holding our biannual company meeting upstairs at the Victoria Pub in Lincoln on Tuesday 7th January at 7.30pm.
These meetings are an opportunity for members to discuss forthcoming productions and for newcomers to get to the know the company!
Items on the agenda will include an update on our spring production of The Father and a look back at our latest show, Educating Rita.
Everyone is welcome, including new members – grab a drink at the bar before coming up to join us!
The Victoria pub can be found between The Lawn and the back of Lincoln Castle on Union Road.
Aug 22, 2024
Our final play reading for this summer season will be Still Life, the short Noël Coward play which became Brief Encounter’on the silver screen.
We’ll be reading this play at 7:30pm on Tuesday 3rd September in the upper room at The Victoria pub, Union Road, Lincoln LN1 3BJ. Get a drink at the bar and come up and join us!
Still Life is a short play in five scenes, one of ten plays that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings. It portrays the chance meeting, subsequent love affair, and eventual parting of a married woman and a physician.
The sadness of their serious and secretive affair is contrasted throughout the play with the boisterous, uncomplicated relationship of a second couple. Still Life differs from most of the plays in the cycle by having an unhappy ending.
The play was first produced in London in May 1936 and was staged in New York in October of that year. It has been revived frequently and is probably best known in its film form as ‘Brief Encounter’, which was released in cinemas in 1945 starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson.
We are planning to stage Still Life in the near future but this is NOT an audition, just an opportunity to get to know the play.
Hope to see you there!
Jul 24, 2024
Thanks to everyone who attended our annual meeting on Tuesday 23rd July 2024.
The current committee was re-elected unopposed and Vicky Ashberry was elected as a sixth member.
Future productions were confirmed as follows:
Educating Rita
by Willy Russell, directed by Su Toogood
19th to 21st September 2024
The Father
by Florian Zeller (translated by Christopher Hampton), directed by Jez Ashberry
10th to 12th April 2025
The Birthday Party
by Harold Pinter, directed by Julia Ross
TBC
Under Milk Wood (reading)
by Dylan Thomas, directed by Colin Brimblecombe
TBC
Still Life & Come Into the Garden, Maud
by Noël Coward, directed by Martin Noble and AN Other
TBC
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by William Shakespeare, directed by Vicky Ashberry
TBC
Confusions
by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Vicky Ashberry
TBC
Membership subscriptions were held at £18 / £12 unwaged and are now due for 2024/5.
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