Success and Sadness, in Equal Measure
Well, who’d have known it? Following the enormous success of our last production, affectionately known as ‘Dead Wicked’, little did we know what other personal success was waiting in the wings for two of our members
Anyone who was fortunate to see ‘April in Paris’ at the Little Theatre in January of this year will not be in the least bit surprised to hear that it was nominated in several categories for this year’s Sooty Awards, which are awarded annually by Leicester Drama Society; Leigh White was nominated for Best Director (Play) and Kat Seddon was nominated for Best Leading Performance in a Play
The Little Theatre puts on literally hundreds of plays and shows each year so there were a lot of nominations. But I’m delighted to say that Leigh and Kat both won! We are so proud of their achievements and we look forward to many more successes, both for them and for us.
But we were also sad to hear that one of the founder members of QTs, Frances Wesson, passed away on Saturday 3rd August, aged 89 years. Not only was Frances a founder member and she was also a very valuable member of SADOS, when it was still active. I first met her in 2011 when she cast me in my first production for QTs, later allowing me to be Assistant Director for her and then encouraging me to take the plunge and direct. She gave me a great deal of very valuable advice and we would meet up, every month, to discuss how things were going. But one thing you quickly learned about her was “you don’t mess with Frances”!
So what’s next for us then? Well, we have decided to try something a bit different! We are using 12 short scenes which were written in 2020 and 2022 for Ilkley Playhouse Writing Festival. The instigator, Jay Cundell Walker, initiated the first one during the 2020 lockdown, to keep the name of Ilkley Playhouse in the public eye and to promote creativity. She received 84 entries! Because it was so successful, she invited writers again in 2022 which resulted in a further 15 short plays being made available to us.
It has proved quite difficult to choose from such a wide range of genres but we’ve managed it! In order to make it a bit ‘different’, Leigh will also be adding some musical numbers, choosing songs which will be relevant to the scene that the audience has either just watched or are about to watch. But, as Leigh says, “We won’t plonk a song in for the sake of it. It’s not a musical”!
We are delighted that we have four new actors joining us – Andy Masters and Jackie Dowse, who have enjoyed great success at Tolethorpe Hall, Amy Hollis who is currently in rehearsal for ‘Beautiful’ that will be performed at the Little Theatre and Jess Gallagher, who is a student at Wreake Valley Academy. We are looking forward to working with them all.
The production, currently known as ‘Perfect 10’ will begin rehearsals at the end of August and will be performed from Tuesday 26th to Friday 29th of November at The Old Chapel in Chapel Street, Syston LE7 1GN. Further information re tickets, etc. will be available soon. We’ll keep you posted on ‘all things theatre’ through Syston Town News, Facebook and our website https://www.qttheatregp.co.uk. If you need any further information, just send an email to qtsyston@gmail.com.
We are looking forward to seeing you all again in November!
Jude Latham – Director