A Word from the Past President
As you all probably know Peter Carr who was voted in as President in March has since resigned and our Vice President Brent Bythell is back at the helm until the 2015 AGM. We thank Peter for his commitment during this period and hopefully he will still help in some way in the background.
We are now into our fourth show of the year – Soul Train directed by Huia Veale. Please come and support our end of year show and why not get a group together and make a night of it. If you like Tamla Motown this is for you. You can look forward to some beautiful soulful renditions of many well known and not so well known songs.
Looking forward to seeing you all at Soul Train.
Cheers, Roger
Calendar 2014
December
“Soul Train” directed by Huia Veale. December 4-6 & 11-13
Provisional Calendar 2015
March/April
“Awhi Tapu” directed by Meg Cooksley and written by Albert Belz.
At the foot of the Urewera ranges lies Awhi Tapu, a desolate forestry village. With the forestry industry closed down, the people of Awhi Tapu have left. Wendyl, Sonny, Casper and Girl have only each other to rely on. Awhi Tapu is a story of loss, belonging but most of all, friendship.
July/August
“Whistle Down The Wind” directed by Rob Heather, Musical Direction by Graham Orchard takes place in a small Louisiana town, just before Christmas 1959.
Based on the novel by Mary Hayley Bell and subsequent Richard Attenborough film, Whistle Down the Wind follows the fortunes of a fugitive caught between the prejudice of adults and the innocence of the young. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman, together with Patricia Knop and Gale Edwards (co-book writers with Andrew Lloyd Webber) reset the original story in Louisiana in 1959.
Whistle Down the Wind revolves around the time and place where the word teenager was invented. Swallow, a 15 year-old-girl growing up in America’s deep South in the fifties, discovers a mysterious man hiding out in a barn. When she asks who he is and the first words he utters are “Jesus Christ”, it’s as if all her prayers have been answered. Swallow and the town’s other children vow to protect the stranger from the world that waits outside – the townspeople who are determined to catch a fugitive hiding it their midst. As fantasy and reality collide, Swallow is torn between the two and begins to discover who she is and where she is going.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s emotive score combines hauntingly beautiful love songs and explosive rock music. The score contrasts the relentless influence of the modern world with the traditional values of the old days – something which the community at the heart of Whistle Down the Wind yearns to return to. The sensational score, travels through the rousing gospel opening of The Vaults of Heaven through pulsating rock songs such as Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts, via the lilting melody of the title track Whistle Down the Wind and the song which became a No 1 hit for Boyzone No Matter What.
November/December
“Steel Magnoliias” directed by Peter Edwards is a comedy–drama play about the bond among a group of Southern women in northwest Louisiana. Written by Robert Harling, based on his experience with his sister’s death. www.otakiplayers.org.nz