The Committee

Chairman Vicky Burden

Treasurer Melanie Haydon

Secretary Vanessa Sharpe

Committee members

Nigel Coleman

Alan Glynne Jones

Sue Holligan

Rebecca Rickard

or contact the committee on: somborneplayers@googlemail.com

Upcoming Events:

· Panto 2008

The Players’ 2008 production of Cinderella – Friday 22^nd and Saturday 23^rd February 2008 in the Village Hall - is already looking to be a must-see panto. Vicky Burden as director and Melanie Haydon as producer have been working hard for the last few months to put together a cast and a production team, and rehearsals are now underway. If you want to get involved in the panto there is still room for chorus members, children and backstage/front of house crew – just contact Vicky or Melanie. Cast list and rehearsal schedule are attached.

· Improvisation Evening

Returning by popular demand... the infamous improvisation evening! 7.45 this Wednesday 21^st November in the Epworth Hall. If you want to work on your acting skills or just want to have a laugh, come and join us. With some different activities from last time, whether you made it to the last one or not, you won’t want to miss out on this one. Contact Vanessa or Sue for more info.

· Pub Quiz

Our Christmas get together this year will be after the panto rehearsal on Thursday13^th December. The plan is to finish rehearsing at 9pm and move to the Crown (subject to confirmation) for a buffet and pub quiz. All those not involved in panto can join us there. More details by email nearer the time – if you’re not on email then contact Alan to make sure you receive updates on the plans.

· Events for 2008

Further events for 2008 will be detailed in another newsletter in the New Year – we don’t want to overload you with info in the busy run-up-to-Christmas season. Big events coming up include a Children’s Production in the summer and a potential Village concert in collaboration with other Village groups in the spring. We also need people to start thinking about directing or producing the next Autumn Play and what that play should be. Alongside all this, we’ll keep having regular monthly meetings just for fun.

Past Events

· Autumn Play

The Players’ production of J.B. Priestley’s “An Inspector Calls” in October 2007 was a huge success. We attracted larger audiences than in the past few years for the play and made a healthy profit of £464. Over the two nights 180 people attended, including a group of 50 school children from Wiltshire who stayed after the performance to ask the cast and director some questions. The Players received excellent feedback from the audience who particularly enjoyed the choice of play, the quality of acting, the costumes and the bar!

The committee would like to thank Vanessa Sharpe for directing, Jo Finch for producing and Chris Hall for the set design and creation – all of whom put in many hours to make this production a triumph. Vanessa would like to extend her particular thanks and commendations to the cast, who had a tougher job than ever before learning a huge amount of lines and delivering a serious and dramatic performance, and who all rose to the challenge beautifully. Thanks as well to any one who helped out in any way; productions of this scale can only work as a team effort and all contributions are appreciated.

· Harvest Supper

As if that weren’t enough, the Players also contributed to the entertainment at the Harvest Supper a week later. Thanks to Vicky Burden for organising two very enjoyable sketches, to Audrey Gannaway for directing, and to those who performed.

· Other Events

Over the summer the Players organised a barbecue at Sue Holligan’s and a walk and picnic around the local countryside planned by Nigel Coleman. Although the weather could have been better for the first of these events, both were very enjoyable and it was great to get together with people to be sociable rather than “dramatic”. Look out for more events of this kind coming up next year.

Costume

Huge thanks to Marsh Court for storing our costumes in a time of desperate need. We are pleased to say that costumes have now been relocated to a more permanent home in Sarah Litton’s garage in Up Somborne – more huge thanks to Sarah and Andy for letting us use this space. This means that after a bit more sorting, costumes will available for use again. We are also, however, bidding for a grant from Test Valley Council some of which, if awarded, will be used to buy our own space for costume storage.

Website

Don’t forget, the Players now have their very own easy to access website. You can find this on www.giraffeandtiger.plus.com/players or by going to the Sombornes website on www.thesombornes.org.uk and clicking on the link in the Players page. The website includes past and current information on committee meetings, AGMs, newsletters and productions and also has links to photos and a forum for discussion.

Don’t worry if you’re not online – all important information will be delivered by hand to those who don’t have email addresses. But if you do like to know what’s going on on a more regular basis, the forum is a great way to share ideas and have your say.

Membership

Thank you to all who have renewed their membership this year. If you have not yet paid your annual subscription, this is now due to be paid to Melanie. If you would like to join the players this costs £6 for adults and £3 for under 16s. Your membership card will give you a quick reference to the committee, the website and events throughout the year. You will also receive regular newsletters and details of upcoming productions. Please ensure when you join that your contact details are up to date.