Download CHAIRMAN`S REPORT AGM 2015

RADS CHAIRMAN'S REPORT AGM 2015
Madam President, Members, Ladies & Gentlemen:
It seems like only yesterday since I took over from Jim Brown as Chairman, but here we are one year
on and I'm privileged to be able to present my report for the year 2014-15. Last year's summer
production was The Vicar of Dibley, directed by Kevan Fawkes, a production which was enjoyed with
equal hilarity by both cast and audience. We were fortunate to find a very talented and plausible
Geraldine in Ann Greer who was favourably compared with Dawn French by the critics; and a strong
ensemble cast hammed its way through all the favourite set-pieces of the early Vicar of Dibley
stories to great acclaim, which was reflected in the Box Office takings. It would be invidious of me to
single out any cast member, but special mention must go to Lucy Owens, who took over the major
part of Alice with only a couple of weeks to go.
In September we were proud to present the world premiere of 'Do You Remember When?' written
and directed by our very own Barbara Hughes at the Sedgefield Festival - it was very favourably
received by the audience although the adjudicator seemed more content to focus on a couple of
one-off slip-ups than a rounded criticism of the play as a whole. Hopefully Barbara was encouraged
enough that we might anticipate some more drama from her pen.
November saw Jim Brown revisit his favourite Absurd Theatre with Harold Pinter's 'The Birthday
Party', poles apart from The Vicar of Dibley but no less worthwhile. Jim's avowed intention was to
have our audiences deep in discussion about Pinter's intent after the performances, and that
certainly seemed to be the case; the cast performed with conviction under Jim's expert hand and
this had the effect of drawing the audience in to the murky world of Pinter's imagination.
With no other offers to direct forthcoming, Jim kindly put his hand up again to direct our entry to the
Georgian Theatre's One-Act Play Festival, another absurdist piece called 'The Lesson' by Romanian
author Eugene Ionesco. Unfortunately, we eventually had to withdraw from the Festival because of
problems getting cuts authorised by the author's agents. Mistakes in timely communication were
made on our part - we have had a lengthy inquest about this, lessons have been learned, blame
acknowledged and changes implemented, so I don't want to dwell on this any further. The play itself
was eventually performed at The Georgian (courtesy of Warnock Kerr) as a RADS Club Night - we had
a very good attendance and a Question & Answer session afterwards, and I think everyone who saw
it will attest to how good it was - it would certainly have won some awards had it been performed at
the Festival.
In March, our Spring production was the comedy thriller 'Deathtrap', directed by yours truly - RADS
members certainly can't say we lack variety in our programming! Again, I was blessed with a very
fine cast, the audiences seemed to enjoy it and we made a reasonable profit at the Box Office.
Some improvements have been made to our newsletters and our website, which recently registered
8000 hits on the hit counter, showing that it is being regularly used by members and other
interested parties (incidentally, newsletters are also available on the member's page on the
website). Any suggestions as to what members might like to see on the website are always welcome.
Our programmes are now much-admired, and some of you may know that at the NODA North AGM
this year we were awarded the trophy for Best Programme in the Basic class, which is 16 pages and
under.
The Committee continues to regard our Monthly Club Nights as an important event to maintain
interest and contact amongst those not involved in the current production, to give an opportunity
for Friends of RADS to join in and as a date for prospective new members to come along and meet
us. We have tried this year to keep the focus of Club Nights to mainly Drama/Theatre-related events:
in the past year we have had 2 Play Readings, an evening on Russian Theatre, our annual Treasure
Hunt, a Tramps Xmas Party, Club Nights based on 'Give Us A Clue' and 'Desert Island Discs', an open
rehearsal of Merry Wives of Windsor as suggested at the last AGM, and two of our Club Nights were
performances of 'Do You Remember When?' at Sedgefield and 'The Lesson' at The Georgian Theatre.
Incidentally, Sedgefield are celebrating 40 years of their Drama Festival this year and have requested
that we send any photos / memorabilia (eg rehearsals, performances, presentation of trophies) of
our Sedgefield entries for a display they are hoping to mount. If anyone has anything, we can send it
digitally or give you Norma Neal's contact details.
Outside of our Club Nights and rehearsals, we were involved in a couple of fund-raising events: firstly
a Coffee morning at the Town Hall on 7th February which raised a respectable £287 for society funds
- thanks particularly go to Bev, Joy and Jackie for organising this, but also to all the members who
turned up to serve and make coffee, sell raffle tickets and bric-a-brac, transport everything to and
from the Club Rooms and who donated items for our stalls; secondly, RADS members were
performers and attendees at a Shakespeare Night organised By Gary Winn and the Friends of the
GTR in conjunction with RADS to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday and raise funds for the GTR. It
was a very successful night I believe (I can't remember whether we were notified of the final amount
raised - Gary?) and much enjoyed by all those present - I think Gary is hoping to make it an annual
event - we await notification.
We are about to submit a request to the Community Opportunities Fund for help in replacing some
of our aging windows in the Club Rooms with modern double-glazed windows in keeping with the
originals - all part of the regular upkeep of our property which has to be maintained to retain the
value of our most valuable asset. We can also earn some money from Amazon if you and your
friends / neighbours / relatives buy from Amazon after navigating there via the widget on the RADS
webpage. It's very easy and it doesn't cost you anything extra, so if you were going to buy from
Amazon anyway, please go via www.richmond-ads.org.uk (Xmas is a really good time for this!).
For the future, we currently have Shakespeare's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' in production for
Summer 2015, directed by Gary Winn; we will be entering a play called 'Laughter in the Shadow of
the Trees' by James Prideaux in the Sedgefield festival, to be directed by Gregan Davis, who is a new
member to us but who has a long and distinguished list of directorial credits to his name (Audition
dates and pieces are already on the website); and Jim Brown will be bringing us another Alan
Ayckbourn hit 'A Chorus of Disapproval' in November - a large cast show with opportunities for
singing and dancing which promises to be a real treat for cast and audiences alike. Our 2016
programme is nearing finalisation - we have some submissions from potential directors which we are
hoping to reveal as soon as possible, although we are still constantly on the look-out for volunteers
to direct. If you fancy having a go, or haven't done one for a while, please let us know!
I just want to finish with the boring (but none the less important) reminder that your Annual Subs
are due at the AGM each year, and the Membership Secretary will be available afterwards to take
them from you. They are still a very important source of revenue for us, and we appreciate your
continued support. Any member who does not renew by the end of August will be required to rejoin with the additional £12 joining fee added to the normal £18 subscription.
The outgoing committee will tell you that my mantra for the past year has been 'Publicity is
everyone's responsibility' - without audiences we will not survive, so I would ask every member,
whether in a production or not, to push ticket sales and publicise our productions at every
opportunity. The committee doesn't have a monopoly on ideas, so if any of you have a publicity idea
or a promotional opportunity for a specific production, please let us have it, and help RADS to
support live theatre in Richmond and the surrounding areas.
Mike Walker Chairman RADS