Rehearsals for our Spring Play Curtain Up! by Peter Quilter are going well. This play features all all female cast and the very different characters generate many humorous situations. The characters are coming along well and we are all looking forward to seeing you on 2nd, 3rd and 4th of May at Hackleton Village Hall. Curtains Up at 7:45.

Tickets can be found on this website here.

Our AGM was held at Hackleton Village Hall on Thursday January 4th. This posting is intended to give a flavour of what happened at the meeting but it is not the official minutes.

The Chairman’s report is reproduced below:

Hi Group 8.

Good to see so many attending the AGM,

2023 was a very very busy year for group 8 with it being the 50^th anniversary. We began the year with a return to Blithe Spirit, which I think we all agree didn’t go exactly to plan. But we did make money on, unusual for a spring production. Audiences for all 3 shows were above 50!

We followed up very soon after with the return of the human fruit machine, at the family fun day, which went down very well, with everyone, except Brent’s sister. We had issues with the event supplied sound system, and I duly raised that in the mop up meeting held soon after.

I, as chair, have been attending all Trustee meetings, and it does feel right that this is part of the chairman’s role, it keeps us informed of all goings on at the hall. And has built up a good relationship with the hall in general.

Almost immediately after family fun day, we began work on the cabaret, with many many loud singy nights at casa Campbell in Denton. We gained 2 new adult members around this time, and a few new child performers for Pantomimes. Both audiences were well above 60, and extra tables had to be put out on the Saturday Night.

Then came panto. And it was wonderful to see the return of the scouts,cubs, beavers and brownies in large numbers. All audiences were in excess of 50, and the matinee was nearly full. Again we made a decent profit, the hall were delighted with the bar takings also. The cast were amazing

Overall, this year has been tough, tiring and long. But you, the group 8 members , have all done us proud. Great acting, singing, work backstage, sound etc.

One thing we do need are male actors. At present we only have Gerry, Brent, and Mark as adult acting males. And at the moment only one is available for spring . So if you know anyone willing to join this slightly eccentric family. Then see if they will come to script readings starting next Thursday January 11th.

Thank you all very very much for an amazing year, I look forward to the next.

Financially we made profit on all three shows, and have a healthy bank balance. We ran Raffles at both Cabaret and Panto, which raised money for Glenn Utteridge’s Cancer recovery fund.

---

The Treasurer’s report was presented and it showed that the group had managed to maintain a safe bank balance whilst investing in overhauling flats and materials that will be useful in further productions. It was shown that we are in a good position to proceed with the Spring Production. The Treasurer recommended that Ticket Prices be held at the current level as the Hall Trustees have indicated that there will be no increase in hire fees in 2024 – this was agreed by the attendees.

The Officers stood down and the Election of Officers took place. The following people were proposed, seconded and returned unopposed:

• Chairman – Alan Campbell
• Treasurer – Jennie Campbell
• Secretary – Jess Moore

Group Communications were discussed. Within the Group we agreed to switch our chat and notification groups to WhatsApp as we are increasingly finding new members do not use Facebook Messenger. It was agreed that our new Secretary would focus on that and creating a wider contact with our potential audience using social media channels.

Our Junior Cast was discussed and in particular the need for registration, management of time spent rehearsing, and minimum age for backstage hands. All agreed that the help of parents managing juniors during the Panto rehearsals and performances was a great contribution to its overall success. Jennie and Brent agreed to continue to be Chaperones for 2024. It was agreed that backstage team members should be at least 14 years old, though cast may be asked to move individual props in keeping with their age and strength under the guidance of the stage management team. The existing rule that juniors under 12 need responsible adults to come to rehearsals and performances to supervise them was agreed appropriate to retain. It was also decided that consideration needs to be given in the future to managing how many entirely new junior cast members each production can cope with. It was decided that for now any potential new juniors are placed on a ‘wait list’ as if all the junior cast members for the panto return for the panto this year this is as many juniors as we think that a Director can cope with.

Activities for 2024 were discussed. At present it is not thought that a third production to raise funds is essential this year as we have no specific dates to celebrate or investments we need to make. As the Chair noted we are short of males and need to consider how we recruit some more men. In the meantime several scripts are to be read by the group so we can select a Spring Play which will take place in early May. Alan Campbell has volunteered to direct. We also intend to produce a Panto in December but no Director or play are yet chosen.

The meeting closed after a round table ,any other business, which included thanks to Andy Coleman for donating a stack of blank DVDs to the group which allows us to create DVDs of our shows for cast members without buying more discs for some time. Thanks were also given to Alan and Jennie for their hosting group meetings at their house and facilitating many behind the scenes activities.

All in all the attendees agreed that 2023 had been hard work but a good one overall for the group.

Rehearsals are now well under way for our Panto for 2023 the ever popular Mother Goose with its moral being particularly relevant in this age of social media and photoshopped images. Cast old and young are getting stuck into developing their parts and looking forward to being on stage later this year.

Tickets are now available for all performances and the online booking links can be found on our website here https://groupeight.co.uk/buy-your-tickets/ If you wish to reserve tickets to be paid for on the door or if you have any questions please email us at groupeight1973@outlook.com

We will be updating the website and local Facebook pages with some rehearsal shots as the rehearsals progress..

Cabaret Rehearsals power on

In houses all around the villages songs and sketches are being practiced ready for them to appear as part of our Cabaret evening on September 8th and 9th. A few arty photos showing the hard work last Thursday.

Panto read through on Thursday 24th August

If you are not in the Facebook group for the Panto we are having a read through on Thursday 24th August. Contact us on groupeight1973@outlook.com if you are not on Facebook groups and are interested in taking part.