NEW MEMBERS
NEW MEMBERS
We welcome new members! Ever fancied being someone else? Well, acting is a great way of taking on a new persona. If you've never experienced the buzz of pulling off a dazzling performance and getting acclaim from an appreciative audience, we can give you that opportunity. We like to involve new members as soon as we can, even if that means only a small part at first. If you would rather work behind the scenes, there are plenty of roles for you to make your mark, including set-building and decorating, sound and lighting, props, costumes, make-up, prompt, publicity, front-of-house, refreshments as well as producer, stage manager and director.
We put on two productions a year - in May and November - and occasionally enter drama festivals too. Usually we discuss and select the next play as soon as we can after finishing the last one. After casting, we rehearse on Wednesday evenings for about 3 months, with Mondays added for about 2 months. For the two weekends before performance evenings (usually Wednesday through to Saturday) it's all hands on deck to help build the set, dress and paint it, then do a technical rehearsal.
We welcome new members! Ever fancied being someone else? Well, acting is a great way of taking on a new persona. If you've never experienced the buzz of pulling off a dazzling performance and getting acclaim from an appreciative audience, we can give you that opportunity. We like to involve new members as soon as we can, even if that means only a small part at first. If you would rather work behind the scenes, there are plenty of roles for you to make your mark, including set-building and decorating, sound and lighting, props, costumes, make-up, prompt, publicity, front-of-house, refreshments as well as producer, stage manager and director.
We put on two productions a year - in May and November - and occasionally enter drama festivals too. Usually we discuss and select the next play as soon as we can after finishing the last one. After casting, we rehearse on Wednesday evenings for about 3 months, with Mondays added for about 2 months. For the two weekends before performance evenings (usually Wednesday through to Saturday) it's all hands on deck to help build the set, dress and paint it, then do a technical rehearsal.
RUTHERFORD AND SON
BY GITHA SOWERBY
Written and first staged in 1912, this play was a major success in London and New York. It bears comparison with the best works of George Bernard Shaw, Henrik Ibsen and D.H. Lawrence.
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In the play, John Rutherford, is the patriarchal owner of a northern glassworks whose world is crumbling. By ruling both factory and family with an iron will, he succeeds in alienating his family and they turn against him.
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Sowerby’s great gift was for capturing a world in transition. Rutherford’s domestic tyranny is challenged just as in society the idea of a predominantly male suffrage was under threat and feminism was emerging. By the end, it is two of the female characters who stand up to Rutherford and manage to forge their own path away from domestic oppression towards a more enlightened future.
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Sowerby also knew all about the working world she depicts. On the one hand, industry, symbolised by Rutherford, is seen as a monstrous god that requires human sacrifices. On the other, Sowerby reminds us this is a time of union militancy, new inventions and increasing American competition. It is that ability to pin down a moment of historic change that makes this play an important social document as well as a first-rate drama.
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Director Gareth Hammond says “I saw this play performed at Oxford Playhouse several years ago and was so impressed I have wanted to put it on ourselves ever since. It is a powerful play, drawing us in to a world gripped by the divisive issues of class, gender and generational conflict. Even today we can recognise societies where women are still second-class citizens, tolerance is alien and authoritarianism prevails.”