Tag: NODA

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Celebrating Others

I do love being a National Operatic and Dramatic Society (NODA) Rep and being able to celebrate the achievements of the theatre companies / societies that I support – today really brought that home at the NODA Annual Celebration Day and AGM in Alton. I was beaming with such pride and happiness as (particularly my) societies went up to claim their Excellence Awards, and that my groups won four of the South East Regional Awards! I’m so thrilled for people to receive accolades for their work, especially when it is excellent.

My District Excellence Awards went to: Brighton Theatre Group, The Millenium Players, Ifield Barn Theatre Society, Henfield Theatre Company, and Burgess Hill Musical Theatre – they all did so well, there were more on my long list, it was hard to choose. In the South East Regional Awards, Millenium Players won best new writing for Alice in Wonderland, Brighton Theatre Group won best Youth Production for the East of South East for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Burgess Hill Musical Theatre Group won best modern musical for the new Kipps Half a Sixpence, and Henfield Theatre Company won best drama for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Vicariously so thrilled it’s like I’ve won myself. Uber happy!

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Playing a nut job

Hubby Andy wished me good luck being a “God bothering nut job” for my role in Alan Ayckbourn’s “Neighbourhood Watch”, produced by Wick Theatre at the Barn last week. That made me smile. A lot.

It really was great fun rehearsing for this quite bonkers play and John Garland was a fabulous director. Of course that doesn’t mean it was plain sailing, it never is, there are always tense moments towards the end of the rehearsal process but there were some evenings where I was literally crying with laughter. There was even one evening where I had to stop myself laughing on stage. There were pieces in this which were hilarious from the word go and still funny three months later.

I think my character: Hilda Massie, is possibly the most far removed from my own personality that I’ve ever played. It was hugely educational getting under the skin of a type of person I have never understood – those that don’t value honesty, but think it’s rude. They have such a skewed view of the world and themselves that they are seriously deluded, but would vehemently deny this to the end. I’ve previously found this incomprehensible but I had an “aha!” moment during my character preparations and research that really helped me understand. Fascinating. And very sad. There was seriously only one thing we have in common – we both value arnica. And yes, it comes up more than once in the play!

So in short – farewell Hilda, you bonkers manipulative right wing evangelical nut job, I’m re-embracing myself. Acting tab is updated with our brilliant reviews from NODA, Brighton Argus and Shoreham Herald; plus show photos. It’s always so important to receive feedback and so lovely when it’s positive!