It is my pleasure to present the 51st Annual report of Variety
Theatre Ashburton.
The year began with Dianne Favel,
Yvonne Harrison and Val Farr attending a very successful zone meeting in Oamaru. Zone meetings are very informative and our
thanks goes to these members for representing our Society.
At the end of October 2010 we staged “I Love You, Your’re Perfect, Now
Change” in the Ashburton Trust Event
Centre, directed by Peter Taylor with Sarah Templeton as Musical Director. As you can see by the Balance Sheet this show
was not a financial success. It was probably a bit different from other shows
we have staged and it just didn’t get
supported by the public of Ashburton. We
now struggle to get both cast and audiences for our second show of the year.
At the beginning of February
auditions were held for “Joseph”. We
were pleased to welcome back David
Williams as Director and Madison Thew Keyworth as Choreographer. They were joined by Jo Castelow as Musical
Director. We had an amazing response and
actually had to turn both males and females away. Right from when we announced that we were
staging “Joseph” there was huge interest in this show. This interest and support continued right
through until pack out day. This was an
absoultley fabulous production and thanks goes to everyone involved. No matter how big or small your contribution
was, it all added to a very successful production, which made probably the
biggest profit we have ever had.
Four members attended the Musical
Theatre New Zealand conference held in Nelson in March. They attended workshops available and all had
an enjoyable and informative weekend. First
time attendee Kim Brenton thought it was a really worthwhile event. Thanks to Kim, Peter Muir and Derrick and
Margaret Cullimore for representing us.
Conference is now known as a “Training Weekend” and this will enable Societies
attending to apply for grants to help with expenses.
Party People Costume Hire, under
the management of Jo Hooper, continues to be a major source of income for our
Society. Jo is constantly sourcing new
costumes and the purchase of these is proving to be very successful. They are extremely popular and do not stay
on the racks for long. As a volunteer at
Party People myself, having Jo there every time it is open means that she knows
exactly where everything is and I believe this has improved the service we
provide to the community.
Congratulations and thanks go to Jo for the way she is managing Party
People. I would also like to thank all
the volunteers for the time they have put in over the last year.
As we all know on September 4th
2010 we had a large earthquake. At the
time neither premises appeared to have received much damage, but with ongoing
shakes it was decided we should put in a claim for Party People as the Scotia board was parting with the wall at the top in
the entrance and kitchen areas. We
lodged a claim with the insurance company and when it was inspected they
found much more than that wrong with the
front half. However we were given a
yellow sticker and able to continue opening.
About a month after that we noticed a large crack in the facia board on
the front of the rooms and lodged
another claim. Both buildings have been
inspected, but after 13th June event Jo and I were very concerned
about the state of Party People and I harped at the Council until they came and
had another look and deemed it safe to remain open. After a long wait Hawkins Construction have
now been appointed Project Manager for the earthquake damage. A large piece of the lining of Party People
has been removed so that Hawkins could see the extent of the damage. The front
half of Party People has to come down and be rebuilt and the front wall of the
rooms has to come off and they will go back as far as they have to, to find
something secure to fit the new front to.
At the present time we are waiting for Bradford Construction to quote on
the repairs.
The building sub committee has
had a couple of meetings and a decision was made to get a feasibility study
done for both our properties, with the idea of building straight through and
having space for our set construction and perhaps some storage. However the earthquakes have put that on hold
at the moment. Our thanks go to to the owners of the old
Hunts Honey factory where we store all our sets for our continued use of this
building.
We continue to receive valuable
support from many businesses in the community, as well as sponsorship and
grants. The Ashburton Trust, The Lion
Foundation, The Ashburton District Council and the media of Ashburton all
contributed the to successful production of Joseph.
Thanks are also extended to our
Patron, Mona Reddecliffe, who always supports us, to Derrick Cullimore our
custodian, whose assistance I have asked for and also to Susan Spencer our
Librarian, who continues to do a magnificent
job and knows exactly what we have in our Library.
To all our volunteers who have
helped over the year, a big thank you.
We would not be able to put on shows or run Party People without you.
Finally a big thank you to Wendy
and the committee for their time and effort this year. Also thank you to all who have supported me
in my time as President. I have at all
times had the interests of the Society at heart. As a member who has been on the committee for
many years and done a lot of fund raising towards the Event Centre I have at
all times been against having a production at other venues. The Event Centre is a wonderful facility and
I hope the next committee will continue to use the Event Centre for large and
small productions.
Thankyou.
Faye Johnston
Membership is now due!
Becoming a member of Variety Theatre Ashburton, is quick and easy to do. Membership subscriptions: $15 single / $20 couple per financial year.
Click HERE to download a copy of our membership form.
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Library
A very extensive library of sheet music is available to members and can be sourced by contacting the librarian, Susan Spencer at 308 1777.
