COMING UP AT THE ROSE…….
17th—19th April
The Once Removed Theatre Company
Main House (A)
The Nonentities Present
‘KISS THE BRIDE’ by John J. Wooten
On the day the nervous groom, mistaking an unlikely-looking wedding guest for the hired killer, sends the
wrong man upstairs to deal with his wife. Inevitably the real “hit men” turn up, having kidnapped an unsuspecting bride from a different wedding reception. Confusion ensues and the “happiest day of one’s life soon
degenerates into an ever increasing but hilarious nightmare. “….a full-blown” American farce….Produced
by special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois.
Tickets £8 (£7.50 concessions)
22nd—25th April
‘OLD TIME MUSIC HALL’
Curtain up 7.30 pm
Kidderminster Operatic and Dramatic society Main House (A)
Songs, dance, sketches and monologues under the direction of the Music Hall Chairman who will invite you
to join the company in singing the old favourites:- Down at the Old Bull and Bush, Lets All Go Down the
Strand, My Old Man Said Follow The Van and many more.
Join Kidderminster Operatic Society and members of the Nonentities for an evening of fun and nostalgia as
they recreate “the good old days” of Music Hall.
Tickets £8 (£7.50 concessions)
26th April
‘RAME PENINSULA MALE VOICE CHOIR’
Curtain up 7.30 pm
Main House (A)
Rame Peninsula Male Voice Choir was founded in 1976 in this delightfully “forgotten corner” of Cornwall.
Now 40 strong, members come from all walks of life in the community. The choir has been proud to represent and promote the good name of the area to delighted audiences in many parts of Europe and the UK.
The Rose Theatre is pleased to be one of their venues on their spring tour and to have the opportunity to
include a high quality choral item on our programme.
30th April—2nd May
‘HOT STUFF’
Swan Playwrights Studio (A)
What is heat? A high temperature? Pressure? Passionate awakening? The name of a gossip magazine? All of
these – and more! Warm yourself with Swan Playwrights’ latest miscellany – a collection of short plays,
sketches and monologues that explore tempers rising, hot flushes, contemporary tensions, sexual excitement, celebrity under the spotlight. Can you stand the heat? This show could well contain adult themes and
language!
Standard Ticket prices
12th—17th May
‘LADIES DAY’ by Amanda Whittington
Curtain up 7.30 pm
The Nonentities Main House (A)
In its 300 year history, Royal Ascot has always been held at its Berkshire home but improvements to the
racecourse in 2005 necessitated a move north to York. Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda are the fish-filleting
foursome for whom work, love amd life is just one long hard slog. Their fortunes improve when Linda finds
tickets to Ladies Day at Royal Ascot in York. Out go the hairnets, the wellies and the overalls as the girls do
themselves up and head for the races. As the day unfolds, the champagne flows, secrets spill out and their
horses keep winning.
Tickets £8 (£7.50 concessions)
By
Arthur
Miller
Curtain up 7.30 pm
7th—12th April 2008
An Amateur production
Arthur Miller, 1915—2005
Arthur Asher Miller, the son of a women's clothing company owner, was
born in 1915 in New York City. After graduating from high school, Miller
worked jobs ranging from radio singer to truck driver to clerk in an
automobile-parts warehouse. Miller began writing plays as a student at the
University of Michigan, joining the Federal Theater Project in New York
City after he received his degree. His first Broadway play, The Man Who
Had All the Luck, opened in 1944 and his next play, All My Sons, received
the Drama Critics' Circle Award. His 1949 Death of a Salesman won the Pulitzer Prize.
In 1956 and 1957, Miller was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee and was
convicted of contempt of Congress for his refusal to identify writers believed to hold Communist
sympathies. The following year, the United States Court of Appeals overturned the conviction. In
1959 the National Institute of Arts and Letters awarded him the Gold Medal for Drama. Miller has
been married three times: to Mary Grace Slattery in 1940, Marilyn Monroe in 1956, and
photographer Inge Morath in 1962 Miller's writing has earned him a lifetime of honours, including
the Pulitzer Prize, seven Tony Awards, two Drama Critics Circle Awards, an Obie, an Olivier, the
John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish prize. He holds
honorary doctorate degrees from Oxford University and Harvard University.
Throughout his life and work, Miller has remained socially engaged and has written with conscience,
clarity, and compassion. Miller's work is infused with his sense of responsibility to humanity and to
his audience. "The playwright is nothing without his audience," he writes. "He is one of the
audience who happens to know how to speak."
The Crucible, which received Antoinette Perry Award, was an allegory for the McCarthy era and mass
hysteria. Although its first Broadway production flopped, it become one of Miller's most-produced
play. Miller wrote The Crucible in the atmosphere in which the author saw "accepted the notion that
conscience was no longer a private matter but one of state administration."For nearly six decades,
Miller has been creating characters that wrestle with power conflicts, personal and social
responsibility, the repercussions of past actions, and the twin poles
of guilt and hope. In his writing and in his role in public life, Miller
articulates his profound political and moral convictions. He once
said he thought theatre could "change the world." The Crucible,
which premiered in 1953, is a fictionalization of the Salem witchhunts of 1692, but it also deals in an allegorical manner with the
House Un-American Activities Committee. In a note to the play,
Miller writes, "A political policy is equated with moral right, and
opposition to it with diabolical malevolence." Dealing as it did with
highly charged current events, the play received unfavorable reviews
and Miller was cold-shouldered by many colleagues. In the play he
expressed his faith in the ability of an individual to resist conformist
pressures.
Miller died of heart failure at home in Roxbury,
Connecticut, on February 10, 2005
Souvenir Brochure
Limited edition brochure celebrating the 25th
anniversary of live theatre in the Wyre Forest.
Read our Specially Commissioned brochure
packed with backstage secrets, anecdotes and
pictures. If you love the Rose, you’ll love this!
Ask in the Foyer: £3 each
Can you help The Rose?
In order to ensure the maximum audiences possible for our
plays,“your” theatre needs all the Publicity possible!
If you go regularly to a retailer – perhaps a newsagent or a hairdresser – would you
be prepared to help us by asking them to display a theatre poster? Currently we
produce a printed sheet for each half season, plus the attractive A4 posters for
individual plays.
All we are asking is for you to make the contact, then to be responsible for delivering
a poster to the shop – either twice a year, or alternatively for each play.
If you think you might be able to help, please leave your name and ‘phone number at
the box office, and someone will get back to you.
Thank you very much.
COME AND JOIN US!
Want to be a part of high quality local theatre? It
takes a lot to put on a production and we constantly need new people to work back stage, Front
of House, the bar, as well as in front of the lights! If
you feel interested in doing anything, however
small, why not come down and see us and see what
we do? please contact our Box Office for details. We
are true Amateurs: that means we do it for the love
of it! Go on, have a go! I bet You’ll have as much fun as
we do!
Tel: 01562 743745
The Rose is a modern, 181 seat, fully equipped theatre, with a
studio that seats up to 60. The Theatre is administered as a
charitable trust by the Nonentities, an amateur society, presenting both amateur and professional plays and entertainments
throughout the year. During the summer we hope to build a
disabled toilet in the theatre. This is going to cost a significant
amount of money. All of the money we have comes from the
productions we put on, we get no grants or other funding from
government, council or lottery. We always need people with
skills, however small, or even just enthusiasm!
…..
…
s
d
r
er wo
h
t
o
n
I
THIS THEATRE NEEDS
Tel: 01562 743745
YOU!
Miller died of heart failure at home in Roxbury,
Director’s notes…..
It has been a real privilege to work on The Crucible. It is a play
which despite its age still fails to date. It tells a story which is
still absorbing and characters who still engage. Even Miller’s
minor characters have back stories and something to offer the
actor who plays them.
The Crucible is a play well known to many and is often studied
in schools and colleges. Many of the actors in this production
have been involved in The Crucible before. I was in the
Nonentities’ last production directed by my Mum who plays
Rebecca Nurse this time.
As a Director you wonder if you can bring anything new to a
show which has been seen so many times. It is a play set in a
particular period which can not be changed which dictates things
like costume and props, so there is no scope there. In the end, all
I have tried to do is work with the actors to enable their individual portrayals of the characters to combine together with each
other, and to bring in sound and lighting which compliments the
high drama of the performances and the script.
I have enjoyed our work on The Crucible and I hope you will
enjoy the performance.
Viv
CAST
Ezekiel Cheever
Giles Corey
D. Gov. Danforth
Sarah Good
Rev, John Hale
Judge Hathorne
Mercy Lewis
Francis Nurse
Rebecca Nurse
Betty Parris
Rev. Samuel Parris
Elizabeth Proctor
John Proctor
Anne Putnam
Thomas Putnam
Tituba
Susanna Walcott
Mary Warren
John Willard
Abigail Williams
the
Stefan Austin
Ian Williams
Bob Graham
Lynn Ravenhill
Steve Coussens
Tom Rees
Sarah Adkins
Stephen Downing
Liz Cole
Melissa Hadley
Ross Workman
Sue Downing
Richard Taylor
Natalia Jarvis
Chris Owen
Vicky Wakeman
Alex Hyde
Rachel Lawrence
Daniel Taylor
Georgina Biggs
By Arthur Miller
CREW
Director
Prompt
Stage Manager
A.S.M.
Lighting
Sound
Vivienne Cole
Elaine Foster
Stefan Austin
Stephen Downing
Geoff Cooke
Jonathan Gerlach Tony
Edwards, Annie Hunt
Liz Cole, Louise Fulwell,
Props
Aaron Wright
Costumes
Natalia Jarvis, Carol Wright
Set built by members of the Nonentities
Act 1
Interval—15 minutes
Act 2.
Patrons are respectfully reminded that the taking of photographs and
recordings of any sort infringes copyright law and is therefore prohibited.
Please turn off your mobile phones.