Newsletter June 2012
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It's great to be back here enjoying this gorgeous weather after spending a few weeks in a very wet UK! We felt sorry for all the people who had trekked to London to watch the Diamond Jubilee celebrations only to find it very cold and damp. It didn’t appear to dampen their spirits however and they all seemed to enjoy it as much as those of us who celebrated it here did - with the bonus of lovely sunshine.
Firstly, thank you to Kate Jackson for organising a very successful reading of the comedy “Dirty Dusting”, by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood, on 6 June. It was very well supported and the evening was a lot of fun.
We have another play reading scheduled for next month, this time organised by Carol Woolnoth. The play is “Just the Two of Us”, by Ros Moruzzi, and is a very funny comedy exploring the impact and repercussions of modern science on a couple who discover there are more members of their family than they thought! There are six characters in the play so plenty of opportunity to take part in the reading if you would like to do so.
This event is being held at 7.30 for 8pm on Wednesday 18 July at Bar El Candil, San Pedro and more information will be sent out nearer the time.
Our next major event will be the very popular summer charity show, Fun in the Park, to be held at the beautiful venue of Parque Torre Leonera, Benahavis, on Sunday 16 September at 7.00pm. This year the chosen charity is Age Concern, which does a wonderful job advising and assisting the “not-so-young” both in UK and abroad. The International Theatre Studio board members have put together an excellent programme of music, comedy and drama to entertain you and don’t forget to bring your picnic to enjoy during the interval. Further details of this evening will be sent out later but put it in your diary now!
We have chosen a thriller for our autumn play this year,
“Prescription for Murder” by Norman Robbins, to be directed by Diana
King. Auditions are being held on Monday 25 June at 7.30 pm for 8pm at Bar El Candil in San Pedro. There are three female and three male roles and details of the characters have been sent out recently in the Audition Notice. Information also appears on our website, www.internationaltheatrestudio.org/.
If anyone would like to audition but is unable to attend on 25 June
please let Diane know on 952 92 81 96.
Diana King held well-supported auditions at the end of May for our Murder Mystery Evenings. These will run throughout the late autumn and winter and we already have bookings but if you know of a club, society or restaurant who would like to host one of these evenings please let us know on the above number or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We’d like to take this opportunity to give the grateful
thanks of all the Board and Members of the International Theatre Studio to Ursula Russell for all her hard work as Secretary and Membership
Secretary over the last few years.
Ursula has been a great help to Diane as President, particularly when she had the difficult task of taking over from her predecessor, Barbara Mitchell, who had done so much for the drama group and kept it going in difficult times. Happily, we aren’t losing Ursula as she will
continue to run the website and be an important member of the group, but she is looking forward to taking a well-deserved rest from the sometimes onerous job of secretary. Our new Secretary is Wendy Castle, who has been doing a sterling job as prompter in our recent
productions, and we welcome her to the Board and promise to try not to overwork her!
We would like to reiterate our need for Actors and Backstage Crew to join our merry group. We try to run a full programme of events but
at times we are extremely stretched. If you would like to act, help backstage, do lighting and sound, paint scenery, etc, or if you know anyone who might, please contact Diane on 952 92 81 96
or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Newsletter May 2012
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As Diane Clarke is away in the UK enjoying the wettest drought for years Clive Jacklin is keeping you up to date with the latest news from the International Theatre Studio.
In April we had a very successful Play-Reading at El Candil in San Pedro de Alcantara hosted by Carol Woolnoth. It was well attended and those present enjoyed the two comedy plays “What’s for Pudding” and “It’s a Dog’s life”. We had one or two new faces who were very welcome and in fact we have been able to cast one of them in a play to be performed in September. More on this later.
We have another Play-Reading planned for the 6th June, again at El Candil in San Pedro de Alcantara. Kate Jackson will be hosting this Play-Reading. The play chosen is “Dirty Dusting”, an adult comedy by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood. It was premiered at the Customs House South Shields in February 2003.
During the next few months we hope to be performing some short Murder Mystery Plays at various venues, as we did last year, so keep a lookout for further information.
Our next major production will be our Summer Charity Show to be held in the beautiful Parque Torre Leonera, Benahavis, on Sunday 16th September at 7.00pm. Although final details are still being worked on it will follow the same format as last year.
Some of our audience thought that the first act was rather too long, so this year it will be no more than 45 minutes with an interval of 75 minutes for picnicking and then about 40 minutes for the last act. In the first act we will have a variety of singers, musicians and possibly a short comedy sketch. In the second act we will be performing “What’s for Pudding”, a one act comedy by David Tristram and directed by Kate Jackson. We will be sending out further details nearer the time.
We are now also planning our Autumn Production which will be sometime in November at the Atalaya Park Hotel Disco. Diana King will be directing the play but the choice of play has not yet been finalized. One of the plays under consideration requires an old electric
typewriter, so if anybody has one they can donate to us we would be very grateful, bearing in mind it might not be returned in the same condition. Audition notices for this play will be sent out in June.
As always we desperately need Actors and Backstage Crew. We try to put on a full programme of events but we are extremely stretched and need your help. If you would like to act or can help backstage, painting scenery, props, lighting or sound etc. please contact Clive at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 953806834.
We look forward to seeing you at our next play
reading.
A Dogs Life Play-Readings
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People cried at the end of A Dogs Life and were helpless with
laughter in What's for Pudding? Kate Jackson wants to put on What's
for Pudding for the charity show in Benahavis.
We had some new readers, although not all those who had said they would come managed to get there, sadly, or we would have had some more new ones. We also signed up some new members.
It was good to have the time for the new people to have a chat with
existing members and having started promptly at 8pm with a break for drinks between the two readings we finished by 9.20 pm. Tapas was arranged for 9.30, so it all worked out well.
April 2012 Newsletter
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The following week we performed a double bill of comedies at the Atalaya Park Hotel for our usual Spring Production. "Happy Birthday Me" was performed again, followed by "Getting Along" by Charles Mander. The weekend was a busy one in the area as several other big events were taking place so the competition for "bums on seats" was fairly intense. We were therefore delighted to find that our audiences gave us such good support and we hope that they all enjoyed their evening with us. Judging by the amount of laughter that could be heard in the theatre the plays were generally very well received. Whilst putting on two plays was quite a strain on our acting and back-stage resources, it gave new members of our drama group an opportunity to take part in a mainstream production, which is good news for us and is good experience for them.
Back to our forthcoming events. The International Theatre Studio is arranging two Play-Reading Evenings during May and June and possible plays are presently under discussion. More information will be sent out as soon as details are finalised and we would love to encourage members and others who are interested in play-readings and amateur dramatics to come along and either take part or just relax and enjoy the evenings in social surroundings.
The Board are also looking at plans for future productions in the summer and autumn. As well as putting on our usual Autumn Production at the Atalaya Park Hotel we're hoping to perform a new Murder Mystery and, if we have the resources, a rehearsed reading or a One-Act play. These events are an excellent way of involving new acting, directing or backstage people but we sadly haven't been able to stage any recently as everyone was so involved with the two plays for our Spring production. If you, or anyone you know, would like to take part in, or help with, any of our productions and activities please let us know at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF E-MAIL ADDRESS.
April Play-reading
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plays:
First:
"What's for Pudding ?" by David Tristram only 18 pages - comedy set in a living room
Cast
Mary - (bored housewife) and Jack - her husband, a bit of a wimp
Maureen and Ted - friends visiting
Dennis - neighbour
Second;
"A Dog's Life" by Pam Valentine set in an animal shelter
Characters
Ben - a battered old mongrel, male
Fritz - a German shepherd, tough and rough, male
Fifi - an overweight poodle, female
Ginger - a bouncy and excitable young pup, male or female.
The Warden
The Woman visitor
Please send emails to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Carol Woolnoth on her mobile 607 796 548 to let her know if you want to order tapas.
We hope to see you there for an enjoyable evening.
Ann Shaw 1936-2012
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The I.T.S. President and Board are sad to have to tell you of the death of our Vice- President, Ann Shaw. Ann was one of our longest serving members, a regular actor and director of many of our productions.At the service of celebration of her life on the 27 January 2012 her daughter Carol read an eulogy which you can read below. She will be missed so much by so many of our members.
Eulogy for Ann Shaw
I would like to share with you some of the extraordinary events in my mum’s life. She was quite a private person and many of you may not know any details of her life before she came to Spain in 1985.
She was born in Hope Hospital in Salford, Manchester and lived in Priory Avenue, very close to The Cliff, which was then the training ground of Manchester United and she was made of the same flair, grit and determination for which this team is rightly famous.
March 2012 Newsletter
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The ITS are taking part in the competitive Gibraltar Diamond Jubilee Drama Festival which runs from 14th to 17th March. Eight one-act plays are being performed in front of a professional adjudicator who will assess them critically and award prizes in a number of categories such as Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and for several other theatrical aspects.
The ITS play is "Happy Birthday Me" by Simon Williams (possibly better known as an actor, particularly for playing the son James in the long-running TV series "Upstairs Downstairs"). The play is set in a retirement home for elderly actors and is a moving bitter-sweet comedy which we think and hope audiences will enjoy. We are performing it at Ince's Hall, at the south end of Main Street, Gibraltar, on Friday 16th March, when two other plays entered by other societies will also be on.
It should be pointed out that the ITS are performing the play again the following weekend (23-25 March), this time in our normal venue of the Atalaya Park Hotel disco, along with a second ITS one-act play, so that together they will comprise a "double bill" of theatrical entertainment.
Visitors to this website will have the option of seeing the play in Spain or Gibraltar. Tickets for the Gibraltar Festival can be reserved by ringing the local Box Office on +350 2007 5826.