Friday 16 December 2011

Crème De La Crème

Thursday was tremendous – the crew from Saltmine Theatre Co had arrived on Wednesday night, and set up, and then Thursday we had two performances- morning for schools, evening for The Public. It was a Sell-Out! Here are some of my pictures.

The cast poster – and the Pastor in his new tee-shirt [courtesy Wychwood Brewery]

DSCF2904

DSCF2890

Nat at the sound desk

DSCF2888

Testing the fog machine…

DSCF2889

Coachloads of schoolchildren arrived in the morning

DSCF2891DSCF2892

They loved the performance

DSCF2893

fromtwitter

Afterwards, the crew worked really hard sweeping up the confetti from the ‘cannon’

DSCF2894DSCF2895DSCF2897

When they arrived, I asked if they needed any costume repairs. Ben’s shirt and the Tiny Tim puppet needed a few stitches. Those didn’t take long. Hannah had been having trouble with one of her costumes- the dress was really too small, and had started the run with press studs [which kept undoing] a zip had been put in [that broke] and some temporary adhesive Velcro hadn’t proved any better. It kept coming unfastened during the dancing in the party scene. I tried a quick repair on Wednesday evening, but it wasn’t really satisfactory.

On Thursday afternoon, I brought it home and put a panel down the back for her - she felt much more comfortable and secure after that!

DSCF2898DSCF2899

What intrigued me was the label inside the neck of the dress

DSCF2900

There has not been a West Riding County Council since 1974 [what’s West Riding? asked Hannah] This dress is forty years or more old! You can see from all the different fabrics and trims that it has clearly been made, remade, altered and added to over the years.

DSCF2902

Bob and Nat kept up a running conversation about sound equipment and the merits of different speakers, mics, and mixers the whole time the team were with us [nerds!]

Thank you Matt, Nat, Ben, Simon and Hannah. You worked so hard and the panto was fabulous.

DSCF2901

This is Simon, having a cuppa after setting up the bookstall. When I discovered his surname was Rodda and he came from Cornwall, I just had to ask him “Are you connected with the clotted cream?”

roddas

And he is!! I think Rodda’s make the best clotted cream, and it was ridiculously exciting to meet one of the family. [check out the cream stuff here]

You can find out more about Saltmine here or follow them on Twitter [@saltminetrust] or Facebook. They currently work from a building in Dudley – but need to raise the funds to buy it. I hope that all their audiences give as generously as our crowd did – so that the work of this brilliant group can continue. To see such a professional crew, dedicated to presenting the Gospel in a bright, and entertaining way was wonderful. These five young people all working incredibly hard were such fun to be with. I would recommend Saltmine Productions to anyone. [OK I am starting to gush now] Do check out their tour dates and try to see a performance. Better still, book them to come to your church/school/whatever.

Thanks too to Carol and Lynda for organising and all the other KMFC folk who helped [and Nev our Village Bobby for Car Park management]

5 comments:

  1. i love rodda's cream, we only have it for christmas

    ReplyDelete
  2. I seem to remember that Simon went to the Primary school where I taught!

    ReplyDelete
  3. We sometimes go to the Independent Christian Fellowship Chapel in Scorrier, Cornwall and many of the Rodda family are members there. So there's always plenty of cream available at church teas, parties, etc.! My daughter and new son-in-law (of 2 months) live in Cardiff and they're coming home to Cornwall for Christmas. David has requested plenty of clotted cream please, and 'It has to be Rodda's!' No doubt we'll be packing them off after Christmas with a few extra cartons in their bags.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My primary school experience was a small village school based in an old Victorian school building in a village on the edge of the Yorkshire dales - your mention of 'West Riding' took me straight back to the bank of outside stone built toilets across the school yard and the shiny izal toilet paper which had 'WRCC - Please wash your hands' (WRCC = West Riding County Council) printed on every sheet - My goodness it was so cold out there you certainly didn't linger even in the summer never mind the wintertime

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great to hear all the Rodda comments- and Anne, we had Bronco, not Izal in my youth!

    ReplyDelete

Always glad to hear from you - thanks for stopping by!
I am blocking anonymous comments now, due to excessive spam!