Reviews

Jen Armstrong

NODA Rep Doreen has sent us a lovely review of our summer production of Bugsy Malone. She came with her grandson and thoroughly enjoyed herself. Well done to all involved! and Thank you Doreen Grierson for your lovely review.

THE RIVERSIDE YOUTH GROUP
BUGSY MALONE
Eynsford Village Hall
Director – Naomi Morgan
Musical Directors – Matt Friett, Dale Wills, Jen Armstrong,
Choreography – Catherine Barritte

Friday 18th July 2017

The musical “Bugsy Malone” with music by Paul Williams was adapted from the 1976 film of the same name directed by Alan Parker, featuring a cast of children usually up to the age of 17years. The story is based on the mob rivalries of 1920’s prohibition America as Fat Sam and Dandy Dan battle it out for supremacy. Cue gangland war, a love story and plenty of splurging. Bugsy remains a favourite production for amateur youth groups and schools.

This was an enjoyable production directed by Naomi Morgan with some talented young performers who worked well together and all appeared to be enjoying themselves. It would be impossible to name everyone who took part in this production as they all contributed in their own way to the success of this production. However I think it would be nice to mention a few of the leading players for their hard work. Kemp Booyse gave a creditable performance as Bugsy but he must remember to look up and not rush his dialogue. Matilda Grimes as Blousey could have been a little more ‘sassy’ but she had poise and a lovely singing voice. William Gough was excellent as Fat Sam. It is not easy for youngsters to look and act old, but William gets the physicality of his character spot on. Emily Weaver and Gabriel Wolfe gave good characterisations as Tallulah and Dandy Dan and there was a nice comedy duo from Captain Smolsky – Harry Tait and his side-kick, O’Dreary – Eva Hayes. Freya Flury-Chauhan performed and sang well as Fizzy.

Maintaining an American accent is difficult for a lot of people but considering their age they did well. I did find it difficult to hear some of the dialogue at times but I am sure the art of projection will come with experience. The scenery and lighting fitted well and there was always a smooth transition between scenes. Costumes were good and depicted the era. The band, led by an exuberant Dale Wills on keyboard, accompanied the cast well and choreography by Catherine Baritte added to the production and suited the age of the performers.

It is obvious that a lot of hard work had gone into this production so congratulations to all including back stage crew and front of house. I brought my 8 year old grandson with me who left with a big smile on his face having been ‘splurged’. That says it all!
Doreen Grierson
NODA representative. District 7

Sorting out the Barn

Jen Armstrong

Sarah, Ben and ‘New’ Dave with some others have spent a long day sorting, clearing and reorganising the barn!

For the next clear-out we would love some more volunteers!

NODA award for Excellence

Jen Armstrong

Riverside players have been the proud recipients of the 2016 NODA award for excellence for District 7. Congratulations to everyone involved! it was a spectacular show and brought Riverside back to the era of the classic family friendly pantomime.

Riverside Awards

Jen Armstrong

Every Annual General Meeting We have our own little awards ceremony. The awards are chosen and given by the previous ‘Riversider of the Year’. These awards are accompanied by a few unfortunate souls who have been asked (usually in the pub) to help with the entertainment for the evening.

The 2017 awards:

Presented by 2016 ‘Riversider of the year’ Peter Nicholson

Riverside Awards 2017!
Guitar Hero Award—Ian Slipper (Accepted by Lorraine Slipper)
The Duracell Bunny (for the most energy seen at a Get In) – Dale Wills
Stepping up —Katie Aitchison and Steve Fenlon
(Miranda)              (Granillo)
Always There—Sarah Hill
Newcomer—Dave (New Dave) Byrne
Riversider Of The Year—Clive Cheer and Vicky Adams-Salmon

These two awards are nominated by the general members of the group. Caroline Frost is awarded by the committee and the Susie Fenlon is awarded by popular vote during the AGM itself.

Caroline Frost Award for creativity– Ian Slipper (Accepted by Lorraine Slipper)

Susie Fenlon spoken word award – Vanessa Elliot

Meet your new Committee members!

kmcmillan

After a lovely evening which was our AGM (4th June 2017) , we have some new committee members to introduce:

Ferne Haxby

Jen Armstrong

These two members ran unopposed and joined the previous co-opted committee members  who are now elected:

Sarah Hill

Matthew Friett

Clive Cheer

Camelot! – The Panto

kmcmillan

Open Auditions on 10^th September from 2.00pm at Anthony Roper School

Read throughs on 5^th and 7^th September at 8.00pm at Eynsford Village Hall

It’s Audition Time!!!……Oh yes it is!

Come along and be part of this year’s panto, it’s going to be fun

A hilarious panto that has love, revenge and an enormous dose of laughter as we travel to Camelot to see Arthur woo his Guinevere.

We meet Merlin who is determined to find eternal youth battling his old rival Morgan le Fey and the love struck evil Valerin, King of the Tangled Wood, who plots to take Guinevere back to his Misty Castle, with the help of his mum, of course!

There are opportunities for wonderful principal roles and also superb cameo roles – fancy being a talking clock, a singing magical head, a ghost or even a portrait!!!  For a complete list of the characters and audition pieces, check out the Riverside Players website on www.riversideplayers.co.uk

Hope to see you all soon.

Ferne Haxby

There are also a number of smaller parts, please audition with the chorus materials and let us know you wish to be considered for these.

• Merlin the Younger (Any Gender 7-10)
• Bishop
• Talking Cock
• Evil Sisterhood (Female x 7)
• Ghost
• Knights of the round table (Any Gender Any age x 4 and 1 child 7-10)

Show Proposals and My Fair Lady Update

kmcmillan

My Fair Lady

By George he did it! He did as well!

Unfortunately due to a very prominent producer procuring the rights to develop a new production of My Fair Lady in the west end, the rights the show have been revoked.  The rights issuer and Dale worked very hard to compromise but unfortunately there wasn’t an option with which would work for us to put on My Fair Lady as an outdoor show in 2018. It is a great shame that we are having to pull this from the outdoor slot and we are sad that we couldn’t make it happen. We will definitely be looking at whether we can do this in a few years time.

Show Proposals

We need YOU! If you have an idea for a production you would like to put on, let us know!  We are looking for proposals for slots in 2017/18 and 19.

There is a now a deadline for initial proposals for the 2018 Pantomime which is the end of March.

Some great websites to look for inspiration are:

http://www.mtishows.co.uk/
http://www.stageamusical.com/
http://www.samuelfrench.co.uk/

To get more information on how to get a proposal together, see our proposal timeline and/or email us at committee@riversideplayers.co.uk and we can walk you through the process.

Looking forward to hearing from you!