by Dan Bellis, Beaumaris Theatre Vice-President
Hello valued Beaumaris Theatre members and welcome to this edition of the Talbot Tattler! What an exciting time we find ourselves in at Wells Road. I am writing this as the cast and production team of Steel Magnolias prepare for their final two performances, rehearsals for our August production of The Bridges of Madison County have kicked off (announced below), and we are also fast approaching our very first Beaumaris Theatre Monologue Festival!
Having three productions running at once is no mean feat. We had a similar arrangement at the beginning of 2023 when we had just opened Puffs and had begun rehearsals for The Three Musketeers and Beaumarisical, and I was involved in two of those! We’d like to give a big shout of gratitude to the Bayside Men’s Shed for allowing us to make use of their space for rehearsals. It certainly makes things easier when you’ve got the extra room there.
I’d like to give a big congratulations to director, Debbie Keyt and the cast of Steel Magnolias – Trudi Sheppard, Caitlin Leong, Claire Abagia, Sam Stone, Wendy McRae and Kate Harvey – for a wonderful run of shows. Your magnificently realised and nuanced performances have touched the hearts and minds of all of your audience members, and you have delivered a truly beautiful story about female friendship, loyalty and strength through unimaginable adversity. We hope you’ve enjoyed your time at Beaumaris and we really hope to see you back on our stage very soon.
It is really a great privilege to be able to present new and original works onstage. When artistic director, Andy Payne pitched the idea of a monologue festival to the Beaumaris Committee a year ago, we were very excited by its potential. We knew a lot of our former cast members and directors were talented writers as well, and we were delighted to be able to provide an outlet for them to showcase their work and creativity in a unique way. Many of the writers mentioned here will be familiar to you for their onstage work, and we are also thrilled to bring some new voices to our community as well. We hope each of these talented creatives enjoys the chance to let their words be heard and have their remarkable visions realised.
Finally, we are overjoyed to welcome back Colin Armstrong to the Beaumaris directorial seat after his wonderful (and very well cast (wink)) production of Company in 2019. We are sure that The Bridges of Madison County will reach all the heights that Company did.
All of these productions and it’s not even officially Winter yet! Stay tuned for more information about the goings on at Beaumaris, including our announcement of our November 2024 production, and make sure that you snap up your tickets to the Monologue Festival.