News from our April 2007 newsletter From the Chairman's Dressing Room ... As this is likely the last newsletter prior to the 2007 AGM, at which time I have announced my retirement from the Committee, this will probably be the last time I shall contribute to this column. I trust you will forgive me, therefore, if I am guilty of a little self-indulgence! I was asked to assume the position of Chairman back in 1995 and since then there have been some lows (the fire that gutted our rehearsal rooms, cancelled projects such as "Singing in the Rain" and "Follies, etc) and many highs (the Society's golden jubilee celebrations, the Councillor's Cup winning production of "Salad Days", the record-breaking box-office smash, "Scrooge - the Musical", the presentation of the cabaret at NODA's national banquet, etc). When I took over, I was very aware of the heritage attached to the Arcadians, built up over many years by my predecessors, particularly the great triumvirate of Bob Smith, Pat Richardson and Barbara Cole in the 70's and 80's. My chief objective was to leave the Society in at least as good a situation as that which I inherited. This, I think, we have achieved. This achievement is no accident, of course, but due to the fantastic efforts of many truly talented and hard-working Committee members through the years. I am sure the amount of time and toil that they put in is sometimes under-estimated and we tend to take for granted the fact that we pitch up at the Gordon Craig Theatre and Plinston Hall a couple of times each year to strut our stuff for a few days. Those few days have taken something like eighteen months for somebody to organize!! My thanks go out to them all, and also to everyone else who has supported me during the past twelve years. Letchworth Arcadians is a special Society. I don't say that because I am a member - I am a member because it is the best, a subtle difference. Long may it continue to be so. Brian Seal, Chairman. New members We have had another good intake of new members and would like to extend a very warm welcome to Peter Bailey, Steve Duncombe, Anthony Gordon, Sophie Gough, Shaun Kitchener, Nicci Lawrence, Kathryn Lee, Kristian Lopez and Alison Panton who have all auditioned successfully since the last newsletter. We hope they enjoy their time with the Arcadians. It is encouraging that there is so much interest from people wishing to join Letchworth Arcadians - there is already a list of potential members for the next round of auditions! A warm welcome and 'Thank you' to the 'extras' in the current production - we hope you will have so enjoyed the experience that you will want to join the Society for 'The Pirates of Penzance'. Young Arcadians Another show over - Wind in the Willows went very well. Simon was producing his first show for Young Arcadians, but all the problems with getting a Musical Director at the beginning of rehearsals gave us many sleepless nights and was quite worrying for us as the members missed a few music rehearsals, but we eventually had Nikki Laurence join the team. Tickets sales were a little lower than for HONK! but I would like to thank all the members of YA for selling the majority of the tickets and a big thank you to Mary Driver who helped us sell tickets via her school. Just before our 2007 production went on stage, we were able to let the members know that their 2008 production would be Disney's High School Musical. They were overjoyed at this news and the cheers from the members at their penultimate rehearsal were very loud indeed. High School Musical will be performed at The Plinston Hall, Letchworth from 12 - 16th February 2008. On May 19th we will be auditioning new members to join - at present we have approximately 30 youngsters who have written to me expressing a wish to audition for Young Arcadians, but only 16 have sent back their application forms. I would like to thank the members who will be on our audition panel for giving up their time to hear all our auditionees. In June we are holding a workshop for the members, I will be notifying them of the date in the next few weeks. Gilly Nott