The Phoenix Rises

Booiinnggg! That's what you get when you hit rock bottom - if you're lucky. And we've been lucky. Just when we thought it was all over we had a fantastic turnout at the "last rites of Castle Players" meeting. It seems that, even if we've been finding it difficult to cast plays and generally get volunteers to do stuff (and to be honest everyone in the area is in the same boat), there's still a lot of love for the old girl yet. And with everyone going, "I believe in Castle Players, I believe in Castle Players" she flickered back into life. I had a tear in my eye (just the one). So here we are, re-invigorated. A partially revised committee and, thanks to those lovely people who turned up a few Sundays ago prepared to make their voice heard, a bunch of new ideas. Before I ramble on, I must thank the previous committee for the effort to keep us going to this point. Thank you. Now, looking forward... As a show of gratitude we've decided to open up free membership as a patron or a player until the September AGM just let Linsey know We have a new look website having been told the old one looked dated. Thanks to Linsey who's creative genius knows no bounds. I have a new Twitter account @SteveCPTG where you can follow the musings of Chairman Steve. Although to be completely honest I don't really get Twitter and I haven't had much to say ("What?", I hear you cry, "you haven't much to say? It's usually a problem shutting you up!"). No, it's true. Besides you've only got 140 characters and I have been accused of having verbal diarrhoea. Anyway, you can follow me if you like. You never know, I might say something useful one day. And don't forget there is also the Castle Players twitter account @castleplayers that you can all follow Combine that with our Facebook page www.facebook.com/CastlePlayersTheatreGroup and we are a truly 21st century, kick-butt social-media company. Ah, did I mention free membership? What else is there? Ah, yes, you told us we don't get together enough to keep the interest going. And you told us one of the things you'd like to do is read plays. Now this is something close to my heart as I've always liked getting together with some mates to read a play (I especially enjoy this activity in the warmth of a pub). So Mr Puttick has kindly agreed to organise the first of our new series of monthly play reads that we're going to call "A Series of Monthly Play Reads". Snappy eh? It's going to be on 12th Feb in the Village Hall (boo). We'll switch around days and times for this as we recognise that people have various commitments in their lives and can't always make certain days. And if there's a will of the people we could even switch venue (to the pub? Please?). Have I mentioned free membership before? Another thing we didn't realise is the number of people who want to do plays with us but can't because we usually time them to coincide with half terms and they have family commitments then. Doh! So we're not going to do that anymore. We're looking into how we go about set builds and tech/dress rehearsal so that we don't impact people like Ailsa and her dance classes, or the Badminton players or Zumba... We're also going to enter a team or two (if we can, it'll be great to see you) into the Village Hall quiz night on the 11th Feb. We already have enough for one team but it will be lovely to see more of you. When we asked about relaunching Castle Players everyone thought it would be too late to wait for Cinderella (which that ever so talented Linsey is writing) and so we have decided to stage the One Acts this Autumn. I just need to get my bottom in gear and ask a few people to help. Look out for details. I may tweet them! So, there we are, don't be shy. Join in, feedback, come and join us and have some fun. Thank you so much for your continued support. We can all look forward to returning Castle Players to its former glory. And with your help we'll do it. Oh, and don't forget the free membership. There, how'd I do? That was only 140 characters wasn't it? All the best, Chairman Steve