Tag: Scenery

Liberty

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Scenery painting from a few years ago… I think I got the arms too long, the flame too small and the head too small too! But anyway it gives an impression of lady liberty. This was done for a pantomime just before or after the pandemic. I can’t remember.

And….. I think all that is happening in the USA at the moment has pantomime qualities. The two ugly sisters are obviously two billionaires. The fact that in a pantomime they would be men wearing drag is very ironic!

Who is Aladdin or the hero of this panto? Who can say, but it needs to be someone brave who will stand up to bullying! Maybe he should be a Robin Hood character instead, taking from the rich and giving to the poor?

Lady Liberty could be a Cinderella figure, she is there to support the huddled masses and the poor. She understands their situation as she is an immigrant from France.

Finally the whole thing is stage managed with boos and hisses… Evil takes control for a while but Good will triumph in the end. And the baddies will be banished!

Spark plug machine

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Memory of a prop for the Penkhull Mystery Plays, I think this was a couple of years before covid?

The inventor of the spark plug, Oliver Lodge, lived in Penkhull and there are two local streets named after him, Oliver and Lodge Roads.

I can’t remember exactly what happened in the show but we had to try and make this pretend engine start with a starting handle and inserting a spark plug into the top of the engine.

I do think the prop and scenery people were fantastic. I got to paint some of it and make some of it but there was a great team of volunteers including making things from willow and papier mache, seamstress and stitches and making towers and buildings from bits of two by four and 8ft x 4ft flats of hardboard.

Hopefully the Mystery Plays will return in the summer of 2025.

Panto painting

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Before covid (bc) I painted a series of pictures of places the cast of the pantomime I was in travelled through to get to Gretna green in Scotland (they had no sense of direction). This was one of the destinations.

This popped up on my Facebook memories. Imagine 8 or 10 people walking along and each painting being moved across the stage behind them. It was fun.

Longest days

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I’ve just spent two days working with BArts and Growthpoint. They were putting on an opera show about Molly Leigh.

There were three scenes today, a church where a vicar was criticising a local woman called Molly Leigh and saying she was a witch, turning milk sour and having a blackbird as a familiar. A pub scene where there were  customers and staff gossiping and talking about Molly saying good and bad things, like she borrowed money and didn’t pay it back, but then gave a family with a sick child several pints of milk so the child recovered. Then the final scene where a community choir came together to sing from her perspective bringing out the various aspects of her life. Each choir member was playing part of Molly as a whole.

The photo is of the cottage interior with a few of my bits of painting included. I have to say it was hard work, tiring, very intense and yet life affirming. I did more in two days than I’ve been able to for a few years and now I’m absolutely shattered.

Scenery

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So tired,

A day full of painting ad singing, I was helping with the Molly Leigh project at BArts. I offered to paint a picture for a wall in the witches cottage, I ended up painting a fireplace too. I only did the morning as I wanted to join the choir and to be honest I was so stiff and tired after I’d been painting I almost fell asleep in my chair!

Scenery

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For years I painted the scenery for the Penkhull Mystery plays. This one was about the river Trent starting near Stoke on Trent and travelling towards Hull. Each year I would do one or two large sections of painting. The show would start rehearsals in March? And be on in July for one day only on the village green. I miss those days. The excitement as we prepared and made things. Brilliantly directed by Greg Stevens. And organised by him and Kate Barfield. It had everything. Music, acting, tragedy, comedy. Plus morris and molly dancing, a bower of song, a Maypole dance, eukelali players and choirs. I don’t suppose we will do it again?

Thanks to my friend Tim for the photo.

Panto time

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Penkhull Pantomime this year is Robin Hood. It will be on in Stoke on Trent again next week, the Penkhull group is performing at our local village hall. I was not able to take part in it this year because of my ill health, but I am pleased that they will be using some small paintings of scenes I originally did three years ago. I’m trying to source some fibreboard so I can do a final painting, it will be based on a celtic design that I found and as it’s about Scotland there will be thistles and a stags head. I haven’t painted it yet but no doubt I will post about it when I’ve completed it. The photo here is me waring a mob cap in a performance I was in back in December.

Memories of panto

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Some of my scenery painting from a couple of years ago. I had to paint the backgrounds but also one of the stars of the show climbs into a mangle (that squashes clothes to get the water out) and he comes out flattened, a bit like a Tom and Jerry cartoon. I also painted the back of him on the other side so if it came out wrong way round it would also work. Behind me and the actors portrait is a bit of my scenery. It shows an old market or bazaar where Widow Twankey has a stall. If I can I’d like to try and do the same again if my arm and shoulder improves.

Soon I’ll be scenery painting…

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Panto rehearsal started tonight. I’ve offered to help paint the scenery again and I might get a few lines to speak. It’s been a couple of years since we did it because of covid.

This is a picture of me painting a banner for a mystery play that we did a few years ago (based on the willow pattern). I love getting involved in these projects.

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