New paintings and regular art updates.
So many people did this, cast, crew, stall holders, hula hoop lady, helpers, Ukelele band, Titchy Theatre, red cross, church people.
We had fun, and when I got home I was too tired to puty slippers on!
Well done Penkhull, Stoke on Trent
We had a blast didn’t we?
20th Anniversary of our Mystery Plays!
I actually wrote some 3 minute plays for the Titchy Theatre at the weekend.
One was based on Samuel Becketts “Waiting for Godot”, but my version was “Waiting for Gordon”.
The idea was that two cooks are standing outside the village hall waiting for Gordon Ramsey to come and judge a cookery competition.
First they see a man walking up the hill, but it can’t be Gordon as he’s wearing a cowboy hat and carrying a guitar. The contestants realise it’s a local man and that guitars are not cookery implements, those are called banjos!
Then they see someone else, but although he’s carrying a suitcase and has blond hair and looks like Gordon, he goes into a local bed and breakfast hotel and is not the famous chef.
One of them confesses that they are not sure if Gordon is coming today or tomorrow and cannot check as they don’t have Gordon’s agents phone number.
Finally they ask what time it is and realise that their pavlova will be ruined and their Victoria sponge will be burnt. The final line is “oh well, we will have to come back tomorrow!”
I actually got a few laughs (the script was better that the explanation, and the actors helped make it funnier!)
Play under a gazebo, Titchy Theatre. We had a good attendance and people seemed to enjoy the small, two page playlets. We had a variety of performances, one play imagined life as an elevator where different floors matched with ages of life and what people do then. Like childhood, aging, and even death. Another was about memories of tandem riding, and various memories of the riders, a third about a noisy neighbour. It was really good to see people’s thoughts down on paper, and the actors enjoyed doing it despite only seeing the scripts about an hour before the performance.
Ten years ago, three horseheads of the apocalypse!
Up until Covid we were merrily holding Mystery Plays almost every July. We had a fallow year where we did other things, but the central play was missing. But now a group of residents are working towards a 20th anniversary performance in 2025.
So on Saturday 6th July 2024 we are holding a Titchy Theatre fundraising event to try and enthuse people to get involved for next year. The event will be in Penkhull Village Hall from 12.30 to 2.30pm.
We had fun creating props from willow withies and paper and glue. The horses were based on Picasso style ideas.
The time to organise this year’s mystery play at penkhull is here. But people need to get involved. After fifteen years of hard work some of the organisers are standing down. We have various deadlines and need to decide by early February whether it’s going ahead. The committee are meeting tonight and hopefully those that were involved and are involved or might want to be involved will attend. It takes a lot of effort from over 400 people to put the day on. The centre of it is usually a Mystery Play although a couple of years ago we had a ‘fallow’ year where there was no play, but the rest of the day went ahead. I guess people are busy, but it would be good to keep it going….
I wrote three little plays for the Titchy Theatre yesterday. They were read out at the show. I will post them here one a day.
Monster (tourist to reporter – look south or some such channel)
Reporter : so where did you see it?
Tourist : down by the quay, you know, the harbour?
R: and was it big?
T: well… It was as big as a boat, no… A ship
R: what did it look like?
T: er…. It had glowing all over it
R: what sort of lights?
T: Well… Yellow-ish. Like Glowing yellow eyes, and I think it had huge teeth too!
R: why?
T: it seemed to have a grill or something over its mouth, but you could see light shining through… You know… Glowing like an alien?
R: did it make a noise?
T: yes, a very low humming, and a metallic, clanking noise.
R: so…. how do you feel?
T: very scared. I’ve never seen anything like it before
R: can I ask you where you’re from?
T: oh yes. Stoke-on-Trent
R: so … Have you ever been to the seaside before?
T: oh yeah. You know, magaluf, Malaga, Ibetha.
R: and there was nothing like this there?
T: No… Just always sunny, and at night we went off and partied… The other thing I remember is this long wailing noise! I mean, it was foggy, so I could only sense the looming figure the Monster…. .!!
R: OK. Well…. We checked with the Coast Guard… .
T: Yeah??
R: the wailing noise was from the lighthouse foghorn.
T: Oh
R: And the big, dark, lit-up ship thing.
T: Yes?
R: Was a car ferry…….
Christine Mallaband-Brown
It’s mother’s day here on 31st of March but I won’t be celebrating it as both my mom and mother in law passed away a few years ago.
What I do have is these two paintings of them to remember them by.
They both had their troubles and difficulties but they were both strong women and I loved them both.
Instead of going to a mothers day lunch or tea I’m going to a theatrical event called Titchy theatre.
I’ve written a couple of small conversations for two or three voices and the people running the theatre event will be reading them out. The Titchy theatre started at Penkhull Mysteries but is expanding to two performances a year. People were asked to write something for the performance. If you are free on Sunday the 31st and want to come up to Penkhull Village Hall please do. Please get there for 2.30pm. The show starts at 3pm. Spaces are limited.
Mallaband-Brown