Our theatre group

Sunny

SF VIP
Location
Maryland
Anyone else here take part in amateur theatrical ventures? Our club here, called Fun & Fancy, puts on plays and musicals throughout the year. We have a blast doing it. Today was the final performance of Broadway in the 60's, which featured songs and dances from Broadway musicals of that decade. Our finale was really something to see! That segment of the show featured Hello Dolly, and some professional hat designers (who live here) came up with an incredible collection of huge, feathery creations for all of us to wear while singing Put On Your Sunday Clothes. Here's me in mine, backstage.

Me with hat.jpg
 

Sunny, what a great group to be involved with! Sounds like a lot of fun. I used to go to small production plays and improv. Haven't done it lately.
 
Sounds like so much fun! I thought about joining a theatre group long, long time ago but never followed thru.
 

Oh don’t you look darling!
Theatre would be so much fun. I love singing and dancing but I don’t do anything like that but good for you.
How long have you been doing this? What’s your favourite musical? What’s been your favourite part to play or favourite performance?
Good for you Sunny. That’s exciting and inspirational.
 
Oh I'm so pleased you posted this Sunny... I wondered how your last night went, it sounds like after all the hard work that it ended up a blast, and you look fabulous too...:D
 
Thanks to all for the kind words. Our last performance on Sunday was terrific; sometimes we get tired by the last performance, but this time the show just kept getting better and better. My favorite number was "A Brotherhood of Man," sung by 8 guys (all over 60, some over 80) in loud, virile, energetic voices, even with some dancing. That was the first act finale, and it was a humdinger.

Coming up in the fall: Damn Yankees.

We also have an active Gilbert & Sullivan group, which puts on a different production every year in August. This year we are doing Pirates of Penzance. These amateur theatrical groups are marvelous fun.

Those two are in the community where I live, but I also belong to the Encore Chorale, which has various groups meeting a short distance from here. If you like to sing, you might be interested. Take a peek at their web site; maybe there's a group near you.


http://encorecreativity.org/
 
Keesha, I'd have trouble coming up with a "favorite musical," as I always get immersed in the one I'm currently in. Six months ago, we introduced the theme of music in the 60's with a show featuring popular music of that era. Mostly jazz and rock. I sang a Bob Dylan song, and played the piano accompaniment for a few numbers. I was surprised to learn how much fun jazz piano is; I had pretty much always stuck to classical prior to that.

I've also learned that I love writing and directing plays. We've put on a few of my "productions," with mixed success, mostly good. One thing that's fun is reading the scripts of old radio shows. Many of those scripts are out there on the Internet free of charge, no royalties, it's perfectly legal to just read the plays, especially on a small scale where we don't charge anything for them.

Our theatre club has recently started a play reading group, where we meet in each other's houses and just read short plays for fun.

There are probably thousands of groups like this all over the world, as it's a great activity for seniors with enough time to participate.
 
Keesha, I'd have trouble coming up with a "favorite musical," as I always get immersed in the one I'm currently in. Six months ago, we introduced the theme of music in the 60's with a show featuring popular music of that era. Mostly jazz and rock. I sang a Bob Dylan song, and played the piano accompaniment for a few numbers. I was surprised to learn how much fun jazz piano is; I had pretty much always stuck to classical prior to that.

I've also learned that I love writing and directing plays. We've put on a few of my "productions," with mixed success, mostly good. One thing that's fun is reading the scripts of old radio shows. Many of those scripts are out there on the Internet free of charge, no royalties, it's perfectly legal to just read the plays, especially on a small scale where we don't charge anything for them.

Our theatre club has recently started a play reading group, where we meet in each other's houses and just read short plays for fun.

There are probably thousands of groups like this all over the world, as it's a great activity for seniors with enough time to participate.

Oh that is so cool Sunny. Did you take theatre arts at school or college?
What about music? Where did you learn to play the piano?

Theatrec Arts was offered at my school and it was an excellent course yet I never enrolled in it and it’s sojething I truly regret. The people that took theatre arts all had a really good time and we’re all well rounded easy to get along with type of folks.

We were taught piano as kids and I now play keyboards and sing. I’ve played in some small concerts and also played saxophone in a jazz band which was so much fun. I loved it.

Thats great that you’ve written and directed plays. What an accomplishment to be proud of. Your posts and pictures really express your passion for music and theatre.

The idea of getting together and reading short plays is a fine idea. Not only does it keep your body active but it keeps your mind active too while being social.

Good for you. I enjoy reading posts about what others are truly passionate about.
 
Falcon, LOL about the hat and ceiling fans. I never even thought about that, I had enough trouble just keeping the damn thing on my head. :D

Keesha, never took theatre arts, but I've been singing in choral groups all my life, and had piano lessons starting at age 6, continuing until age 12, but I continued playing and studying on my own. I have never been a professional musician; this is strictly amateur. I wish we could hear you play your saxophone; I love the sound of a sax!

Granny, we do get youtube videos of our performances, but I would not post them here, as it would be violating the privacy of the other performers. I wish I could show the finale of this show, though. It was Put on Your Sunday Clothes from Hello Dolly, and the entire cast came onstage and down into the audience, wearing our hats. (Only the women wore the hats, this isn't San Francisco.) It was terrific!

The first segment of the show was a scene from Cabaret. I didn't do any singing in that, I was a customer seated at a table, having a good time with friends. We had a ball setting up that scene. We had an empty gin bottle from which we kept "filling" our beer steins and drinking, passed around a fake marijuana joint, and so on. Amazing how much we learn by watching television!

One play that I wrote that was a lot of fun was called Party Room Wars. It takes place in the party room of one of our hi-rises, and is about groups of people playing various games (bridge, scrabble, mah jong, poker) who keep yelling at each other that they are making too much noise. All are women except the poker players. It escalates and they nearly come to blows until the bingo group arrives and throws them all out, because they reserved the room first. Everyone leaves, angrily muttering that they are going to sue. That's the gist of it, anyway. We just put that one on a few months ago.
 
How annoying. I'm trying to upload a few more backstage photos, but it refuses to upload. Probably the files are too big. Don't know why that first one of me got through.
 


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