Welcome
Welcome to April's Barn News
Barn News for April brings more than a whiff of spring as we lose an hour’s sleep but gain the rule of six and begin to see a way back to a more recognisable life. The phrase ‘have you had it?’ now refers to the vaccine rather than the virus itself, and we are all experts on side-effects and epidemiology!
With all of that comes the hope of new life back into our lovely theatre and the high probability of bums on seats for a couple of shows in the early summer. Hurrah!
The new team looking after Facebook are doing a brilliant job making those of us who use it feel much more part of things, and as I write this Simon W has posted a fabulous piece inviting members to devise their own season. Now Clive is not departing his AD role, but it’s a great way for all of us to understand the challenges he faces each year – and will, I’m sure, bring in some ideas for us. Ten shows designed to entertain and attract a diverse audience with good ticket sales and a balance of male and female roles and all ages… a tough ask! I’m really looking forward to seeing the ideas come in.
Clive has already got next season ready, and more on how we are planning a safe Directors Evening will be coming out soon – so watch this space. A big thank-you to everyone who’s agreed to direct next season – how lovely to be planning on ‘when’ not ‘if’!
Next month of course we can begin rehearsing again, and Sharon and Mike are making sure that the building is all ready, and then we can re-open the bar and it will feel more like our theatre home again when we can all meet up.
Trying to get our community more together again is really important to me – and not just on performance nights. Elsewhere in this BN you’ll find an advertisement for a social secretary – we’re looking for someone to co-ordinate and arrange and want to find ways of getting us together more regularly. If you’re interested, then please do get in touch!
Finally then for this month, some thoughts on opening up – while we’re delighted to be getting going again I also think that his year may well have given us a chance to have a think about the Barn’s future. How do we keep our members interested, engaged and involved? How do we make more use of the facilities – especially the Studio? We’re still looking for someone to lead on the use of that wonderful space and now is the time to come forward and start planning!
In the meantime, enjoy the springtime, enjoy the growing freedoms, and see you back in the rehearsal room soon!
Simon Parr
Chairman
April 2021
Membership & Council
Barn Council minutes February 2021
Please find the minutes of the meeting of the Barn Theatre Council held on 23rd February 2021 via video conference
Our membership news depends on information we get from YOU
Social Secretary
Situation still vacant!
The Barn urgently needs a Social Secretary. Any member in the Barn Members Facebook Group will be aware of this.
In the good old (may be not so old!) days the club organised monthly Club Nights offering a variety of ‘entertainments’ such as games evenings, horse racing nights, quiz nights, etc. These gave a great opportunity to members to meet each other socially. We’ve lacked in this area for some time now so we’re having yet another go at advertising the post. Also, when we’re back in business again the Membership Director will be looking at ways to encourage new members to join the Club, but will need to coordinate this with the Social Secretary because of arranging potential new member evenings.
Please let the Membership Director know if you’re interested in taking this on. It’s not envisaged that you’ll be working on your own but with possibly a small team of members. For more information please contact Nigel Rive at [email protected]
Nigel Rive
Membership Director
Facebook Members group
Barn Members on Facebook
The Barn Members Facebook Group now stands at over 115 members. With Barn membership at over 300, there are still a lot of people who haven’t found us on Facebook. All you need to do is search for Barn Members Group, answer a few questions (to confirm you are indeed a member) and you can join the fun. The group is simply a forum for club members to chat, exchange information and ideas and hopefully help the Barn emerge from the darkest period in its history. Regular features include:
Photo montages: See past productions with stills from the Barn’s wonderful but currently rather inaccessible archive. Recent montages include:
- Macbeth
- Dad’s Army
- Neighbourhood Watch
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Little Shop of Horrors
Monologue Mondays: Drama comes alive with our Monologue Mondays. Barn actors and invited guests perform great monologues for your delectation.
Plus (hopefully) more good stuff in the coming months.
Bob Thomson
Obituaries
Wendy Lyddon
Sadly we have to report that Wendy Lyddon, a much-loved volunteer who helped with counting cash and banking after performances, died recently. She also helped out at Handside Post Office, and about 70 people gathered to pay their respects as the funeral procession passed by the Post Office. Wendy always had a smile for everyone and we will miss her.
Ian Major
Finance Director
A fond farewell to Sheila Denton
Sheila was a conscientious and beloved member of the costume repair team, who in earlier safer times gathered together in the Green Room on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Sadly, Sheila passed away in March at the age of 85, after suffering from a short illness. She will be greatly missed. Here is a tribute composed by the sewing ladies with whom she shared happy times and friendship.
“Sheila had been part of our costume repair shop for about two years. She was a lovely, kind, gentle lady who was really good at repairing things – no job too big or too small. We’re going to miss her in our little gang and her lovely smile. RIP Sheila, from all your friends in the costume repair shop.”
Sheila was a very special lady and her enthusiasm and expertise will be remembered with gratitude and affection. Our thoughts are with her family at this sad time.
Check it out!
If you haven’t found it yet and are on Facebook, be sure and look up the new Barn Members’ Group page and get a quick fix in these theatre-starved times.
Set up as it says, ‘not so much an extension of the main Barn Facebook page, but as a place where members can interact and engage with each other. Think of it like somewhere between Barn News and the Clubroom / Green Room’.
And we’re all missing that aspect I’m sure, as well of course as all that goes with being involved in putting on productions – and going to see them!
So I decided to check it out and I’m very glad I did. I had a fascinating look back, mostly before my time, at two presentations of photos on The Leading Men and The Leading Ladies from the years between 2009 and 2020, courtesy of John Davies’ photography. Why not see how many you know or remember?
And the first feature under the heading Monologue Monday was Jim Markey giving a wonderful excerpt from King Lear, a masterclass in Shakespeare performance. This production is due to be streamed live from 12th to 15th May. Highly recommended.
I look forward to checking this page regularly and seeing what turns up.
Georgie Palmer
Playing away
Jim Markey
While some actors swerve the mighty role of Lear, Jim Markey is rehearsing his second, this time to be streamed live from the stage of the Pump House Theatre, Watford.
‘It’s a proper challenge,’ he says, ‘mentally and physically.’ Jim took on the role in 2012 for the memorable Barn production, directed by Simon Wallace. This one is directed by actor / director Jo Emery.
‘We started to plan this production in November,’ Jim said, ‘when we were hopeful of a live performance, then the new variant knocked it for six, so we decided to stream. Zoom rehearsals are going well and we’ll have some rehearsal time on the Pump Theatre stage before we go live in May.’
King Lear runs from Wednesday 12th to Saturday 15th May at 7.45 nightly. Tickets cost £14.00, plus £1.18 booking fee, from 0333 666 3366 or www.ticketsource.co.uk/jo-emery-productions.
While you’re waiting, go to the Barn Members Facebook page and watch Jim’s trailer – terrific!
Carol Bush
Spotlight on Sean Scotchford
Drama teacher and actor
What is your favourite show and why?
I’ve loved every show I’ve seen by DV8, but particularly To Be Straight With You back in 2009. Their shows ask important questions of our society and their movement work is beautiful to watch. I just wish they would end their hiatus and get back to creating some excellent theatre.
What’s the best show you’ve been involved in?
So many to choose from, but I have to say I Don Quixote at the Minack. It’s always such a privilege to perform there.
What story does your family always tell about you?
The day we were having a family party and, being a 5-year-old ball of excited curly energy, I was probably being a pain in the behind. Dad decided to take me for a bike ride to get me out of my mum’s hair. Within 5 minutes of going on the bike ride we’d reached Spar Hill – the curved path going down to the lagoon next to the Spar shop in Panshanger. ‘Great,’ I thought, ‘an opportunity to go really fast.’ It was about half-way down the hill and entering the first corner that I realised I was losing control. Upon reaching the second corner I’d hit mach 3 and my face was probably reminiscent of a NASA trainee in one of those G-force pods. The blood rushed to my head, I yanked my brakes, forgetting that my dad had recently tightened them, and my chin collided with the handle bars, splitting it open and spewing blood everywhere. Mummy was not happy with Daddy when we returned 15 minutes after heading out. Oops.
If you could have lunch with any three people (real or fictitious / dead or alive), which three people would you choose and why?
Arsène Wenger – he’s a hero of mine. He brought so much success to Arsenal in his earlier days, and sacrificed success at other major football clubs to remain loyal to Arsenal in his later career.
The first ‘Scotchford’ – I’d love to meet the human who was first given the name Scotchford to find out why my family have this name, and also to find out a little bit more about my distant ancestors. Build me a time machine and I’m there!
Arnold Schwarzenegger – I think he’d be a lot of fun to hang out with, plus we’re definitely having Tomahawk steaks if he’s cooking. I also think he’s quite an inspirational person and who wouldn’t want to get a photo arm-wrestling the Terminator? (I never said I expected to win.)
If given complete freedom to start afresh, what profession would you choose and why?
Absolutely something outside: I love being outside. Perhaps a tree surgeon, or a horticulturalist? Landscape gardener? Something like that.
What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Some friends and I booked tickets to Kyrgyzstan and went travelling there for a month. While waiting for our connecting flight in Ukraine, a man told us that we should go home because we would be murdered and eaten. We didn’t go home, we weren’t murdered, Kyrgyzstan ended up being one of the most incredible countries I’ve ever visited. I did end up watching a game of buzkashi, which is very similar to polo, except they play with a decapitated goat instead of a ball. Where do you even go from there, eh?
If you were to change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Although George listed a RANGE of things I could change…
I’m a grudge-holder. I can’t help it. I wish I could. My thought process is that I’m really difficult to upset. So if someone has gone to the lengths to really upset me, then they must have really, really wanted to do so, and life is too short to spend time with those that would make you that unhappy.
If you were stranded on a lonely beach, what are the five things that you would want to have with you?
Let’s pretend this ISN’T a survival question…
- George
- Skye (the bestest pooch in the world)
- A choice of great books
- A magic cool box / packed lunch that supplies you with whatever food / drink you desire
- A magic portal that lets friends come and visit for the day
What is one of your favourite quotes?
‘We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.’ Native American proverb.
What is your most cherished childhood memory?
We have a family tradition called ‘Paper Fight Night’ that usually takes place just after Christmas. Food, drink and a lucky dip of silly presents that’s passed around the room. Once all presents have been unwrapped and people have finished swapping presents for things they want from other people, we scrunch up all of our paper and havoc ensues. The paper war usually lasts about 20 minutes and then we lament particularly good ‘head shots’ from throughout the fight. No ‘Nans’ have ever been harmed in the process to date, and we don’t go easy on them because they’re old either. So in answer, every Paper Fight Night that I can remember.
If given a chance to skip work for a day, how would you spend the entire day? May not be relevant in these weird days!
I would plan a very long walk, with regular stoppages at various watering holes. Usually the refreshments are served in pint form for me, but anyone accompanying me on this walk can have theirs served however they like. Ideally this day would NOT be followed by another working day.
Sean Scotchford
Welwyn Youth Drama Festival
77th YDF - the shows went on!
As mentioned in February’s Barn News, the 77th Welwyn Garden City Youth Drama Festival was an entirely virtual affair. This may have been Hobson’s choice, since it wasn’t possible to operate from the Barn stage as we have done since 1947, but what a great choice it turned out to be!
From early September, when we were due to conduct our regular round of invitations to past and potential future teams, we knew that we were wading into unknown territory as we had no idea what restrictions might lie ahead of us. Straight away, we decided to make this year’s Festival celebratory rather than competitive, and we abandoned our traditional cups and our Festival rules. We simply asked for any form of theatre of any length (within reason).
We were thrilled with the quick and enthusiastic reaction from many of our regular entrants, but second lockdown at the start of November saw several, including the Barn, decide that it simply wouldn’t be possible to meet to rehearse and film an entry. It was a tough and uncertain time and we constantly questioned whether we should be trying to go ahead at all. But we’re a stubborn bunch and we dug in and wheedled and watched and waited.
If you followed our website and Facebook posts, or saw the excellent piece kindly penned by Carol Bush in the Welwyn Hatfield Times in February, you’ll have seen the programme evolving day by day, as films and entries slowly rolled in – some from regulars, but also quite a few from schools who have never previously shown an interest.
It was sad and strange to have a Festival without a Barn entry. We know that the youth groups would have been there if they’d been able to find a way to rehearse and film safely and we missed them very much. However, we were delighted that Simon Parr was able to join our audience every night and that our home theatre was, at least loosely, represented by several of its members who took part through their workplaces.
- Lou Wallace brought three pieces from HabsGirls – a Shakespeare Schools abbreviated version of Twelfth Night and a wacky devised piece based on the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and entitled Down the Rabbit Hole. Lou’s third piece was the late addition of a monologue by one of her talented A-Level students.
- Kim Southey’s Mimic Stage School entertained us with a veritable cornucopia of young talent: a total of seven entries, including dance pieces to popular music such as Michael Jackson’s Thriller, as well as a couple of devised stories that GoDA Adjudicator, Sue Doherty, suggested have the potential to be further developed in the future.
- Lynsey Wallace, Beaumont School, gave us Game Over on our Monday night: the harrowing, true story of the online grooming and subsequent murder of 14-year-old Breck Bednar by Lewis Daynes in 2014. Lynsey was also behind eight varied and entertaining monologues from her excellent A-Level students.
- The prize for the eleventh-hour entry, #got-it-in-by-the-skin-of-his-teeth, must go to past Barn Chairman, Bob Thomson, who, under the umbrella of Tiger Productions, submitted (on the Tuesday night!) a lovely video of his granddaughter, Libby Goodwins, reciting Leisure by William H Davies. We managed to shoehorn Libby into the Friday night!
In keeping with the Festival’s theme of celebration, Sue was given free rein to pick out performances that she had particularly enjoyed and to award them with one of our cute, cuddly oxen, or with an individual medal, and all four teams mentioned above received something.
Sue gave encouraging, constructive and detailed feedback to all teams during each evening’s public adjudication. It was a surreal experience for her to speak without the ability to gauge the reaction of her audience and she was pleased to have the opportunity to meet privately (in a Zoom breakout room) any teams who chose to take up our offer at the end of each evening. Those who did, expressed their appreciation and said they found her suggestions both pertinent and valuable.
On Saturday night, Stewart Mison, National Drama Festivals Association Chairman, spoke about the hunger for theatre and the strength of the desire to return to performing. He praised all those who had worked so hard to produce entries, as well as the YDF team for achieving what few others had managed and for so successfully entertaining the viewers against formidable odds. By illustration, the Festival showcased a total of 39 entries during the six-night event. Over 200 young actors had their moment in the virtual spotlight.
If you were among the nearly 400 households who applied for the free virtual tickets, we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did. Thank you too if you made a voluntary donation to our appeal for local charity Keech Hospice. We’re absolutely delighted to be in the position of being able to pass on the sum of £768.46 to them.
So now, as the dust has settled on all the screens and camera lenses, we hope to be back at the Barn for our 78th Festival in 2022. Make a note of the dates and be sure that you join us from 7th to 12th March. In the meantime, we have a big question to ponder: should filmed entries form a new category in future Festivals? Watch this space!
Michael, Hazel, Derek, Jan, Brenda and Laura
WGC YDF Committee
Alternative Dialogue
The Editor would welcome any new photos and captions for next month.
Please email them to us here:
Hover over the images below to see our ideas…
Comedy Corner
A policeman knocked on my door and said he was looking for a man with one eye. I told him he’d probably find him quicker if he used both eyes.
My wife kept dropping hints about flowers on Valentine’s Day. Wasn’t sure what was best: plain or self-raising.
Had a bad mix-up at Waitrose today. The cashier said strip down and face me. Apparently she meant my credit card.
People are usually shocked when they find out I’m not a very good electrician.
My mate told me that we eat more bananas than monkeys. I told him it didn’t surprise me as I’d never seen anyone eating a monkey.
A friend of mine was up north. He asked a man if there was a B&Q in Wigan. The man replied “No, it’s W-I-G-A-N”.
Later the same friend drove into a garage and asked the attendant if they had an airline. The attendant replied ”Are you joking? We haven’t even got a bus station!”
I failed my audition for the National Theatre of Mime. Perhaps it was something I said.
I walked into a church in the countryside the other day and said to the vicar “This is a really nice old church, vicar”. ”It’s Norman actually,” he replied. So I said “This is a really nice old church, Norman”.
If people from Poland are called Poles why aren’t people from Holland called Holes?
Daytime Play reading
From Barrie to Barry - Zoom play reading
Who would have guessed a year ago that so many of us would be grateful to Zoom for keeping alive our interest in theatre? It’s also enabled the play reading group to continue to meet each month to practise and enjoy reading and acting skills. Equally important, these sessions have helped a tiny part of the Barn to keep in touch and have a stimulating morning, usually interspersed with laughter, intended or otherwise.
In March our mix of plays started with a play for radio, written by one of our members, Barry Grossman, who’s acted in several plays at CoPs. He nearly made his debut on the Barn stage last year. He was part of the cast for Waiting in the Wings, the play ‘pulled’ the week before curtain up, when we went into Covid lockdown.
He wrote a series of plays entitled The Attractive Young Rabbi which was broadcast by the BBC around 2002. They’re still aired from time to time and we were delighted to read one from the collection, Girl Talk. Many have said that Zoom lends itself to radio plays and we thought it would be interesting to see how this one worked.
Barry’s producer was able to engage a stellar cast which included Henry Goodman. But we happily brought alive the story of two female rabbis who meet at a conference and briefly followed the consequences of their encounter. One rabbi serves an upwardly mobile community and is busy writing a book and aiming for greater things. The other, more humble, but altogether nicer rabbi, takes pleasure in engaging with her congregation, even if she can only get 30 or so in the synagogue at any time. We entered their worlds and enjoyed the situational humour, sharp dialogue and final twist in the tale.
After the coffee break we went back in time with The Twelve Pound Look by JM Barrie, best known as the creator of the eternal boy, Peter Pan.
Suggested by Hazel Halliday, who was in the original cast, the Barn chose this as a festival play in 2005, directed by Jack Wood. He took it to Maidenhead, Cambridge, Watford, Haverhill and on to the Welwyn Festival. As well as Hazel, we had Siobhán Hill present from the festival cast and both got to read. But since all’s fair in love and the play reading group, they shared reading the parts with others.
Barrie invites the listeners to become Sir Harry Simms, about to be knighted. We step into his drawing room where his down-trodden wife is playing Queen to enable him to practise the knighthood ceremony. As he leaves, she is left to interview a typist, sent along to answer the many expected letters of congratulation. They enjoy some rapport and Lady Simms cannot help but notice the pleasure the typist has using her skills. Enter Harry, who’s appalled to see who’s been employed and hastily gets rid of his wife. The composed, articulate typist turns out to be his first wife, who left him after years of being crushed by his overbearing, pompous belief in himself and his kind. She made her escape by learning to type and earning the £12.00 it took to buy her first typewriter. She warns him that she sometimes sees ‘the £12.00 look’ come into the eyes of disaffected wives. We needed only a short time before her theory was proved.
Next Zoom play reading:
Tuesday 20th April – join on Zoom at 10.20am for a 10.30 start (until 12.30). Email Yvana on [email protected] if you’d like to come along.
Yvana
Musicals Quiz
Answer the eight questions then rearrange the initials of the answers to form the name of a show.
- What is the name of the florist’s shop in Little Shop of Horrors?
- Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent, tragically died just before the Broadway opening. What is the only other show to his name, which was constructed posthumously?
- What is the name of the café in Les Misérables, an aural pun on the French word for ‘oppressed’?
- What is the unusual pet given to Louise as a birthday present in Gypsy?
- In Cats, what is the name of the Layer where once a year a lucky feline gets reborn?
- Which Boyzone hit originally featured in the Whistle Down the Wind musical?
- Which Sondheim show features a cow called Milky White?
- The film of which classic musical won the Best Picture Oscar in 1968?
1. Mushnik’s
2. tick, tick… BOOM!
3. ABC (abaissé)
4. Lamb
5. Heaviside
6. No Matter What
7. Into the Woods
8. Oliver!
The initial letters can be rearranged to spell HAMILTON.
Clive Weatherley
Production photos
Have you got any production photos?
During the lockdown the Archive Team have been working on the Barn Archives at home: sorting, cataloguing and digitising programmes and photographs. Our aim is to digitise everything from the 1920s to the present day. A lot of this early material is unique and significant to the history of the Barn, how it became a theatre in 1932, and how it’s been used since. Much of the material is irreplaceable.
We have a lot of material on the productions and activities over the period 1932 to 1969 when the Welwyn Drama Club and Welwyn Folk Players dominated our theatre. All this material has now been digitised.
Since 1969, which is when the Barn Theatre Club was formed from the earlier clubs, we’ve been pleased to discover that we have copies of all programmes (so far) from all productions. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for photographs, where we’ve been amazed and disappointed to find that there’s a complete lack of any photographs for some productions.
Our aim is to ensure we have a digitised backup of all the Archive material hence ensuring future security of the material and with a view to making all the material accessible to all members. Members will be familiar with the Archive material on our website: the plan is to eventually expand the depth of material available. Note: currently the website is undergoing restructuring and updating, hopefully this will soon be completed.
At the time of writing, we were up to August 2004. Work is continuing so there may well be other gaps which we will communicate at some later date.
Below is a list of all those productions with missing photographs. If anyone has any photos that we can scan or are happy to donate, please contact us at:
We’d like to add a big thank-you to John Davies for supplying the Archives in recent times with photos promptly and efficiently.
List of productions
Dec 1971
Oct 1972
Mar 1973
Oct 1977
Jan 1978
Jan 1984
Dec 1984
Sep 1986
Oct 1986
Oct 1986
Nov 1986
Dec 1986
Dec 1986
Feb 1987
Feb 1987
Mar 1987
Jan 1988
Nov 1996
Sep 1991
Dec 1997
Jun 1998
Sep 1999
Oct 1999
Apr 2000
Nov 2000
Dec 2000
Mar 2001
Jun 2001
Sep 2001
Nov 2001
Feb 2002
Apr 2002
Jul 2002
Sep 2002
Nov 2003
Jan 2004
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Miracle Worker
The Turn of the Screw
A Penny for a Song
In Praise of Love
Godspell
Rock Nativity
84 Charing Cross Road
Staircase
The Good Person of Szechwan
Another Country
Measure for Measure
The Happiest Days of Your Life
Deathtrap
Golden Pathway Annual
Once a Catholic
Peter Pan
Broken Journey
Agamemnon
The Railway Children
Don’t Rock The Boat
Relatively Speaking
Kindertransport
Skylight
Any Road
Aladdin
Absurd Person Singular
Assassins
A Piece of My Mind
Pass the Butler
Spoonface Steinberg
Medea
Little Shop of Horrors
Dead Funny
The Crucible
The Laramie Project
Bob Gill