In a move to promote this year’s show we entered a float into Totland and Freshwater Carnival.

Which essentially consisted of pushing one of the three hospital beds used for the show through the streets. Thanks to all those who took part and supported us.

Following last week’s auditions we have postponed this year’s performance by three weeks in order to achieve the best casting for this year’s show. The performance run will now be the 15th – 18th September 2010, a new rehearsal schedule can be found on our ‘Downloads’ page. Thank you to all those who auditioned this year.

A number of our members have also been working to provide technical support for Curtain Up’s next production ‘Anybody for Murder’, a comic thriller by Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner. Performances will be next week from Thursday 24th – Saturday 26th at Totland Church Hall. All performances start at 7:30pm and tickets will be available on the door.

Following last week’s read through the decision was made to produce It Can Damage Your Health by Eric Chappell for this year’s summer show. The play involves a comically mismatched trio of men sharing a small Men’s Surgical ward: the cynical and defensive Higgins, who seems to know more about medicine than the doctors, the young and nervous Gary whose inexperience with women is a subject of much discussion amongst his companions, and the weary hypochondriac Palmer, who prefers being in hospital to living his lonely bachelor life. The play is based on Eric Chappell’s hit TV series Only When I Laugh, and traces the fortunes of this disparate band as they form an uneasy alliance against the confusions and insecurities of hospital life. Described as warm-hearted, perceptive and hilarious, this is a study of the British male at his most vulnerable.

Auditions are set for next Sunday (6th June) at 7:30pm, please use the ‘Contact Us’ page to drop us an email if you are interested in auditioning or would like further information.

We’re having a read-through of the script for the summer show, which is also a good excuse to have a BBQ! It’s set for Saturday 15th May at 1pm.

If you are interested in being involved in the summer show please use the ‘Contact Us’ page to send us an email for further information.

Last night saw the return of Pawel Jankowski for a classical concert in aid of RNLI Yarmouth and Freshwater Independent Lifeboat. The vast ensemble consisted of the Slipshod male voice choir, the Isle of Wight String Quartet, the Phoenix Jazz Ensemble and Carmen Lasok. We were honoured to be asked to be involved in this outstanding concert for a second year running and are already looking forward to next year!

Many thanks to Kaleidoscope members who have been providing technical support, in the form of lighting and sound, to Curtain Up’s production of ’70 Girls 70’ at Freshwater Memorial Hall. This show provided us with some original technical challenges that had to be overcome in with only minimal rehearsal time. Thank you to everyone who worked on this show and put a lot of time and effort into meeting the demands of this production.

Members of Kaleidoscope are currently working on the musical 70 Girls 70 in conjunction with ‘Curtain Up’ both onstage, lighting design, and behind the scenes. The show revolves around a group of larcenous elderly New Yorkers who steal furs from various stores with the intent of using the proceeds from their activities to buy their retirement hotel which is due to be sold to developers.

70 girls 70 will be at Freshwater Memorial Hall from the 14th April to the 17th April, all performances at 7:30pm, tickets available on the door.

Kaleidoscope’s second international excursion will be to Barcelona next week where we hope to sample some of the city’s theatre and music.

Thank you to those who were able to attend the lighting workshop on Saturday. There seemed to be a lot of interest for another workshop to go into more depth about the different lighting effects we could achieve with the equipment we’ve got, hopefully we will be able to schedule this for the coming months.

We were able to use the workshop as an opportunity to show our new lighting equipment, including a new lighting desk, to members of many of the local theatre companies and give a demonstration of the effects this would enable us to achieve.

Preparations are underway for this year’s St. George’s Day Charity Concert on the 23rd April at Freshwater Memorial Hall. You can see part of last year’s concert on youtube

The Kaleidoscope team met recently to consider a variety of scripts for the summer show. Taking into account casting, staging and audience feedback we have been able to discount a number of scripts, leaving us with:

Loot by Joe Orton

and

The Arsonists by Max Frisch

However we remain open minded and welcome your suggestions!

The St. George’s Day Charity Concert is due to take place at Freshwater Memorial Hall on the 23rd April. Kaleidoscope will be providing technical support for this event again this year and we were excited to hear that Polish born classical pianist Pawel Jankowski will be performing again this year!

If you are interested in theatre lighting, you might want to consider our lighting workshop at Totland Church Hall on Saturday 6th March 2010. Please ‘Contact us’ if you would like any further information.

We’re currently considering scripts for this year’s summer show, including:

The Philanthropist by Christopher Hampton

Loot by Joe Orton

The Arsonists by Max Frisch

The Golden Pathway Annual by John Harding and John Burrows

Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell by Keith Waterhouse

If you would like to suggest a show for the summer, or have any comments regarding the scripts above, please use the comments box below. We are always keen to hear people’s views.

Congratulations to the cast of ‘From Pharaoh to Freedom’ at Freshwater Memorial Hall last Friday and Saturday, the production played to a packed house on both nights. Kaleidoscope were pleased to be providing technical support for the production in the form of lighting design and operation. We are also pleased to be invited back to light another classical concert at the Memorial Hall on the 23rd April 2010.

Please check out our ‘Upcoming Events’ page for a new list forthcoming productions.