The Club News

Volume 3, Issue 1

Page 3

was nominated for Best Actress Youth for her portrayal of Annelle in "Steel Magnolias", John Banks was nominated for Best Director for his work on "The Devil at Midnight" and Mike Donohue was also nominated for Best Director for his work on "Steel Magnolias"
At the Cheshire Theatre Guild Awards Night Gillean Thomas was nominated for Best

Actress for her portrayal of Mum in "The Anniversary", Lucinda Whale was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Annelle in "Steel Magnolias" , John Powell was nominated for Best Director for his work on "The Anniversary" and "Steel Magnolias" was nominated for the Bramhall Cup for Best Presentation.

Both of the adjudicators Joan Cooper and Garth Jones said that last year had been a very hard one to judge so we are pleased that we have impressed.

Many thanks and congratulations to the directors, actors, stage crews and all those people who have worked so hard last season.   

Sponsor a Seat, Sponsor a Programme Page

You may have seen the brass plaques on some of the seat backs. They are sponsored seats. Following a suggestion from the AGM we are reintroducing this scheme  giving you a chance to sponsor a theatre seat for £25. You will have a plaque with

your name on it permanently fixed to the seat back. Please contact the treasurer Roy Burman if you are interested.

In conjunction with this we are introducing a sponsorship scheme for the

programme, whereby you can sponsor an individual page of the programme for £10 per play, we already have a couple of sponsors.
If you are interested in sponsoring a programme page please contact Val Harris on 0161 928 2277.

The Secret's Out

Some time after joining the theatre I remember being given a booklet that told me that The Club Theatre was 'Altrincham's best kept secret'. This may have seemed at the time to be a good tag line but in the long run it has not helped the theatre's profile. The point has been made to me at Committee meetings and again at the AGM that there are still many people in and around Altrincham who do not know that the theatre exists, let alone ever visited it. However this is a well-established theatre which can still make the news as can be seen in another part of this newsletter. Sadly the publicity over many years has been very low key and having only been in the job a year it has been a case of almost starting from scratch. So what can be done to give our well-loved theatre a bigger boost. Well

something we can all do and this has always been one of the best forms of publicity is to talk about it. There are still many people who say 'I went to see a good play the other night' but never say where! I know it may sound strange but it is true. We need to say the same thing but add 'at THE CLUB THEATRE'.

The other thing we have done, as you may have noticed for the first time last year, was produce a flyer detailing the plays for the season. We have a supply of these at the theatre and if anyone is willing to display these in their shop, reception area or work rest room then please ask us and we will give you some with pleasure. Also posters of forthcoming productions can also be supplied if anyone knows of places or people who would be willing to display them.

We do need more outlets. I am already grateful to John Ross and Robert Fysh who already help with this but we could always do with more help here. Family, friends, employers, neighbours, all are people who can be approached and may just know of somewhere or someone who can help. The more we can publicise the theatre the more we will be less of a secret. This in turn will hopefully make more people aware of us and encourage them to visit and discover the magic of the Club Theatre. Apart from the flyers we have at present a zero budget for publicity, there as so many other pressing items that need to be addressed first. It will take time but we are now getting a little bit more coverage in the Messenger newspaper but we can do more together. Please feel free to contact me at the