Tuesday 30 September 2014

Working on Into the Woods!

Paula Fraser singing the Witch
One week before we all go Into The Woods! As you can see, we are all working very hard to make this one of our best shows ever. Sondheim's complex work is a big challenge for any Society but a very rewarding one both for us and for our audiences. Most of us have become wedded to our scores, as you can see below! All the better to entertain you with, as the Wolf might say.

We are looking forward to presenting this Show so much - it will be a wonderful musical and dramatic experience that will be hard to forget. Book your tickets now to avoid disappointment via the Queen Mother Theatre or by clicking on the link on the top right of this page.
 
Into the Woods
8th – 11th October
Queen Mother Theatre, Hitchin

Richard Syms, our Director with Graham Breeze (The Baker) and Margaret Johnson (MD)
Studying the score!!!

Sunday 28 September 2014

PBGS Award photos!

We now have photos of PBGS's Noda East District 3 Awards, with thanks to Nova Horley:

David Crew being presented with his Best Male Performance in a Musical award by Graham Thompson. David won for his outstanding performance as Pooh Bah in our 2014 production of The Mikado

Our Secretary, Paula Fraser, receiving our Runner Up award for Most Colourful and Suitable Costumes for The Mikado.

Our Chairman, Richard Fraser, receiving the Best Actor award on David's behalf at the official presentation.

Monday 22 September 2014

David wins Noda Award for Pooh Bah in our PBGS Mikado

David as Pooh Bah
Congratulations to David Crew who has just won  Best Male Performance in a Musical in the Noda East District 3 Awards for his wonderful performance as Pooh Bah in our Spring 2014 production of The Mikado! We know Pooh Bah was your dream part, David, so we are thrilled for you! Our collective bosom swells with pride...

As if that wasn't enough PBGS also won Runner Up for Most Colourful and Suitable Costumes. I think everyone who saw the production would agree they were nothing less than fab!

.

Friday 19 September 2014

Into the Woods: You shall go to the Ball!

Alice Bridges as Cinderella
Cinderella. Everyone knows the story, don’t they? The most familiar version beloved by Disney and Christmas Pantomime audiences everywhere is based on Perrault’s ‘Cendrillon’, There is a pumpkin, a Fairy Godmother and a glass slipper. But Sondheim and Lapine have turned to the Grimm Brothers’ much darker version of the tale. 'Aschenputtel' ('Cinderella') doesn’t receive help from a fairy-godmother but from the birds and the wishing tree that grows on her mother's grave. Her slipper is gold and her sisters chop bits off their toes and heels in order to cram their feet into the bloody shoe. Because of their cruelty, Cinderella’s friends the birds peck their eyes out at the wedding as a punishment. As the story is their story as well as Cinderella’s, should we really expect a ‘happy ever after’? Traditionally told tales often end with this conventional tag-line: ‘And they all lived happily ever after’. It is a storytellers’ tool to let listeners know the story is over and to bring them back to earth and everyday life.

‘They lived happily ever after’ may signal the end of the story, but it is not the end of the tale of the character’s lives, as Sondheim and Lapine show us when Cinderella’s life with the Prince starts to unravel. Is the Prince and the Palace really what she wanted? Didn’t she really just want to go to the Festival and dance? Are her stepmother and sisters really so wicked? Should they be put out of their misery when a rampaging Giant arrives?

Be careful what you wish for because wishes can come true and they don’t come free.

Cinderella and her Prince
Join us in the Woods – book your tickets now via the Queen Mother Theatre or by clicking on the link on the top right of this page.


Into the Woods
8th – 11th October
Queen Mother Theatre, Hitchin

All photos © PBGS

Thursday 11 September 2014

Meeting the Wolf!

Rhiannon Gibbs as Red Riding Hood
If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise! All good fairytales involve challenges and growing up, but what if it takes meeting the Wolf and being swallowed whole? And what if that turns out to be not the end, but just the passing of childish naivety and coming to terms with the perils of the adult world?

Now I know:
Don't be scared.
Granny is right,
just be prepared.
Isn't it nice to know a lot!
... and a little bit not...

Kushil Dep as the Wolf
Sondheim and Lapine retell the tale of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf in Into the Woods, one of many tales they weave into the Show. The Wolf ponders on the joys of 'talking to his meal' before meeting a sticky end and Red Riding Hood reveals a new bloodthirsty side with her lovely new cape of fur and determination to survive whatever life throws at her. One thing is always certain in fairytales. No one in them is ever the same again.


Come and meet the Wolf for yourself – book now and travel Into the Woods with us at the Queen Mother Theatre from 8th – 11th October, and share the journey!

You can order direct from PBGS on 07946 264886. Please also ring this number for group discounts and special seating requirements. You can email an order through this website by clicking on this link: 

 

All photos © PBGS

Friday 5 September 2014

New photos to tempt you Into the Woods with us!

Red Riding Hood (Rhiannon Gibbs) leaves her Grandmother (Valmai Guess) amd ventures into the woods

The Fairytale inspired Musical, Into the woods, was written in 1986 by Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd, Follies, A Little Night Music) and James Lapine (Falsettos, Passion) and premiered on Broadway in 1987 after a run at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.The hugely popular and challenging muscial has been successfully revived many times since and remains a favourite with audiences. December 2014 will see the release of the first ever film version, but first-and-foremost it remains a magical theatrical experience.

Everyone is familiar with the sometimes enchanting, sometimes dark and disturbing tales written by the Brothers Grimm. Into the Woods sees the weaving together of several familiar characters: Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Jack and the Giant Beanstalk, Cinderella and her awful family, and Rapunzel. It also introduces two new characters – the Baker and his Wife who’s only wish in life is to have a child. Living under the curse of a neighbouring Witch they go into the woods to fulfil her demands for various magical items and thus lift the curse and get their wish. As they seek a Slipper as Pure as Gold, a Cow as White as Milk, a Cape as Red as Blood and Hair as Yellow as Corn, they find that the dark and mysterious woods have drawn all the characters in the tale into its murky depths, all seeking ‘Happy Ever After’ and release from the difficulties that beset them. But like all things in life, you have to be very careful what you wish for as the wishes spectacularly unravel. Jack’s mother has a dead giant in her backyard, Cinderella isn’t sure she actually wants to be married to a Prince and the Giant’s wife arrives seeking revenge.

Woods, and particularly the vast Germanic forests of Grimm folklore, have long been a metaphor for the unconscious. The dark, unacknowledged places where we all have to face uncomfortable truths, travel to seek the wisdom we need to live good lives, face up to our Giants and return, if we are lucky, with the prize of a better understanding of ourselves. At some point in our lives we all ‘have to take the journey’ into the woods and come back with a little bit of magic to transform ourselves.

Cinderella (Alice Bridges) with 'the shoe that fits'
And we have a lot of theatrical magic to offer – book now and travel Into the Woods with us at the Queen Mother Theatre from 8th – 11th October, and share the journey!

You can order direct from PBGS on 07946 264886. Please also ring this number for group discounts and special seating requirements. You can email an order through this website by clicking on this link: 

 

All photos © PBGS