Snow White

13th - 15th January 2005

A pantomime by Norman Robbins

The Cast

The Crew

Reviews

PRESS RELEASE

Following sent to E. Post and Chronicle

Dear Alan

Can you pass onto the news desk that I went to the first night of the Hurst Village Panto Snow White and was very pleasantly surprised by the professionalism of the cast and crew. I thought I would give an impromptu review (unpaid) as I think some of the so called 'Professional Panto's' can learn a thing or two from the Hurst villagers who didn't have to rely on smut or TV in jokes to get a laugh.

Their Panto was wholesome good quality family fun. I took my teenage daughter and we had tremendous fun joining in, especially the sing song at the end with the Panto horse.

Local talent has produced fabulous lighting and staging. The artwork on the backdrops are amazing quality, along with the costumes and choreography. Both first class. The 'magic mirror' stage effect was every bit as clever as anything you would see on the West End.

Special praise for a superb Panto dame played by Tim Taylor, delightful evil queen played by Judith Boulton and comedy from Brian Colman playing Chuckles the jester and Tony Pouncey playing the town clerk. We'll give 'Lightning' the Panto horse played by Rod King and John Penney a home any day. Like all the cast, they were trained by local dance enthusiast Mary Nonde and they did her credit in their difficult co-ordinated dance routine.

A lovely piece of casting was Florence Tavener who was just as you imagine Snow White to be. The cute little diamond miners who give Snow White a home were great entertainment. It was evident that director Peter Stallwood, the former artistic director of Wokingham Theatre, has a gift for getting the best out of cast and crew. A very enjoyable evening which went like a flash. Money well spent.


Regards

Carla Delaney
Journalist

Dear All,

A HUGE congratulations to all those involved in the pantomime. I purposely hadn't watched any of the rehearsals as I wanted to keep it all as much as a surprise as possible. I waited with anticipation ... and certainly wasn't disappointed! The whole thing was fabulous - acting, singing, dancing, not to mention lighting, sets, make up and costume and many, many other things. You should all be very proud of yourselves!

Well done all, and here's to the next one!

Love

Caroline King

P.S. Rod is absolutely smitten with the role of pantomime horse but I feel he could do to 'move on' – perhaps to be a pantomime cow in Jack and the Beanstalk!

Thanks

Programme Sponsors

A proportion of the proceeds from the pantomime will be donated directly to charitable causes.

Director — Peter Stallwood

Peter first appeared on stage at the age of 12 and has styed there for the best part of 55 years as actor, writer and director. A former artistic director of Wokingham Theatre, his career highlights include appearing on the Wokingham stage in "Macbeth" while Patrick Mower starred in Peter's play "Rule of the Game" at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre in Guildford, winning the National Drama Festivals Association's Best New Play of 1998 with "Sleepy Lagoon", his play "British Bulldog" being nominated by the Reading Chronicle as one of the artistic highlights of the year 2003 and playing the lead in "King Lear" in Reading Abbey ruins. He still thinks panto is the most difficult of all theatrical genres; this is his second attempt.

Choreographer — Mary Nondé

Mary's passion is to get people dancing so working with the cast of the pantomime is right up her street! Other times she provides classes to business executives, individuals, schools and the community through her company Dancing for Joy, using an eclectic mix of Contact Improvisation, la Danza Sensible, Continuum Movement, 5Rythms and Authentic Movement. When her feet are up, Mary can be found studying for a Masters Degree in Collaborative Arts (Dance) at University College Chichester.

Musical Director — Steve Randall

Steve, a veteran of the first Hurst Pantomime, "Cinderella" in 2003, is an accomplished piano and keyboard player with an encyclopaedic knowledge and love of music and a collection of piano scripts to match! His tastes range through most areas of popular music (with the possible exceptions of punk and rap) to classical and choral. His true passion however is reserved for the musicals of stage and screen, where the art forms of music, dance and drama collide in an explosion of true 'showbiz' glitz and glamour.

To start raising funds for the production we held a Family Day on Sunday 6th June to celebrate the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

Our next event was an illustrated talk on Wokingham Past & Present held on Friday 8th October.