Again, a massive THANK YOU to all our Patrons, their families and friends for their continued support. We look forward to yet another year with our BBLOC family.
This year we have a Newsletter with a difference and we have a contribution from Our Chairman, Our President and our Social Secretary.
Attached is our Patrons’ form for next year with the subscription remaining at £10 for the foreseeable future. With the ever-increasing costs of putting on a show, every contribution helps.
Tickets for Saturday Night Fever are available and discounted at the moment, please let me know if you would like me to order you tickets. It is going to be a terrific show.
Rehearsals are in full swing three evenings a week and the enthusiasm and energy amongst the cast is electrifying. Our Company have taken on board a new way of promoting the show, every evening at the Pavilion we do ‘flyering’. We stand on the Pavilion steps at the end of their shows handing out our Saturday Night Fever leaflets and talking to people about our production. We have found this is a marvellous way to promote what we do.
Our rehearsals have taken on a new level with high energy performances by our dancers. This really is a show to lose those winter pounds and get fit and the music has your feet tapping during rehearsals.
We have our ‘Early Bird Offer’ which is £19.50 per seat and you can book these through myself or Dawn Knight which is considerably cheaper than the Pavilion Box Office price.
Things have been extremely busy over the Autumn so I have not been able to fit in a Coffee Morning, however please put the above date in your diary and come along to 22a Cavendish Road. I have again looked at venues but unfortunately hotels and cafés want so much money to provide catering it is much more convenient to have it at home. I do hope you will come along and support us, I will remind you of the date again nearer the time.
Many of you will know John Gerken who sadly passed away this week after a battle with his illness. He and his wife Paula were staunch supporters of BBLOC and very much part of our family. John was hardly ever missing from our shows. His performances have been memorable and his comedy and timing was always superb. He will be very much missed by members and audiences alike.
It’s certainly been a roller coaster journey for us over the last few months. Jesus Christ Superstar ended up being well worth the risk and the reviews were phenomenal. The cast and crew had a fantastic week and BBLOC can safely say that we protected our reputation and built a new group of supporters for forthcoming productions. Being the Chair of such a talented and successful company fills me with delight and pride. No sooner had the curtain fallen on JCS than we started putting plans into place for our 2020 production of Saturday Night Fever. I am delighted to announce that we are one of only a handful of companies across the country with the rights to this spectacular musical and look forward to welcoming you all to the show in April – Tickets are now on sale. 2020 is set to be a big year for BBLOC as it will be the first year that we will perform twice in the Pavilion. After our April show we will return in October half term with The Addams Family Musical. We are set to close on Halloween (How about that for timing?). We are also now starting to look to 2021 and are hoping to announce some fantastic news in the New Year. I would just like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your ongoing support without which we would not be able to continue going from strength to strength, Finally our wonderful social secretary Lizzie will have some events planned in the coming months and we would love to see as many of you as possible at these events.
Darren Ellery - Chairman
How I long to call in at one of the rehearsals, announced or not, but my schedule in London never seems to allow it. My mum lives in easy walking distance of your normal rehearsal venue, but when I manage to visit her the dates never seem to correspond with yours! But it makes my eventual viewing of the fabulous finished product a very special moment, unspoilt by any witness of rehearsal mishaps, absenteeism or tantrums (I’m only surmising that the latter has ever taken place!!)
My love for BBLOC is deep and I hope you all stay alive during the potentially sweaty and exhausting rehearsals
Simon Rawlings - President
My name is Lizzie Newson and I just wanted to tell you a little about the Social Committee that I have formed for BBLOC. My parents are Jenny and David Bate who I am sure many of you know, so understandably BBLOC has always been a big part of my life and family. When I re-joined to help backstage with Priscilla Queen of the Desert, I found myself, post-show, wishing I could still see all the lovely people I had met so I decided that one way to ensure this happened was to create the Social Committee and organise events and theatre trips for all members and patrons of BBLOC.
We found our feet last year and organised a number of successful theatre trips with the most recent one in support of our HCP friends in their production of Cats at the Regent Centre. We will continue to support our local theatre companies so keep your eyes peeled for emails organising events at the start of 2020 and beyond.
Our next event is on Saturday 30 November. This will be to support our lovely Saturday Night Fever Cast members at their performance in Bournemouth Square, on the stage next to the Alpine Bar at 4pm. We are encouraging people to come along, have a boogie and then stay for a drink afterwards as a lovely way to support each other.
Then on Wednesday 18 December we have got our Christmas Carol Evening and we look forward to seeing lots of faces there, both old and new. This year there will be a prize for the best Christmas Jumper and we can’t wait to see what everyone wears!
We will be sending out a Social Bulletin via email keeping you up-to-date with all the social plans within BBLOC so keep your eyes peeled! This should hopefully come out on a monthly basis starting this month.
Thank you again
Lizzie Newson
For Jesus Christ Superstar we supported Prostate Cancer and we had collection buckets after every show, which was hugely successful and we raised over £1000 for the cause.
For Saturday Night Fever our chosen charity is MIND, we have already raised around £100 from everyone coming to rehearsals in Pyjamas and Lizzie provided cakes. We aim to collect after each of our shows with buckets at the end of the performances and also to have small fund-raising events over the next few months in the hope of raising as much as we can for this charity.
In conclusion, I hope you enjoy reading all our news and look forward to seeing you at any of our events.
Carole Gadsby - Secretary
