Madhatters Theatre Club
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Madhatters Theatre Club |
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See our Next production
for
information about our next play.
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A present from Birmingham |
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October 2017 |
King's Hall anniversary 2017 will be 70 years of community groups at King's Hall and it’s something to celebrate. One idea was to plant a mass of daffodils in the King's Hall garden. With guidance from Bob, this took place early October 2016 and we look forward to a mass of fantastic flowers for spring 2017 to herald this platinum anniversary. Thanks to the Madhatters: Cathy, Adeline, Alicja, Martin, Simon and to King's Hall: Kalpesh, with tea and cakes from Eileen and Bob. Additional thanks to Alan and the Bingo group, who let us join their tea-break. A similar planting in Gladstone Park for the Madhatters 60th Anniversary worked really well, especially when the daffs come up every spring and remind us. . |
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Madhatters at a curry and quiz evening organised by local musical theatre group KAOS. |
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| Madhatters at Brent Active Citizens Awards ceremony, 19 March
2015 We are delighted that Adeline received an award from the Mayor of Brent at this ceremony. Adeline was for many years our front of house manager, looking after our team of Madhatter volunteers and our audiences – sorting out seating and providing programmes, refreshments and drinks. Adeline is now a regular actor with the Madhatters. Valerie, who has managed events at King’s hall for many years and has run the hall for the past year, also received a volunteering award. We were delighted also to provide the entertainment for this prestigious ceremony in front of a large invited audience, including the Mayor, Leader of Brent Council Mohamed Butt and Brent Central Labour Candidate Dawn Butler. We performed the Mock Turtle scene from our forthcoming Alice show, with singing and dancing, poetry and 'executions'. |
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Martin was Mock Turtle, Maria the Gryphon, Alicja the
Dormouse,
Cathy Queen of Hearts AND Alice. Adeline stepped in as
Mad Hatter,
her part in our forthcoming June production. As we were called in at
the last minute, we performed with scripts, but we promise to learn
our lines by June! The audience joined in singing Soup, soup, beautiful soup and the chorus of The whiting and the snail and a good time was had by all. |
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Photo (above left) Adeline receives her certificate from the Mayor;
(above right) Madhatters perform |
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Volunteers honoured at City Hall, 19 January 2015 We are very proud that Martin, our long-standing chairman and publicity officer, has been honoured by the Mayor of London for his 20 years of excellent service. Photo (left) Martin with the Mayor (© 2015 photographer Kois Miah). Martin was one of just six volunteers from Brent and Harrow so honoured. He was also able to invite family, friends and Madhatters to a splendid party in the Mayor’s Living Room in the Thames-side City Hall and a good time was had by all. Martin has written to The Mayor to thank him for the award and to invite him to book tickets for our next show at King’s Hall. |
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| Christmas with the Madhatters We went carol singing in Dollis Hill and raised lots of donations for 'Save the Children'. Many thanks to 'United Food Stores' and John of 'John’s Greengrocers' for letting us sing in front of their shops. Contributions from their customers and passers-by were very welcome. Photo (right): The Santa hats surely helped put a Christmas smile on everyone’s face! |
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| King’s Hall Variety Show 6 December 2014 The Madhatters not only took part in this popular annual event – we organised it! Cathy asked lots of the King’s Hall groups to prepare a turn, and organised the box office and technical team. Martin and Maggie compered. We opened the Show and welcomed the audience back after the interval. Madhatters performed scenes from 'The Old Lady Shows Her Medals'. Maggie sang solo songs. She also led the Madhatters singing and encouraged the audience to singalong to WWI songs. Madhatters included Adeline, Gillian, Jennifer, Marilyn, Mary and Tom. Madhatters also performed with other King's Hall groups’: Gillian and Mary danced elegantly and energetically with Arlene’s Zumba group. Tom tinkled the ivories in accompaniment to the songs and carols. Valerie from the King's Hall organised the front of house refreshments and stalls. Her mulled wine and mince pies helped the Show along with lots of Christmas cheer! |
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Madhatters Tea Party, Elmwood Residents Association |
An enthusiastic crowd of local residents came out in the sun for a grand
street party.Top of the bill was the Madhatters Tea party in the middle of the road
with the table perched on top of a speed hump. |
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 Gillian as a permanently beaming Cheshire Cat and Sheila as the environmentally friendly caterpillar. Chris curled up and slept on the table as the dormouse through most of the proceedings, but gave a magnificent upbeat description of the three mice in the treacle well. Jen ran in and out as the white rabbit, always worrying about being late before perching amongst the children thronging the stage. |
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We were very honoured that long standing member Michael received an
award from Brent Active Citizens to celebrate his many years of hard
work with the Madhatters. |
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The Big Challenge at St Mungo’s - September 2012 This summer we have been working with local teenagers from the The Challenge, an organisation that gets young people involved with community groups. Our group chose drama and joined the Madhatters at St Mungo’s where they put on an afternoon of improvised sketches and songs on the theme of 'work'. Our very own Michael joined them to sing songs on the theme, with his own harmonica accompaniment. Like all the best drama, the sketches were based on experience and we sparked ideas by exchanging personal stories about work. The sketches were hilarious and featured: • a nasty boss who fired all his staff and then found he had to do his own work • a robber called Rob U who ended up locked in a stationary cupboard with his victims; he got his come-uppance when the stationary fell on his head and knocked him out • a 1960s pub where the landlord tried to keep his lady staff washing dishes and the drinkers leered at the ladies. One of the lecherous drinkers was played by a girl, which made it even funnier • the bitchiest perfume sales assistants ever! Many thanks to Brent Big Challenge group Kubra, Bhumi, Stephanie, Sunny, Fereshta, Priya, Delaney, Rochell, Adam and Omar, as well as mentor Natasha and co-ordinator Simon. Thank you also to Martin for lending props and costumes, Cathy and Sue for laying on lunch and teas for 34 and everyone who came along to support us. We have greatly enjoyed working with teenagers from the Big Challenge and look forward to doing so again next year. |
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We put on a 2012
festival of Irish music, dance
and drama at the Corrib Rest in Queens
Park. Everyone enjoyed a good lunch afterwards, freshly cooked by the
excellent staff at the Corrib Rest.
Many thanks to the Government of Ireland for their generous grant which
made this festival possible. |
We performed again for St Mungo’s Pound Lane a week later, again free
but this time with tea and chocolate biscuits. |
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We were very honoured that our chair, Martin, received an award
from Brent Active Citizens to celebrate his many years of hard work
with the Madhatters. Photo (right) of Martin receiving his certificating from the Mayor of Brent. Brent Active Citizens |
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In the community
We put
on an evening of carols and mince pies at St Mungo's in December.
We also arranged an evening of comedy and music
for residents and with residents in August. See our
Recent productions for
information about how this went. (Left: 2010 - Mark Twain - Right: 2009 - Gladstone!) |
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More about Gladstone 2009 was a big year for anniversaries: 250 years since the birth of Robbie Burns, 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin and 200 years since the birth of William Ewart Gladstone, four times prime minister of Great Britain, finally stepping down at the grand old age of 85, in 1894. Gladstone’s anniversary has a special significance for people in
Brent as the Grand Old Man (GOM) spent so much of his later life staying
in Dollis Hill House, the home of his friend and foreign secretary the
Earl of Aberdeen. The grounds of this house are named Gladstone Park in
his honour; the local phone code, 452, is of course GLA; and Hawarden
Hill, the flats opposite, are named after his family home near Chester,
Hawarden Hall. |
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The Madhatters Theatre Club is a registered charity
(Registered charity No. 1095317) |
16xi20 |
