July News

JOINT ONE-ACT PLAY FESTIVAL IN CONJUNCTION WITH MOULTON DRAMA GROUP

This week at Davenham and next week at Moulton we present a joint One-Act Play Festival with our friends at Moulton Drama Group. Tickets are still available so come along and help us raise funds for our theatre improvements. See below for booking information.

Moulton's contribution is Calling Time - a Comedy by Derek Webb, a One Act play with four separate sections, with bookends, all depicting meetings in a pub. The titles of Moulton's four sections are:-

·         Goodbye Simon - directed by Sheila Hetherington

·         What’s Yours? - directed by Annie Makepeace

·         Mr Critchley, isn’t it?-  directed by Sheila Hetherington

·         Who’s Joe? - directed by Annie Makepeace

Davenham's contributions are four individual pieces all directed by Paulette Anderson, the first two of which are monologues:-

·         Saying it with Flowers by Christine Furnivall

·         Manny's Party by Geoff Saunders

·         plus a two-hander Lost by Tony Moore and lastly...

·         a short play for five people What's for Pudding? by David Tristram

Tickets cost £8.00 at either venue and all eight plays will be presented at both theatres at 7:30pm on the following evenings. If you can't make this week at Davenham, you have a second chance at Moulton next week.

Thursday 16th July - Saturday 18th July at Davenham Theatre

59 Church Street, Davenham, Northwich, Cheshire CW9 8NF. Tickets online from http://www.danarts.org/events/one-act-play-festival--davenham/ or by phone on 01606 259596

Thursday 23rd July - Saturday 25th July at Moulton Village Hall

Moulton Village Hall,  Main Road  CW9 8PB. Tickets online from http://www.danarts.org/events/one-act-play-festival--moulton/ or by phone on 01606 594178

AUDITION – QUARTET BY RONALD HARWOOD

Barbara Crellin has so far been unable to complete her casting for Ronald Harwood's play Quartet following last Thursday's audition. If you look as though you ought to be retired or know someone that is, please get in touch or else we might miss the chance to see this well-known play on which the 2012/13 film was based. Barbara intends to present Quartet this coming Autumn and you can contact her on 01606 41461. A further audition will be held if possible actors can be found.

Quartet is a comedy play about aging opera singers set in a retirement home for musicians. Three elderly former opera singers, Reginald, Cissy and Wilfred, who often worked together, are sitting on the terrace. They are about to be joined by newcomer Jean, a major star in her day and to whom Reginald was unhappily married. A gala concert is shortly to take place at the retirement home to celebrate the birthday of renowned Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. Three of the four are keen to recreate the third act quartet from Rigoletto and one isn't !

Reginald - quiet, serious

Wilfred - jovial, talks about sex a lot

Cissy - Sweet, slightly daffy                                                                                                        

Jean - rather a diva - has been a great soprano.

PROSTATE CANCER TESTING AT BYLEY VILLAGE HALL SATURDAY 18^TH JULY 10:00-13:00

I have good reason to be grateful to my wife and also to Leighton Hospital Prostate Cancer Support and Awareness Group, for helping me find out that I had cancer of the Prostate and – importantly – in time for the disease to be treated with an excellent chance of a cure.

This was back in 2013 in my 65^th year. About 18 months previously I had visited my doctor because, like many men, I had heard about the increased incidence of prostate cancer in men of retirement age and I wanted to ask whether I ought to be having some sort of routine test just in case I was one of the unlucky men. After a chat about my symptoms, which were not really any different to those expected by men of that age, I was persuaded not to bother having a *PSA test because the doctor told me that he knew two men who had been treated, possibly unnecessarily, for Prostate cancer; one had become impotent and the other incontinent.

Although I was content to leave things as they were for the time being, Shirley had remained concerned that I had not taken things further. Then, in 2013, she noticed that a local charity were offering PSA Testing in Northwich and persuaded me to book an appointment.  A blood sample was taken and analysis indicated that I was in a high risk group and was strongly recommended to visit my doctor and insist on further diagnostic assessment.

This I did and a further PSA test confirmed the first and I was referred to Leighton Hospital. Further examinations and diagnostics took place and I was treated, "with curative intent"; i.e. there is a very good chance of permanently arresting the progress of my Prostate cancer. Fortunately, there were no signs that the cancer had spread outside the Prostate. If I had not gone to get  the PSA test at the time I did, I might not be in this fortunate position.

I can thoroughly recommend all men say over 45 to have a PSA test, either from their own Doctor or at Byley Village Hall this Saturday between 10am and 1pm. No appointment needed – the Group just ask for a £10 donation to partially cover their costs. If anyone has any questions about the testing or about Prostate cancer in general, they would be most welcome to call me on 01606 45186 or 07891 146 567 so long as I am not on stage in the one-act plays.

* NOTE:  PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen, a substance that is generally found in the blood in higher quantities than normal in men suffering from Prostate cancer.  There are, however, known problems with the PSA test in that men with a high PSA result do not always have cancer and conversely that men with a low PSA result may yet have the cancer. For this reason, the Leighton Hospital Prostate Support Group, who carry out an extensive programme of PSA testing, also commission a second test on the blood sample called 'Free to Total'. The PSA level combined with the Free to Total figure give a much better indication of whether a man has the cancer.

CHESHIRE THEATRE GUILD ANNUAL DRAMA FESTIVAL AWARDS EVENING

The Cheshire Theatre Guild annual awards ceremony is at 7:45pm on Wednesday 15th July at the Club Theatre Altrincham, followed by the Guild's AGM on Sunday 19^th July at 11am in the Harlequin Theatre, Northwich. Davenham's production of "The Female of the Species" has been nominated for Best Set Presentation. See http://www.cheshiretheatreguild.org/nominations for full details.

COMMUNITY MOSAIC PROJECT

After much hard work by Jan Johnson and some fantastic advice from Pam Beddard, a funding application was submitted to ACE (Arts Council England) at the start of June and the excellent news has just reached us that our application has been accepted ! We now have to plan a launch of the project and put in place the correct procedures to manage the ongoing work. Look out for more news on our website and Blog.

JAZZ @ DAVENHAM

Jazz@davenham is currently in summer recess until the first gig of the new season on Thursday 24^th September 2015 when Amy Roberts will be playing. Meanwhile, any enquiries should be directed to jazz@davenham.co or by phone to Harry on 01606 74502 or Dave on 01606 44253.