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Badapple Theatre to revive The Snow Dancer at Joseph Rowntree Theatre with Crowdfunder backing…but await Covid restrictions update for the go-ahead

Anastasia Benham and Danny Mellor in Badapple Theatre’s December 2019 tour of The Snow Dancer

GREEN Hammerton company Badapple Theatre are to present their only indoor performances of 2020 at a socially distanced Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on December 5 and 6, subject to updated Covid-19 Government measures.

Danny Mellor and Anastasia Benham will resume their stage partnership in artistic director Kate Bramley’s The Snow Dancer, the Christmas show they toured last year, concluding at Yarm Fellowship Hall on December 29 2019.

In September, they teamed up again for outdoor performances of the premiere of Mellor’s play, Suffer Fools Gladly, as part of Badapple’s 21st anniversary celebrations.

Mellor’s quick-moving, quick-witted hour-long comedy delighted in testing and tracing the merits of always having to tell the truth: a compulsion from which our parliamentarians seem to be socially distanced, alas.

Anastasia Benham and Danny Mellor in Badapple Theatre’s open-air tour of Suffer Fools Gladly in September

Now, Badapple are fundraising to support the performers in the Covid-secure performances of The Snow Dancer through a Crowdfunder appeal that will run until November 30.

At the JoRo theatre, newly equipped with chair wraps to denote the socially-distanced seating plan, Mellor and Benham will stage writer-director Bramley’s cautionary global-warming tale, set in the Great Wood, where something is awry.

The animals are desperate for sleep, but with the onset of climate change, the weather is just too warm. Step in Mellor and Benham’s intrepid heroes, who decide they must seek out the mysterious Snow Dancer if there is to be any chance of ever making it snow for Christmas.

“I’ve worked on a lot of Christmas stories in the past, so even though this one is completely original and doesn’t follow an existing story, there are still recognisable elements,” says Kate.

“We have Ida the March Hare, who is a meddling villain, for example. But, if anything, it’s a classic ‘quest’ story, where the children head off through the woods to save the world and encounter a few setbacks on the way.”

Jonny McPherson in Badapple Theatre’s one-man show An Honorary Yorkshireman: The James Herriot Story

Among those to lend their support to the Crowdfunder appeal is Emmerdale actor Jonny McPherson, who plays Liam Cavanagh in the long-running Yorkshire soap, having appeared in two Badapple productions.

“My absolute pleasure. Least I could do for a wonderful company which has provided me with a some of the most memorable experiences of my life,” says Jonny, who has been tweeting his backing. “Wouldn’t be where I am today without you all. Good luck.”

McPherson toured with Badapple to some of the smallest venues in Yorkshire with the Theatre On Your Doorstep specialists, starring in the one-man show An Honorary Yorkshireman: The James Herriot Story and the original 2012 tour of Bramley’s hit musical Eddie And The Gold Tops.

For more information on the Crowdfunder appeal, head to https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/badapple-christmas-tour-un-cancelled.

Tickets for The Snow Dancer on December 5 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm and December 6 at 1pm and 6pm will go on sale on December 2 via josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk, pending the Government loosening Lockdown 2 restrictions.

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Crowdfunder appeal launched by York director for The Wedding Present musical

David Gedge: Creative consultant for a new musical based around his songs for The Wedding Present

DO you have a gift for a Wedding Present project?

To explain, a crowdfunder campaign is being launched to support the creation of a musical based on the songs of David Gedge’s “semi-legendary“ Leeds group and John Peel favourites, The Wedding Present…with “some brand new material” from Gedge too.

The driving force behind Reception, The Wedding Present Musical, is York writer, theatre director and Engine House Theatre artistic director Matt Aston, fresh from mounting this summer’s season of Park Bench Theatre monologues in the Friends Garden at Rowntree Park.

Gedge, who turned 60 in April, will be the creative consultant for a show that will incorporate his songs for both The Wedding Present and Cinerama, plus the aforementioned new material, targeting 2022 for a Leeds premiere.

The crowdfunder campaign “gives fans the opportunity to get involved at the very beginning of an exciting journey – and pick up a bunch of specially commissioned artwork and merchandise, only available here, in doing so”.

Matt Aston: Artistic director of this summer’s Park Bench Theatre season at Rowntree Park, York, now working on a musical play inspired by his favourite band The Wedding Present. Picture: Livy Potter

Reception is the story of a group of friends from Leeds University who keep in touch over two decades of trials, tribulations, and receptions. Their stories are rooted in Gedge’s songs and the title is inspired by the name of The Wedding Present’s original record label, Reception Records.

The idea of doing such a musical has been brewing for writer/director Aston for several years. When he met Tony Ereira, director of the Come Play With Me and Clue Records record labels – where else but at a Wedding Present gig, in Leeds in early 2019 – the concept was batted around still futher.

The concept of the play started to take shape, with the documentary nature of Gedge’s candid, darkly humorous song-writing in the never-ending minefield of love and loss, lovers and losers, longing and lost opportunity suited to transferring those anguished stories and their quotidian protagonists on to the stage.

As Gedge himself said in Gigslutz on August 24 2015: “I’m interested in the minutiae of relationships. I like to write about what actually happens, rather than some imaginary situation cloaked in metaphor, hence the references to the everyday, though I have been known to decorate the songs with science fiction or comic book references!”

“I first saw The Wedding Present in Derby in 1988, so you could say this musical is over 30 years in the making,” says Matt. “I’ll always be grateful to my older brother and his mates for taking his little 15-year-old brother to his first ever gig.

Writer-director Matt Aston in a Wedding Present T-shirt in rehearsals with actor Chris Hannon for Park Bench Theatre’s production of Samuel Beckett’s First Love. Picture: Northedge Photography

“I got a T-shirt, a set of badges and a nosebleed. Not to mention a new favourite band. I’ve always felt there was something very theatrical about David’s songs. The storytelling, the arrangements, the anguish.

“And, as proven with Cinerama’s re-recording of The Wedding Present’s Valentina album, they have the flexibility to be arranged in a number of different, epic and dramatic ways. Although the show will, of course, still have plenty of fast guitars too!”

Aston and Ereira put the idea to Gedge, along with an early synopsis for the story, and, never one to shy away from a new medium to present his work, Gedge was equally excited to explore the idea further.

“With this crowdfunder campaign, we are looking to raise initial funding to get a first draft of the script written, some artwork and branding in place, and to start preparing for a period of research and development in early 2021 to road test our ideas – Covid-19 permitting – with a group of actors/musicians and some brand new material from David,” says Matt.

“The intention is to be in a position to premiere the musical in Leeds in 2022  – and this campaign is a chance for fans to get involved from the beginning with a bunch of rewards that are all exclusive to this production, including specially commissioned artwork from Lee Thacker,  illustrator of David’s autobiography, Tales From The Wedding Present.”

To support the project, go to: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/reception-the-musical