Rowntree Players freshen up cast and writing team for hot-ticket panto Cinderella

Laura Castle’s Fairy Flo, left, Gemma McDonald’s Buttons, Hannah King’s Prince Charming, Sara Howlett’s Cinderella, Jamie McKeller’s Cassandra, Marie-Louise Surgenor’s Wicked Queen and Michael Cornell’s Miranda in Rowntree Players’ Cinderella

ROWNTREE Players are heading for a sold-out pantomime run of Cinderella with only ‘limited availability’ or ‘last few tickets’ notices for each performance.

Co-written by regular writer-director Howard Ella and delightfully daft comedy dipstick Gemma McDonald in a new creative partnership, this rollicking panto romp will run from Saturday to December 16 at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Haxby Road, York.

“When we launched our panto tickets in August, we had record-breaking sales on the first day,” says Gemma, who will be playing Buttons. “We sold the equivalent of a whole show within the first two days and they’ve just kept on selling.”

“I’ve been learning from the best,” she says of her experience of teaming up with Howard on script duties. “It’s hard work to get a script right, and you don’t realise the processes you have to go through to achieve that until you face them.”

Howard says: “For me, that awareness comes from doing repertory panto all those years ago in Harrogate when it was a traditional family show,” he says. “Writing a panto now, I want to keep the innocence for children but with those cheeky double entendres for parents and adults in the audience.

“How do you do that in 2023, keeping it relevant and challenging without it being too challenging, because you do have to get the balance right between being challenging and getting bums on seats? That’s not an easy line to tread, but we’ve managed to do it.

Picture this: Rowntree Players’ pantomime cast members face the camera in the rehearsal room

“Not forgetting that by making our panto profitable, we support Rowntree Players’ ability to put on plays each year that are challenging, rather than just doing the same old plays, and we’re proud to follow that fading principle in theatre.

“We’ve pretty much doubled our audiences over the past 12 years, and hopefully that’s down to the quality and wide appeal of our pantos, but you can never rest on your laurels, and we all know that the York panto landscape has changed over the past few years [with veteran dame Berwick Kaler’s transfer to the Grand Opera House and Evolution Productions teaming up with York Theatre Royal].”

Howard notes how York theatregoers are very supportive of community and amateur productions. “People go to all see all sorts of groups putting on all sorts of shows, which feels like a really healthy eco-system,” he says.

“For Rowntree Players, we’re lucky to have a theatre like the Rowntree Theatre with a decent capacity and good stage facilities, so we have a professional structure for staging shows, building a relationship with the theatre where we can push ourselves to the limit with the support of the theatre and all those volunteers who make it so special.”

Gemma adds:  “Over the years, we’ve built a diverse team with diverse skills to run our panto, who work so hard together, such as our engineer Lee Smith, who has welding skills to help us to design things like a magic carpet rig, which everyone else would hire in. We couldn’t do that, but with Lee, we can make things, and so our imagination grows as to what we can do.”

Cinderella has proved “the most difficult” of Howard’s pantomimes for him to write. “Coming from York and having watched Berwick Kaler’s pantos, we all like to mess with the plot, but Cinderella has so many plot points you have to cover, and culturally accepted norms you have to cover, that when you try to have fun with it, there’s not much room to do that when you have to get all that in.

Howard Ella: Rowntree Players’ pantomime director and co-writer

“In pantomime, the easiest comedy flows between the dame and the comic, but in Cinderella it’s harder to work out where the humour flows when the dame is replaced by two baddies, the Ugly Sisters. It’s the most demanding of all pantomime writing experiences but when you get there, it’s the most rewarding.”

Regular dame Graham Smith is taking a year out, and instead Ugly Sisters Cassandra and Miranda will be a partnership of last year’s villain, Jamie McKellar, alias York ghost-walk guide and spookologist Dr Dorian Deathly, and Michael Cornell. “They know each other of old,” says Howard. “That’s not why they’ve been cast together, but it clearly helped in the auditions.

“When we learned that Jamie, who’s a very experienced actor, was properly up for playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in Babes In The Wood last year, we were delighted. Panto is fun to do but it’s hard work too, where you can break the fourth wall as the villain, but you can’t be too funny, and he was clearly right for the role.

“This year it will be different again, as Graham wanted a year out, and we’ll see Jamie in a new guise as Ugly Sister.”

Sara Howlett’s Cinderella, Hannah King’s Prince Charming, Marie-Louise Surgenor’s Wicked Queen and Jeanette Hunter’s Queen of Hearts need no introduction to Rowntree Players panto regulars.

Graham Smith’s Dame Harmony Humperdinck and Gemma McDonald’s Kurt Jester in 2022’s Babes In The Wood. Graham is taking a year’s break from panto; Gemma is adding co-writing duties to her familiar role as comic in Cinderella

Look out too for Sophie Bullivant and radio presenter Laura Castle, such a hit together in Rowntree Players’ March production of John Godber’s Teechers, now playing Dandini and Fairy Flo respectively.

“What’s interesting is that everyone read the script in a way I hadn’t thought of at the first readthrough, which really shook the script up and made me look at it in a different way,” says Howard of a show also featuring 12 numbers under James Robert Ball’s musical direction and a dozen dance routines choreographed by Ami Carter.

“We’re conscious that we have a regular gang in the panto but that we always have to make sure to give others an opportunity, both in the ensemble and with two Ugly Sisters giving us an ‘extra dame’ this year, it’s been the perfect opportunity to open it up,” says Howard.

“If you just work with familiar relationships within the cast, it can make you lazy, so having new faces makes you up your game, particularly when directing.”

Gemma concludes: “We have a mixture of old and new faces in the cast this year, which is really nice,” says Gemma. “It’s a really strong ensemble and that’s exactly what Cinderella needs.”

Rowntree Players present Cinderella, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, December 9 to 16, except December 11. Performances: December 9, 2pm and 7.30pm; December 10, 2pm and 6pm; December 12 to 15, 7.30pm; December 16, 2pm (sold out) and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Rowntree Players pantomime players in rehearsal for Cinderella

Who is in Rowntree Players’ principal cast for Cinderella?

Cinderella: Sara Howlett

Buttons: Gemma McDonald

Baron Hardup:  Barry Johnson

Wicked Queen: Marie-Louise Surgenor

Cassandra: Jamie McKeller

Miranda: Michael Cornell

Fairy Flo: Laura Castle

Queen of Hearts: Jeanette Hunter

Prince Charming: Hannah King

Dandini: Sophie Bullivant

Flunkit: Geoff Walker

Head Fairy – Bernie Calpin

Production team

Director: Howard Ella

Choreographer: Ami Carter

Musical director: James Robert Ball

Writers: Howard Ella and Gemma McDonald

Shoe-in for success: Rowntree Players’ poster for Cinderella, heading for full houses

Flying Ducks Youth Theatre to present northern premiere of Maureen Chadwick’s Crush: The Musical at JoRo Theatre

Out come the hockey sticks in rehearsal for Flying Ducks Youth Theatre’s Crush: The Musical

FLYING Ducks Youth Theatre stages the northern premiere of Maureen Chadwick and Kath Gotts’s 2015 comedy drama Crush: The Musical at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from Thursday to Saturday.

This week’s production will be the York company’s first book musical since Jenna Dee Howlett joined as director and chair in 2018. “We’re so excited to finally be putting on the show,” she says.

From the team behind Bad Girls: The Musical comes an outrageously fun, subversive musical set in 1963 in the Dame Dorothea Dosserdale School for Girls, an establishment with a proud tradition of fostering free spirits from all walks of life.

What a crushing blow when the new headmistress turns out to be a tyrant with strict Victorian values. Top of her hit list are two sixth-formers accused of “unnatural behaviour” – the “crush” of the title – in the Art Room.

Hope is revived, however, by a glamorous games mistress known as Miss Givings. Cue hockey sticks to the fore in an all-out battle to save the school and the course of true love. 

“Although set in the 1960s, Crush delivers a storyline that tackles important subjects of our modern-day society, delivering humour and satire too,” says Jenna Dee of Chadwick’s pastiche of girls’ school stories such as Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers and Ronald Searle’s St Trinian’s books.

Pupil power rules: The Dame Dorothea Dosserdale School for Girls schoolgirls stage their protest in a Flying Ducks’ rehearsal for Crush: The Musical

“It explores themes of female empowerment, love is love, and fighting for what you believe in, while celebrating and subverting the traditional schoolgirl fiction genre.

“It’s a smashing musical comedy with lashings of charm, team spirit, a catchy score to have you toe-tapping in your seats and dazzling dance routines to keep you entertained from beginning to end. This is a terrific, all-round musical for the whole family, performed by a talented young cast, in this coming-of-age show.”

Picking stand-out musical numbers, Jenna Dee says: “Navy Knicks is a strong company number lead by Miss Givings,  encouraging the girls to stay positive, ‘put on their Navy Knicks, pick up their hockey stick’,  and fight for what they believe in!

“It’s Not Fair is a comedic, self-pitying outcry from the school ‘snitch’ Brenda Smears, who wants nothing more but to moan about why she doesn’t fit in, much to the other girls’ amusement. 

“Run Away/Stay, the closing number of Act One, is by far one of the most musically challenging numbers, but shows the talent and hard work the girls have put in over the past few months.

“With more than eight overlapping character and ensemble parts, and four transitions throughout the number, it’s sure to leave you going into the interval wanting to know what’s coming next.” 

Brolly good show: Flying Ducks Youth Theatre cast members in a colourful umbrella routine in Crush: The Musical

Taking over Flying Ducks from Stephen Outhwaite in 2018, Jenna Dee runs the Ducks group for ages 11 to 18 alongside her sister Sara Howlett, who trod the JoRo boards herself only last week in Rowntree Players’ production of another teenage classroom drama, John Godber’s Teechers Leavers ’22.

Jenna Dee has opened up new classes – Quacks and Ducklings – for ages four to ten that consist of fun drama-based games, scene and character work, singing, movement and dance.

Sessions strive to encourage individuality, self-expression and creativity while helping to build confidence and teach performance skills in a safe, friendly environment.

“The groups have gone from strength to strength with more than 120 members across all sessions,” says Jenna Dee. “After two successful musical variety performances at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, This Is Me in 2019 and No Day But Today in 2022, they’re so excited to be bringing a northern premiere to the stage this week with Crush: The Musical.

“This was supposed to be their debut book musical in 2020, but the pandemic got in the way, so with a brand-new talented cast of 30, an impressive set and a fantastic live band, they’re ready to show York what they have to offer.” 

Crush writer Maureen Chadwick, co-founder and creative director of Shed Productions, created and wrote the hard-hitting television dramas Waterloo Road, Footballers’ Wives and Bad Girls; composer and lyricist Kath Gotts has credits for Bad Girls: The Musical and The Realness. 

Flying Ducks Youth Theatre in Crush: The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 23 to 25, 7pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Flying Ducks Youth Theatre’s poster for Crush: The Musical

Flying Duck Youth Theatre’s credits for Crush: The Musical

Director and choreographer: Jenna Dee Howlett and Sara Howlett

Assistant director: Stephen Outhwaite

Musical director: Jessica Viner

Set design: Stephen Outhwaite

Stage manager: Paul Mantle

Costume: Ange Nemeth and Claire Newbold

Set builders: Sam Seago, John Pidcock and Paul Mantle

Set artwork: Anna Jones

Props: Stephen Outhwaite and Angela Day

Band: Jessica Viner and Gill Boler, keyboards; Kate Maloney, woodwinds; Christian Topman, bass; Mike Hampton, drums.

A scene from the tech rehearsal for Flying Ducks Youth Theatre’s Crush: The Musical

Cast

Eva Howe: Susan Smart

Sophie Wade: Camilla Faraday/Camille

Ruby Harrison: Daimler Jones/Desiree

Isabella Patton: Brenda Smears

Evie Fawcet: Miss Bleacher

Neve Gallafant: Miss Austin (Cast 1)/Ensemble

Nancy Mae Mooney: Miss Austin (Cast 2)/Ensemble

Ayda Mooney: Miss Giving/Diana Dosserdale/Buzz

Violet Orange: Benny/Dorian Dosserdale/Marlene (Cast 1)/Ensemble

Jess Ferguson: Benny/Dorian Dosserdale/Marlene (Cast 2)/Ensemble

Poppy Moass: Judith (Cast 1)/Ensemble

Amaia Hall: Judith (Cast 2)/Ensemble

Connie Wood: Lavinia (Cast 1)/Ensemble

Becka Nemeth: Lavinia(Cast 2)/Ensemble/Understudy Susan

Isla Thompson: Annabel (Cast 1)/Ensemble

Bethany Ellerker: Mum/Ensemble/Understudy Miss Givings

James Morton (the only boy in the cast): Dad/Ensemble

Mia Burton: Dorothea/Ensemble/Understudy Daimler

Elsa Adamson: Ensemble/Understudy Camilla

Lily Fawcett, Molly Hare, Sofia Iemboli, Megan Jones, Sylvie Morgan and Eva Robinson: all Ensemble

Lucy Parr: Ensemble/Understudy Dame Dorothea

Daisy Sullivan: Ensemble/Understudy Brenda

Jessica Whitelock: Ensemble/Understudy Mum

Hats galore in Flying Ducks Youth Theatre’s Crush: The Musical

Jamie McKeller returns to directing after 15 years for Rowntree Players in John Godber’s classroom comedy Teechers Leavers ’22

Classrooom comedy: Sara Howlett, left, Laura Castle and  Sophie Bullivant  in rehearsal for Rowntree Players’ production of John Godber’s Teechers Leavers ’22

ACTOR, voiceover artist, filmmaker, tour guide, pantomime villain and York ghost-walk host Jamie McKeller is turning his hand to directing.

More precisely, he is reacquainting himself with the director’s seat after a 15-year hiatus, at the helm of former teacher John Godber’s 2022 update of Teechers, his state-of-education play originally commissioned by Hull Truck Theatre for £100 in 1984.

Why now, Jamie? “I did the Rowntree Players’ pantomime last Christmas [playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in Babes In The Wood] and had a great time. Afterwards, Howard [Ella, the director] said, ‘we’re doing Teechers next’, and I thought, ‘Ooh, it’s been a while since I directed, I fancy doing that’. So, I pitched for it, and later that week the committee said yes.”

Jamie’s production of Teechers Leavers ’22 opens at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on Thursday with an all-female cast – YorkMix radio presenter Laura Castle as Gail, Joseph Rowntree School drama teacher Sophie Bullivant as Salty and Rowntree Players regular Sara Howlett as Hobby – in keeping with Godber’s revised version for Hull Truck Theatre’s 50th anniversary last year.

Gail-force: Laura Castle as Gail in Teechers Leavers ’22

In Godber’s play within a play, they adopt multiple roles as the trio of Year 11 school leavers put on a valedictory performance, inspired by their new drama teacher but hindered by myriad obstacles and classroom poltics that vex playwright and pupils alike.

Jamie is no stranger to fellow Yorkshireman Godber’s work, both on and off stage. “I’ve been in Bouncers twice, as Judd and Les, but I’m still too young for Lucky Eric, so there’s time yet for that,” says Scarborough-born Jamie, who is 42.

“I was Salty in Teechers and did Lucky Sods in 2004, and I’ve already directed Teechers once in Scarborough in 2003 and Bouncers once too.”

In fact, whether in his university days at Hull University from 1998 or when studying Performance: Theatre at York St John University from 2006 to 2008 or working his way through Terry Pratchett stories at the YMCA Theatre in Scarborough, when doing his BTEC in theatre, he has directed more than 20 productions.

Class act: Sara Howlett’s Hobby

“But it’s now been a long time since I last directed a play. Not counting my self-directed shows that I took to the Edinburgh Fringe for five years, the last one was Danny King’s The Pornographer Diaries in 2008, here in York at Friargate Theatre, but originally I always wanted to be a director more than an actor,” says Jamie.

“I’d like people to become aware of me as a director as I’d forgotten the passion I had for it, and it’s where I feel most at home, cooking up ridiculous visuals in my head – so working with these three actors has been an absolute dream.”

6ft tall Jamie is a familiar cloaked figure on the streets of York at night, in the guise of spookologist Doctor Dorian Deathly, ghost tour guide for the award-winning Deathly Dark Tours, but he has a posse of guides to call on, enabling him to take time away from his “night job”, whether to do panto last winter or be at the helm of Teechers.

His enthusiasm for play and cast alike is writ large. “What I really like about Godber is that he’s always prefaced his scripts by saying, ‘make it work for your cast, make it work for the times, because if you don’t update it, it will be a museum piece,” says Jamie.

Match play: Sophie Bullivant’s Salty

“We’re delighted to be doing the 2022 version, where we’ve kept the politics, but eased back on the Covid material, as we’ve lived through it, though it’s still there in the dialogue, but just not at the forefront.”

Godber’s impassioned belief in the importance of the arts in the curriculum hits home with Jamie, from past experience. “The resources at York St John were being shrunk all around me. The Chapel theatre was closed in 2006, just before I went there, to become a conference hall, and I ended up rehearsing my last play there in my garden and then staging it in the quad at York St John as a sort of protest. That struggle for facilities still resonates with me,” he says.

“I make my living out of performing, but after a ghost walk tour, I’ve been asked ‘what else do you? Don’t think you should have a proper job?’. There’s still that dismissive attitude towards creativity as an occupation.”

On a positive note, Jamie loves the musicality in Godber’s writing. “When you get it right, it’s almost like Shakespeare, where if you see it performed poorly it’s an unpleasant experience, but it can be wonderful. That’s the same with Godber, which is why we’ve done lots of work on the rhythm and tempo,” he says.

Jamie McKeller’s other fella: Teechers director in his guise as Doctor Dorian Deathly, spookologist and ghost-walk host

Selected from open auditions, Castle and Bullivant are making their Rowntree Players debuts alongside Sara Howlett. “We wanted to find three actors that would instantly gel,” says Jamie. “We weren’t looking for the greatest actors, but the best combination, and they turned out to be great actors too!

“Having these three together, they’ve definitely bonded and become friends as well, meeting outside rehearsals and running their lines. They really care about getting it right and doing it well.

“The way it’s written, it requires a heightened style of performance, where you need to fill it with physicality too – and they’ve really put in the hard work for such a physically demanding play where they never leave the stage.”

Rowntree Players in Teechers Leavers ’22, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 16 to 18, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

One question for John Godber

Playwright John Godber

What were the biggest changes/themes you had to include in this reimagined version of Teechers, John?

“OBVIOUSLY, the language has changed, teenagers now have a whole new vernacular which had to be incorporated to make the characters seem real and authentic.

“I also changed the drama teacher character from male to female. Quite simply this is because when I wrote the play, I based that character on myself and my experience as a drama teacher.

“But now I have two daughters – one of whom [Martha] is an actress, the other [Elizabeth] has a PHD in gender studies – so I thought it’d be interesting to make that character female. Also, and this may have just been a coincidence, but many of the teachers I spoke to were women, so it made sense to write it as a female role.

“The impact of the pandemic is also a big theme as I feel it put the whole education system – and its failings, especially for working-class students – under a microscope. Digital poverty is a huge issue now and students not being able to access the internet via a computer or phone during lockdown meant for many – they couldn’t access their education for a major portion of those two years.

“The repercussions of this are huge – isolation, loss of communication skills, diminishing attention spans. However, I truly believe that harnessing the power of storytelling – whether that’s through writing or acting – is a way of overcoming these problems, which is another reason the arts should be a priority now more than ever and why this particular story resonates so much still today.”

REVIEW: Life after death in The Missing Peace, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York ****

Many Newby performing the opening monologue, Save The Last Dance, in The Missing P:eace. Picture: David Harrison

Rowntree Players in The Missing Peace, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

AMERICAN writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher Benjamin Franklin famously said: “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”

Yet talking about death remains a taboo subject (and who wants to discuss tax?), but Tow Law-born York all-rounder, teacher, party-band frontman, keynote conference speaker, filmmaker, charity event organiser and storyteller Big Ian Donaghy did just that in his second book, The Missing Peace.

Busker Peter Hyndman in a lonesome moment in The Missing Peace. Picture: David Harrison

“It’s not about dying,” he clarifies. “It’s about living and celebrating life.” Actually, it is about death, coming to terms with death, life after death and, yes, talking about it. Death of partners, parents and pets alike. Siblings and soul mates. Stepping in as the replacement or being the loco in parentis.

Gemma McDonald, teacher and Rowntree Players pantomime favourite, read the book and immediately thought The Missing Peace could be turned from the written to the spoken word on stage in the form of One Play…15 Endings.

Working in tandem with Donaghy, she has adapted and directed the Players’ Talking Heads-style production, set at a busy York railway station, where Mark Addy, no less, is the station announcer in the pre-recorded narrator’s role.

Platform for discussion: Dealing with death in Rowntree Players’ production of The Missing Peace. Picture: David Harrison

Donaghy has the funny bones and timing of a stand-up, the golden quill of a novelist, an all-too-uncommon common touch and the eye for a story and contacts’ book of a journalist. Hence he can deliver lines, deliver Addy and, in turn, Addy delivers the goods. “He’s like a Peter Sallis, like being by a warm hearth,” said Donaghy after last night’s premiere.

Donaghy is decisive too. Watching the dress rehearsal, the frontman in him told him the cast would need head microphones as well as overhead ones. He and Gemma also instinctively felt that the presentation of a succession of monologues – theatre’s most intense, concentration-demanding form – would benefit from the insertion of an interval.

He was right on both fronts, and in his wish for The Missing Peace to be the starting pistol for conversation, not the finishing line, those conversations could start all the sooner, at half-time.

Mother and son in union: Jackie Holmes listens to Mark McDonald in The Missing Peace. Picture: David Harrison

Gemma McDonald has done a tremendous job too, both in picking the monologues and their varying tones and experiences and her choice of community cast, whether young (Beth Hutchinson, Katelyn Banks, Hannah Woods), ever reliable (Mark McDonald, Mandy Newby, Graham Smith, Maggie Smales, Gemma herself); or assured in centre-stage (Lynne Edwards, Liam Godfrey, Jackie Holmes).

A series of monologues might sound repetitive, but there is nothing mono about their performances; instead they are rich in nuance, all performed with clarity and sensitivity, using the exposure of direct address to the maximum impact. Individuality and teamwork knitted together superbly, and how moving this counselling form of theatre is.

This is not stand-and-deliver theatre; instead Gemma has a painter’s eye in framing each scene, with others present on stage in many, but never distractingly so. All the while, busking guitarist Peter Hyndman links the monologues, looking heavenwards as he sings.

Heaven’s above: Sara Howlett mid-monologue in The Missing Peace. Picture: David Harrison

Sara Howlett excitedly talking about heaven has person after person disengaging from her on the station forecourt; Alison Taylor’s secret “other woman” at her lover’s funeral stands at the back, separate from the motionless, side-on, silhouetted mourners, as she faces the audience in a soft spotlight in a brilliant piece of choreography.

In contrast, Joseph Marucci’s devastated father is all alone in his abiding grief, conversing with his stillborn daughter, “born asleep”.

“You may cry,” wrote Donaghy in his programme notes. We did, at that moment and others too. “You may laugh,” he surmised. We did, knowingly, as Gemma McDonald and Katelyn Banks’s mum and daughter dealt with the death of the family hamster, and when Beth Hutchinson’s daughter revealed to her late dad her switch of allegiance from Manchester United to Liverpool (“Jurgen Klopp is like Fergie with better teeth,” she reasoned).

Director Gemma McDonald in Do You Really Want To Hurt Me. Picture: David Harrison

“But YOU will think,” emphasised Donaghy in capital letters. And, yes, you will think, but more importantly you will talk. Everyone was talking afterwards, opening up about their own experiences.

Just as they will after tonight and tomorrow’s performances. Talk will then turn to what happens next to The Missing Peace, which surely has an afterlife. Watch this space.

Review by Charles Hutchinson