Clacton Arts & Literary Society

Good evening madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this is my sixth report to your as programme secretary.

I would like to thank all of you who have so kindly written or spoken to me to say that you have enjoyed the programme this year, and to thank those who have given me suggestions and ideas for future seasons.  I do up take up these suggestions where possible.

I would also like to thank all the theatre staff, especially Kai and Simon, who work so hard to make sure our evenings run smoothly and I would like to thank our President Jan Rodwell and the committee for their support to me. 

I strive to fulfil the aims of the Society; at the same time I try to make sure we all enjoy our Monday evenings at the Arts & Lits by providing a rich and varied programme. 
During the season my first task on a Tuesday morning is to write to the artists of the night before thanking them for coming and to give feedback on their performance.  They all write back to say how much they enjoyed the warmth of you the audience and the hospitality received from the Arts and Lits and that both are second to none.   I know a lot of them tell us from the stage how lucky we are to have a Society like this and how unique it is.  I wholeheartedly agree with them and I feel very privileged to be the programme secretary. 
We haven’t had so many ladies this season but those that have been are delighted with their flowers and on their behalf I would like to thank the members who contribute to the flower fund and to especially thank Sonia who organises the fund and the flowers on the night.  Sonia has expressed her concern this year that we have had more male performers than female so I threatened her with engaging a 50 strong female choir or orchestra but on second thoughts I think it might take us most of the evening to present the flowers. 

We have had some wonderful presentations this season opening with The London Festival Opera performing The Magic Flute.  What a delight to hear and the humour they put into their performance made it even more enjoyable.

This was followed by a talk from Hallum Murray who toured the island of Mauritius.  We then had Simon Weston, the Oxford Players and onto Eric Knowles.  Then there was Chaconne Brass and Michael Lunts with ‘Winter in Majorca’.  If Michael left us feeling a bit in the doldrums  with the story of Chopin when he ill and living in a monastic cell we were soon lifted up the following week by Caledon, those three Scottish tenors in kilts who gave us a rip roaring evening of Scottish and Christmas favourites.  This was topped off for me when Jamie came over and serenaded me whilst holding my hand.  I suffered  pleasure and embarrassment in equal parts.  When any of the singers suggest coming into the audience I always point out to them where I sit in the hope of being serenaded, but no one has ever taken up the offer before, I will be a bit more careful in future as I wouldn’t want to get the whole tub of flowers off the stage as was presented by one of the tenors to the lady in the front row that night.

We opened the 2nd half of the season with the very talented, award winning pianist Chris Langdown.  He travelled down from the other side of Birmingham in that dreadful snowy weather we had and gave us a wonderful performance of music from the classics to the romantic.  It was a real treat.  Chris was followed by a very different performance from a very excited and enthusiastic Tom Hart Dyke.  Tom was a lovely young man and a delight to look after.  When he had settled down a bit so we were able to understand him you realised the great extent of his knowledge and what an achievement his World Garden really is. 

After Tom came Mark O’Shea who gave us an insight into catching snakes and the uses for their venom and the many other important scientific discoveries he makes.
We then had the Tim Kliphuis Quartet, what superb musicians they were; I think they had all our feet tapping from the outset.  Tim ranks as one of the world’s finest violinists.  We then had the smooth singer Matthew Ford and his band who had us swinging into the 50’s and 60’s and they were followed by Sir Jonathan Miller, agree with him or not he certainly let you know his opinion and he told me after that he had really enjoyed the warmth and welcome he received from our Society.   After Jonathan we had Chris Packham, Chris strives for perfection in every photo and in his eyes rarely achieves it.  He certainly gave us an interesting and entertaining evening and his knowledge of wildlife is phenomenal.

All too soon it was the end of the season and we finished with a feast of song with 5 members from the Welsh National Opera.  They were young and enthusiastic and full of fun and gave us a wonderfully varied programme and, as with Caledon and the Tim Kliphuis quartet I think we all really appreciate the skill and musicianship of the accompanying pianists.

Well, here we are at the finish of yet another season and looking forward to the outings again and I have been busily booking for next season which starts on 18th October.  English Serenata will be opening our season with ‘Love Letters’.  2 leading actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company will read from a collection of love-letters, which reflect the humour, courage and warmth of family life seventy years ago and the brave and often hilarious exploits of two young people caught in a wartime romance.  It’s set in the year 1940 in The West Midlands with music and songs from Gershwin and Cole Porter, Kathleen Ferrier and Vaughan Williams.
 
On the 25th October we have Geoff Somers with ‘A Camel Odyssey’ this is an outstanding illustrated talk, centred in Australia.
With three camels from the wild, Geoff travelled on foot from Perth across the deserts to (Ayers Rock), and then across the Simpson Desert. 
Geoff is one of the World’s most accomplished travellers completing six South Pole journeys and six North Pole journeys as well as many other daring ventures.

On 1st November Rohan McCullough will be portraying Clementine Churchill in ‘My Darling Clemmie’, a play by Hugh Whitemore.  ‘My Darling Clemmie’ is the remarkable, moving and highly entertaining story of the woman who married Sir Winston Churchill, one of the truly great figures of the 20th century.

On 8th November we have Nettle & Markham with ‘Two Pianos’
David Nettle & Richard Markham rank amongst the world’s foremost piano duos. Their vitality, enthusiasm and musical integrity have been delighting audiences throughout the musical world and they are considered one of the most entertaining and musically satisfying partnerships performing today.

15th November we have John McCarthy to tell us about ‘1,943 days of squalid captivity’.  Living with the constant threat of execution was an unbearable strain on the likeable young television journalist on the first rungs of broadcasting management who was captured by Lebanese extremists on his journey home to the airport.  He knew Beirut was a hotbed of tension and danger.   But the last thing on his mind as his battered taxi navigated back streets to the airport was kidnap and capture. 

On 22nd November we have Two Gentlemen and a Piano.  Presented by vocalist Tony Jacobs and accompanied by Jim Barry on the piano Tony and Jim will attempt to get to grips with the music and lyrics of some of the greatest composers of Twentieth Century popular music. 
On 6th December we have ‘Christmas with Cantabile’ – The London Quartet.  The sound of Cantabile is synonymous with Christmas. They provide the purest choral sound combined with comedy in music.  Cantabile have established an unrivalled reputation throughout Europe and beyond for harmony singing of the highest quality combined with a unique and very British sense of humour.  Cantabile have entertained us before, and I know this new programme will be equally enjoyable.

We are opening the second half of the season on 17th January 2011 with Julian Lloyd Webber who will tell us about his ‘Travels with his Cello’.  To celebrate his 60th birthday in 2011 Julian will take us on a unique musical journey through his extraordinary career in words, live performance and video.  Julian will be accompanied by Pam Chowhan on the piano
 
On 24th January we welcome back Gerald Dickens who is going to tell us of The Life & Adventures of Charles Dickens & Nicholas Nickleby.  During the first half Gerald will talk about Charles Dickens, his life, and how he came to write Nicholas Nickleby and in the second half he will perform his one man show based on the book.

31st January we have Valerie Leon in Up Front.  This will be an intimate, illustrated and illuminating glimpse into the life and times of a Seventies icon…  Valerie has been part of three British cults; Bond, Carry On and Hammer Horror.  She also has a collection of hit TV shows and will take us through her life in film, both on and off the screen!  ‘Valerie still tops the bill as one of the UK’s most glamorous and articulate thespians’

14th February we have John Pilkington, John’s talk is called ‘A Stroll through the Axis of Evil’.  Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran are in the news for all the wrong reasons. Starting in Beirut, John unravelled a picture quite different from the news stories as he followed a winding route from the Euphrates to finish on the Persian Gulf. He enjoyed unbridled hospitality from Arabs, Kurds, Armenians and both Shi’ite and Sunni Iranians – and found families and whole communities working together to survive the harsh climate and political strife.  John holds the Royal Geographical Society’s Award for popularising geography and the wider understanding of the world.

28th February we have Adrian Cale and Animals Don’t Say Cheese!  TV presenter and independent filmmaker Adrian brings the making of some of his programmes to life.  He has found Guinea pigs in his soup, spiders in his boots, gibbons in his bed and elephants on his car.  This illustrated talk shows how fantastic, fraught and sometimes funny the filmmaking process can be.

All too soon it will seem, we will finish our season on 7th March with The Glen Miller Story in words and music with The Sue Greenway Orchestra and presented by vocalist Tony Jacobs with guest singer Catherine Sykes.
Sue Greenway’s seventeen piece orchestra tells the fascinating story of Glenn Miller and puts his music in the context of the Swing Era by celebrating some of the other contemporary classic bands such as Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman.

Because we are a Society, we have a completely different set up to what performers are used to when they are booked to do a concert.  That’s the reason why sometimes the programme on their CD’s are not as they have performed for us.  I give them all the information about the Society, including our web site.  You can be assured that I do everything I can to make each Monday evening enjoyable for all of us and for the artists and speakers too.  I know not every evening may be to your taste, but for everyone who tells me they didn’t enjoy the evening someone always says ‘I loved it’ and sometimes ‘that was my favourite evening’.   It never ceases to surprise me how very much individual’s tastes differ.  In case you are concerned, I always warn the artistes that some of our members have taxis booked or buses to get, so if there is movement at about 9.30pm not to worry, we are not all rushing to get out!  I know you most probably realise by now that I always advise our artists, mostly unnecessarily, that we wish the programme to be free from comments of a sexual nature, politics, religion and swearing, as you can imaging this often brings forth the comment that they might as well go home as I’ve just wiped out the majority of their programme!!
I have three more evenings to book, some of the more well known names are reluctant to book so far ahead, but I hope the variety in the programme I have outlined so far will encourage you all to re-join the Society again for the coming season.  

So that Ladies and Gentlemen is the conclusion of my report for this year, thank you all for your patience and I hope I haven’t sent anyone to sleep.   

Cindy Hardy