South Solihull u3a Play Reading Group - Armchair Theatre
Coordinator: Helen Woodcock
Where: Members' Houses
When: Usually 1st Thursday of each month at 2:00 p.m. See Diary for next meeting
Where: Members' Houses
When: Usually 1st Thursday of each month at 2:00 p.m. See Diary for next meeting
INTRODUCTION
We are a friendly group who read an eclectic mix of plays. Serious, thought provoking, funny and murder mystery scripts have entertained us and improved our play reading skills.
Members choose, and are in charge of, the casting of their plays. We take turns to host in our own homes if that is practicable. We have watched professional productions at the Alex in Birmingham and the Bear Pit Theatre in Stratford upon Avon.
The group meet on the first Thursday of the month at 2:00 pm and we always leave feeling we have had an afternoon well spent. An interlude provides us with tea or coffee and a chat, which is usually about the play.
The idea is that we enjoy being thespians without having to act on stage!!
We are a friendly group who read an eclectic mix of plays. Serious, thought provoking, funny and murder mystery scripts have entertained us and improved our play reading skills.
Members choose, and are in charge of, the casting of their plays. We take turns to host in our own homes if that is practicable. We have watched professional productions at the Alex in Birmingham and the Bear Pit Theatre in Stratford upon Avon.
The group meet on the first Thursday of the month at 2:00 pm and we always leave feeling we have had an afternoon well spent. An interlude provides us with tea or coffee and a chat, which is usually about the play.
The idea is that we enjoy being thespians without having to act on stage!!
SEEKING NEW MEMBERS
We have lost a few members over the past year and would welcome new readers. If you are interested please e-mail Helen Woodcock or phone on 01564702259, and she will be pleased and able to tell you more.
We have lost a few members over the past year and would welcome new readers. If you are interested please e-mail Helen Woodcock or phone on 01564702259, and she will be pleased and able to tell you more.
FORTHCOMING PLAYS
Thursday 1 December 2022
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
The Good Life by Jeremy Sams
Remember the Goods - Tom and Barbara, suburban eco-warriors? And their next-door neighbours Margo and Jerry Leadbetter, desperately trying to maintain the Surbiton status quo? This TV sitcom has now been reimagined as a play that leads the well-loved characters through various adventures, some old, some new, all hilarious and often (even today) worryingly familiar.
Venue: Helen’s house
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
The Good Life by Jeremy Sams
Remember the Goods - Tom and Barbara, suburban eco-warriors? And their next-door neighbours Margo and Jerry Leadbetter, desperately trying to maintain the Surbiton status quo? This TV sitcom has now been reimagined as a play that leads the well-loved characters through various adventures, some old, some new, all hilarious and often (even today) worryingly familiar.
Venue: Helen’s house
Thursday 5 January 2023
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Groping for Words by Sue Townsend
The play explores the hopelessness of lives without literacy, the restrictions, the opportunities closed off and the despair of those who live lives having to hide the fact they have never mastered the most basic of skills.
It offers no solutions, and the fact that the numbers have hardly changed in 30 years perhaps indicates that solutions have been hard to find. At times the dialogue is very funny, at times sad and the play is sometimes both all at once.
Groping for Words written by Sue Townsend, in 1983, is a play set in a Victorian School, in Clapham, and tells the story of Joyce, an Adult Literacy teacher, Kevin, the caretaker of the school, and her two pupils: Thelma and George. Each has their own secret and we discover how they come to terms and deal with their individual struggles. It’s a play that says a lot: misconceptions of illiteracy, how we judge people, emphasis on first impressions, attitudes, class, homelessness and fragmented families. All are put under the microscope as the group come together while “Groping for Words”.
venue: t.b.a
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Groping for Words by Sue Townsend
The play explores the hopelessness of lives without literacy, the restrictions, the opportunities closed off and the despair of those who live lives having to hide the fact they have never mastered the most basic of skills.
It offers no solutions, and the fact that the numbers have hardly changed in 30 years perhaps indicates that solutions have been hard to find. At times the dialogue is very funny, at times sad and the play is sometimes both all at once.
Groping for Words written by Sue Townsend, in 1983, is a play set in a Victorian School, in Clapham, and tells the story of Joyce, an Adult Literacy teacher, Kevin, the caretaker of the school, and her two pupils: Thelma and George. Each has their own secret and we discover how they come to terms and deal with their individual struggles. It’s a play that says a lot: misconceptions of illiteracy, how we judge people, emphasis on first impressions, attitudes, class, homelessness and fragmented families. All are put under the microscope as the group come together while “Groping for Words”.
venue: t.b.a
Thursday 2 February 2023
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel
A young boy tells the story of growing up in a fatherless home with his unmarried mother and four spinster aunts in 1930s Ireland. Five women, different in temperament and capability from one another, form a firm emotional support system for one another (reluctantly at times), with the eldest assuming the role of "somewhat meddling" overseer. Into this comes their elderly brother, a priest too senile to perform his clerical functions who has "come home to die" after a lifetime in Africa. Then the boy's father rides up on a motorcycle to announce that he's on his way to Spain to fight against Franco. Although undeniably affected by the presence of the two men, the sisters continue to cope as a close-knit unit until something happens that disrupts the fabric of that cohesiveness beyond repair.
Venue: t.b.c.
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel
A young boy tells the story of growing up in a fatherless home with his unmarried mother and four spinster aunts in 1930s Ireland. Five women, different in temperament and capability from one another, form a firm emotional support system for one another (reluctantly at times), with the eldest assuming the role of "somewhat meddling" overseer. Into this comes their elderly brother, a priest too senile to perform his clerical functions who has "come home to die" after a lifetime in Africa. Then the boy's father rides up on a motorcycle to announce that he's on his way to Spain to fight against Franco. Although undeniably affected by the presence of the two men, the sisters continue to cope as a close-knit unit until something happens that disrupts the fabric of that cohesiveness beyond repair.
Venue: t.b.c.
