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The Roses Review Autumn 2018

Welcome... Welcome to your Autumn newsletter, and a warm hello from me. As I write this I have only been in post a matter of hours, but already I can tell that The Roses is a very special place; I’m delighted to have joined and very much look forward to getting to know Tewkesbury. Over the coming days and weeks I intend to meet as many staff, customers and, of course, supporters as I can. I have many ideas that I hope will drive The Roses forward and I am keen to hear your thoughts too. Until I have chance to say hello in person, I wish you a pleasant summer, and hope you enjoy browsing through the Autumn brochure.

Hannah Kester Director

New Faces

Booking Dates

We are delighted to welcome six new members onto our board of trustees. They are Theatre in Education specialist Colin Smith (below left), fundraiser Eleanor Teasdale (who has previously worked for The Roses), retired accountant Gerald Hawke, theatre company Director Jessica Brewster (below), television writer Maurice Gran and local actor Nick Wilkes (below right). The existing board and staff are thrilled to be welcoming such a diverse group of new trustees, who are sure to bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the organisation.

Booking dates for this brochure are as follows:

Patrons: Thursday 16 August Friends & Seat Donors: Monday 20 August General Public: Thursday 23 August There are plenty of events within this brochure that are brand new to sale. Highlights include: • All films from September onwards (pages 28 - 35) • All autumn workshops (page 24) • Christmas Wines and Burns Night Whisky tastings (page 22) • Tewkesbury Town Band (page 20) • Powerhouse Gospel Choir (page 21) • Holly At Christmas (page 21) • 2019 Events (pages 22-23)

Backstage Pass

Mathew Grimes

Mathew is one of our youngest members of staff, at just 16 years old. You’ll find him on the Box Office. How did you come to be a volunteer at The Roses? I completed a week of work experience two years ago, and enjoyed it so much that I decided to carry on as a volunteer once I’d finished. I’ve just taken my GCSEs so I have plenty of spare time this summer and I wanted to use my time productively.

What do you enjoy most about working at The Roses? I really enjoy interacting with customers - no two days are ever the same. Everybody is so friendly - it’s a great environment to work in. Finally, the opportunity to learn whilst working is brilliant for me.

Why did you choose The Roses for your work experience? I really enjoy theatre - both performing and watching. I wanted to learn more from being a part of the day to day running of a venue, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to find out more about what really goes on behind the scenes.

What are you looking forward to seeing in our next brochure? Definitely The Opera Boys on Friday 2 November, it’s a great mix of music piled into one show.

Apart from your volunteering what are you up to? I’m nervously waiting for my GCSE results. In September I plan to take English Literature, Media Studies and Drama & Theatre Studies at A Level. At this stage I have no idea what I’d like to do beyond that!

Staff Picks

Nancy Robb

Youth Theatre Leader & Marketing “I can’t wait to see Tom Allen (11 Decemb er). He’s so funny. In fact, there are lots of grea t comedians this season, we’re lucky!”

Caroline Lawrence

Head of Marketing t love panto, “Dick Whittington. I jus es!” and will see it 3 or 4 tim

Ian Bitchenor Operations Assistant Counterfeit “You can’t go wrong with the are one Stones (12 October). They und and of the best tribute acts aro ction!” guaranteed to get you satisfa

Geoffrey Rowe Interim Director “I am looking forw ard to three drama productio ns - all from the same compa ny, Seabright Productions, who are terrific. They are Black Is The Color Of My Voice (13 O ctober), Dad’s Army Radi o Hour (14 October) and Not About Heroes (16 October). Thre e vastly different pieces I wouldn’t like to choose betwee n them!”

Time Out Project Update

Hot Off The Press...

In between sending the brochure and this newsletter to print, we were asked to put the following on sale:

Jethro: The Count Of Cornwall Following 60 sold out shows last year, “The Count of Cornwall” is back again with his unique style of comedy. His hilarious country style has led some to consider him the greatest comedy story teller that ever lived. Friday 1 March 7.30pm A B C £23 (No concessions available)

The Children in Need Time Out project is well under way, with well over 100 schools and organisations having been contacted and offered the opportunity to refer young people who they feel may benefit from participating on the project. The younger age group workshops are now full and only a few places remain available for the older age group. With the first cohort to begin on the project in September we are offering a fabulous selection of activities including gargoyle making, film making, circus skills, Manga and animation, to name but a few. We have also enlisted the support and skills of the Gloucestershire Counselling Service to offer much needed counselling support to the young people who may benefit from it. We are now able to offer a much needed project that can offer support, guidance, engaging activities to those young people who may have to deal with the complexities of life, hurdles and troubles that we as adults ourselves sometimes struggle on occasions to deal with.

William Davis

We were saddened to hear of the death of William Davis (Bill), a long-time supporter of The Roses. Bill was kind enough to leave us a legacy in his will. We’re incredibly grateful, and he will be sadly missed.

Fundraising Update Could You Spare Any Time? Over the last couple of years we have quite significantly increased the number of film screenings we offer. This is fantastic for our audiences and the town benefits from the extra footfall too, but it does mean we are having to ask more and more of our loyal volunteers, who diligently chaperone every single performance here. If you would like to join our team and could spare a few hours now and then, we would be incredibly grateful to have you on board! If you’re interested, please drop Richard a line at richard.booth@rosestheatre.org - we would be very glad to hear from you!

During his 6 months as Interim Director, Geoffrey Rowe has been applying for funding to refurbish the backstage area of the theatre. We plan to redecorate the dressing rooms, upgrade the backstage toilet and shower and turn what was formerly an upstairs office into a dressing room space for larger groups, including our pantomime chorus. We also need to update some of our technical equipment. So far we have been awarded £20k from Tewkesbury Borough Council and we are also applying to the Leader fund for rural areas, the first stage of which we have succesfully passed. We have also approached the Summerfield Trust, plus local developers Bloor and Persimmon Homes. We’ll keep you updated on the progress of these applications.

Latest Business News Blown Away by Mamma Mia

Thanks to L&L Installations

We were thrilled to secure the support of local salon Blow Hair & Beauty, who kindly sponsored our run of this summer’s smash hit movie, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Nearly 4,500 people saw the film here, making it by far our most successful film ever. We look forward to working with Blow again in the future.

We recently launched our first 200 Club lottery and could not have done it without the support of local family company L&L Installations. The first draw took place on 1st August and there’s still time to join in if you haven’t yet done so! Contact shirley.grant@rosestheatre.org to sign up.

L + L I N S TA L L AT I O N S

5 Minutes With...

5 Minutes With... Ian Meredith from Gloucesterbased coffee traders Ethical Addictions. Why do you support The Roses as a sponsor? We’ve always had a good working relationship so it’s important to support those you work with, but our main reasons for support are to encourage The Roses as an organisation doing more than just business, for looking beyond just a profit. But also for us at EA, we do a lot overseas and so it’s nice to choose some local organisations to support doing good on our doorstep too. What sort of things do you like to see when you come here? I like what The Roses does for the arts as a smaller venue for stand-up comedy and live performances rather than arena tours; supporting live theatre; and also films that are important but not necessarily blockbusters.

John Painter from Tewkesburybased accountants CB Chartered Accountants, sponsors of The Roses’ comedy programme. Why do you support The Roses as a sponsor? Having been in Tewkesbury for a number of years we went through a rebrand and then moved our office to 39 Church Street some 2 and a half years ago. At that point I wanted to boost our profile particularly to the local community and sponsoring The Roses seemed to be a good idea. I love comedy and I love music so for me it was a decision of which of the two we should attach our name to and having consulted with colleagues comedy was the one we chose. Apart from Comedy events what sort of things do you like to see when you come here? As I say I do love live music and have a rather eclectic taste. I would say that the key areas for me are jazz, blues and prog rock (late 60s and early 70s).

Tell us a little something about Ethical Addictions. Who are you, what is your ethos? We’re a business that puts people before profits. We want to be successful but we’re going to do it right all the way along the supply chain as best we can. So we trade direct, ensuring both people and planet are loooked after, we minimise waste, we use plastic-free wherever possible, and more; but we also value quality, value for money, and excellent customer service. It’s not easy to do it all, but we try our very best!

Tell us a little something about CB. Who are you, what is your ethos? A local firm of Chartered Accountants offering a friendly and personal service whilst retaining a back office that is up with the best of the Big Four accountants. We are members of the UK200 Group of Chartered Accountants and Lawyers which gives us national and international representation, and the ability to find a specialist in areas that we may lack some experience in. We particularly enjoy working with owner managed and family businesses where we can advise not only on accounts and tax but also carry out assurance and audit work, company secretarial and tax consultancy work, and strategic business advice, coaching and leadership and management training.