The committee has managed to spend a few days down at the barn this spring and summer. The home of our scenery, furniture, props and costumes, as well as being a working space for building new sets, it has unfortunately been a bit unloved in recent years, since we lost chief barn boy Kevin Wright who had taken on responsibility for keeping it shipshape. So this year we made a concerted effort to get back in there and rectify this lack of attention in the hopes we'd make Kevin proud.
In addition, the barn has had some fairly major works on the walls and roof after various winterstorms in recent years led to holes and weather ingress to our stores. We thank the Petre family (our landlord) for their attention to these issues and we are very pleased with the new roof which will provide much improved protection to our stores. The debris and dust created by the removal of the old roof had to be cleared away from where it had accidentally fallen on our furniture, so we geared up with suits & masks, brooms, brushes and an industrial vacuum cleaner, kindly loaned to us by a friend of Karol's.
In addition, we are just about to get a new shed for storing costumes within the barn itself (more news about this is November 2024) so we have had to clear a space ready to receive this brand new shed.
Finally, we have been ensuring we have gathered together all the items we need for our Autumn 2024 production of 'Ten Times Table' (not forgetting the piano!) - find out more about the show and how to book by clicking here.
Here are a few photos from August 2024 at the barn:
Forensic cleaners (!) removing some of the protective covers we used to have over our furniture to protect it from the roof debris:
Sue Grandison, Steve Bearpark, Bill Wells, George Churchill
A skip arrives in which we can put some of the unwanted furniture, props and set:
A peek of the new metal roof now safely covering all our stores in the barn. Bill, Sue, Steve and Harry Morrison discussing what to tackle next:
You might just spot a set-piece that we aim to use in Spring 2025's production of The Ladykillers in this image:
