It gives me great pleasure to present this 47th Annual Report of the West Otago Theatrical Society.
Although reluctant to take up the position of Acting President, I have thoroughly enjoyed the past year. We entered a float in the 2018 Christmas Parade, and were placed second with a prize of $50. We can be proud that we always turn up with a float year after year, it's good publicity for our show and also participation in the parade. We had planned to put on 'Oliver' for 2019 but unfortunately this did not happen for various reason, mainly no music track could be used, even when we were led to believe we could get one. We were fortunate after this set back to have a proposal from Mr Geaorge Arthur regarding directing our 2019 show. He was in the process of writing a play which he wanted to put before the committee for their perusal. After deliberations we took up his offer and 'A Relatively Uneventful Evening' was cast. Although there were difficulties to overcome with a director not always on site, these were overcome and a very professional show was produced. We were heartened by the response from our public once again and our books show a reasonable profit was made. Thank you to the cast and production team for a very professional show. We had our pre-show publicity shout which has been a new initiative for the past two years and seems to be a great way to communicate with our radio and newspaper personnel. We continue with our hires of both set and costumes and it is great to see the contributing schools using the theatre and showing the young children of the area theatre craft. Thank you to members who gave up their time to clean out the wool shed at Edievale. We were grateful for Mr Livingstone allowing us to store a huge amount of excess set items over many years. I am pleased to report that apart from a few precious pieces the rest were disposed. I approached Greame and Rosalyn Smith to see if they would be willing to take on our Patron and Patroness role. They were delighted to accept and I chose the opening night of our show to present them with their badges. I felt it was fitting on this occasion to honour these two who have done so much for our society. We were represented at the OSTA Awards in Oamaru and were pleased to bring back Best Properties, Best Suporting Male in a Musical (Craig Wadsworth), Best Leading Male in a Musical (Bruce Potter) awards as well as being nominated in all other categories. We have nominated Andrew Gordon for the Gore District Awards, and we wish him every success. It was with great sadness that we lost one of our most loyal suporters, past Patroness and friend Sue somerville. Although in recent times Sue was not able to support as she would have liked to, she was still very much interested in the affairs of the society. You will be very much missed Sue. I have been attending the combined West Otago Community Centre committee meetings. I am sure you are all award of the problems we have been having with the roof. This is a major problem and one we will have to be award to support financially in the future. We ahve suported, once again, students from Blue Mountain College for the National YouthDrama School. As other years we are always grateful for any sponsorship and would like to acknowledge the Mataura Licensing Trust who are always so suportive of our shows. There are many people to thank, special thanks to Mar our Treasurer a truly challenging job and made more difficult for you this year as we acknowledge the passing of your parents. To Carey my right hand lady of many talents - thank you all for your support and friendship. To the committee thank you for putting your name forward and I hope you will be encouraged to stand again tonight. The website deserves special mention - it looks just great thanks to Farryn and Vanessa for putting in the extra time to get this up to speed. It certainly is the way to go for the future. The society is in good heart and we can look forward to another successful year. Barbara Hanna - Outgoing President |