Calendar Girls
For more photos - look on the 'Productions' page.
We all like a bit of naughtiness now and then… Oh, don’tgo denying it – because we have proof! No, we haven’t been lurking outside yourwindow with a camera, but we have heard reports of the fabulous sales ofthe cheeky 2013 charity calendars made by enterprising locals last year.
Extract from Hugo Fox News - February 18, 2013
The Kingswood Players continue to raise money for Leukaemia &Lymphoma Research
Last November, HugoFox News gave a run-down of five fantastic calendarsproduced by local groups and societies, where the participants bared all inorder to raise money for a range of worthwhile causes. Now, we are delighted toreport that the effort was well worth it, as the calendars have raised amazingsums for charity.
The Kingswood Players
The Kingswood Players’ calendar was created to accompany theirperformance of Tom Firth’s Calendar Girls, a play that tells the storybehind the original naked calendar produced by Rylstone and District Women’sInstitute in 1999. Like the first ‘calendar girls’, the Kingswood Playersdecided to raise money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research,setting themselves a target of £2012 to match their performance season. Apercentage of the play’s profits was put aside for the charity, with moneyraised by the calendar boosting their fundraising effort still further.
Determined to meet their goal, the actors – who ranged from the ages of18 to 73 – committed themselves to being photographed for a calendar from theoutset. Afterwards, they all declared that it had been tremendous fun!
The play was a great success, with sell-out audiences and standingovations. What’s more, the Bristol-based Players have received calendar ordersfrom as far afield as New Zealand, raising an impressive £1500 to date – andthis isn’t even including donations made directly to the charity throughproduct sales and exit collections taken at each performance. Theirfundraising drive will continue until May 2013, so there’s still time to nabone of the remaining calendars over at www.kingswoodplayers.org.
The photographs for the Kingswood Players’ calendar were taken by BarrieTovey Photography, and a host of other local businesses alsosupported the calendar’s production. With the help of Panik Events,Greensource Solutions, Cut and Run Barbers, MesAmis Hair Salon, Decoflora, Faithful &Gould, Sadie’s Hair Salon, Ikon Hair Salon, and George’s Coffee House, the Kingswood Players havebeen able to donate the entire proceeds from the calendar sales to charity.
Proceeds from our charity calendar raised £2012 for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research
A DATE FOR YOUR CALENDAR GIRLS – OCTOBER 2012!
The Calendar Girls are coming to Kingswood, Bristol / South Gloucestershire!
Since 2008 the professional production of “Calendar Girls” by Tim Firth has become the most successful play to ever tour the UK, following a year’s run in the West End, grossing more at the box office than the original film.
Now the show’s producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers want to break into the Guinness Book of Records and establish the record for the most productions of one play in one year and so for the very first time, the amateur rights for “Calendar Girls” will be released for just 12 months, from 1 September 2012 – 31 August 2013. Performance fees to Samuel French, the publishers, will include a donation to Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, which is what started it all in the first place.
The Kingswood Players are excited and proud to be the first amateur drama group in the Bristol / South Gloucestershire area to receive permission & announce that we will be presenting Calendar Girls, directed by Richard Bond, in October – 2012.
The group as a whole are fully committed to this venture and we are already in the planning stage. You will see from the following photograph that our ladies are ready to do whatever is necessary to make our production a success and raise funds for this vital research charity in the process.
Synopsis of the play
Annie's husband John has leukaemia so, she and best friend Chris resolve to raise money for a new settee in the local hospital waiting room. They manage to persuade four fellow WI members to pose nude with them for an "alternative" calendar, with a little help from hospital porter and amateur photographer Lawrence. The news of the women's charitable venture spreads like wildfire, and hordes of press soon descend on the small village of Knapeley in the Yorkshire Dales. The calendar is a success, but Chris and Annie's friendship is put to the test under the strain of their new-found fame.
Based on the true story of eleven WI members who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund,Calendar Girlsopened at the Chichester Festival Theatre and has since become the fastest selling play in British theatre history.
Purchasing a ticket for this Kingswood Players' production, will enable us to continue what the original 'Calendar Girls' started.
If you can help us in anyway to achieve our aim, please email: calendargirls@kingswoodplayers.org
Kingswood Calendar Girls have appeared or been featured in The Independent on Sunday, Bristol Post, The Daily Mail, on BBC Radio Bristol's Afternoon show with Elise Rayner, on BBC Radio 2 with Chris Evans and on 'The One Show' with Alex and Jake. - Thank you all for supporting us.
Thank you to all our sponsors - which in turn will help our fundraising for:
