50 Years Of Theatre

Park Players, the amateur dramatics group attached to Hampton Hill Theatre, celebrates its 50^th anniversary with a new play A Bunch of Amateurs showing from September 26-29. Joanna Price speaks to chairman and director, Phil Greenleaves

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Park Players Teddington

Park Players rehearsing for A Bunch of Amateurs

In 1968 a few friends in Teddington got together for play readings. Park Players was born and since then the group has been performing regularly in pubs, church halls, school halls, Bushy Park and the magnificent Normansfield Victorian theatre. Each year it puts on a major production at Hampton Hill Theatre and this month, in celebration of 50 years in the business, the team are staging a A Bunch of Amateurs, a new comic play written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, about an actor who mistakes Stratford for a British Hollywood.

Egos clash and main character Jefferson Steele is driven to despair when forced to confront another acting world, the vanities and conflicting views of actors making for humorous viewing. The play is a fun, light-hearted production and involves Teddington Theatre Club, Grey Court School, Sing and Richmond Shakespeare Society.

A play about a play is a fitting tribute to fifty years in the business and it will be the Players’ first performance in the main auditorium of Hampton Hill Theatre for 18 years.

“We have involved ourselves in all kinds of theatre over the years,” says Phil: “Farce, pantomime, black comedy, theatre of the absurd, satire and improvisation. We have taken on the work of well-known and little known playwrights, including one of our own members Sue Viney, who is now a published author.”

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Park Players Teddington

Park Players rehearsing

Phil attributes the success of the group to the open-minded and inclusive attitude of the company: “We try to involve talent from outside Park Players to come and share ideas, talents, skills and facilities.”

Moreover, it’s one of the few theatre groups that doesn’t have productions lined up for the upcoming year, preferring to maintain an element of spontaneity.

“While some local societies maintain their own premises and have a programme of events planned well into the future, we have become used to planning one major production at the last minute, and performing it shortly after. On one occasion, one of us found a play which was quickly cast. Sets, costumes, sound and lighting were produced in no time from resources found in a garage, a basement and an attic. Park Players like a challenge!”

Such a flexible approach is definitely proving successful for Phil and his team.

“Over the years we have regularly entered both the Richmond Drama Awards and the Elmbridge Drama Festival, coming home with prizes on many occasions,” he says. Other highlights include reaching the area finals of The All England One Act Play Festival with a production of Arabal’s Picnic on a Battlefield, and winning a New Writers competition at the Orange Tree theatre in Richmond with Specialtea.

Fuelled by fifty years of success, there is no doubt that their next production A Bunch of Amateurs will be an impressive showcase of the company’s journey.

To get involved with Park Players, find them on Facebook at Park Players Teddington

Find ‘A Bunch Of Amateurs’ at Hampton Hill Theatre from September 26-29.

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